Helping mother in law sell 4 Marriott timeshares. Help needed

[lovescoffee]

My in-laws have recently found themselves in a long term medical situation where they are unable to travel. They have 4 traditional timeshares (2 platinum weeks at Desert Springs, 1 week at the Grand Chateau in Las Vegas and 1 bronze week at Oceanwatch in South Carolina) all are in the Destination Points program. I called the Marriott resale department in an effort to see if any of these can be sold back and now realize that it a complete dead end.

I cannot imagine continuing to pay all these maintenance fees and taxes when I know they are going to be unable to travel. I've read through some of these threads and am confused on whether it is even realistic to sell these outside of Marriott. Does Marriott slap some First Right of Refusal fee on the transaction that amounts is in the "thousands of dollars" if you locate a willing buyer?

I'd love any advice on how to get out from under these. They are currently paid up to date.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fasttr]

If MVC is not interested in buying them back... and MVC Resales is not interested in selling them for you, your best bet is to contact a reputable broker and have them sell them for you. The MVC ROFR is not a fee, it merely allows MVC to step into the perspective buyers shoes and buy the week vs having the buyer buy the week. For you as a seller...it really has no effect on you.

This broker is one example that has received a lot of positive feedback from TUGgers.
http://www.sellingtimeshares.net/selling-timeshares/about-us/

 

[StevenTing]

I don’t know how much you’d get if you sold. You might be in a better situation of exchanging the weeks for points each year and helping them rent out the points. You’ll likely come out more than the maintenance fees and that will help payback the initial cost.

For instance, my Grand Chateau 2 bedroom will exchange for 3325 Destination Points. If I rent them out at $0.50 a point, I can bring in about $1650 where the MF’s are around $1200. You’d get back an extra $450. However it’s likely you can rent them out for $0.55 to $0.60 a point.

If our can do this with all of the weeks you will likely come out $1000-$2000 more then the actual MF’s. Do this a number of years and this gets you some money back.

If you try and sell the week, you won’t get much. Like maybe $2000-$3000 for the Grand Chateau Week.

Marriott has ROFR but it’s not an added fee if they exercis.

 

[StevenTing]

I just looked at the point values. If you want to sell, I’d only sell the bronze Ocean watch. MFs are like $1400 and it only generates about 900-1000 points. The other 3 weeks I would keep and rent out the points that they exchange for.

 

[lovescoffee]

Thanks so much for your posts! Steven, to be honest I'm not expecting to get much money for selling them. I really just want to get them out from under the fees. They really cannot afford them at this point. Do you rent them out through Marriott?

 

[lovescoffee]

I also forgot to mention that I found out today that they "purchased" 3500 more trust points in December with a Marriott loan. UGH! I have no idea how we are going to manage that piece. Sadly this is a couple who has never been late on any bills. However, there is no way with this medical situation that they will be able to stay current on those payments and certainly not use the points. Any idea if Marriott lets you rent portions of the portfolio (say Desert Springs and Grand Chateau) if you are in arrears on the "mortgage" for this latest purchase debacle? I'm thinking we may need to hire an attorney.

 

[Xpat]

I also forgot to mention that I found out today that they "purchased" 3500 more trust points in December with a Marriott loan. UGH! I have no idea how we are going to manage that piece. Sadly this is a couple who has never been late on any bills. However, there is no way with this medical situation that they will be able to stay current on those payments and certainly not use the points. Any idea if Marriott lets you rent portions of the portfolio (say Desert Springs and Grand Chateau) if you are in arrears on the "mortgage" for this latest purchase debacle? I'm thinking we may need to hire an attorney.

I don’t think Marriott’s rental program is something you can rely on to cover your maintenance fees - there are no guarantees they’ll rent your week.

You could rent the weeks directly but it does take some work and you may not always find a renter. Converting to points and renting them would probably be the easiest rental route but you have to ask yourselves if it’s worth the effort vs selling. The Desert Springs weeks and DC points have higher maintenance fees per point than Grand Chateau so your rental price break even point will be higher than in that example. There's also a separate property tax bill of about $100 every year at Desert Springs. And an annual "club due" of probably $225 in your case for the whole portfolio.

There is a resale market for DC points and I believe it is fairly liquid as far as timeshare ownerships go. I think people have reported buying them for about $4 per point on the resale market. The platinum weeks you mentioned shouldn’t be too difficult to sell. I think $1500-2000 for Grand Chateau and $4000-5000 for Desert Springs should be doable. The bronze oceanwatch might be more difficult, but I’m less familiar with that resort.

