Looking to Sell TS at a Loss

[vanni13]

Hey everyone. Glad I found here before we paid people to help. I've been back and forth with things.

So we get 75,000 pts annually and our home resort is in South Beach as we bought in Myrtle Beach. It sounds like these might have a tiny bit of resale value??

What if we offered the money we would have paid the lawyer to the buyer? Do people actually buy resale TS?

HIVC recommend an outside company but they charge 1200$ to list your place (they do cover closing costs) but I saw 100,000 PT ones for sale on their site for South Beach for $1000 and less

Idk what to do. My family and I are not in a position to get into all this and I feel like we were lied to about what exactly we got. Thing is we got it so that's what I'm dealing with. And trying to offload it.

 

[DeniseM]

Welcome to TUG - you are asking the right questions.

Is this timeshare paid off?

 

[vanni13]

Welcome to TUG - you are asking the right questions.

Is this timeshare paid off?

No. We owe a lot on it but I think we can get a loan to pay off the balance so we can transfer ownership. I don't want to deal with all the membership fees and MFs they have us pay. That's on top of the tax and fees monthly they don't factor in.

I could just pay off this side loan in 3-4 years and just forget about this entire thing happening

We would just default but that seems like a not super great option.

We are in NC and own our home and cars. I would not want them to be able to come after our stuff.

 

[DeniseM]

In your situation, defaulting or paying it off, are probably the only options:
- No one is going to give you a loan for this, because the timeshare has no value - so it's not collateral for a loan.
- Anyone that contacts you with a "rescue" plan is a scammer, and despite what they told you, they aren't lawyers.
- It's a tough decision.

 

[vanni13]

In your situation, defaulting or paying it off, are probably the only options:
- No one is going to give you a loan for this, because the timeshare has no value - so it's not collateral for a loan.
- Anyone that contacts you with a "rescue" plan is a scammer, and despite what they told you, they aren't lawyers.
- It's a tough decision.

Yeah we've spoken with a few exit companies and lawyers. I def won't use one now.

Defaulting seems like an option we don't have to have perfect credit for a while but I am worried they can come after our stuff or wages.

Unsure of the laws because we live in NC, bought in SC, and the company base is FL.

 

[DeniseM]

In 20 years on TUG, I've never heard of someone defaulting on a timeshare and having a lien put against their home, or their salary garnished. You should research how those things work.

Why do you want to get rid of it? Many of us here on TUG, bought from the developer the first time (ME!) and we learned to make the most of it, and enjoy timeshare vacations.

In March, we went to Las Vegas for a week, in May we are going to Lake Tahoe for 2 weeks, and in the fall we are going to Hawaii for 4 weeks - all with timeshare stays.

 

[vanni13]

In 20 years on TUG, I've never heard of someone defaulting on a timeshare and having a lien put against their home, or their salary garnished. You should research how those things work.

Why do you want to get rid of it? Many of us here on TUG, bought from the developer the first time (ME!) and we learned to make the most of it, and enjoy timeshare vacations.

In March, we went to Las Vegas for a week, in May we are going to Lake Tahoe for 2 weeks, and in the fall we are going to Hawaii for 4 weeks - all with timeshare stays.

Well thank you for that it's encouraging to know.

We want to get rid of it, not because we can't necessarily afford it, but the cost of what we're paying for doesn't equate to value...

We are a family of 5 on a limited budget so flying is out. That does leave us plenty on the East Coast but I had recently tried to book some time in October in Myrtle and it was 90,000 pts for 3 days and we get 75,000 pts annually.

So, not even being able to book 3 days in the off season at our own resort we bought from was enough for me to say we didn't get what we told we were getting for the cost.

So we owe ~$19k and it's $1200 to get out of their ownership. So if we got a loan and paid it all off we could get out in 4 years max and have no ding.

Or we could just default now and get the ding.

I'm assuming the default just comes with fairly threatening harassing calls, emails, and letters then but no court anything?

 

[vanni13]

In 20 years on TUG, I've never heard of someone defaulting on a timeshare and having a lien put against their home, or their salary garnished. You should research how those things work.

Why do you want to get rid of it? Many of us here on TUG, bought from the developer the first time (ME!) and we learned to make the most of it, and enjoy timeshare vacations.

In March, we went to Las Vegas for a week, in May we are going to Lake Tahoe for 2 weeks, and in the fall we are going to Hawaii for 4 weeks - all with timeshare stays.

