In my daily contact with Timeshare Owners I have met so many happy families wanting to upgrade or to buy more weeks or points. They understand the system, they see the advantages, they are travellers, and they use and love it.

But I have also met Owners who wanted to sell their holiday ownership and I got many questions about the process of selling a timeshare week. At that time, my job was to sell and not to buy or to give any advice about how to sell and I could help very little, except to repeat and repeat and repeat: Do not pay money in advance to anybody! Beware of scams!

But my curious nature made me ask and listen, coming to the conclusion that people generally take very little action in their endeavour to selling their Holiday Ownership. Selling a timeshare week or points takes effort, diligence and patience. To keep complaining, paying and losing money to scam and fraud is not taking any action, ladies and gentlemen.

If there is no magic formula to sell your timeshare and even less if you are in a hurry because the next maintenance fee is due very soon, I have learned from the ones who have bought second hand timeshares - where they went “shopping”, what they did to get their contacts of private sellers of timeshare, how they paid for it and how the transfer works. From the ones who wanted to sell, I have learned what you must never do. Please accept my share of experience.

There is a very long list of things you should not do to avoid scams; there will be everything in the private forums, but first and most important and for everybody:

Do not pay money to anybody upfront. Understand that, despite what some salespeople tell you, there is no guarantee that your timeshare can be resold at a particular price or within a certain period of time. There is nobody desperately waiting for your timeshare-week or points willing to pay more than its worth. NOBODY.

As the law prohibits cold-calls, the bad boys found a way to warm-call you. Free listings can get expensive. Do not give complete information of your timeshare and yourself to “FREE” timeshare-advertising offers. There is nothing free in this world and the “Little Sisters of the Poor” are definitely not in the resale-business.

Thinking of selling your timeshare or points you should be realistic. You bought the dream; you don’t want or cannot live the dream so please stop dreaming. Timeshare is not a financial investment and probably you will not sell it for the same price you have bought it. We are living in a buyers market and if you sell your timeshare sooner or later will depend on supply and demand (like anything else you can buy and sell), and it may take time to find a buyer.

Have everything ready before you start marketing your timeshare week or points. Maintenance fees have to be paid and your paperwork (Escritura or Member Certificate) should be complete and ready. Points might be pure points or “converted points” so please check if you have to transfer the points back into a week before you sell.

Always, the very first step to take is contacting your resort (or developer). Ask. Your timeshare company or owners committee may be a useful source of assistance. Most of the resorts and their administration personal will treat you as what you are, a valuable member, and they will be as helpful as they possibly can.

When you sell your timeshare you will have to pay a transfer-fee (plus in the escritura system Notary-costs), to change ownership to the buyer. Find out how much this is – you may want to ad this amount of money to your asking-price. Few resorts run a resale programme, so just accept that there are only two ways left to successfully sell your timeshare: Resale companies or a private sale.

Resale companies: There has been a big hole in consumer protection laws regulating the resale part of the timeshare industry. This has caused that a few criminals have really done their job and scammed very badly, especially people who wanted to sell their shares quickly or with a profit. Again, I want to advice you that you check and double-check carefully whom you trust to do a resale-transaction for you. Never attend a cold-call; never pay upfront fees, no matter how they are called; never fall for an offer too good to be true, because it probably is!

Personally I do not approve or recommend any particular resale-company, but I would like to give you a few guidelines. Choosing and finding an honest reseller takes a careful research. Of course they all want to earn some money – it’s their job, but after and not before they have sold your timeshare successfully. Do you get your salary in advance?

Find out if they fulfil all legal requirements. (Directive 2008/122/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council  of 14 January 2009, annex III, Standard Information Form For Resale Contracts, has given two years, February of 2011, to be applied in all the member states.) Qualified and proficient companies are working according to this directive already. They have nothing to loose doing so.

Any firm engaged in timeshare resale activity shall not collect any up-front fees, find out if they offer total transparency, if they can be visited (physical location) and if they are using a third party for escrow. Get a written contract before making any payments or handing over any documents; a 14 day cooling-off period is regulated by law.

Get a written statement and explanation whether any additional fees or costs will be charged to any party, seller or buyer. Ask what methods the company will use to advertise and promote the property and the proof of it. Move with the Timeshare Professionals - not with the ones giving Timeshare a bad name.

If you have been a victim of resale-scam already and still own your timeshare you might consider a private sale. You can sell privately. Of course you can! Read everything about how to sell your timeshare privately and take action!

Read: Where can I sell my Timeshare, Advice of where to sell your weeks or points

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