Questions About Selling Our Timeshare

[Madi100]

We own our timeshare, paid cash for it when we purchased it. However, we are now thinking that we would like to get out of debt and perhaps selling our timeshare would be helpful in doing that. While I really, really love our timeshare, even though we've only used it once, I think that it's a smart decision to make. However, I have a few concerns.

First of all, we have two trips planned for this year that I have no intentions of cancelling. Is it possible to sell the timeshare and keep these vacations? The vacations were planned with 2006/2007 points.

Second, like I said, we love our timeshare. When we are debt free, we would consider rebuying. Is that a dumb move to sell if we just plan on buying again?

And last, how hard is it to sell? Are there a lot of fees involved that would make it smarter for us to just hold onto it? Would we be taking a loss on our purchase? I have not researched this at all, and I don't even know to begin, but I don't want to sell it if it's going to end up costing more than it's worth.

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[Chuck S]

As far as taking a loss, it depends upon how long you have owned it.

If you just purchased and are now selling, chances are you will sell at a loss. If you've had it a few years, you should break even or turn a small profit. Most timeshares, other than DVC, are like a car, they lose resale value from day one. DVC has an artificially high resale price because of Disney's Right of First Refusal.

If the annual dues and/or loan payments for the timeshare are leaving you cash strapped, it is not a bad idea to sell.

As far as existing reservations, they will be automatically canceled when you go to closing and DVC puts the new owners in the computer system, it does not matter if those reservations are made with banked points or not, it will still be canceled. What you can do is specify that closing will not take place until after your vacation dates, but that will lessen your chances of a quick sale.

 

[LisaS]

Any trips you have reserved with your points will be cancelled when you close on the contract. So you will need to discuss this with the listing agent. It's possible the contract can be listed now with the number of points you will have left after your vacations, and with the stipulation that you cannot close until after your last vacation has been taken.

If you believe you will want to buy in again later, one thing to consider is to buy a 25-point add-on now and then sell your main contract. Depending on the resort, the dues on a 25-point contract will be $100-$125 per year. It keeps you in the system and would allow you to take one studio vacation every other year or so. Then when the time is right to buy in again, you would have the option to do so via any member incentive prices that might be available. The downside to this approach is that while you are waiting for your main contract to sell you have taken on even more expense (over $2500 for the add-on plus the dues).

I don't know how hard it is to sell. Take a look at the SSR contracts currently listed with this board's sponsor, The Timeshare Store: http://www.dvc-resales.com/dvclisting.cfm and that will give you some idea of the price you are likely to get for your contract. The last 4 digits of the listing ID are the date the contract was listed. That will give you some idea how long some of the contracts have been on the market. In general, the more points that are available, the faster a contract will sell (and conversely, a contract where most of the current Use Year points have been used will take longer to sell).

As far as fees go, TTS charges a 10% commission. I believe there are some other fees as well. Closing costs are usually paid by the buyer. There are some FAQs for sellers here: http://www.dvc-resales.com/sellers.htm

I would suggest you give TTS a call. I'm sure they would be happy to answer any questions you have. A lot of us here have bought and/or sold contracts through them.

Sorry you may have to sell. I wish you the best!

 

[Madi100]

Any trips you have reserved with your points will be cancelled when you close on the contract. So you will need to discuss this with the listing agent. It's possible the contract can be listed now with the number of points you will have left after your vacations, and with the stipulation that you cannot close until after your last vacation has been taken.

If you believe you will want to buy in again later, one thing to consider is to buy a 25-point add-on now and then sell your main contract. Depending on the resort, the dues on a 25-point contract will be $100-$125 per year. It keeps you in the system and would allow you to take one studio vacation every other year or so. Then when the time is right to buy in again, you would have the option to do so via any member incentive prices that might be available. The downside to this approach is that while you are waiting for your main contract to sell you have taken on even more expense (over $2500 for the add-on plus the dues).