The end of year is not the easiest time to sell as sellers are trying to get rid of their ownerships before the maintenance fees are billed around December, and buyers do not always want liability for the next year's maintenance fees as it's in general too late to book a good week. I’ve worked with sellingtimeshares.net to sell one of my ownerships and suggest you give them a call. There are also other brokers suggested here on TUG.

Whatever route you chose you may want to plan now for 2018 usage - if resale or week rental, consider booking the most in-demand week available as it could make the resale or rental easier, if point rental look at what are the deadlines to convert your weeks to points. The deadline is October 31 if they are at the "Presidential" level or better (10,000 points or more).

 

[VacationForever]

I am familiar with Desert Springs Villas and will share what I have gathered from the past couple of years when trying to get the weeks off my hands (until we changed our minds recently). The Marriott resales department no longer brokers for this resort. It appears that the Marriott sales office controls what the resales department accepts and then offers these same weeks to buyers of a bundled package of DC points and week. The maintenance fees of Desert Springs + property tax for the equivalence of enrolled points is much higher than many other Marriott resorts and as a result is not accepted or presented as an option to buyers because it is simply unattractive. They also do not accept Desert Springs for their rental program. However, they do accept deed back for this resort as long as there are no outstanding loan or maintenance fees. So if selling this resort is too much of a hassle, you may offer the weeks back to Marriott.

 

[Hi I'm new here]

I'm sorry for their predicament. Do not entertain anything but a sale or give away to end the nuisance and maintenance fees ASAP.
There are companies who work to get rid of unwanted timeshares, not sure if board policy allows me to name them.

[Moderator Note: TUG rules don't allow the individuals who own or are employed by people/companies who stand to benefit from the sale or rental of timeshares to name those companies. But as an unwritten rule TUGgers don't suggest that anybody should work with the outfits who charge fees to get out of unwanted timeshares. Whether those outfits are scams or not, working with them certainly shouldn't be the first suggestion. I've edited your post to remove the google instructions for finding such companies.] <-- SueDonJ

 

[Dean]

My in-laws have recently found themselves in a long term medical situation where they are unable to travel. They have 4 traditional timeshares (2 platinum weeks at Desert Springs, 1 week at the Grand Chateau in Las Vegas and 1 bronze week at Oceanwatch in South Carolina) all are in the Destination Points program. I called the Marriott resale department in an effort to see if any of these can be sold back and now realize that it a complete dead end.

I cannot imagine continuing to pay all these maintenance fees and taxes when I know they are going to be unable to travel. I've read through some of these threads and am confused on whether it is even realistic to sell these outside of Marriott. Does Marriott slap some First Right of Refusal fee on the transaction that amounts is in the "thousands of dollars" if you locate a willing buyer?

I'd love any advice on how to get out from under these. They are currently paid up to date.

Thanks in advance.

I presume you and your spouse have no interest in owning them. I think Marriott will transfer the weeks and Destination Club to a child with a new deed and minor fees and keep all benefits in place, definitely check on this. For the bronze week, I'd dump it either way even if you have to pay the transfer fees and closing costs, maybe on ebay would be best but I'd also list it on redweeks.com. So my view looks like this, get rid of the bronze week ASAP, sell or transfer the other 3 then get with Marriott and see if they'll take the trust points back and wipe out the loan. IF you decide to keep them yourselves, I'd keep the bronze week only if you wanted to use it yourself or it put you over the next level for Marriott Destination Club status. I'd keep the trust payments up to date until you get the 4 weeks squared away. After that you'll have to decide how to handle the trust points but at that point one option is to just quit paying it if they truly can't afford it. Definitely give consideration to their abilities to pay and situation as this will eventually ding their credit. I suspect credit isn't going to be that much of an issue anyway in this situation. I'm sorry you and they are going through this.

 

[RX8]

I'm sorry for their predicament. Do not entertain anything but a sale or give away to end the nuisance and maintenance fees ASAP.
There are companies who work to get rid of unwanted timeshares, not sure if board policy allows me to name them. ...

[Comments deleted after quoted post was edited.]

To the OP, another thing to avoid are the upfront fee listing companies. They may advise you that your timeshares are worth lots of money and tell you that they can sell your timeshares if you list them on their website. Of course, they want a big upfront fee. Once that fee is paid you'll never hear from them again and your timeshares won't sell.

