Misrepresentations in the timeshare world .... beware

Although timeshares had a very bad reputation in the 1970s/1980s, in the last several years their reputation has gotten better with the advent of high end names such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and the many ultra nice accomodations (apartments and amenities) in other resorts.

However, there are still misrepresentations and lies a prospective timeshare buyer should be aware of.

Developer Sales:

1. Lies told by (some) developer timeshare salespeople are that you can trade your week for anywhere in the exchange company's wishbook (catalog of resorts). Not true as it depends on supply, demand, season you own and VEP (Vacation Experience Profile) of your resort.

2. If you should desire to sell your timeshare week in the future, you can make a profit by doing so. If anything you will take a huge loss when trying to sell a developer bought timeshare (there are very few timeshares that hold their value).

3. You can rent your timeshare on years you don't use it and make a profit. Many owners who rent do well by merely recovering their maintenance fees if they can rent their week at all. Again, supply and demand are the key words in the equation for both rentals and resales.

4. Many developer salespeople will omit telling you about the 7+- day rescission period in your contract (called a cooling off period) where you can rescind your purchase without penalty. Please read your contract backwards and forwards.

5. This deal is good only for today.

5. They don't tell the prospective buyer about the resale market, but that's not their job. It's up to the consumer to educate themselves before buying any timeshare.

Resales:

1. Beware of upfront fee resale companies. They take your money and you will more than likely never hear from the company again.

2. Beware of companies such as Timeshare Relief that will tell you your timeshare is worthless and they will take it off your hands for $3000 +- and turn around and sell it on Ebay for $1.

There are many other misrepresentations and scams regarding timeshares. Before you commit to buying any timeshare, whether developer or resale, please educate yourself on the topic. Edcuation is knowledge and knowlege = power for the consumer.

If anyone can add to the timeshare misrepresention list above, please do so. Those I listed were some of the main things to look for off the top of my head.

My SIL, who is a real estate agent, told me there is only one thing to know about real estate transactions:

All real estate agents lie.

I say: Verify everything yourself. Of course, if you pay too much, remember, it's cheaper than a shrink.

C.

Great posting jayjay...

To add one point, the "right of rescission" which jayjay refers to as a 'cooling off period" varies by state from 3 to 14 days. But it is always written somewhere in the fine print.

Buying a timeshare which is not located in the USA, while you are outside the USA, means NO right of rescission. 5 minutes after signing, you are bound unless you can beat up the salesperson and grab the contract back :)

Jayjay;

Your posting should be required reading. In fact, I would recommend that it be used as the Redweek Home Page!

This could be a very useful topic, if, if, if posters stay on the subject.

In any case, Thanks for posting it.

jayjay wrote:

Resales:

1. Beware of upfront fee resale companies. They take your money and you will more than likely never hear from the company again.

Ok first off I have been a timeshare resale specialist going on 3 years now and companies DON'T I repeat DON'T charge "upfront fee's" what they charge is called "a marketing expense". The companies you find online, are found for a reason, cause they spent advertising dollars with a search engine to be found. So you are not paying the company to sell your particular timeshare but you are paying for exposure or potential buyers (like advertising in a paper, on tv, etc.) If you want to get your timeshare sold you will have to work with an online company, that is where the buyers are going. Think about it, if you live in Nebraska and you want to buy a timeshare in Mexico, where do you think this person will go? The internet is the fastest and easiest way to find what you are looking for with a simple key stroke and click. 73% of people use Google.com to do their searchs.

If you are looking to sell a timeshare ask the company to provide valid traffic stats from a 3rd party independent source and ask for their offer information. If they cannot provide that info you simply should find one that can.

Also act like a buyer and go to major search engines and find the company that most consistantly ranks at the top of the page.

I am finding it very difficult to understand all the rules & costs involved with my membership of club la costa, are there any long time members who can help to put my mind at rest?

john1671 wrote:

Great posting jayjay...

To add one point, the "right of rescission" which jayjay refers to as a 'cooling off period" varies by state from 3 to 14 days. But it is always written somewhere in the fine print.

Buying a timeshare which is not located in the USA, while you are outside the USA, means NO right of rescission. 5 minutes after signing, you are bound unless you can beat up the salesperson and grab the contract back :)

I don't know about all countries outside the US, but I do know that Mexico has a 5 day right of recission. There is a consumer agency called Profeco that can be contacted if there are problems. I did back out of an upgrade this past January when at the Mayan Palace. There was no problem doing so.

