Selling Vacation Club Membership

Hi, Can anyone give me some advice how to go about selling my vacation club membership? Is this even possible? Thanks

Hi Jade -

If you have a deeded timeshare ownership with your vacation club, then you can sell it on our website. For more information, please go here: Rent or Sell My Timeshare

If you don't have a deeded timeshare ownership, but rather a certain number of weeks that you are alloted each year through a vacation club, then you could try selling on a website such as ebay or Craig's list.

Phyllis

jadei wrote:

Can anyone give me some advice how to go about selling my vacation club membership? Is this even possible?

Usually vacation club memberships are not worth the paper they're written on. I would check your contract to see what its terms are for selling, transferring, and/or terminating your membership. For such memberships, terminating sometimes can be as easy as just quitting paying maintenance or annual membership fees.

But your question is how to sell it. So I am assuming that you paid good money as a buy-in for this membership and that you are looking to get some money for something that you think has resale value.

As Phyllis suggested, you can try E-Bay or Craigslist. Just be reasonable and realistic about your membership's resale value. As well, be wary of the many scams out there that target timeshare and vacation club owners. They say that they can sell your membership or timeshare for thousands of dollars if you send them an upfront fee. That's always a scam.

I need to sell mine too !!!

I checked this org. out on the BBB. Seems that they have only been in business for a little more than 2 yrs., accredited for just over a yr.. with 0 reviews, 0 complaints, and is listed in the "travel/bureaus category. You must be the only one they have represented in the last year, and why didn't you leave a review if they were so helpful? I'm thinking I smell something FISHY here, in that you are pretty hipped up singing the praises of some one with no track record. You almost seem to be advertising rather than imparting information. If you are, you should read the rules concerning no advertising. People get burned enough, that haven't done their home work, with out the help of "TRAVEL/BUREAUS". If in fact they did what you say, I'M HAPPY FOR YOU but it still smells fishy to me............

NEVER use a website that you were steered to on the internet. Scammers pop up all the time and after they rip people off they change names and do it all over again.

AHMEN...........

I was going to sell my timeshare in about 15,000.00 because it was the price I bought about 2 years ago in Orange Lake Resort. I think it is a fair price because the resort became much better now and it has almost doubled resort options. But I have been looking as if I wanted to buy a membership and there are memberships selling even at 0 and they could not sell them. Why could it be? What do you recommend me to do?

I'm sorry, but resale has zero value on the market @ Orange Lake. At a few of the resorts if you own it can bring a few dollars.

There are just so many out there to buy.

If you are points your better off keeping it and use to the best of your ability. It is a very nice resort, and you will have options to use other locations. If it is a week only you own, your options are greatly reduced. If you are points, your week will lose the points when you sell and revert back to a week ownership unless you sell to immediate family.

I rent my extra weeks to help pay for the system. Most of us were in your shoes

Dave

paulom15 wrote:

I was going to sell my timeshare in about 15,000.00 because it was the price I bought about 2 years ago in Orange Lake Resort. I think it is a fair price because the resort became much better now and it has almost doubled resort options. But I have been looking as if I wanted to buy a membership and there are memberships selling even at 0 and they could not sell them. Why could it be? What do you recommend me to do?

It's good that you have come to realize the hard reality of reselling timeshares and that you will never get back what you paid into it. Sadly, many people who fall for these resale scams don't realize this fact. They insist that their units hold or even go up in value. That's where the scam artists swoop in. Even more sad is that the sales person at OL convinced you (probably through a lot of lies and half-truths) that what you were buying was hot.

There are many reasons why some can't even sell for zero. Simply put, there is far more supply than demand for timeshares. Especially in Central Florida, there is a glut of timeshares. Take a look at the Red Week classifieds. Also, many owners don't use them anymore and want to dump them before the next maintenance fee bill comes. Seeing that we are nearing the end of the calendar year (when most maintenance fee bills come), there are probably going to be a lot more listed for sale or giveaway.

Another reason is that many owners realize that the rental value at OL rarely meets the maintenance fees. So in other words, you can probably rent a week from an owner for less than what he is paying in maintenance fees and, if you are an owner and you want to rent it out (that's if you can in fact find someone who wants to rent), you will have a hard time recovering your maintenance fees. Does that sound like something anyone would want to buy or own?

