A Dollar Timeshares for Sale – Are they Scam or Not?

(by Gary S., the Timeshares-Store.com editor)

 

First of all, I hope that you didn’t fall into the trap of the regular timeshare presentation and didn’t sign that contract to lock your “today only deal” for $26,652 (please don’t ask me where this number came from). Unfortunately, many people make this mistake thinking they’re getting a good deal. I have been to many of these presentations (yes, I’m guilty of sitting and listening for two hours to get my discounted tickets to Disney World) and they all pretty much work the same. First, they show you the property, then they sit down with you and “explain” how it all works and how you will be saving money in the long run and enjoying your vacation ownership every year in the same place, or different if you want to switch, that this is a great investment (I’m not making this up, the guy did say “investment” in one of the presentations).

 

Did I scare you away from timeshares yet? If not, you’ve got to be also aware of timeshare scams. Yes, there are people that will simply not tell you the truth or will not tell you the full picture. They may lure you into a presentation by telling you that you “won” a boat or a car and only need to pay $49 shipping charge. After the presentation, you may realize that this was just a toy boat or a toy car worth $20 at the most. Other timeshare scams involve companies taking your money and then “go out of business” – but this is everywhere, not just in timeshare industry.

 

On the other hand, if you find a good deal on timeshares through an agent or Internet, go for it. Lots and lots of people benefit from owning a timeshare and they love it. Make sure you know all the details about that cheap timeshare before you pay for it.

 

Our current economy put many people in a tough situation. They now can’t afford paying for airline tickets to go to their timeshare resort. They now can't even afford to pay a timeshare maintenance fee. Many people just want to get rid of their timeshares and are listing their timeshares for resale very cheap just to get them out of paying yearly maintenance fees. This creates a surplus of timeshares for sale, which drives the price of timeshares down, often down to one dollar.

 

Main thing is you need to make sure you really know what you're getting when buying a timeshare. You may have only paid a dollar as a winning bidder of an online auction (such as eBay, for example), but you missed the important detailed about the amount of the assumable loan of $11,890 that you now have to assume. Is it really a scam? You may think so, others may disagree. As long as the description clearly mentions it, I personally don't think it's a scam - it's more like a lure, to get you start looking at these deals. So, read the full description before you buy!

 

We see many people find great deals on timeshares through the online auctions every day through our site and others. The main thing with the online auctions is to carefully read the description of the timeshare and check out seller's feedback. If the seller has their feedback score of less than 95% or feedback count of less than 10, I wouldn't buy a timeshare from this seller. The risk is not worth it. eBay has a great feedback system which makes buyer's experience much more positive than other online auctions without such a system.