What is Timeshare Exiting?

Exiting a timeshare means getting out of your contract and leaving maintenance fees behind. Often, timeshare owners turn to the goal of exiting a timeshare after trying to sell it for a period of time without any success.

If you want to get rid of your timeshare and no one wants to buy it and the developer won’t take it back, an exit is likely to be your only other option. This will usually require you to pay a professional team to work on the project and get you out of the contract, but that investment may be worth it if it saves you years of maintenance fees down the line.

Why Timeshares Lose Value

Typically, when you think about buying real estate, you think about acquiring an asset that is likely to gain value over time. That outcome is not assured, of course, but it is often the case.

The story is different with timeshares. With very few exceptions, timeshares are not going to accrue value over time. As soon as you close the purchase, what you own is likely to be worth far less than what you just paid. This is why people have such a hard time selling timeshares they no longer want.

When you purchase a traditional piece of real estate like a home, the majority of what you spend is based on the market value of the property (plus a small percentage in fees to various professionals who help with the deal). In timeshare sales, the math is basically reversed. Most of what you are spending on the timeshare goes toward the cost of other things – such as commissions for the salesperson and any “gifts” you were offered as part of the sales pitch.

Common Lies Told by Timeshare Salespeople

It’s an unfortunate reality that many timeshare salespeople will say just about anything to close a deal. You’d like to think that they would be honest with people who are considering making a significant financial investment, but that’s just not how it works in many cases.

We could fill an entire book with the lies that have been told with the goal of selling a timeshare, but we’ve narrowed down that list to five of the most common.

#1 – You can rent it out for a profit
One of the go-to claims made by timeshare salespeople is that you’ll be able to rent out the timeshare when you aren’t using it, allowing you to recover some of the money you have spent – or even turn a profit.

In some cases, the resort in question won’t allow rentals, meaning this is a flat-out lie. Even in cases where this isn’t necessarily a “lie”, in that it might be possible to rent out a timeshare, doing so successfully is much harder than they make it sound.

Finding renters can be a challenge, and you might be liable for any damage that they do to the unit while on the property. Also, there are sure to be fees involved with using services to find renters, so your cut of the rental price may be far less than what you expected initially.

#2 – You can sell it later when you are done using it
The simple existence of companies that specialize in timeshare exits tells you all you need to know about the value of timeshares after you make a purchase. If it was easy to sell a timeshare, exit companies wouldn’t exist.

And, even when a timeshare is sold, the selling price is commonly just a single dollar – enough to formally transfer ownership and free the previous owner from the ongoing maintenance fees. When timeshare salespeople present the possibility of selling it down the line when you no longer want it, they don’t explain how selling will be a struggle and how you’ll almost certainly make no money in the process.

#3 – If you buy this timeshare, we’ll buy your old one from you
Although not as common as the other points included in this list, the false offer of buying a previous timeshare from you is particularly nasty. If you already own a timeshare and are being pressured to buy another one, the salesperson might say – without any authority to do so – that the company selling the new one will buy the old one from you.

This is where it is important to remember that these salespeople will say anything to close a deal. Anything. It sounds like a great opportunity only until the purchase of the old timeshare doesn’t happen and you are left stuck with two when you would probably prefer to own none.

#4 – A timeshare is a great investment
The investment aspect of buying a timeshare is often pushed during the sales presentation, and it simply isn’t true. Timeshares are not a good investment, period.

This approach is taken by the salespeople because they are looking in any direction they can find to add value to their proposition. Selling the timeshare on its merits alone is a losing battle because it’s not a good deal. If they simply lay it out in front of you, the merits of what is offered just aren’t impressive enough to motivate anyone to buy.

However, if it’s framed as both a recreational opportunity and an investment, suddenly some people will pay more attention. It’s only when you dig a little deeper and find that the investment side of the equation falls flat will you realize that the best thing to do is just walk away.

#5 – You can use it anytime you want
One of the great frustrations for timeshare owners – other than not being able to get rid of the timeshare – is not being able to use their timeshare during the appealing parts of the year. For example, a timeshare located on the beach is sure to be booked solid during the warm summer months, and you’ll have to plan a year in advance to get a spot (and you might not even then).

Salespeople make it sound easy to make reservations for convenient, attractive times on the calendar when they are trying to get you to sign on the dotted line. At this point, you have no way to know they are lying, because you haven’t been an owner and haven’t gone through the frustrating booking process. Once you are “in the club”, you’ll see just how low inventory it is and how hard it is to get the times you want.

Timeshare Exit vs Timeshare Resale – What’s the difference?

Typically, owners would prefer to resell their timeshare rather than pursue an exit. The problem is that no one wants to buy what they are selling. Countless timeshares are available for practically free and no one is taking them.

Even working with a professional broker is unlikely to pay dividends. Unless you own a very valuable timeshare in a high-end location, brokers aren’t going to give you the time of day. They are required by law in most places to work on commission (as opposed to charging an upfront fee), so they only want to deal with timeshares in the luxury segment of the market.

With the resale market looking so bleak, a timeshare exit becomes the only viable strategy. The goal here is not to make any money on the sale of the timeshare, but rather to simply get out of the contract so you are no longer obligated to make the ongoing payments for maintenance fees.

This kind of exit can be a tough pill to swallow for some, but it’s preferred to holding onto the timeshare and spending money on fees month after month without getting anything in return. Consider working with one of the timeshare exit companies featured on this page to hopefully put an end to your ownership once and for all.

Give us a call at 833-416-8796 or contact us using the form or live chat for your free timeshare exit consultation.