Ways to Escape the Timeshare Trap

Donate to charity: If you have reached a point at which your main goal is to get rid of the timeshare and the fees that go along with it, you might consider donating your timeshare to charity.

Unfortunately, donating is not as simple as it might seem. Charities that do accept timeshare donations are well versed in knowing which properties they can resell and which ones they will have a difficult time reselling. If a charity believes it'll have a problem reselling your property, it likely won't accept the donation. After all, the charity has just as much interest as you do in being stuck with maintenance fees.

Donating to a charity is worth a try if you need to unload. Doing so has its advantages because a lot of the work involved in getting rid of the property is turned over to the charity, meaning you avoid the hassle. Many times the donation will also qualify as a tax deductible donation, but don't expect to be able to deduct the full value of the timeshare off your taxes. In this case, you will only be able to deduct what the charity sells the timeshare for which will likely be a fraction of that price.

Find a real estate agent: One of the first rules when selling a timeshare is that you don't want to give money upfront to someone to sell the property. There are a lot of people out there that prey on folks in desperate need to get rid of their timeshare. These people know exactly what you want to hear, and they will make a lot of promises that they will not keep to get you to part with your money upfront. If they require an upfront fee to sell your timeshare, you should pass.

Instead, try to find a real estate agent that gets paid on commission when the sale closes. It's important to realize that many real estate agents don't like marketing timeshares because they are so difficult to sell. In order to get someone to represent you, you may have to give the agent a big incentive like a set fee (rather than a percentage of the sale) or a greater-than-normal percentage of the price once the sale closes. Be flexible and make it worth the agent's time to sell your timeshare.