The ICM Marketing Group (ICMG), the leader in the timeshare reselling industry, warns timeshare owners to be on the lookout for scams and other deceptive solicitations when attempting to resell their timeshare. shared time.

If you are a timeshare owner, you are no stranger to the deluge of telemarketing attempts to get you to sell your timeshare. Even if you are in the market to sell, it is important that you know exactly who and what you are about to do business with. Below is a list of timeshare scams that ICMG suggests you be on the lookout for.

Timeshare Resale Scam #1: “We have a buyer ready for your timeshare.”

This is one of the most used tactics in the timeshare resale scam toolkit. The company that tries to hire you will first ask if you want to sell your timeshare. They will then proceed to tell you that they already have a buyer waiting. The deal breaker for this timeshare resale scam is when the timeshare owner is quoted with an offer that far exceeds the actual value of the property. For a fee of a few hundred dollars, the company tricks the timeshare owner into thinking that their property will sell for this inflated asking price.

This timeshare resale scam relies heavily on luring the timeshare owner into believing they are trading pennies for dollars, by making the fees seem small compared to the promise of making a killing on the sale and a buyer waiting in the wings.

The best way to avoid this timeshare resale scam is to first ask them questions about your timeshare. If they have a buyer waiting, then they should clearly know everything there is to know about your timeshare. If you don’t know the details down to the last point and cent, I can assure you that there is no buyer. Make sense? No one is waiting, checkbook in hand, waiting to buy a mystery… ever!

Timeshare Resale Scam #2: “We guarantee to sell your timeshare in X number of days”

What’s better for someone to part with their hard-earned money than to give you a good, old-fashioned, time-sensitive warranty? This timeshare resale scam tactic again starts with the phone request for you to sell your timeshare. You see, some timeshare owners want to sell their timeshare. Other timeshare owners need to sell theirs. Putting a date and deadline on the sale is usually enough to bring down even the most die-hard skeptic and pay the fees the company requires to sell your timeshare.

Avoiding this timeshare resale scam is as simple as making a clear distinction:

Unless the company is a real estate broker, then they are not selling your timeshare…you are! Also, unless they are a real estate broker, they cannot guarantee that your timeshare will sell or how long it will take. At best, the company can only bring you offers from interested buyers because, by law, they cannot accept them for you.

Also, as a main point, a real estate broker will not guarantee when your timeshare will sell, even if they are the best in the business, so non-brokers should be clearly suspicious of making such claims.

Timeshare Resale Scam #1 Tip #3: Fees to “list” your timeshare for sale by owner.

This timeshare resale scam starts with the same phone call asking you to sell, as well as some of the tactics we just discussed. During the launch, they will tell you that they have a website that gets a lot of traffic from people who are eager to buy a timeshare every day. For a fee of a few hundred dollars and sometimes more, they will list your timeshare on their site.

Now this type of service is not completely illegitimate. These companies will list your timeshare for you, but here are some interesting facts to consider before doing business with these listing agencies:

1. You can post your own timeshare for sale by owner for free.
2. What’s more, you can list your timeshare for sale by owner for free every day, until it’s sold, at http://www.Craigslist.org
3. Your chances of success will be just as good, if not better, because ultimately Craigslist.org receives more website visitors per day than all of these timeshare listing websites combined. (compare some sites to Craigslist at http://www.Alexa.com)

However, there is only one problem with this strategy…

Timeshare is often an impulse purchase that occurs under intense sales pressure at the resort. While people wake up in the morning wanting to take a vacation, they don’t wake up in the morning to go online and buy a timeshare to take that vacation.

Did you buy your timeshare online? Not likely.

Also, because timeshare is a luxury item, it differs significantly from real estate. It is not a necessity item like a house or a car and therefore should be treated differently. You can list houses and cars on the web and expect to receive offers quickly, but this is not true with timeshare.

Successfully selling your timeshare on the timeshare resale market requires aggressive marketing to a highly qualified and targeted group of people. Nothing less will get the job done in an acceptable time frame with an acceptable offer.

Always be wary of requests to sell your timeshare or you may fall victim to one of these timeshare resale scams. Simple logic should tell you that someone asking you to sell is probably more interested in getting a quick rate than finding you a buyer!

A company that asks you to to buy timeshare probably has the seller’s best interest in mind.

The 3 things to look for in a legitimate timeshare resale company are:

1. Whether or not they are licensed and bonded in the state from which they operate,
2. Do they have an A rating with the Better Business Bureau and are they quick to resolve complaints?
3. Does your contract include the state statute required for contractual agreements made over the phone?

If the company does not meet all of the above requirements, do not do business with the company.

ICMG sincerely hopes that you find this list helpful in avoiding timeshare resale scams and that you will be successful in reselling your timeshare on the For Sale By Owner marketplace.