Selling to International Resort Marketing

[MLAL]

I have been in conservations with International Resort Marketing about selling my Timeshare with Royal Holiday Club. They have offered me a fair price to buy the entire thing. I know there are many scammers out there and I have contacted BBB and they have no complaints.
Does any one know -good or bad, about this company?
There is no stated upfront costs and they will deposit monies into my account and I repay the 5% commissions to them after the clearing.

Please help!

 

[teepeeca]

If they are going to buy your timeshare/points/ or whatever, and you pay them a 5% commission AFTER the close of all transactions, that would be nice. BUT---have them put the $$$ into a third-party escrow account, which will be used to pay you for what you are selling, and to pay them the commsision, again, AFTER everything is complete.

From what you wrote, I am "assuming" that they actually are acting as a broker, and NOT buying for themselves. (If they are buying for themselves,have them give you a check for the sales price, minus the 5% commission/discount.) It's that simple.

Tony

 

[Daniel M]

Hi MLAL,
I have had a similar dialogue with this company, I would be interest
to hear whether you have proceeded with the sale. I did some research on them and found that the ph# & fax # are at 2 different locations neither one matching 2400 N. Central Ave , also the company name is not known in the Phoenix White pages .
Awaiting your reply Daniel M

 

[DeniseM]

There is a simple rule of thumb for dealing with timeshare business offers:

Any company that charges you a large upfront fee of any kind to sell or rent your timeshare, or to get your money back from another company, is going to scam you - period.

Paying 5% upfront is a scam - they will steal that money and never sell your timeshare!

They make their money with the upfront fee and then they make no attempt to sell/rent your timeshare, or to get your money back.

Legitimate businesses charge a commission after the service, but the scammers all ask for a large upfront payment.

Here are some warnings signs with these kinds of companies:

1) Did you get an unsolicited sales call or mailing or email from them?

2) Do they say that they already have a renter/buyer for your timeshare? (Or an established market like people attending conventions.)

3) Do they claim that they can get your money back from another scammer?

4) Do they want you to pay hundreds/thousands of dollars for a title search, or transfer fees, or taxes, or a closing fee, or appraisal, or ANY large fee, UPFRONT?

5) Are they offering to rent/sell it for far more than the market value?

6) Do they want you to pay a large up front fee that supposedly you will get back?

7) Do they want your credit card number over the phone?​

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then this is the usual scenario:

Once you pay the fee and receive the contract, you discover that the company has only promised to advertise your resort, not to rent/sell it, and they don't mention having a renter/buyer in the contract.

Then, you won't hear anything from them for a long time, and when you contact them, they will tell you that the renter/buyer backed out, but they will advertise your timeshare on their over-priced website.

Finally, when you try to get your money back, they will point out that you signed a contract, and it's only for advertising.

When you try to challenge it with your credit card company, they will tell you that you only had 60 days to dispute the charge, and that it's too late to do anything.​

This is a bitter pill to swallow, but right now, most timeshares are selling for 0-20% of the original retail price. It's not a good time to sell a timeshare.

To see what your timeshare is really worth on the current resale market:

1) Register with ebay
2) Sign in
3) Search for your resort by exact name
4) From the menu on the left click "completed listings"
5) The next page will show you current selling prices

(Be sure you look at the completed listings - those are actually SELLING prices - you will find asking prices all over the place, but what really counts is what they actually sold for.)​

 

[BevL]

And be careful that they don't start out that they have a buyer, nothing upfront but then, just before they supposedly have money for you, they require some sort of administration fees or something. You're on the hook, thinking money is coming, you pay them and suddenly the sale will fall through.

It may be legitimate but if they are offering you a price you think is fair, probably not. Market price, which may not be fair, could be a dollar.

 

[kshgsh]

Me too

After my phone call from IRM, I was sent an offer well more than the worth of my RH points. The follow up contract was much lower and in spanish. I have not acted on it and will request one in english. I was told I will get a cashiers check and have 10 days to pay the 5% once the check clears... Is that enough time for my bank to find out if the cashiers check is void? I heard about fake cashiers checks on craigs list too.

I have used my royal holiday account many times and don't care if I sell it but, I would for this price even though it is one sixth the first offer.

I have been in conservations with International Resort Marketing about selling my Timeshare with Royal Holiday Club. They have offered me a fair price to buy the entire thing. I know there are many scammers out there and I have contacted BBB and they have no complaints.
Does any one know -good or bad, about this company?
There is no stated upfront costs and they will deposit monies into my account and I repay the 5% commissions to them after the clearing.

Please help!