A marketing expense? Give us a break ... hundreds of dollars for marketing one timeshare when you do nothing but list it in a computer base and wait for someone to come along that might be interested.

Have you not read all of the upfront fee resale company horror stories here? Some people have actually paid several upfront fee resale companies to sell their timeshares then never heard from them again.

Upfront fee resale companies are a SCAM period and they take advantage of the frustrated timeshare owner who desperately wants/needs to sell their timeshare, all the while charging their clients hundreds of dollars for marketing fees ??????

I hope that a law is passed that all timeshare resale companies must take their fees after they sell, like in traditional real estate sales, and not before.

eric572 wrote:

Ok first off I have been a timeshare resale specialist going on 3 years now and companies DON'T I repeat DON'T charge "upfront fee's" what they charge is called "a marketing expense".

Up to this point Jayjay I have agreed with you on many topics you have replied on, but what you just posted was down right wrong. I will agree that there are a lot of horrible resale companies out there. But to label ALL of them as a scam is out of line. That's like saying everyone from Iraq is a terrorist. The main reason people get ripped off is the fact that most people don't properly research the company they are hiring. Most people get into their over priced timeshare in the first place because they didnt do their research. Proper advertising is the only way you can draw a consumer; whether it is a tv commercial, the classified section of your newspaper or the radio advertising you hear or the website you visit. Purchases are made everyday from proper advertising. I work for the largest resale company in the world and I PERSONALLY have helped hundreds of people sell their timeshare. I have an offer report I receive every day with legit offers sent to my clients. So before you go throwing poor advice out there you should learn the facts. If you don't believe me that's fine, but if you would like to see a legit resales company check out www.sellmytimesharenow.com

jayjay wrote:

A marketing expense? Give us a break ... hundreds of dollars for marketing one timeshare when you do nothing but list it in a computer base and wait for someone to come along that might be interested.

If you think we believe that then I'd like to sell you some oceanfront property in Arizona real cheap.

Upfront fee resale companies are a SCAM period and they take advantage of the frustrated timeshare owner who desperately wants/needs to sell their timeshare all the while charging them hundreds of dollars for marketing fees ??????

I hope that a law is passed that all timeshare resale companies must take their fees after they sell and not before. That would legitimize resale companies that they have their client's best interest at heart, not their own. They would have to actually work to sell a client's timeshare, not merely list it in a computer base.

Okay, I'll bite. Why don't you tell us why any company would charge an upfront fee to simply list a timeshare in a computer base? Why don't they charge the fee after they do the real work to sell the timeshare? This is the RIGHT and ETHICAL thing to do.

Have you not read all the horror stories here about upfront fee resale companies? Please take the time to do so.

eric572 wrote:

But to label ALL of them (upfront fee resale companies) as a scam is out of line.

From the www.sellmytimesharenow.com site below in quotes ... the site never says what they charge to sell a timeshare and if it is an upfront fee company or not. Would you like to clarify the statement in quotes for us, especially the UNFAIR FEE and NO COMMISSIONS part? Do you sell timeshares for free?

If you are NOT an upfront fee timeshare resale salesperson then I have no gripes with you or your company. If you charge a flat commission AFTER the sale then I have no gripes with you or your company.

"Don't I Need a Real Estate Broker to Sell My Timeshare?

No. Selling a timeshare property is actually much simpler than selling a piece of traditional real estate. There is absolutely no reason to pay the exorbitant timeshare broker's fees that typically range from 20% to 40% of the timeshare selling price. On top of these ridiculous fees, many brokers charge upfront appraisal fees. This is simply absurd. What you really need to sell timeshare is maximum exposure to the global marketplace. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com will provide you with the most exposure and our staff stands ready to provide you with the assistance you need to bring the sale of your timeshare property to a successful closing. At SellMyTimeshareNOW.com, we eliminate not only the nuisance of dealing with a broker, but also the unfair fee. For the buyer and the seller, NO COMMISSIONS MEANS MONEY SAVED!"

jayjay wrote:

Okay, I'll bite. Why don't you tell us why any company would charge an upfront fee to simply list a timeshare in a computer base? Why don't they charge the fee after they do the real work to sell the timeshare? This is the RIGHT and ETHICAL thing to do.

Have you not read all the horror stories here about upfront fee resale companies? Please take the time to do so.