The reasons are many why such units are having a hard time even being given away but at least you are forearmed with the knowledge of such and can avoid any of the scams aimed at timeshare owners like you.

Thank you for advice Dave and Lance. If I am not interested anymore and I cant sell it, How can I do to get rid of it?. Do I have to ask a lawyer?. Or is there any other way to get out of this?

paulom15 wrote:

Thank you for advice Dave and Lance. If I am not interested anymore and I cant sell it, How can I do to get rid of it?. Do I have to ask a lawyer?. Or is there any other way to get out of this?

There is no need to contact a lawyer, relief company, or charity. Try one of two things:

First, contact the resort's Homeowners' Association (HOA) and explain that you want to give the deed back. The HOA might accept and it might not. It might accept on the condition that you pay closing costs and maybe even the next maintenance fee. You can also state with great determination that, one way or another, you are going to get rid of it so it would be in the HOA's best interests to work with you and take the deed back.

The other option is to list it for sale or giveaway here on RedWeek. You can also use reputable websites such as E-Bay, Craigslist, My Resort Network, or Timeshare Users Group (aka"TUG" tugbbs.com) which has a Bargain Deals section that allows you to advertise for free that you want to give your unit away. You might have to offer the new taker an incentive such as you paying the closing costs and perhaps the next maintenance fee, but that will work out a lot cheaper that hiring some questionable company that claims it can relieve you of your timeshare.

Thank you very mucho for advice.

Vacation club memberships are a VERY tough (i.e., almost impossible) resale, partly because some of these "clubs" (unlike actual resorts) seem to "disappear" quite suddenly, partly because annual fees are generally no real "bargain" anyhow and partly because there is absolutely no guarantee that the member can ever actually go where / when they actually want to travel. All in all, "club" memberships are rarely (if ever) a good value and they frankly have little or no resale market interest or attraction.

Some years ago, I had a vacation club membership (acquired for peanuts, resale market). After using it for a few years, in order to part company with it I had to give it away for free and even had to pay the club's required "contract transfer fee" myself for the new recipient. That's surely not what you want to hear, but it's the unvarnished truth nonetheless.

Has anyone had dealings with Prudential Realty Group LLC. 50 Franklin Street, Boston, MA. Their website is beautiful but I don’t know how to tell if it’s cloned. Their story is what we’ve heard before... we have a buyer for your membership. They don’t ask for money upfront..say that we would be paid before they get their commission of %5. When I asked what other fees are charged to the seller, he said none, they require the buyer to pay . There seems to only be one phone number on all the pages, today it looks like that address is for sale. I thought I saw another make the same statement about the deal and I cannot find her again. Have you heard of this company. It’s not listed in the BBB with that exact name.

It's a SCAM !!

Most "vacation club" memberships are essentially worthless in the resale market. [Note: HGVC (Hilton) and HRC (Hyatt) are not in that "vacation club" model, despite the coincidence of having the word "club" in their corporate operating names]. In a true "vacation club" (such as GEVC, for just one specific example) , you own absolutely nothing, which is part (but not all) of the reason that such "club memberships" are essentially worthless in the resale market. Another significant shortcoming of "vacation clubs" is that they generally have only second rate, low demand locations and facilities and dates available (if they even have any availability at all). Most vacation club members become very dissatisfied very quickly and permanently. C'mon --- who would want to take over such a lousy product, even for free?

The fact that "vacation club" memberships have no value and no demand in the resale market should immediately tell anyone who is awake and paying attention that ANY third party entity claiming that they can somehow magically sell a "vacation club" membership that you would have great difficulty giving away for free (even with some cash thrown in) is clearly not legitimate and is plainly just a scam to take your money while producing zero results. Period, amen.

rebeccah411 wrote:

They don’t ask for money upfront..say that we would be paid before they get their commission of %5. When I asked what other fees are charged to the seller, he said none, they require the buyer to pay.

As others have pointed out, it's a scam. What will happen is that PRG will tell you that they have found a buyer (which they haven't) and get you all excited about this huge amount of money you are supposed to be receiving. Then, when you're paralyzed with excitement and lose all rational thinking ability, they hit you with, "Oh, we need you to send (wire) us money to cover..." and tell you there is some sort of tax or fee that you, the seller, must pay in order to legally complete the deal.