 

[DeniseM]

Please read post #4 above - it is a scam - they aren't going to buy your timeshare - they are going to steal the 5% upfront fee. DON'T DO IT!

 

[famy27]

After my phone call from IRM, I was sent an offer well more than the worth of my RH points. The follow up contract was much lower and in spanish. I have not acted on it and will request one in english. I was told I will get a cashiers check and have 10 days to pay the 5% once the check clears... Is that enough time for my bank to find out if the cashiers check is void? I heard about fake cashiers checks on craigs list too.

I have used my royal holiday account many times and don't care if I sell it but, I would for this price even though it is one sixth the first offer.

No, that it not enough time for the check to clear. It may be several weeks or months before you get a notification that the check was stolen/fraudulent/otherwise bogus. The bank will then come after you for the entire amount of the check, in addition to fees for depositing a bad check. The scammers will be long gone with their 5%. In addition to the upfront fee scam, the cashier's check scam is one of the main ways people are cheated. This scam is used for many things in addition to timeshare sales, so be aware of any Craigslist or eBay transactions that want to send you cashier's checks for an amount over the transaction price.

If this were legitimate, who couldn't IRM take their 5% and send you the balance? The reason why they can't is there is no balance coming to you, there is no buyer, and no sale. It is just a scam, and you will be out quite a bit of money if you deposit that cashier's check.

 

[famy27]

I forgot to add that you could always ask them if you could use an escrow company of your choosing. Never let them pick one, as any company they'd use would likely be a scam company that they had set up to make the deal appear legitimate. My guess is they will run for the hills as soon as you suggest using your own reputable escrow service.


If they don't object to the escrow service, chances are they will be asking you for some type of bogus fee (no matter what they call it) at some point later in the transaction.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

]If this were legitimate, who couldn't IRM take their 5% and send you the balance? [/B]The reason why they can't is there is no balance coming to you, there is no buyer, and no sale. It is just a scam, and you will be out quite a bit of money if you deposit that cashier's check.

Precisely. Just tell them to deduct their 5% and send you the balance. If they won't do that, then you have all of the info you need to know this isn't legit.

 

[PerryKing]

So whats new here ? Anyone deal with this company ?

So what’s new here ? Anyone deal with this company ?
________________________________________
I note that this post began on 1 July, it is now 26 July 2011. I was contacted by them on about the 12 of July, 2011 by phone. Thus Time for more actual people to come forward if they have actually experienced being ripped off by this company. ...Or is it a legitimate company? That is the question I am pondering!!

The twist on their offer to me is: That I need to wire 20% of the purchase price to pay the Mexican taxes due on the "sale of Property" to a Bank of America account in Mexico City, for the purpose of: " To release the funds in escrow" deposited with the "Mexican Government "Secretaria De Hacenda Y credico Publico", (The Mexican IRS), buy the purchaser of the membership(s). They claim the purchaser is purchasing a large block of points and contracted with International Resort Marketing to round them up for them. (My question is / was why can't they just go purchase them on the Mexican market themselves? They say that one could also go to Mexico and do this Tax payment to release the escrowed funds in person if they want to. That one does not have to use their agent. Or hire your own agent they say. Knowing possibly that no one is likely to go to all that trouble. Thus third option is to use their agent in Mexico City. Up to you they say!

They have given me, in writing, the agents Name and Address and the bank account number. Once the funds are received, they say that in 3 days they will send a me Cashier’s check (Or wire transfer to me if I want) for the purchase price (Well above local US market value) plus reimburse the $ paid for the taxes. Then I have 14 days to complete the closing documents and contract to transfer the ownership of the Royal Holiday Membership. Then only after the documents are completed, (seller must compete the sale documents within 14 days that they will send by FED EX after the funds are received in the Mexican account) they ask that I then send them the 5% commission for the on the sale. They claim they also make other profit on the sale.

This is all spelled out in a written contract. “Exclusive Sales Agreement” They claim the purchaser is a Mexican Corporation wanting the points for charity use and promotions? And if I sold the account in the USA (domestically) I the market value would be worth have of what they are offering me. The price offered is spelled out in the “Sales Agreement" but not the name of the Purchaser. Could be just a Advertising agreement as DennisM says. But contract actually says that: "Agent has found a buyer for the property and Owner has given Agent a "sixty (60) day right to sell the property at the price and terms set forthwith in this agreement without prejudice to race, creed, etc"....

