other than a broker, or a company like this woes anyone know of other options to sell my timeshare. What about ebay to sell? anyone with experience selling or even a timeshare buy with ebay?

never tried the ebay thing for timeshare, but use ebay for a home based business and have made several purchased through them. here a potential problem i see:

paypal protection lasts only 90 days from time of payment and it can many times take longer to close on the timeshare sale, so if problems such as a lien on the ownership, past due maint fees, or getting the timeshare precisely as it was advertised may not be realized until after the 90 day protection has elapsed.

I have sold a couple of timeshares on ebay and the last was my final because of the mess it became. Here's my story-

Had a winning bid for my timeshare when auction closed. Money for 1/2 the closing costs for the timeshare transfer and the ridiculous money the timeshare sold for collected via paypal into my account. Then after I had paid the closing company to close on the timeshare sale(the buyers half plus my half for their closing service) the buyer backed-out! The winning bidder/buyer demanded a refund of the money paid for both the timeshare purchase and 1/2 of the closing costs and claimed that because nothing had been signed I would be required to refund the money! I thought this to be a situation where I would be in the right and initially refused the refund request. I was wrong and here's why-

* Ebay has a stipulation/clause that 'bidding isn't binding'.
* Buyer could affect my ebay feedback.
* Could charge-back the money collected via paypal if I refuse.
* Real property requires signed writing for the contract to be valid.

So, I was out my ebay fee to list the timeshare for sale, half of the closing fees paid to the closing company(they refunded the other 1/2, which was paid back to the winning bidder), and I still had the darn timeshare!

A complete mess- never again!

Also, as of May of 2008, ebay began a policy to prohibit sellers from posting negative feedback about their customers(buyers). So, with your situation in selling a timeshare you may have to suffer the potential negative feedback, but be unable to dispute or respond with negatives about the buyer.

thanks for the input guys - keep it coming - have not decided how to sell - trying to eliminate having to pay a fee to sell my timeshare and it seems to be possible although there are these obstacles mentioned about ebay even though I know of some that have not had issues but get very very little. heres what I found out about timeshare broker sales: in the timeshare resale industry broker commissions average between 20% - 40%. timeshare resorts - developers, typically charge 25% to 40% for reselling IF they even offer it(most do not)! Plus most timeshare brokers have a mandatory minimum commission of amount ranging in the $2000 to $3000 amount w/ the avg being about $2500.

yes, you can do the ebay thing and even craigslist w/ some degree of success when renting or selling a timeshare and yes you may expect some pitfalls; that's how it goes with these types of marketplaces.

i think craigslist is hit or miss.

ebay has advanced listing fees plus ebay commission and paypals cut, so if you are trying to avoid any type of fee this combined with the problems expressed in this thread, ebay may not be for you.

these sites also require a bit of savvy when constructing an ad, making it seem alluring, etc. and remember you will have to do everything yourself; deal with emails, phone calls, answering questions about the timeshare, negotiations, and closing too. perhaps this is something you wouldn't mind doing, buy maybe not ? ? ?

Here is my opinion on the selling timeshare options. You can go the ebay route and do it all yourself and have potential problems and the same with craigslist. It's wise to know and understand exactly how ebay works and what is required, what to check for and do with these do it your self place to sell timeshare properly. Scams abound on both of these sites and both ebay and craigslist do their best to keep the scammers away, but knowledge is power, so I say get you stuff together and know what you are doing before you either buy or sell timeshare on these sites.

So, Merl, since you tried it all, did you also place timeshare resale ads with Redweek or TUG? They sound like they are oriented towards their users, but I wonder if people have successful sales or purchases. Don't they still have to fork out money for closings and title searches? I keep thinking there must be some kind of catch.

__________________
CaMama

Yes, with these sites the closing is something that is negotiated between timeshare buyers and sellers. Sometimes it is the seller who pays and sometimes it is the buyer and sometimes they split these costs. There's no 'catch' to selling or buying at the sites, but one must be knowledgeable about timeshares, closings, savvy to to the method of success on these sites, and be prepared to do it all themselves. This works for me, but others may need a full service approach and without an endorsement there are options for these folks also.