I don't know how hard it is to sell. Take a look at the SSR contracts currently listed with this board's sponsor, The Timeshare Store: http://www.dvc-resales.com/dvclisting.cfm and that will give you some idea of the price you are likely to get for your contract. The last 4 digits of the listing ID are the date the contract was listed. That will give you some idea how long some of the contracts have been on the market. In general, the more points that are available, the faster a contract will sell (and conversely, a contract where most of the current Use Year points have been used will take longer to sell).

As far as fees go, TTS charges a 10% commission. I believe there are some other fees as well. Closing costs are usually paid by the buyer. There are some FAQs for sellers here: http://www.dvc-resales.com/sellers.htm

I would suggest you give TTS a call. I'm sure they would be happy to answer any questions you have. A lot of us here have bought and/or sold contracts through them.

Sorry you may have to sell. I wish you the best!

Thanks for the information. It's not that we have to sell. We have no problem making ends meet without selling it, and like I said in the original post, we own the timeshare. We did not finance it. I'm not convinced that it is smart to sell it. We haven't owned it that long. I'm thinking that maybe the best bet for us would be to rent points out for the next year or so. We've got the two planend and then maybe it's time for a break. Our second trip isn't even planned until the end of November.

 

[Dean]

As noted, you will lose your reservations if you sell first because they will be cancelled. No way around this currently with DVC and no way to arrange it with the buyer otherwise. As for what's best for you, only you can decide. However I don't think it's reasonable to sell with the idea of buying back in a couple of years in the situation you've described unless you simply want to change home resorts in the process and the new home resorts is worth an extra $25 per point to you AND/OR you want to downsize your contract significantly.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Dean and Crisi have good points. If the timeshare you are talking about is DVC, then the only thing you save by selling after a short ownership is having no maintenance fees to deal with. If you are talking about a timeshare other than DVC, you will likely take a loss, because most timeshares do not have the secondary market value that DVC does because of the ROFR they excersise to keep it high.

The idea of selling only to buy back later doesn't really seem to me like it offers any kind of financial benefit. If decreasing dues is your goal, then I agree with Crisi that you should buy a smaller contract before selling your initial contract. Now, not knowing how many points you own (if it is DVC), then I would suggest buying a 50 point contract that would give you 150 every third year to play with. If that seems enough for you, and you don't think you will want to turn around and buy in right away after a year or two, that might work. If you only see yourself outside of DVC or any other timeshare for a couple of years, then I would likely keep it if I could swing the maintenance. It just seems to me you would be paying a premium to get back in at a later date.

If you were not paid in full, I would give different advice.

 

[Madi100]

The benefits of selling would be having the money that we paid for it freed up to pay off a vehicle or something like that. But, it really doesn't make sense, and I didn't think it did. We own DVC, and we have 150 points.

 

[dumbo71]

OP, What resort do you own? That would give us something to work with and we could give you the price per point you'd likely recieve if you sold now.

I sold 1100 points recently and I turned a profit on them.

I'm also really leaning towards buying back in at AKV. Buying back in on the surface may seem like a mistake. After all I sold in the 84 dollar range and buying back in in the 93 dollar range. Well, I will be going from resorts with 35years or so of use left to a resort with 50 years of use. Is 15 years more of use worth $9 per point? It is to me for sure. Not only that but I will now have a resort that will likely have a high resale value for many years to come. I'm not sure that would have been the case for the older resorts I owned.

Really I think many should take this route but they simply won't. Why hold a resort until the bitter end when you can upgrade for a little more?

 

[chainkid]

Well unless you need to sell to get out of debt, it would be a bad idea especially since you want to buy back in later. A far better idea if you have problems would be to cancel your vacation plans and rent out your points to cover your dues and maintenance until you get back on your feet. Then you will be able to go on vacation with less worry.

 

[Dean]

The benefits of selling would be having the money that we paid for it freed up to pay off a vehicle or something like that. But, it really doesn't make sense, and I didn't think it did. We own DVC, and we have 150 points.

You could take a break, skip a year or two of vacation, rent the points and put both the proceeds from rental and the money not spent on other portions of the trip toward your debt.

 

[T.E. Yeary]

Everyone here has given you some very good advice!

Tom