Have you heard of any of these sites that make you pay to get your RCI weeks listed on their site?

[ scam url deleted ]

They offer $1800 a week but you gotta pay 400 a week to list. Seems shady.

Can we pay this off and then somehow rent our time out to offset cost?

Do I stop being a stinky butt because I felt like I got got and just deal with it, esp if I'm going to pay it off?

I don't know. My emotions are too fresh right now I've been on the phone with exit companies, their company, timeshare resell companies, and lawyers all day.

 

[SmithOp]

Have you heard of any of these sites that make you pay to get your RCI weeks listed on their site?

Best-travel-destinations.com?

They offer $1800 a week but you gotta pay 400 a week to list. Seems shady.

Another scam, you pay them $400 and never see a dime. You don't have any free RCI weeks, and even if you did it's against their terms to rent out RCI exchanges.

 

[DeniseM]

Let's try a different train of thought:

When you bought this timeshares, how did you hope to use it?

 

[vanni13]

Let's try a different train of thought:

When you bought this timeshares, how did you hope to use it?

We were hoping to have a couple of weeks at one of the resorts. Week here and week there. Not much more than that tho. We don't travel that much.

 

[vanni13]

Another scam, you pay them $400 and never see a dime. You don't have any free RCI weeks, and even if you did it's against their terms to rent out RCI exchanges.

Thank you! Thankfully I came to my senses

 

[vanni13]

Let's try a different train of thought:

When you bought this timeshares, how did you hope to use it?

Hey also thank you for all your responses they really help. I've been in sort of a panic about the situation

 

[andre10056]

So we owe ~$19k and it's $1200 to get out of their ownership. So if we got a loan and paid it all off we could get out in 4 years max and have no ding.

I'm not sure I understand everything about your situation but I truly don't understand the above line. You have a loan for $19,000 but you can pay that off plus pay $1200 and you can "get out of (your) ownership". How so? The 1200 is apparently your annual maintenance fee for your 75,000 points and you have to pay that forever.

To me, it looks like you've been defrauded. Like virtually everyone who buys from a developer. "Only $1200" annual maintenance fee for a "whopping" 75,000 points that will allow you all manner of incredible vacations!!! What a deal!!! Instead, you've found that you can't even get three days, offseason, at your home resort for those 75,000 points.

If that's true, and I have no knowledge or reason to doubt you, then no one will ever take that off your hands unless you pay off the loan plus bribe them to take it. Perhaps you can, after paying off the loan, offer it for $1 plus sweeten the deal by offering to pay this years' maintenance fee plus an additional $1200 cash at closing. In other words, your timeshare appears to have negative value and you'll have to pay someone to take it, even after having paid off the loan in full.

So I'm not sure what you're concerned about by stopping all future payments. The scenario you paint is as follows:

You're concerned about their garnishing your wages or whatever to collect their $19,000 so you may "have" to take out a loan to pay the $19,000 to stop them from doing so. Huh? In the context of Denise telling you that she's never seen garnishment/liens in the twenty years she's been involved with timeshares.

I know what I'd do and it would not be throwing my money away by handing it to a "do absolutely nothing" exit company nor the company that sold me 75,000 virtually worthless points for an exorbitant amount of money. Just make copies of pages that show that you can't get diddly for your 75,000 points to potentially show a judge in the unlikely event there's litigation. Litigation that would theoretically seek to collect the $19,000 that you're contemplating taking out a loan to pay anyway.

 

[vanni13]

I'm not sure I understand everything about your situation but I truly don't understand the above line. You have a loan for $19,000 but you can pay that off plus pay $1200 and you can "get out of (your) ownership". How so? The 1200 is apparently your annual maintenance fee for your 75,000 points and you have to pay that forever.

To me, it looks like you've been defrauded. Like virtually everyone who buys from a developer. "Only $1200" annual maintenance fee for a "whopping" 75,000 points that will allow you all manner of incredible vacations!!! What a deal!!! Instead, you've found that you can't even get three days, offseason, at your home resort for those 75,000 points.

If that's true, and I have no knowledge or reason to doubt you, then no one will ever take that off your hands unless you pay off the loan plus bribe them to take it. Perhaps you can, after paying off the loan, offer it for $1 plus sweeten the deal by offering to pay this years' maintenance fee plus an additional $1200 cash at closing. In other words, your timeshare appears to have negative value and you'll have to pay someone to take it, even after having paid off the loan in full.

