Helping my parents.

[TheNoob]

Ok, a typical situation I guess, my parents went to Florida with relatives and got 'talked' into buying a timeshare in Cypress Point Grand Villas for around $8000 i think they said. Now after many years of paying yearly fees and NEVER using it once, they want it gone. They paid it off long ago and I'm trying to find out more info on it, but apparently since they never 'booked' or whatever they call it, the points, they really only have 2000 points with DRI. My mom is supposed to call them today and add me as an authorized person at which point I can get more info.

The biggest problem I have with these things is how confusing they are. My parents are simple mid-western people and they don't understand all the different companies that are involved and wanting money (cypress, sunterra, dri etc). So after that long story, my question is if you think I could get rid of this for them on the classifieds section considering they have never banked any of their points the entire time they have had it (which also seems criminal to me, they don't have to login and bank any maintenance fees).

 

[travelwizard1971]

I'm trying a similar thing. My Mom owns several and can't really travel now and my brothers and I really don't want them. My Mother just went through a company to transfer hers. She just started it a few days ago so it's not finalized as of yet. She found this company on line and hopefully all goes well. I will keep updates posted here on TUG.
Good Luck!

TW

 

[TheNoob]

What is the company, did they charge an upfront fee?

I'm thinking of just listing it on this board when I get more info.

 

[travelwizard1971]

Their name is Timeshare Refuge. They did charge my mother $699 which they stated included Wyndham transfer fee of $299, recording fees, title search and insurance, deed prep and I thought they said something else.

My Mother had tried several times to sell it but after she paid the money, she never heard back.
This company actually prepared all the paperwork before she paid them. Something none of the other companies ever did. So we are hoping it's not one of those type of companies.

You might want to try posting it here to see if anyone will take it but I will let everyone here know the outcome.

TW

 

[Passepartout]

You can list it (them) free in the 'Bargain deals' under the Buying, Selling, Renting forum. Just follow the basic outline of Resort, Week, BRs, etc. If listed for a buck they are listed at no cost. Or if you think they have some value, for the cost of TUG membership ($15) you can post them in the TUG Marketplace.

You will have to occasionally 'bump' your listing to the top to keep it fresh, but that's a small price to pay.

There is a sticky about 'Selling your Timeshare in Buying Selling Renting.

Most important: NEVER pay an upfront fee. They are almost always a rip-off. They have the money and no incentive to sell it. In fact if they don't, there is a good chance you'll pay to list it again. And again.

Best wishes.

Jim

 

[TheNoob]

Thanks for the info guys. Yeah, my dad paid one of those companies upfront a few years ago, they took his $600 and they never got a hold of them again, I can't believe those places are legal.

@Passepartout, I'll list it on the classifieds when I get all the info, will probably be for a $1 as I doubt it has any more value other than somebody that wants it.

 

[TheNoob]

Hey TW, I contacted Timeshare Refuge as well, they seem legit and they said they would transfer it our of their name for $699, did your transfer complete ok?

 

[theo]

Only (more) time will tell...

Hey TW, I contacted Timeshare Refuge as well, they seem legit and they said they would transfer it our of their name for $699, did your transfer complete ok?

TravelWizard's mother's "deal" with the heretofore unknown "Timeshare Refuge" is literally only days old now and in virtually any scenario it would take (at a bare minimum) a few weeks, maybe even longer, for a new deed (valid or otherwise) to be recorded in the applicable county and returned.

If it's of any interest to you before sending $700 off into the wild blue younder, in the "Buying, Selling and Renting" section, in a thread (started 4/3/12, most recent post 4/7/12), entitled "Timeshare Transfers", I put forth several different very specific theories / scenarios in which this "Refuge" operation could potentially still prove to be not only an outright scam, but actually be committing criminal fraud. I'm not making any accusations (...yet), but I've pointed out several possible unsatisfactory developments and outcomes.

Only time will tell when (or if) a new deed (or deeds, plural) actually ever get recorded and / or details thereof (i.e., specific book and page(s) of a clearly identified County's recorded new deeds) get provided back here for verification. There may well be some very interesting revelations at that time. I'd very strongly recommend keeping your checkbook closed and tucked safely away in the meantime...

