How to get rid of a Timeshare

It's unfortunate when a timeshare investment is no longer viable. If you find that you can't sell your timeshare, here are a few things you might consider. Please note that these are last resort options to try before wasting even more money having someone try these options for you! Each of these options you can do yourself for little or no cost at all!

Give your Timeshare Back - Timeshare Deedback

This is whats called a Timeshare Deedback to the resort. While it is a long shot, it only takes a phone call or two to ask, and even if the resort refuses, you are in no worse situation than you are now so why not try! In order for this to be successful, the timeshare MUST be paid in full and have no back taxes/fees/etc owed to the resort. It is simply a matter of calling the resort and speaking to the appropriate person and ask if the resort is willing to take the week(s) back. It is not uncommon for the resort to charge a transfer fee for this, but please note that you should ONLY pay this to the RESORT itself.

Also note that the resort does not have to accept the deedback, as more and more owners try this method, there are only so many weeks the resort can simply "take back" and still maintain the level of funds it needs to operate (Maint. fees).

The success or failure of a Deedback is entirely dependent on your ability to actually contact the person at the resort who makes the final decision! This is almost always NOT the person answering the phone at the resort! Letters to your HOA/BOD are highly suggested, stamps are still cost less than a dollar these days!

This article describes Deedbacks in much more detail as well as provides links to most major deedback programs:Timeshare Deedback Information

A huge % of Timeshares go unsold simply because they are listed at unreasonable asking prices! If you are just looking to get out of your Timeshare, have you at least attempted to give it away to a willing owner? This article was specifically written just to address the folks that claim to be desperate to sell, but still post their Timeshares for sale at a ridiculous price!

Why Cant I sell my Timeshare?

Here are two FREE options for you to give your Timeshare away to another party without paying a single dollar:

Each of these options costs you absolutely NOTHING to list your timeshare for sale at a price of $1 in an attempt to give it away to a willing owner! If you are trying to get rid of your timeshare and have not listed it in these places, you should do so asap!

Other options:

More than a few have been successful selling their unwanted timeshare at person-to-person online auctions such as eBay Auctions

Selling your timeshare on ebay comes with a fee of under $50 dollars, which is far more expensive than listing it on TUG with your membership, TUG has thousands of active ads running at any time in the TUG Timeshare Marketplace ) and the cost is only $15 for an entire year! With tens of millions of dollars in successfully sold listings in the past few years, you CAN sell or even rent your timeshare on TUG!

Many organizations that charge you significant upfront fees will simply turn around and list your timeshare on ebay or even RIGHT HERE ON TUG. It is far easier, not to mention WAY cheaper to do this yourself, or even put that ridiculous upfront fee you were just willing to pay towards next years maintenance fees for the new buyer to make the sale more enticing!

Selling it for a single dollar is certainly a FAR better deal than paying an upfront fee scammer to simply list it for free on your behalf! Heck if you offered to pay closing costs yoursef that would STILL be cheaper than using an upfront fee exit company, and greatly improve your chances of someone taking it off your hands!

Donating your timeshare involves you picking a charity willing to take your timeshare and sell it for you, thus using the proceeds from the sale as the donation itself. Charities cannot actually use your timeshare, nor do they want the burden of OWNING a timeshare so the most utilized option is to simply sell it for you in the hopes of finding a buyer (basically, doing all the things we just talked about above for you, for a huge fee)

This of course means your timeshare actually has to be able to be sold for at least some money in order to even be considered for donation. IE if you can only get a dollar for it on ebay, a charity will have no use for your timeshare and it wont be available for donation. Your timeshare must have some value and be able to be sold in order for you to donate it to charity! Sadly if this is the case, you likely aren't reading this article in the first place! Please see this article for specific information on Timeshare Donation!

Here are some additional TUG advice pages about donating your timeshare for tax purposes:

Timeshare Donation Discussion (tugbbs online forums topic about donating your timeshare...must read!)

Taxes and Timeshares article (Written by DaveM....Tug's resident tax expert and online forums administrator!)

Sadly this industry is completely overwhelmed with exit and cancellation companies promising an easy way out of your Timeshare. The catch is that every one of these companies expects you to pay a staggeringly high upfront fee for their "services". The fact is that there are always 3 options for ANY Timeshare owner to end their ownership, and these companies all utilize different variations of these 3 options despite the fact that all owners can use them themselves for free or for FAR less than the amount charged by these companies. At the end of the day you likely overpaid when you bought your Timeshare in the first place by not finding TUG in time to discover far cheaper options, dont make the same mistake in trying to get out of your Timeshare!

if you want an explanation of these 3 exit options, we have a guide for that as well right here3 exit options available to all timeshare owners!