So I'm not sure what you're concerned about by stopping all future payments. The scenario you paint is as follows:

You're concerned about their garnishing your wages or whatever to collect their $19,000 so you may "have" to take out a loan to pay the $19,000 to stop them from doing so. Huh? In the context of Denise telling you that she's never seen garnishment/liens in the twenty years she's been involved with timeshares.

I know what I'd do and it would not be throwing my money away by handing it to a "do absolutely nothing" exit company nor the company that sold me 75,000 virtually worthless points for an exorbitant amount of money. Just make copies of pages that show that you can't get diddly for your 75,000 points to potentially show a judge in the unlikely even there's litigation. Litigation that would theoretically seek to collect the $19,000 that you're contemplating taking out a loan to pay anyway.

I get you and yes sorry the information was sort of not distributed the right way to begin with.

We purchased on April 12 of this last year for 20,000, with a 2000 down payment so we owe 19,200.

When we went to make reservations or to attend our new owner orientation we were told we couldn't get it at our home resort and when I went to book there, we could only get 2 nights total in October which is nothing what we were told originally.

So we want out because paying $5000 a year roughly in their mortgage and fees is a lot. If we truly have to pay that sum I'd rather put it on a different loan.

The 1200 is the Horizons program fee, so we can wash our hands of this whole thing for like 20400$ also.

However I would like to just default. My wife and I can take the credit hit at the moment and won't affect many future plans. I was simply scared of judgement or leins against property we already own but it seems like thats not an issue.

I have to figure out how to take back our ACH authorization with them, which is probably difficult, but not impossible.

Thank you for taking the time to ask those questions.

 

[andre10056]

I have to figure out how to take back our ACH authorization with them, which is probably difficult, but not impossible.

I would think that the ACH authorization is not linked to "all of vanni13's bank accounts, wherever they may be, either existing now or in the future" but to a specific account. As with any credit card account where an unwanted charge appears, you close the account and get a new account number, making sure that charges made on the old account won't transfer to the new account. If your bank tells you that charges on the old account WILL transfer to your new account, go to another bank.

 

[andre10056]

When you started this thread, you apparently believed that your timeshare might have some positive value after paying off the loan. You may or may not be aware of this, but there are many hundreds of people who each year try to give away their fully paid off timeshares via ebay, most often with zero success. . Only a very small percentage of fully paid off timeshares have any positive value, as you'll see from owners' desperate attempts to sell them for $1 on ebay (do a search for "timeshares for sale" once you get to the ebay home page).

 

[andre10056]

You mentioned South Carolina and Florida, two jurisdictions (and the only ones I know of) that allow a resort entity to do a quick "non-judicial foreclosure". If that's the option chosen, and assuming you don't file an objection to such non-judicial foreclosure (which will result in the case being transferred to a judge), there can't be a judgement (there's no judge involved!). Which means no lien, no nothing. You're out scot free.

Links to Official State Timeshare Laws and Guides/Manuals

@TUGBrian @DeniseM @CalGalTraveler take a look. This weekend, I’m creating a spreadsheet with official links to states’ timeshare laws, as well as their statuses as to non-judicial, anti-deficiency foreclosures. In the meantime, I will just keep adding notes. * Legal Disclaimer: This list...

tugbbs.com

 

[rickandcindy23]

It's too bad you didn't find TUG sooner, the rescind time is so short and you missed it.

Timeshares are wonderful, we love them, and what you bought was an entry into IHG, and it was apparently not enough to give you a grasp on the value timeshare can bring into your life.

We bought a timeshare in 1982 for $7,200. We had regrets, believe me, we were very young, and we tried to rescind and were told we couldn't rescind by the developer. The developer probably lied, or maybe the rescisssion laws on timeshare weren't in effect at the time. At least we bought a full week, but in today's dollars, we paid more like $35,000 for a timeshare that is not even a nice timeshare by today's standards, but we still own it.

The good news for you is that after you default on the loan and get a credit hit, you can write a letter to the credit reporting agencies to explain what the loan was for and that the timeshare was misrepresented as being more than it was, and you might not see a huge gouge in your credit score. It's worth writing the letters and mailing them.

 

[vanni13]

I would think that the ACH authorization is not linked to "all of vanni13's bank accounts, wherever they may be, either existing now or in the future" but to a specific account. As with any credit card account where an unwanted charge appears, you close the account and get a new account number, making sure that charges made on the old account won't transfer to the new account. If your bank tells you that charges on the old account WILL transfer to your new account, go to another bank.

