How to Sell a Timeshare: A 5-Step Guide

Timeshares can be a great vacation investment for those who love to visit a specific resort brand, property, or destination each year. There are so many benefits of vacation ownership, but it isn’t always the best vacationing solution for every traveler.

There are many reasons current timeshare owners might be looking to move on from their timeshare, whether it’s because of maintenance fee costs, a change in lifestyle, other financial obligations, or simply realizing they are unable to use it as often as they originally expected.

No matter the motivation to sell your timeshare, we’ve created a quick guide to make the process as simple as possible using the timeshare resale market. Here are five important steps to learn how to sell a timeshare on the secondary market:

1. Review Your Timeshare Contract & Related Documents

Not only is reviewing your timeshare contract necessary to help price your timeshare competitively for the secondary market, but there are also other ownership details you’ll want to be aware of that may impact the selling process.

• Right of First Refusal (ROFR)— ROFR is a clause some timeshare developers include in their ownership contracts. When a seller and buyer agree on a purchase price, your Home Resort may have the legal right to buy the timeshare for the agreed-upon price. If the resort exercises this right, they will repurchase the timeshare from you at the sales price you agreed to. If they choose to waive their ROFR, the original sale with the independent buyer will continue. In either scenario, you, the timeshare reseller, will receive the same amount from the sale of your timeshare.
• Mortgage— Some timeshare owners purchase their vacation ownership outright and others take out a mortgage. For those who have taken out a mortgage, it’s still possible to sell your timeshare on the resale market! Similar to selling a home with a mortgage, whatever you owe on your timeshare will be taken out of the proceeds of the sale during the closing process and you will be issued any remaining funds.
• Maintenance Fees— You’ll want to ensure you’re up-to-date on your current maintenance fee payments before advertising your timeshare for sale. Similar to having a mortgage balance when going to closing, any unpaid maintenance fees will need to be paid before the sale can conclude.

2. Collect Details of Your Timeshare

In addition to collecting any ROFR and payment details related to your timeshare, you’ll also want to confirm other details of your ownership type. These specifics will help you better understand your timeshare’s value. Having a well-priced ownership can assist in speeding up the timeshare selling process.

Some of the most important ownership details (if applicable) to note are:

• Home Resort and location
• Unit type and size
• Ownership brand and/or exchange affiliation
• Ownership type— Deeded or right-to-use (RTU) ownerships.
• Usage type— Fixed weeks, floating weeks, or points.
• Usage frequency— Most often, this refers to annual or biennial usage.
• Week/Season— Resorts have designated high and low seasons with high season referring to popular times of the year to visit and low season being the least popular time to visit.
• Points Allocation— Point-based owners are allotted a specific number of points each year which can be used like cash to book their stays. Simply put, the more points allocated, the more value there is in the ownership.

3. Choose a Reputable Resale Marketplace

The best way to sell your timeshare is through a trusted online resale marketplace.

Working with a platform that is dedicated specifically to timeshare resales and rentals means that not only will the website’s efforts be focused on the appropriate marketing of your timeshare, but it will also expose your ad to people who are already seeking out vacation ownership opportunities that are just like yours.

SellMyTimeshareNow.com (SMTN) is one of the world’s most trusted timeshare resale companies. Since 2003, we have been helping timeshare owners advertise and sell their unwanted timeshares to interested buyers thanks to our innovative marketing practices and dedicated team of timeshare resale specialists who can assist you through the entire selling process.

Here are just a few ways SMTN stands out from the competition:

• Proven track record of timeshare resale offers (more than $5 billion in offers).
• Impressive reviews from third-party platforms like Consumer Affairs and Trust Pilot.
• A vast timeshare resale inventory.
• Straight-forward and reasonable pricing (no hidden fees!)
• Designated marketing to reach buyers across the world.
• Partnership with a reputable timeshare closing service company to ensure a seamless transaction.

4. Find Your Timeshare Resale Value

Once you’ve collected all of the information necessary to price your resale, it’s time to find the value of your timeshare.

To get a better sense of pricing before reaching out to our resale professionals, explore the timeshare resale advertisements on SMTN’s expansive platform. You can search by resort, brand, point allocation, and more. By finding timeshare ownership advertisements that are similar to yours, you can see where others are asking for their resale and price your ownership competitively. Ultimately, however, the selling price is entirely up to you as the owner.

5. Advertise Your Timeshare for Sale

After settling upon the best asking price for your timeshare, it’s time to create an ad for your ownership. Selecting a well-known, trusted timeshare resale marketplace like SellMyTimeshareNow.com is the best way to advertise your timeshare.

SMTN has a dedicated team available to help create an ad based on the information you’ve provided about your ownership, but it also offers the ability to customize the ad even further to include personal photos you’ve taken of your unit type and any other owner benefits you believe might be missing to make your ad stand out.

Now It’s Time to Wait for Interested Buyers to Contact You!

Just as quickly as the process began, you’re ready for buyers to view your advertisement and receive offers! SellMyTimeshareNow.com allows you to communicate and negotiate directly with interested buyers, which means you remain in complete control of your ownership until the closing process is complete.

Learn more about SMTN’s comprehensive timeshare resale services and speak to our independent resale experts to find the best option for your unwanted or unused timeshare.