 

[kalua]

TheNoob , if it only cost I believe it was $600.00 $299.00 goes to wyndham and another $100.00 for something else you said, that is only $200. profit for the company !! ??? and you didn't mention if it was being transferred to someone else , who will they transfer it to ? themselves, my father always told me if something stinks it's probably rotten, if anyone does this is all I can say is Good Luck !!

 

[travelwizard1971]

Hey TheNOOB, As Theo had mentioned it will take a few weeks to pan out and see if this is a legit company. Not sure but Timeshare Refuge did more work and explaining the process to my Mother and me than any other company in the past.
I am trying to stay confident about Timeshare Refuge and just hope it all works out.

I did not pay the money, my Mother did and I'm not going to loose any sleep over it and neither is she but either way I will be posting every thing on here weather good or bad.
My Mother still has 4 other weeks she wants to get rid of. So if they do the job, I'm sure she will use them again.
This was a direct transfer and not a resale, so that might make a difference.
Not sure.

TW

 

[theo]

There are other less risky (and much less expensive) options...

<snip> My Mother still has 4 other weeks she wants to get rid of.

Just a reminder that those 4 weeks can be offered in the TUG "Bargain Deals" section, potentially costing your mother absolutely nothing to find new owners. By my math, giving those 4 weeks away for free would constitute a potential savings of about $2,800 in "out of pocket" costs vs. paying dubious upfront money to "Timeshare Refuge" (an operation which may ultimately prove to not even be legitimate at all).

 

[TheNoob]

Those are all very good points everybody, I might do some more research on this. I would hate to see them pay $600 and the title/commitment never leaves their name.

 

[jsabatini]

This is a owners group for the resort, If you join the group you may be able to advertise the units for sale to other owners. I own across the street at Cypress Point & have seen owners sell units through the message board.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrandeVillasResort/

 

[judyann]

We sold ours -

We sold our Wyndham (points) thru someone we found on the TUG wish list, who was wanting to buy points. It was no cost to us, and tho we did not get very much, at least we had the use of it for many years. It is good to not have the monthly fees. I think it was listed under "Points R Points". We were very happy, it was all done over the internet and very professional. This was done last year - we ofered it in late winter, and had reserved something for May, so by the time the paperwork was finished our monthly fees thru June covered the points we had used, and it was agreeable with
all parties involved.

 

[wawacito]

For all those that keep saying "why spend money when you can post it online and sell it at no cost" ... that's if you have a timeshare that is "sellable" ... what if your timeshare is a horrible week at a no-name resort that has increasing maintenance fees and special assessments on top of that to boot. Who in their right mind on this forum or redweek or any other place buy such a timeshare from me? Because we are in this predicament we turn to these "postcard" companies because we feel like that's the only option we have left to get rid of our timeshare. We want to get rid of it so bad we are willing to pay someone to take it from us.

That being said: I landed on this page searching for a review about this company because I am interested too.

Here is a website I found. http://www.bbb.org/southwestern-mis...dvocates/timeshare-refuge-in-branson-mo-38815

I'm not saying they are legit - I'm just saying that they seem more legit than others out there.

I will eagerly await the outcome of this because I would like to use them too.

By the way: I first learned about "timeshare refuge" from a company called "sumday vacations" - they sell timeshares on ebay - I contacted them to try to get them to sell mine for me and here is their reply:

"Thank you for your inquiry about the transfer of your timeshare ownership. SumDay Vacations only accepts transfers from corporations who help to offset our operating costs on an annual basis.


Therefore we can only recommend you to one of the corporations that uses Sumday Vacations for their transfer services. At this time we recommend Timeshare Refuge, LLC which is home of "The Timeshare Dump". They seem to be the most economical company for contracting straight timeshare transfers. They can be reached through their website at www.timesharerefuge.com or by email at info@timesharerefuge.com.

Again, thank you for your inquiry and we look forward to working with you.


--
Steve McLoud
Sumday Vacations
PO Box 938
Kimberling City, MO 65686
Phone (417) 272-1629
Fax (417) 272-1645
Check out our "buy it right" website www.sumdayvacations.com "


Interestingly - the two companies are 20 miles apart.

 

[TheNoob]

The company doesn't charge anything for certain properties from what I understand, but with that said...they want $699 to transfer this one.

