I have week 44 at Williamsburg Powhatan Resort (2 br lockoff). I purchased on Ebay in 2006 and most often have traded in to RCI for 2 weeks and vacationed elsewhere. Due to familiar obligations, children are grown, and our advancing years, we are no longer able to take advantage of yearly away vacations, and would like to lose the obligation of paying maintenance fees, etc.
I listed unit for sale on Tug for $1...no takers. I contacted Diamond Resorts Transition team, customer service, loss mitigation team, lead collector; and although they have a program to take back weeks, I do not qualify because I am not the original buyer. Even though my week was fully paid for when I bought it, and my maintenance fees are up to date. I have been persistent and call or email every month...same answer.
This past month I was advised "to let the unit go in to foreclosure. Late payment notices will be sent, just ignore them. They cannot affect your credit with maintenance fees not being paid". Does this make sense? Don't want to make a wrong move, just want out of this obligation.
Sorry for lengthy post...desperate for help. Thanks in advance.
In my opinion, your credit rating is one of the most powerful assets you own, and relying on Diamond for advice is not in your own best interests. Afterall, it's not their credit rating, so if you send it to foreclosure - they get your unit back and you get a bad hit on your credit rating. For THEM, it's a perfect scenario as the ONLY true expense for them will be the taxes you aren't paying when you go to default.
Now - as others suggest - PRICE is not the issue in your sale - it's marketing. Convincing folks that what you have is valuable. Here are some ideas (some already mentioned)....
1) Let someone use it for "free" - sure you've got the maintenance fee investment, but you're trying to get out from under the maintenance fees to come. If you are older, you have children with GROWN children. Someone who can travel that time of year without having to worry about kids and school. So think of younger adult couples you might know socially or at Church. If they sample it, they might be interested in buying it. Now to be clear, you want to pre-qualify them - meaning talk about timeshare and get them interested in the premise before you say, "here try it".
2) What about donating it? In other words, is there a non-profit organization that could use the unit as part of their charity work. A vacation for the pastor? You can write off your maintenance fees as a tax donation if you the Church or non-profit will accept the unit as a donated asset. Use of a timeshare is a real asset because you pay taxes on it.
3) You've mentioned the RCI exchange - so it sounds like that option (to a different location perhaps) might remain viable. In our own case, we give our unit to family members who are less fortunate than ourselves. All they pay is the exchange fee and the guest certificate fee.
4) As mentioned, using the tips about Williamsburg listed in a prior post - list it in the discount market place OR in the exchange market place. Based on your time period, day time temps are in the high 60s - which is very pleasant for seeing all the sites of the area.
5) Talk to a manager in owner services at Diamond and volunteer to pay the title fees to switch the name from you to them. (It should be less a cost than your maintenance fees). They pick up a FREE unit at truly no cost to them. From my experience - a title change costs less than $100 and even if they want to charge you a $100 for admin - you are still ahead. Tell them you'll pay them the taxes for the coming year (probably $75 or less) plus $50 for title work, and $75 admin fee) - so roughly $250 and see if they'll take it.