One the one hand this all seems to good to be true. They do maintain a simple web site listing their Business and testimonials. See:

www.internationalresortmarketing.com

They are reachable by phone in Phoenix AZ, and do eventually return calls after a while. They claim to be bigger than they actually appear to be since most all calls go to voice mail. On the other hand if it's a total scam how could they continue to perpetuate it, with as far as I can find to date NO Complaints, or actual claim that they are a fraud. Even it's just a few to date?

If they scammed even a few, I'm sure that the Phoenix Police Department or the AZ Attorney General’s office must have heard of them by now. (I have checked the BB, but I have not called the Phoenix Police, or found a link to check with the AZ Attorney General as of yet).

Most of the advice given above is the Boiler plate about upfront fees. Which I do agree are rip offs.

So this is either a new refined scam to get the "Taxes" upfront or possibly a legitimate company.

So has any one actual been ripped off by this company or not. ?? Not speculation, but actually rip off? I am sitting on the fence about to proceed and find out. But I do not want to be the one ripped off. I’m mostly ambivalent about selling my Royal Holiday membership because it does work if you make it work. But I have 3 other Mexican Time shares and 2 Hyatt Vacation club properties, and it's just all more than I can use anymore. So selling the Royal Holiday is tempting.

Thus in light of no one actual coming forward and saying that they were scammed by this company I am very tempted do it. I just hope I'm not the one that comes back here and tells everyone: Yes I was ripped off!! If you can save me before it's too late by detailing your actual experience with this company it would be fully appreciated and the sooner the better.

Thank you for your input and actual experience with an actual transaction with: International Resort Marketing!





++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[DeniseM]

There are no taxes. No one here will report that they got ripped off by this company, because no one here is foolish enough to accept this offer. If you pay upfront, be prepared to lose the money - they will NOT sell your timeshare.

 

[PerryKing]

Looks like a scam to me also

TO: DennisM.

Re the Taxes, they did send along by email a Mexican Tax Form showing the taxes due. Its mostly in Spanish, but details the amounts and the sells price and seller.

They also gave complete adress and name of the Mexican "agent" to deal with the payment and "release of the escrowo by the government"

Any way if it's a scam... it's a good one, with refinements to overcome your "Dogmatic Boiler Plate" post re selling time shares and upfront fees.

I'm not going to do it, but it would have been nice, yet also a bit to much to be true. And if not true how do they or will they continue get away with it?

Your comment here and a relook at your Boiler Plate responce to these situations does give me pause to reread the so called "Exclusive Agreement" over and over looking for what it actualy says and how it could be turned on one, to say NOT what one wants to belive it does say. Or how it could could be held in an AZ court to not promise anything in reality.

Would you like to see a copy of it? Just for the experience, anaysis, and so you can update your Bolier plate Post ?

But What a loss if were actually a Legitamet company ?? Time will tell. Some one will do it ?? But as you say maybe no one from the TUG group !!


What happened with the original originator of his Post ? Let us know how close you got to doing it ?? Was your "Offer same as mine" or did it have other twist ?

Thank You. Maybe we will never know for sure. ??

 

[RX8]

The company's website states that they have been in Business since 1991, all in Arizona. However, there is practically NO INFORMATION on the web about this supposed 20 year old company. The likely reason for limited information is that their website was ONLY CREATED April 2011. Although this appears to be a good old fashioned USA company, the registrant for the website is located in Guadalajara, MEXICO. Finally, the listed address in Phoenix for this company is a large office building but their website fails to list a suite number anywhere.

 

[DeniseM]

Any way if it's a scam... it's a good one, with refinements to overcome your "Dogmatic Boiler Plate" post re selling time shares and upfront fees.

Perry - If you are tired of reading my "dogmatic boiler plate posts" - then vote with your mouse - and go somewhere else.

It's not a "good scam" at all - in fact we see the same old tired scam every day on TUG. Any one with a computer can come up with a phony tax form - or any kind of phony form. It's a scam - period.

Frankly - you come across as a shill for this company - my advice is that you tone it down. Courtesy is one of the requirements for posting on TUG.

 

[PerryKing]

The company's website states that they have been in Business since 1991, all in Arizona. However, there is practically NO INFORMATION on the web about this supposed 20 year old company. The likely reason for limited information is that their website was ONLY CREATED April 2011. Although this appears to be a good old fashioned USA company, the registrant for the website is located in Guadalajara, MEXICO. Finally, the listed address in Phoenix for this company is a large office building but their website fails to list a suite number anywhere.

Thanks, I also noted that while they are listed with the Pheonix BBB, but are not a memeber, that their BBB listing also was dated as "known since April 2011" . Very suspicious and coincidental. Right ?? It al adds up to a new set up. Also, just for fun, I will be in AZ next month and I will do a drive by of 2400 No. Central and report back. :whoopie:

 

[PerryKing]

P.S. I'm not a "Shrill" for this company, just an almost Victim. So in my efforts to help others and my self, I get acussed, unjustifiable, of being a shrill. Not so, and not appreciated.