 

[SeniorDirector]

... Timeshare Refuge, LLC which is home of "The Timeshare Dump".

The Timeshare Dump has been around for many years. Here's their website http://timeshare.qcommerce.com/default.htm#tdump

Essentially there are three options for getting rid of a timeshare:
1. Sell it if it's sellable,
2. Donate it if it's sellable for the charity (they need to convert it to cash), or
3. Pay someone to take it from you.

There are a few charities we know of that will take any timeshare, but will charge you from $500 to $2,495 to take it off your hands. There are a lot of "postcard" companies that will charge up to $4,995. The key points to determine is:
1. How much will it cost (all costs involved),
2. Who will title be transferred to (you want to make sure it's actually being transferred),
3. Who will be doing the paperwork and process (a title escrow company is the safest), and
4. How long will it take (usually a few months).

Paying up front without knowing these points is dangerous. It is normal for a licensed title escrow company to require payment of expected expenses to be deposited into their secured escrow account in advance, but make sure they're licensed in the state they operate (not necessarily in the resort state).

One requirement you should ask for is the real estate license number of the company handling to process, then verify it with the state. That means they have to abide by real estate laws or risk losing their license.

 

[TheNoob]

They went with Timeshare Refugee, they have already received the new Title and have had it notarized and mailed back to the company. Total cost was $699.

 

[bccash63]

They went with Timeshare Refugee, they have already received the new Title and have had it notarized and mailed back to the company. Total cost was $699.

Let me know how this comes out. I may be interested in trying them. dawn

 

[TheNoob]

I will post the results, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

 

[wawacito]

Any news on the progress?

 

[TheNoob]

So far they have emailed saying they received the new title and that they are now going to get into contact with the property mgmt. They said this may take up to 6 weeks.

 

[wawacito]

Thanks for the update.

Please keep us posted.

If you could help us all out by posting some verifiable info (like deed recordings and such) it would be helpful.

Could some of the senior members chime in here - what would you need to see to be convinced that this is legit and real?

 

[theo]

We'll see...

Thanks for the update.

Please keep us posted.

If you could help us all out by posting some verifiable info (like deed recordings and such) it would be helpful.

Could some of the senior members chime in here - what would you need to see to be convinced that this is legit and real?

I'm already very dubious, but it will take quite some time to know whether or not this outfit is legitimate and / or whether the transfer is also later acknowledged by the resort. Even if a deed gets recorded, if a resort believes the new "grantee" to be a bogus LLC, or a shell corporation, or a non-existent individual, or an unwary homeless person innocently recruited into the scheme for a few bucks, the resort can simply choose to ignore the recorded instrument and continue to bill the current owner of record. There is clear indication lately that some resort HOA's with a competetent semi-retired attorney on their BOD are even actively undertaking to invalidate (i.e., have a court formally "void") bogus deeds to "Viking Ship" entities, just to make a public example out of some of these fraudulent activities and their practitioners.

Someone on TUG will surely now "Ride" forth, unencumbered by either actual knowledge or experience, and with no legal background or other supporting credentials indignantly proclaim "...The resort can't do that! The new recorded deed makes it a done deal". Here's a news flash --- some resorts are already doing that. Whether or not that resort position is "legal" or "appropriate" is ultimately a matter for the courtroom; not one which will ever actually be definitively resolved (or otherwise changed in any way) by endless discussion and circular reasoning exchanged among anonymous non-attorneys on an Internet timeshare BBS...

 

[zcrider]

Obvious question

The one screaming question I have is, if your week and resort are worthless as you put it, why would this company want it?? They would be on the hook for the yearly MF's for every owner they transferred it from. Driving them into debt. So they are either going to not "finish" this transfer and keep your cash, or they are illegally transferring it to a made up "Viking ship" company that will never pay the MF's. Like it was stated resorts are aware of this and cracking down on the "dumping".
It puts all the other owners in a real bad spot if they have to start covering for a bunch of people who are now not covering their share of dues. Why not list it here for free? It has no valve to you, but you never know someone else's situation and maybe they live near this resort and could drive there easily and would like to acquire a week for free.
Not only is it the safest thing to do to not get scammed out of money, but it is the most ethical to do to not screw over the other owners as well.