Exiting Marriott timeshares and points

[hittj5]

Hi All

I wanted to post about my experience exiting Marriott timeshares and points system. Over the last 20 years we have owned 4 weeks and 3500 points. We never converted our deeded weeks into the points system but instead maintained our deeded weeks for our use during our assigned season or posted them on Redweek to rent the weeks when we were unable to use them. We have enjoyed the trips over the years but our children are grown and we decided to go in a different direction for travel. I contacted Marriott back in January inquiring about our options to "sell back" our weeks and points and were told that Marriott would be happy to take everything back from us but they do not "buy back" weeks or points. We decided that was not something we wanted to do so I began investigating and I started here at TUG. I learned a lot from the many forums and decided to try and list them on TUG and Redweek. I was able to get some interest on Redweek but at first it was from realtors wanting to purchase my listings for very little to sell to their clients interested in the resorts where I owned weeks. I declined those requests and did some more digging and learned about LT Transfers. I contacted them asking many questions and learned even more from them mostly about the ROFR process. After a few more weeks I had someone interested in my week on Redweek and although Marriott exercised ROFR on that week, I learned more from the potential buyer about the various Facebook groups for timeshares. Between the Facebook posts and TUG marketplace listings we were able to sell all of our weeks and points.

For reference here are the results:

We sold two weeks at Oceana Palms Gold season (Marriott exercised ROFR on both - funny they wouldn't pay me for them when I asked but they ended up paying anyway!)
We sold two weeks at Myrtle Beach Oceanwatch Platinum season
We sold 3500 Marriott vacation club points ( someone bought 3000 points and Marriott exercised ROFR on the remaining 500 points)


Instead of giving the weeks back to Marriott for free we were able to recoup some of what we paid ( a very small amount compared to what we paid) but we enjoyed many years of family vacations with Marriott so we feel that the purchase of the weeks and points provided great memories for our family and we don't regret having the weeks and points.

I only share this story so that others are aware with a little work (mostly posting on Facebook pages and monitoring those pages for interest) and planning (start looking to sell right after you pay your yearly maintenance fee so you have plenty of time to make a sale and have it close before your next maintenance fee is due) you can get back something for your timeshares/points. It is no where near what was paid but at least we have some some return on our investment outside of the great vacations we enjoyed over the years.

Just wanted to share our experience in case anyone isn't sure where to start if they decide its time to move on from their timeshares. There are other options other than using Marriott exit services especially if you have a desirable location/season.

 

[Fasttr]

Nice post. Will be helpful to many for sure.

 

[PsuFrh]

Did you use a transfer company such as LT or did you sell them through a website posting?

 

[WorldT]

Did you use a transfer company such as LT or did you sell them through a website posting?

The owner posted on Redweek, TUG, and Facebook. You can do all those yourself. Facebook is free. TUG is $15 and I am not sure the exact price for redweek if you are doing it yourself vs using their agents. (I wouldn't use redweek agents). When you find an interested party, you can use LT transfer to handle the paperwork.
LT Transfer charges a pretty competitive fee and I have personally used them once. There are others of course, but I don't know of anyone that beats their price.
Beware of those websites that tell you to pay money upfront and butter you up by telling you your unit is worth thousands. You just lost that money.

 

[PsuFrh]

The owner posted on Redweek, TUG, and Facebook. You can do all those yourself. Facebook is free. TUG is $15 and I am not sure the exact price for redweek if you are doing it yourself vs using their agents. (I wouldn't use redweek agents). When you find an interested party, you can use LT transfer to handle the paperwork.
LT Transfer charges a pretty competitive fee and I have personally used them once. There are others of course, but I don't know if anyone that beats their price.
Beware of those websites that tell you to pay money upfront and butter you up by telling you your unit is worth thousands. You just lost that money.

Thanks so much for your postings on this. Very helpful information.

 

[tomvc]

We sold 3500 Marriott vacation club points ( someone bought 3000 points and Marriott exercised ROFR on the remaining 500 points

Did you own one contact with 3,500 points two contracts 3,000 & 500? Just wondering if you are allowed to split one contract when selling resale.

 

[dioxide45]

Did you own one contact with 3,500 points two contracts 3,000 & 500? Just wondering if you are allowed to split one contract when selling resale.

It was determined in an older thread that you can split the deeds and sell individual beneficial interests. I had similar questions when it came up in a prior thread.

 

[tomvc]

Thanks. Do you have to record a new deed for the remaining points to yourself?

 

[hittj5]

Did you own one contact with 3,500 points two contracts 3,000 & 500? Just wondering if you are allowed to split one contract when selling resale.

We owned one contract with 3500 points but points are broken up into beneficial interests. We split the 3000 points out and sold them and then had the 500 remaining. I had someone interested in 250 points and told them I would sell them the 500 points for the same price. Marriott exercised ROFR on the 500.

 

[hittj5]

Thanks. Do you have to record a new deed for the reminding points to yourself?

LT transfers takes care of the deed and transfer. They are great to work with. They split up the beneficial interests for the 3000 and then we held a deed for the remaining beneficial interested for 500.

 

[hittj5]

It was determined in an older thread that you can split the deeds and sell individual beneficial interests. I had similar questions when it came up in a prior thread.

Yes I had posted my experience splitting up my beneficial interests on a thread a few months back.

 

[hittj5]

Did you use a transfer company such as LT or did you sell them through a website posting?

I sold all of them myself using Facebook posts and posts on TUG Marketplace. I used a contract sent to me by LT transfers. If Marriott did not exercise ROFR LT transfers handles it from there. It is pretty easy to do yourself. I even submitted for ROFR myself. You can request a form from Marriott for ROFR that needs to be filled out. If you submit by 4pm on Monday you will get a reply by 5pm Tuesday. They only send replies on Tuesdays so if you submit after 4 pm on Monday you need to wait until the following Tuesday. It does state it can take up to 30 days but I always had an answer by the following Tuesday. I actually communicated with the same person in that department for all of my transactions.

 

[iftravel]

I sold all of them myself using Facebook posts and posts on TUG Marketplace. I used a contract sent to me by LT transfers. If Marriott did not exercise ROFR LT transfers handles it from there. It is pretty easy to do yourself. I even submitted for ROFR myself. You can request a form from Marriott for ROFR that needs to be filled out. If you submit by 4pm on Monday you will get a reply by 5pm Tuesday. They only send replies on Tuesdays so if you submit after 4 pm on Monday you need to wait until the following Tuesday. It does state it can take up to 30 days but I always had an answer by the following Tuesday. I actually communicated with the same person in that department for all of my transactions.

Thanks for sharing great experience. Curious where did you post on FB? I still don’t like FB, too much distraction and prefer simple site like this forum.

 

[Pamplemousse]

Thanks for sharing great experience. Curious where did you post on FB? I still don’t like FB, too much distraction and prefer simple site like this forum.

There is a group called ‘Marriott vacation club timeshare rentals and sales’.
I believe it is moderated and you have to request to join.
A friend just got a rental through that site.
Most resorts have pages of their own on FB too if you just type the name into the search bar.

 

[hittj5]

Thanks for sharing great experience. Curious where did you post on FB? I still don’t like FB, too much distraction and prefer simple site like this forum.

There are many FB groups for timeshares. I joined all that would allow postings for timeshare sales and posted in all of them. The best ones are the ones that are affiliated with your timeshare property. You can create one post and choose other groups to cross post.