 

[ampaholic]

Perry - If you are tired of reading my "dogmatic boiler plate posts" - then vote with your mouse - and go somewhere else.

It's not a "good scam" at all - in fact we see the same old tired scam every day on TUG. Any one with a computer can come up with a phony tax form - or any kind of phony form. It's a scam - period.

Frankly - you come across as a shill for this company - my advice is that you tone it down. Courtesy is one of the requirements for posting on TUG.

Denise - Thank you very much for watching out for the average timeshare owner with your (DBBPs) :whoopie: I really really honor your vigilance and "putting up with" the negativity that sometimes lands on your plate.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

P.S. I'm not a "Shrill" for this company, just an almost Victim. So in my efforts to help others and my self, I get acussed, unjustifiable, of being a shrill. Not so, and not appreciated.

Perry - please be aware that at least weekly we have postings on here that are shill postings - sometimes blatantly so and often less obvious. The companies that are doing these scams are raking in huge amounts of money - tens of millions of dollars per year is pretty common the upfront timeshare fee scamming operations that have been shut down the Florida attorney general. We do what we can to try to keep people from being victimized, and one of the ways we try to do that is to make shill alerts when someone from one of those operations comes here and tries to pose as a satisfied customer.

One common mode of operation of the shills is to make some kind of detailed posting about a company, describing what they do, what they claim, what the offer is, etc, then ask if someone knows anything about the company. Now they've created a post laying out the details of the company - it's almost an advertisement. Then sometime later they come back saying they used the service and it the company did exactly as promised, they have their money, and they can't recommend the company highly enough.

And all of this posting is done by someone who just registered and whose only posts happen to be about the company.

******

So the reason why you were accused of being a shill is because your posting pattern - at least intiially - follows a pattern we have seen over and over again from shills.

I apologize if you have been wrongly accused. But the pattern of posts in this alert were more than ample to start our shill alarms going as a way to hopefully keep someone from getting sucked in on a scam such as this.

 

[PerryKing]

TNX

OK Thanks. As I said, but it was removed, that I have been reading TUG for years, I came in looking for information a week ago but found nothing originaly on this company with the exact seach terms no less, then last night I finaly came upon this exact company. Just One post from a week ago.

I thought that I had a TUG sign in, because i'm sure I did it in the past. But in my haste when I could not get in I just re-registered and got to my rreply to the original Poster.

If the company had returned my phone calls to them from Friday, I probably would have wired them the money on Monday morning. They did finaly call me on Monday but to late to send a wire. But thankfully on monday night I found this thread and more importantly other post with almost the same fact patterns. That convinced me more than anything that this company has to be a scam operation also. My final conclusion was based on the other post and treads in this forum catagory, but not on this thread because I never got any real new information, discusion of know facts re this company, or similiar circumstances here other than the standard warnings.

Thank You for your couteous reply and explination and of your surmising why the quick to the conclusion, but total wrong, that I'm just (maybe) a "Shrill". Maybe this would not have happened if I could have found my old TUG registration, if I had actualy registered years ago, but at that time I was content to just read the post. I had no need at that time for info re an immediate scam aimed at me, as it was this past week.

So Thank You again.

Perry

 

[timeos2]

It's a scam. End of story

TO: DennisM.

Re the Taxes, they did send along by email a Mexican Tax Form showing the taxes due. Its mostly in Spanish, but details the amounts and the sells price and seller.

They also gave complete adress and name of the Mexican "agent" to deal with the payment and "release of the escrowo by the government"

Any way if it's a scam... it's a good one, with refinements to overcome your "Dogmatic Boiler Plate" post re selling time shares and upfront fees.

I'm not going to do it, but it would have been nice, yet also a bit to much to be true. And if not true how do they or will they continue get away with it?

Your comment here and a relook at your Boiler Plate responce to these situations does give me pause to reread the so called "Exclusive Agreement" over and over looking for what it actualy says and how it could be turned on one, to say NOT what one wants to belive it does say. Or how it could could be held in an AZ court to not promise anything in reality.

Would you like to see a copy of it? Just for the experience, anaysis, and so you can update your Bolier plate Post ?

But What a loss if were actually a Legitamet company ?? Time will tell. Some one will do it ?? But as you say maybe no one from the TUG group !!


What happened with the original originator of his Post ? Let us know how close you got to doing it ?? Was your "Offer same as mine" or did it have other twist ?