I have read the horror stories but more importantly I have talked to people EVERY day for almost 3 years that have been ripped off by these companies with worse horror stories. Honestly I do have sympathy for them; on the same note if these people did proper research on the company and their business practices (search engine rankings, offer stats, etc.) instead of just trusting a salesman's words over the phone, they could have saved themselves Thousands of dollars between ad expenses and unnecessary maintenance fee's.

So here is the challenge, you are saying that you want a company to promote it's website so buyers can find it BUT you don't want to pay for it until the property is sold. So your stuck in a catch 22, how can a company achieve top search engine results, pay it's employees and operation costs without having any revenue to do it with?

Now say by some miracle you achieve that, now how are you going to retrieve the money in a commission basis if we are not handling ANY of the negotiations or the closing process? (BTW only a licensed real estate broker can legally charge a commission usually those commissions range between 20% to 40% due to the low value of a timeshare)

Believe me if it was possible to charge a commission we would, every client I have dealt with in the past asks the same questions you did. But like anything else in life you have to do your homework to get the results you are looking for. When you sign on the dotted line to buy that timeshare you are making a life long commitment to that property. What I am saying is the best tool to sell it is marketing and it is very affordable in comparision to the alternative of life long maintenance fee's!

jayjay wrote:

From the www.sellmytimesharenow.com site below in quotes ... the site never says what they charge to sell a timeshare and if it is an upfront fee company or not. Would you like to clarify the statement in quotes for us, especially the UNFAIR FEE and NO COMMISSIONS part? Do you sell timeshares for free?

If you are NOT an upfront fee timeshare resale salesperson then I have no gripes with you or your company. If you charge a flat commission AFTER the sale then I have no gripes with you or your company.

"Don't I Need a Real Estate Broker to Sell My Timeshare?

Yet again you use the irrelevant term "upfront fee". When you market your car for sale in a classified section it's advertising, right? Is advertising on the Internet that hard to understand jayjay? What you are doing is advertising your property on our website which already has 50,000 people daily visiting it worldwide. Our fee structure normally varies depending on the qualifications of the timeshare and the need of the seller but generally it is less then most people’s maintenance fees. Honestly people have no issues paying the resort THOUSANDS of dollars to enjoy vacation time, but when it comes time to sell its bloody murder if a company charges for a quality service.

Try to look at it from this angle, if you were interested in buying a timeshare where would you go? My bet is the Internet, right? If our company offers to a buyer, discounted timeshare properties from resort prices and you can visit the site, find exactly what you are looking for in seconds and make an offer without dropping money on membership fee's, wouldn’t that be appealing to you as a buyer? Maybe that's why our company generated over a 1/4 Billion dollars in offers last year and we are averaging over $5 million a week in legit offers.

eric572 wrote:

jayjay wrote:

From the www.sellmytimesharenow.com site below in quotes ... the site never says what they charge to sell a timeshare and if it is an upfront fee company or not. Would you like to clarify the statement in quotes for us, especially the UNFAIR FEE and NO COMMISSIONS part? Do you sell timeshares for free?

If you are NOT an upfront fee timeshare resale salesperson then I have no gripes with you or your company. If you charge a flat commission AFTER the sale then I have no gripes with you or your company.

"Don't I Need a Real Estate Broker to Sell My Timeshare?

Yet again you use the irrelevant term "upfront fee". When you market your car for sale in a classified section it's advertising, right? Is advertising on the Internet that hard to understand jayjay? What you are doing is advertising your property on our website which already has 50,000 people daily visiting it worldwide. Our fee structure normally varies depending on the qualifications of the timeshare and the need of the seller but generally it is less then most people’s maintenance fees. Honestly people have no issues paying the resort THOUSANDS of dollars to enjoy vacation time, but when it comes time to sell its bloody murder if a company charges for a quality service.

Try to look at it from this angle, if you were interested in buying a timeshare where would you go? My bet is the Internet, right? If our company offers to a buyer, discounted timeshare properties from resort prices and you can visit the site, find exactly what you are looking for in seconds and make an offer without dropping money on membership fee's, wouldn’t that be appealing to you as a buyer? Maybe that's why our company generated over a 1/4 Billion dollars in offers last year and we are averaging over $5 million a week in legit offers. What is Redweek offering? why should people spend money on this site?

********************************** Eric: Sorry, but I have to agree with Jayjay. I don't know you, but you are on the wrong site, presenting basically a no-win arguement.

