My family bought a timeshare in Vegas. It was basically a scam. There are tons of companies offering to help sell it, but since this area seems crowded with scammers, I'm hesitant to pick any of them.
How do I find a reputable company to help sell timeshares (a unit in an upscale Vegas hotel)? Does such a company even exist?
To make it worse, my family doesn't live in the area, so we'll likely have to do this all remotely.
You are right to be skeptical of timeshare listing companies. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to actually sell a timeshare. You know firsthand how awful they are; it takes trickery to sell them.
True story: In my office building years ago, the office across the hall was occupied by a timeshare listing service. One day about a dozen FBI agents showed up and raided the office.
As with any service company like this, you can sometimes find reviews on the Better Business Bureau.
As an alternative, instead of trying to sell your timeshare, you may want to hire a lawyer to try to get out of it. I have absolutely no experience with this, but I have heard advertisements on the radio for one such firm called Timeshare Exit Team. There may be others that do the same thing.
Good luck.
The one thing I would like to add to Ben's answer is that you will be lucky to get out of this with no proceeds. So that 30-40K paid for the timeshare maybe a total loss. If this purchase was financed with the timeshare used as collateral you may need to pay it off prior to being released.
One tactic I heard used is to offer the sales team, that sold you the timeshare, a bonus for selling yours instead of one out of inventory. Assuming their commission is typically 25% of the sales price, you might consider offering them 40% or some higher figure. Doing it this way, you will have all the slick marketing on your side probably generating the highest amount of revenue possible.
Timeshares are really bad deals. If you know this you can score some cheap vacations by attending their seminars and continuing to say no. The wife and I recently got back from a nice trip to Aruba mostly paid for with airline points, and a 2 hour timeshare tour.
You own something with very little market value - even if you paid a large price for it initially. Your cost to sell may be more than the price you get.
Like any other item that has limited resale value, your best option may be to donate it. A quick Google search will turn up some options.
This will likely be less hassle than selling. Also, you have a potential tax write-off.