Thank You. Maybe we will never know for sure. ??

They can make up any "taxes" or other charges they want on a letterhead - as you can't even read it they depend on that.

You have already been given excellent information including ways to be certain this is a scam - just ask fkr a reasonable option for payment that doesn't involve money out of your pocket. If they refuse you have your answer.

If you are so convinced this is real then why ask? We have seen this type of scam offer over & over here on TUG. Many far more convincing than this - all turned out to be fraudulent.

You're looking to be assured its real. It won't happen as it isn't. Deal with them at your own very real risk & stop trying to find reasons to convince yourself & others its something it is not. It is a scam offer. That is fact. You will not find anything (such as a happy seller) to disprove it.

I know people want to get out of what may often be poor purchase decisions & these types know that and play to that very human desire. It is also true that if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. No exception here. Let it go & find a way to use or sell your ownership to a real buyer.

 

[PerryKing]

Right on.And Thank You. I never realy wanted to sell it anyway. I make it and the others that I own work for me. I was suspicious from the begining. but The offer was inticing. First it was a cold call, but they did know I had a Royal Holiday memebersjip, complete with my middle name. Wonder who gave them that? The lady calling with the solicitation and taking the info from me when I fained an interest did not realy know how the points worked. Wanted to know if my points were Silver, Gold or Plat. Had to explain to her that the number of points on has determins the level of memebership. Then I get a email with an offer letter for about 150% of what I paid for the membership. Not likely I ask them, why ? then the bit about a Mexican Corp wanting to buy a block for chaity use. The "President of the Companie" said if I was suspicious I could go sell it on the local uSA market for about half what they were offering. I said so why dont they direct to Royal Holiday or the local market if the want a "big Blockof ponts" . No good answer was forthcoming on that question. Then I returned signed contract and they send me a Mexican Tax form. With no explanation. Just called and said did I get the "Escrow Documents" I said NO!, but I got this Mexican tax form. Thats when they said oh yes, you have to pay that 20% of the sales price to release the funds, BUT we will refund and reimburse that to you per the contract. Thats when I knew to get very suspcious also. I'm not a babe in the woods. I am a CPA and government accountant and Auditor. They never even asked me to prove to them that I actualy did own a Royal Holiday membership or still did! Suspicious. I ask what the form was for is and they say money is in escrow at Mexican Govenment and can't be released until taxes paid. I can go do it personaly by going to Mexico if I want, or use their agent. They then send wiring instructions to Bank of American account in Mexico City and Agents name. I say I need the agents address besides the name. They send that by email. They say as soon as I send confirmation that money has been wired and received that they would FED EX a package in 3 days with the cashiers check for the sale price plus the Tax money I wired and the closing transfer documents to be completed in 14 days, total of about $22,700 ... BEFORE I sign or Transfer ownership, they are going to pay me in full?? ?? Give me a break, this was the most suspicious part. Then like I said they claim they had 150 employes, but I noted that no one ever answered their phone directly when I called. Always went to voice mail.

When they called back later , they had an apologie saying they / she was so busy "FUNDING" someone elses deal. ?? Sure !! Thus with my own reseach coupled with the poster RX8 that took the trouble to look up their web site "who is" data. (Thank You to RX8) We can see they set this all up in April 2011. But claim to have been in Phoenix since 1991. Not likely. Plus phone numbers do not corresopnd to their proported address in Phoenix.

So I repeat all of this so the next person that searches for "International Resort Marketing" here will not have to waste any time pondering or investigating this exact companies scam. I held off always beliving it was a scam unless I could find proof otherwise. I never did find find that assurance or proof, and in the end the whole senerio was just to good to be true. Right !! Thanks to all who helped me here.

 

[qlaval]

Amen... another happy ending because of TUG

 

[kshgsh]

Robert Jenkins

I just got off the phone with Mr. Jenkins. He explained the three options listed above about escrow in Mexico. I asked that he just deduct all fees and taxes from my check and send me the balance... he said have a nice day.

 

[MLAL]

Since I started this thread, I have heard from a few of you.
I used my common since and looked into the company. Like many of you, I have heeded the warning about scam companies and it it is true. It it sounds too good to be true, it is.
International Resort Marketing is a SCAM!!
I talked to a sales agent, the president and someone in funding, all have very good stories, but when it came down to it, I am not sending money or personal information to anyone that is not a laget company.
I talked to the BBB and , true they don't have any complaints, YET, but they are not listed as BBB company.
So if anyone, in the least, thinks about doing something with the company, Run as far as you can!!

MLAL