 

[bogey21]

Your in-laws need out and you are a novice regarding TimeShares. My recommendation, notwithstanding that I divested all my Marriott Weeks many years ago when they devalued their Rental and Sales Ppograms, is to talk with Marriott and see what they are able to do to reduce your in-laws exposure and ongoing expenses. Once this is done you can figure out what to do with what is left. Your in-laws are going to lose money but IMO the quicker they extricate themselves from their ownership the better off they will be.

George

 

[Clark]

A broker I trust is Kelly Marshall at PremierTimeShareResale.com

 

[Dean]

... To the OP, another thing to avoid are the upfront fee listing companies. They may advise you that your timeshares are worth lots of money and tell you that they can sell your timeshares if you list them on their website. Of course, they want a big upfront fee. Once that fee is paid you'll never hear from them again and your timeshares won't sell.

I agree, there’s nothing they can’t do that the OP can’t do and likely better. And while they “guarantee” getting you our or your money back, if it can’t be done in this situation individually, they won’t be able to get it taken care of either and they’d just refund it if you’re lucky. All you’d really be paying them would be to do the work for you to the tune of several thousand dollars. As much as I respect and generally agree with Dave Ramsey, in this case I think he has formed a cursory opinion of timeshares based on horror stories and retail sales to unsuspecting and uninformed people. We all know that a retail purchase by an ill informed invidual made on emotions is a horribly bad idea but that’s his view of all timeshares.

 

[Hi I'm new here]

This unfortunate family is in a miserable situation. I don't think for a minute Marriott financial is going to get all warm and fuzzy and forgive a loan. The destination club product is definitely underwater in a big way with interest charges accumulating. I can not hazard a guess on what is owed. I can guess on the maintenance fees coming due soon and the amount payable is probably five figures.
Cutting your losses is never easy. Gold season Marriott weeks are a dime a dozen to buy and will not yield much if anything.
All alternatives are dismal. I would try to get out asap even if I had to pay fees.

 

[taterhed]

I love coffee too. But let's discuss that later.

STOP.

You need to get some sane, sound advice on this. Don't lunge at the first person who 'guarantees' they can get you out of this quickly etc.....

My advice is simple, free and easy. It will take no more than 1 hour of your time.

Here are the names of three trusted brokers often mentioned and supported here on TUG: Judi Kozlowski judikoz.com/ Seth Nock www.sellingtimeshares.net/ or Syed Sarmad advantagevacation.com/ I can personally vouch for Sellingtimeshares.net (Samuel R), but the others are well respected here.

Call their office(s). Explain your situation. Ask them what they can do to assist you, how long it will realistically take etc... They are professionals and make their living by serving people fairly. Obviously, they do make money when they sell timeshares, but they know the ins/outs, the timing and how to get a deal to close quickly and efficiently. After you hear what they have to say, come back and ask for some advice. Consider discussing the issue with your family/in-laws and consider consulting an attorney if appropriate. Keep in mind, you may need powers of attorney etc... or at least access to notaries and witnesses etc... to get things done if it goes that way.

Also, please come back here and circulate the advice/ideas you get to confirm what you hear and be confident.

Again, please, please, don't pay anyone ANY money up-front to help you 'get rid' of the timeshares. Don't squander $1000's of dollars in assets to simply save a month or two. Breath deep. We're here to help and commiserate with you. It will be ok.

Lastly, I'm not sure of your position and whether you're interesting in owning a timeshare or not..... but if you are, you may have a unique opportunity to transfer one of the units to your family (again, not sure of your status etc...) that is a very very valuable benefit (enrolled weeks). You might want to understand what you're trying to 'give away' before you do it.

Please at least call one of the broker's offices and chat with them? They will help to reassure you I think.

 

[taterhed]

This unfortunate family is in a miserable situation. I don't think for a minute Marriott financial is going to get all warm and fuzzy and forgive a loan. The destination club product is definitely underwater in a big way with interest charges accumulating. I can not hazard a guess on what is owed. I can guess on the maintenance fees coming due soon and the amount payable is probably five figures.
Cutting your losses is never easy. Gold season Marriott weeks are a dime a dozen to buy and will not yield much if anything.
All alternatives are dismal. I would try to get out asap even if I had to pay fees.

THIS IS HOGWASH.