Youre supposed to be able to request stop payment to the person charging you by writing them and taking away the ACH authorization. This allows the bank to stop payment also (from what ive read we haven't made a move yet)

 

[vanni13]

When you started this thread, you apparently believed that your timeshare might have some positive value after paying off the loan. You may or may not be aware of this, but there are many hundreds of people who each year try to give away their fully paid off timeshares via ebay, most often with zero success. . Only a very small percentage of fully paid off timeshares have any positive value, as you'll see from owners' desperate attempts to sell them for $1 on ebay (do a search for "timeshares for sale" once you get to the ebay home page).

Yes. Unfortunately I even knew of these sites before we went to the presentation.

I still don't know why we said yes it was a moment of weakness for both my wife and I but we are prepared to deal with it even if we wind up paying the sum of the loan.

 

[vanni13]

You mentioned South Carolina and Florida, two jurisdictions (and the only ones I know of) that allow a resort entity to do a quick "non-judicial foreclosure". If that's the option chosen, and assuming you don't file an objection to such non-judicial foreclosure (which will result in the case being transferred to a judge), there can't be a judgement (there's no judge involved!). Which means no lien, no nothing. You're out scot free.

Links to Official State Timeshare Laws and Guides/Manuals

@TUGBrian @DeniseM @CalGalTraveler take a look. This weekend, I’m creating a spreadsheet with official links to states’ timeshare laws, as well as their statuses as to non-judicial, anti-deficiency foreclosures. In the meantime, I will just keep adding notes. * Legal Disclaimer: This list...

tugbbs.com

Yes!! HIVC gave me the number to start a deed in lieu after I told them we would just stop paying and get a lawyer.

I am going to call the number today and if I have any success I will post the number for others

Thank you!!

 

[vanni13]

You mentioned South Carolina and Florida, two jurisdictions (and the only ones I know of) that allow a resort entity to do a quick "non-judicial foreclosure". If that's the option chosen, and assuming you don't file an objection to such non-judicial foreclosure (which will result in the case being transferred to a judge), there can't be a judgement (there's no judge involved!). Which means no lien, no nothing. You're out scot free.

Links to Official State Timeshare Laws and Guides/Manuals

@TUGBrian @DeniseM @CalGalTraveler take a look. This weekend, I’m creating a spreadsheet with official links to states’ timeshare laws, as well as their statuses as to non-judicial, anti-deficiency foreclosures. In the meantime, I will just keep adding notes. * Legal Disclaimer: This list...

tugbbs.com

Hey and thank you for all the helpful thread answers here. It's really appreciated on this end

 

[vanni13]

It's too bad you didn't find TUG sooner, the rescind time is so short and you missed it.

Timeshares are wonderful, we love them, and what you bought was an entry into IHG, and it was apparently not enough to give you a grasp on the value timeshare can bring into your life.

We bought a timeshare in 1982 for $7,200. We had regrets, believe me, we were very young, and we tried to rescind and were told we couldn't rescind by the developer. The developer probably lied, or maybe the rescisssion laws on timeshare weren't in effect at the time. At least we bought a full week, but in today's dollars, we paid more like $35,000 for a timeshare that is not even a nice timeshare by today's standards, but we still own it.

The good news for you is that after you default on the loan and get a credit hit, you can write a letter to the credit reporting agencies to explain what the loan was for and that the timeshare was misrepresented as being more than it was, and you might not see a huge gouge in your credit score. It's worth writing the letters and mailing them.

God I wish I found this site before we went. Haha. Everyone here has been awesome.

I'm calling their financial dept today the horizons people (their program for give backs) gave me to call regarding requesting a deed in lieu. Crossing my fingers.

 

[sue1947]

Youre supposed to be able to request stop payment to the person charging you by writing them and taking away the ACH authorization. This allows the bank to stop payment also (from what ive read we haven't made a move yet)

That's the theory. Reality may be different. I had a mortgage that was sold to Slimy Mortgage Co in St Petersburg Florida. They were kiting checks so I refinanced with a different (and local) company. Getting the ACH to stop proved very frustrating and took changing the bank account number (i.e closing that account). I also complained to various state and federal agencies and I think the one in Florida was helpful. So while it should be a simple matter of withdrawing your approval, be prepared for them to not pay any attention. Assume an account number change in some form.