I recently sold a house, which was listed with a local agent who also lists it on his website. I was not asked for any up front money or fees. The listing was accepted on a basic realtors contract, with the realtor being paid once the residence was sold. I am 99% sure that his "advertising and sales" expenses are much higher than your companys expenses. So how can he take no up front money, still sell my house and make some money. While the listing is active, he has to pay all advertising expenses, along with the salaries of his employees.

I receive 3-5 calls per week from Timeshare Resale companies, wanting to list my timeshares (and I live in a "no-call" state)! Most of them can not answer questions regarding their fees, nor their sales records, nor their knowledge of my resort. They tell me that they will answer all my questions AFTER I agree to let them list it Come on...there may be some dummies out there, but I am not one of them.

One resale company just recently told me what they believed they could sell one of my properties for, which was more than the property orginially sold for (new)!

As for Redweek, you pay a small fee to list your property. You know what you are paying and what you are paying for. You can also list it elsewhere. It is listed on a site know to potential buyers and you know that you are dealing direct with the owner/seller.

Again, Sorry, but you are fighting a battle you can't win. Instead of arguing with Jayjay, why don't you put your efforts into cleaning up your profession.

ps: and please don't call me. I will waste an hour of your time and will enjoy every minute.

pps: another trick, when the resale company calls you, tell them you are recording the call to make sure you get all of the info correct and then listen for the ...click.

You are correct, most companies don't take the time to learn their field or resorts, honestly I have played the seller role and called other companies to verify this. Some comapanies I agree are only looking for your credit card number. Thats why you research them before you invest. By saying every company is the same is rediculous. Also comparing a timeshare resale to a house resale is like comparing coconuts to walnuts.

Your average timeshare buyer is not picking up his newspaper (like someone looking to buy a house) and is not searching the yellow pages for timeshare companies (like people do to buy a house) they are going to a major search engines, type in a phrase and click on a couple of the top results. Do you think Real Estate agents is the only way to buy a house these days? Do you have issues with Isoldmyhouse.com charging for advertising if they "don't work for the money" or if you are looking to buy a used car and go to vehix.com, is it outragous for them to charge to advertise your car for sale there? How about other products, do you think Pepsi or Budweiser avertises on tv during peak viewing hours for free? They pay millions of dollars for those commercials cause they know you as a consumer will be watching and will buy their product. I am sure we could go round and round all day. Bottom line is people sell their timeshare everyday through our company and others simular to what we do. They must be wrong and idiots huh?

BTW I love redweek.com but not because it helped me sell my timeshare. I love it as a research tool to find property details. As for an effective selling tool I will have to disagree.

Quote:

Eric: Sorry, but I have to agree with Jayjay. I don't know you, but you are on the wrong site, presenting basically a no-win arguement.

I recently sold a house, which was listed with a local agent who also lists it on his website. I was not asked for any up front money or fees. The listing was accepted on a basic realtors contract, with the realtor being paid once the residence was sold. I am 99% sure that his "advertising and sales" expenses are much higher than your companys expenses. So how can he take no up front money, still sell my house and make some money. While the listing is active, he has to pay all advertising expenses, along with the salaries of his employees.

I receive 3-5 calls per week from Timeshare Resale companies, wanting to list my timeshares (and I live in a "no-call" state)! Most of them can not answer questions regarding their fees, nor their sales records, nor their knowledge of my resort. They tell me that they will answer all my questions AFTER I agree to let them list it Come on...there may be some dummies out there, but I am not one of them.

One resale company just recently told me what they believed they could sell one of my properties for, which was more than the property orginially sold for (new)!

As for Redweek, you pay a small fee to list your property. You know what you are paying and what you are paying for. You can also list it elsewhere. It is listed on a site know to potential buyers and you know that you are dealing direct with the owner/seller.

Again, Sorry, but you are fighting a battle you can't win. Instead of arguing with Jayjay, why don't you put your efforts into cleaning up your profession.

ps: and please don't call me. I will waste an hour of your time and will enjoy every minute.

pps: another trick, when the resale company calls you, tell them you are recording the call to make sure you get all of the info correct and then listen for the ...click.

Eric,

With full respect, sure you're a great person, but your dead wrong in reality.

I am a partner in a timeshare closing company. I have been active as a owner of many units for a many years. Also interact daily with my Homeowners Associations, Yahoo Groups, and TUG2.NET (which I consider an outstanding information resource).