This is not reputable advice. There is no easy, cheap or reputable way to 'buy' yourself out of a timeshare. If your in-laws really are in serious difficulty (which we don't need to discuss here, right now), then there are certainly REPUTABLE legal avenues to redress this issue.

Don't fall for this type of 'bait' that will bleed you dry and leave you hanging.
IMHO

 

[rickandcindy23]

The Marriott product is 100% quality and value. I wouldn't sell anything. You have DC points, and you should do as another TUGger said and get Marriott to transfer those ownerships to your name, even the one with a balance owed on it.

A Bronze week is not worth much, and you can probably give it away here on TUG under Bargain Deals in the forum.

 

[taterhed]

Again, lots of good advice coming in, but: My advice was this: STOP. Get some information and consider carefully before doing anything. Don't pay money, don't give away don't sell etc...
Consult
Get advice
Get a plan
Understand the pros/cons
Enact your plan---and have a hip-pocket backup..

Hope it helps.

 

[davidvel]

Talk to an bankruptcy lawyer. They likely owe over $35,000 on the DC loan, that could be wiped out in a matter of months.

I am not saying this the solution, but depending on their age, assets, and income it may be. Talk to an expert, not people trying to sell services on a bulletin board.

 

[vacationhopeful]

When people are in a HOT FIRE .. they run towards where they think the door is. CHILL!

I would decide who is the family is not the "rollover" or "give up" type and have them call Marriott and calmly discuss WHY the recent DC point purchase should NOT BE CANCELLED .. due to age & health of the family members when the 'sale" happened. They get the deed; they cancel the total purchase and hopefully, "make you WHOLE" ... but accept a totally forgiven debt as of the LAST PAYMENT ... no interest, no recording or transfer the deed.

If Marriott offers to TAKE ALL the deeds "off your (family) hands" .. that should be NO (except maybe the Bronze deeded unit). YOUR parents PAID for all those deeds and points... if the family or YOU wants those deeds & points, keep them .. you all paid for them. If not, SELL them for what they are worth.

 

[JIMinNC]

I'll add another voice to what the other rational voices have said. Whatever you do, do not follow the advice to talk to the timeshare exit and up-front fee companies.

Unlike many independent and non-branded timeshares that have little or no value, most Marriott timeshares do have value. The two platinum weeks at Desert Springs and the Grand Chateau week might be able to be sold for around $10,000 total based on some listing prices I see. The only one you might have to let go for almost free might be the bronze Oceanwatch. Talking to the three brokers mentioned in post #16 is the best advice you have received. DO NOT pay anyone an up-front fee to take these off your hands.

The Destination Club points are a more difficult situation probably, primarily because of the loan. The points can also be sold through brokers like those mentioned in post #16, but you'll likely get 40% or less of what your in-laws paid for them, which I assume will not be enough to retire the outstanding debt. I seem to recall reading a post or two here on TUG of situations where Marriott has been willing to work with families in similar serious health-related situations on getting rid of their Destination Club points, but not sure who they talked to within the company to get that considered.

 

[VacationForever]

If Marriott is willing to accept the entire bundle at no additional cost to your in-laws, it may be the best option.

 

[lovescoffee]

Talk to an bankruptcy lawyer. They likely owe over $35,000 on the DC loan, that could be wiped out in a matter of months.

I am not saying this the solution, but depending on their age, assets, and income it may be. Talk to an expert, not people trying to sell services on a bulletin board.

That's definitely on our list too. I'm trying to better understand the situation in it's totality first.

 

[Dean]

Talk to an bankruptcy lawyer. They likely owe over $35,000 on the DC loan, that could be wiped out in a matter of months.

I am not saying this the solution, but depending on their age, assets, and income it may be. Talk to an expert, not people trying to sell services on a bulletin board.

I know you qualified your statement but it really depends on the rest of the story, most of the time when someone declares bankruptcy, it’s not their best option and often a very poor approach. If they have considerable assets otherwise, bankruptcy likely isn’t an option, the judge won’t allow it. If they really don’t have much, then they likely can get out for signifantly less than a bankruptcy would cost and without the hassle or dropping an atom bomb on their credit. Whether Marriott will let them out likely depends on whether they have much for assets. While I agree getting legal advice may be a good idea in general, often bankruptcy lawyers are quick to recommend that option when it’s not needed so I’d go in with knowledge and a plan as a minimum. Regardless, one should look at their overall situation and come up with a big picture plan, the timeshares are a minimal part of that either way.