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Get Rid of Your Timeshare, Your Home & Family Mean So Much More
October 13th, 2009 by Bobby Kipp Hernandez, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
With the current economic slump, an increasing number of people are having difficulty paying their mortgage, keeping up with their bills and the increasing prices of food and fuel. Worse yet, thousands are finding themselves out of work each month and a lot of homeowners are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. If you have a timeshare, it can be especially tough with maintenance fees increasing annually and special assessments in the amount of hundreds or even thousands of dollars can come at any time. It’s a good idea to rid yourself of your timeshare now before things get even worse.
If your timeshare is financed, then you’ll want to pay everything off as soon as you can. This will get rid of those interest payments which can be very high on their own (and unlike the interest payments for your primary residence, these payments are not tax deductible). Additionally, you’ll find it difficult, if not impossible to sell your timeshare if there is still a mortgage on the property. With so many other timeshares on the market that no longer have mortgages, it is extremely unlikely that you’ll find a willing buyer.
It’s always been tough to resell a timeshare; a report from the FTC tells us that only 3.3% of timeshares listed by owners have been sold in the last twenty years! Given the state of the economy at present, a timeshare is an especially tough sell. You may have to wait a long time to sell your timeshare — and you’ll have to pay for advertising and broker’s fees, even as you continue to pay for maintenance and special assessments! You need to get rid of that timeshare right away to be rid of this financial burden.
Renting does not make sense when you could be invoiced for thousands of dollars in special assessments. You might make some money in rent, but lose money overall without ever going to the timeshare resort yourself.
Furthermore, fewer charities are taking ownership of timeshares because of the inherent cost and liabilities. Again, like selling, donating your timeshare may take too much time to find a proper charity that will take it. Unfortunately, the clock is always ticking and the next timeshare bill may be just around the corner.
To keep from having to pay those hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars for special assessments, you need to get rid of your timeshare. You may not be able to sell your timeshare quickly enough to avoid being hit with these charges and the longer it takes the more stressful and expensive it will be. If you need to be rid of your timeshare quickly, then your best bet is to get in touch with a timeshare transfer company.
A timeshare transfer company can get the timeshare out of your name so that you won’t be responsible for any further assessments or maintenance fees. Of course, there will be a fee for this service but when compared to the cost of owning a timeshare, it’s a small price to pay. The transfer can be done very quickly and once the contract is signed, you won’t be liable for any expenses related to the timeshare.
You’ll want to choose a timeshare transfer company which has been in operation for at least four years; this will weed out the fly-by-night operations. You should also look up any company you are thinking of working with at the Better Business Bureau. Of course, no company has a track record which is completely free of complaints; but you should make sure that complaints have been addressed by the company and that it is highly rated by the BBB.
Regardless of how you get rid of your timeshare, once it is gone, you will never have to worry about another maintenance fee or special assessment ever again. You’ll be able to turn your focused attention to the necessities, like your home.