The last 50 stories I've heard of folks paying fees upfront went like this:

1) Lots of calls and promises from the listing company 2) Owner pays an upfront listing/"appraisal" fee of $500-$800. 3) Owners ad indeed run on the website. Unfortunately 90% of the ads are way overpriced so they never sell. 4) Listing company doesn't call except to offer renewals of ads.

So the net effect is the owner is $500-$800 poorer and never sell their unit.

That's the way it is as seen by someone who's seen a lot in this industry.

John Faeth

eric572 wrote:

You are correct, most companies don't take the time to learn their field or resorts, honestly I have played the seller role and called other companies to verify this. Some comapanies I agree are only looking for your credit card number. Thats why you research them before you invest. By saying every company is the same is rediculous. Also comparing a timeshare resale to a house resale is like comparing coconuts to walnuts.

Your average timeshare buyer is not picking up his newspaper (like someone looking to buy a house) and is not searching the yellow pages for timeshare companies (like people do to buy a house) they are going to a major search engines, type in a phrase and click on a couple of the top results. Do you think Real Estate agents is the only way to buy a house these days? Do you have issues with Isoldmyhouse.com charging for advertising if they "don't work for the money" or if you are looking to buy a used car and go to vehix.com, is it outragous for them to charge to advertise your car for sale there? How about other products, do you think Pepsi or Budweiser avertises on tv during peak viewing hours for free? They pay millions of dollars for those commercials cause they know you as a consumer will be watching and will buy their product. I am sure we could go round and round all day. Bottom line is people sell their timeshare everyday through our company and others simular to what we do. They must be wrong and idiots huh?

BTW I love redweek.com but not because it helped me sell my timeshare. I love it as a research tool to find property details. As for an effective selling tool I will have to disagree.

Quote:

Eric: Sorry, but I have to agree with Jayjay. I don't know you, but you are on the wrong site, presenting basically a no-win arguement.

I recently sold a house, which was listed with a local agent who also lists it on his website. I was not asked for any up front money or fees. The listing was accepted on a basic realtors contract, with the realtor being paid once the residence was sold. I am 99% sure that his "advertising and sales" expenses are much higher than your companys expenses. So how can he take no up front money, still sell my house and make some money. While the listing is active, he has to pay all advertising expenses, along with the salaries of his employees.

I receive 3-5 calls per week from Timeshare Resale companies, wanting to list my timeshares (and I live in a "no-call" state)! Most of them can not answer questions regarding their fees, nor their sales records, nor their knowledge of my resort. They tell me that they will answer all my questions AFTER I agree to let them list it Come on...there may be some dummies out there, but I am not one of them.

One resale company just recently told me what they believed they could sell one of my properties for, which was more than the property orginially sold for (new)!

As for Redweek, you pay a small fee to list your property. You know what you are paying and what you are paying for. You can also list it elsewhere. It is listed on a site know to potential buyers and you know that you are dealing direct with the owner/seller.

Again, Sorry, but you are fighting a battle you can't win. Instead of arguing with Jayjay, why don't you put your efforts into cleaning up your profession.

ps: and please don't call me. I will waste an hour of your time and will enjoy every minute.

pps: another trick, when the resale company calls you, tell them you are recording the call to make sure you get all of the info correct and then listen for the ...click.

Eric; With Jayjay's permission, I again present his comment from earlier today:

"Okay, I'll bite. Why don't you tell us why any company would charge an upfront fee to simply list a timeshare in a computer base? Why don't they charge the fee after they do the real work to sell the timeshare? This is the RIGHT and ETHICAL thing to do. "

You seem to be saying that any company with expenses need paid upfront? That is simply an invitation to be scammed, as many people have. Coconuts or Walnuts, there is really no difference in houses or timeshares. Both are real estate. One collects his comission at the closing, one won't even talk (honestly) to you until they have their fee. Most of the companies you refer to do charge up front, but you know exactly what the cost is and what you get for it. You don't know that for your profession.

You seem to be saying that TS Resale web sites are so expensive that the upfront money is needed just to stay in business. I find that hard to believe and is completely out of synch with the costs of my own web sites, two business, one personal.

So no, I still can't agree with your comments. Sorry.

