9/27/2010 8:35 AM (PST)

John,

I linked the report for Timeshare Vacation Realty, Inc. above. They have a excellent rating based on no complaints and being in business since 1982. Since the timeshare industry is plagued with scam offers, I urge you to read the below information before signing with any timeshare company.

Click on the New Scams section in the top menu bar here on TrustLink and see the article we have posted on "Selling Your Timeshare: Important Things To Know"

Over the years, there have been a lot of companies that came to life with the promise of helping people sell their timeshares. Most of these companies are located in areas where there are a lot of timeshares, like Florida and California.

Typically, they make a lot of promises about their abilities and claim that there is an army of people dying to purchase timeshares, and all of this will be available to you if you pay them the requested fee.

Reality is completely different. The truth is that timeshares are next to impossible to sell. There's almost no secondary market for timeshares, especially given the current economy and all of the problems in the housing market. Furthermore, if there really was a strong secondary market, these companies wouldn't have to charge a fee, they could make more money charging commissions on sales. The bottom line is that you should not pay any upfront fees to sell your timeshare to somebody else. Check out the Florida AG's website also:

http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/main/9161973ee14fdb1a85256cc900600947!OpenDocument

There are legitimate title transfer companies that will actually purchase a timeshare, and the benefit to the timeshare owner is that when closed, it gets them out from under the continuing obligations for common area fees. But the whole industry is hot with scams and fraud.

Be aware of a sequence of slick sales tricks - here are some scenarios:

1) The timeshare company offers to list your timeshare and you pay them a marketing fee, but after a few months when it doesn't sell they try to upsell you into an upgraded marketing package of some sort for more exposure (and more money) with so called guaranteed results.

2) After a few months of it still not selling they then offer to do you a favor and take it off of your hands for free so that you don't have to pay the monthly maintenence fees. The monthly expenses are a cost burden to many people who become desperate to get out from under these. These companies know that and use it against you.

3) They try to convince you to turn over the timeshare and "take it off of your hands" for free - now they really start marketing your timeshare, which they now own, and they sell it at a profit. The point is that the only timeshares they are actually selling are the ones that they themselves own through their process of psychologically wearing down so many timeshare owners and convincing them to give up their timeshare properties.