How can I be dead wrong John? So the $5 million in offers presented to the people advertising on our site every week isn't effective? I have repeated MANY times that the people you are describing are the people who listed their timeshares with companies they didn't do ANY research on. So of course all you will hear about is horror stories. Trust me, with the clients I speak with on a daily basis, that’s all I hear about as well. All I am trying to say is that you can't label a WHOLE industry on people’s bad investments. You guys are saying "Don't pay a marketing company upfront" yet you don't give them an alternate solution! Why is that? Maybe because Real Estate agents don't invest their valuable time on timeshares. This is not real estate. I mean can you go paint the walls of your timeshare? Can you build a deck? Does it gain equity you can borrow against??? OF COURSE NOT! I am sure you are a great person but I have been a professional in this field going on 3 years and I do know what I am talking about.

Last: Most people over price their timeshares because of 2 reasons.

A. They still owe more than the actual depreciated value. B. They actually believed what the resort told them, that the property goes up in value and they are unreasonable with their price.

So if there was anyone you should be bias against is the salesman at the resort that told all the lies and didn't give the buyer a chance to do RESEARCH in the first place. Or you can blame the person who believes what he is told and doesn’t do any fact finding.

My Dad gave me this advice when I was a little boy: "don't judge a book by its cover"

john1671 wrote:

Eric,

With full respect, sure you're a great person, but your dead wrong in reality.

I am a partner in a timeshare closing company. I have been active as a owner of many units for a many years. Also interact daily with my Homeowners Associations, Yahoo Groups, and TUG2.NET (which I consider an outstanding information resource).

The last 50 stories I've heard of folks paying fees upfront went like this:

1) Lots of calls and promises from the listing company 2) Owner pays an upfront listing/"appraisal" fee of $500-$800. 3) Owners ad indeed run on the website. Unfortunately 90% of the ads are way overpriced so they never sell. 4) Listing company doesn't call except to offer renewals of ads.

So the net effect is the owner is $500-$800 poorer and never sell their unit.

That's the way it is as seen by someone who's seen a lot in this industry.

John Faeth

So you run a website jon? Whats your overall traffic ranking? if I go to google are you the number one result? How do you get people to your website without investing proper time and money into search engines?

So I will repeat my earlier post to the other John.

You are stating that a timeshare is like a house (regular real estate) So that means anytime you want you can go into your resort and start painting the walls? Can you just go mow the lawn? Can you build a deck? Does it gain equity that you can borrow against? the answer is NO. So how can you say a real estate agent who collects 4% to 6% commission on a $100,000+ home would be interested in a $10,000 timeshare? Do you know I have listed Multiple real estate agents timeshares on our website? How do you think they would actually get the timeshare sold without advertising it on the internet??? Really if you want to make a valid point please present some facts to back yourself up. If you want to talk honestly I will be happy to reply to you in email and if you have a timeshare I will give you a fair market value and you tell me if i'm a SCAM or Con artist. Remember the real SCAM is the salesman who sold you the timeshare in the first place!

jons29 wrote:

Eric; With Jayjay's permission, I again present his comment from earlier today:

"Okay, I'll bite. Why don't you tell us why any company would charge an upfront fee to simply list a timeshare in a computer base? Why don't they charge the fee after they do the real work to sell the timeshare? This is the RIGHT and ETHICAL thing to do. "

You seem to be saying that any company with expenses need paid upfront? That is simply an invitation to be scammed, as many people have. Coconuts or Walnuts, there is really no difference in houses or timeshares. Both are real estate. One collects his comission at the closing, one won't even talk (honestly) to you until they have their fee. Most of the companies you refer to do charge up front, but you know exactly what the cost is and what you get for it. You don't know that for your profession.

You seem to be saying that TS Resale web sites are so expensive that the upfront money is needed just to stay in business. I find that hard to believe and is completely out of synch with the costs of my own web sites, two business, one personal.

So no, I still can't agree with your comments. Sorry.

The answer to your question is very simple ... the company pays its overhead after successful sales using the legitimate business model of charging no upfront fee. It's not the client's responsibility to pay the company's overhead before they've done one single thing to sell their timeshare.

You pay your salespeople a commission and a percentage to the company after they have worked hard to sell a timeshare. What's so hard about understanding this business model? It's actucally common sense.

Why people would pay a company an upfront fee to list their timeshare in a computer database is beyond my understanding when the comapny has done absolutely nothing to earn that upfront fee.

eric572 wrote:

So here is the challenge, you are saying that you want a company to promote it's website so buyers can find it BUT you don't want to pay for it until the property is sold. So your stuck in a catch 22, how can a company achieve top search engine results, pay it's employees and operation costs without having any revenue to do it with?