How To Sell An Unwanted Timeshare Week On Ebay or Bidshares
Selling a timeshare can be difficult if you dont advertise in front of the right group of people. eBay (ebay.com) is a very popular place to try to sell an unwanted timeshare because it has large audience. There are also a large number of timeshares for sale on ebay, so people already know to go there when they are looking to buy.
To start with, you should take a look on ebay at the other timeshares for sale in order to see what sort of prices weeks are being sold for. Most importantly, look at the listings that are attracting bids: this will give you a realistic idea of what you can expect to sell your timeshare for, as well as some good ideas on how to list your timeshare; how to describe it, what sort of pictures to include and so on.
Decide on your reserve price - this is the minimum that you will accept - and this should be substantially less than you originally paid for your timeshare. Looking at the timeshares for sale that attract the most bids, they all start with a very low reserve price. You should realise by now that you are not going to get anywhere near what you paid for your timeshare. There are many reasons for this, the principle one being the laws of supply and demand; the demand for second hand timeshare weeks is thin and there are more sellers than buyers.
You will also need to find a reputable company to hold the proceeds of sale in escrow and arrange for transfer of title. There are many companies that will do this for you for a fixed fee, look at the other listings to find a company suitable to your location. Along with the reserve price, transfer fees will also need to be stated in the auction.
You should read eBays timeshare sellers guide before listing your timeshare for sale. This will answer the majority of questions that you may have about the procedure for listing and accepting bids, setting a reserve price and so on.
In order to sell a timeshare on ebay, firstly you will need to create an ebay account if you dont already have one. The process is relatively easy and this is free.
After a quick read of the ebay guide to selling timeshare, you will need to decide if you want to list your timeshare with eBays optional Super Lister method. This allows your listing to really stand out and has been proven to help sellers attract more views and bids, as well as sell their timeshare faster. At the time of writing this option costs an extra $15 (about 10) to use so in the great scheme of things, this should be nothing to worry about and should be taken up every time. The listing fee for timeshares for sale is $35, so you would be paying $50 to list your timeshare if you use the super lister option. This is the one downside of using Ebay: although there are a lot of potential buyers, it will cost you $50 (about UK30) to list your timeshare for sale and there is no guarantee that a buyer will be found. For this reason it can be a great idea to try bidshares.com first (details below). If your timeshare doesnt sell on bidshares, at least it wont have cost you anything and you may gain some important information like the number and type of bids to expect, should you decide to proceed with a listing on ebay.
It is very easy to create a listing on ebay and they take you through the process step by step. One top tip is to include as many pictures as you can of your timeshare, not only of the unit itself but if you can, pictures of the facilities and local attractions too, the more famous the better! Listings without pictures rarely sell on ebay and attract few if any bids.
You have the option to choose the duration of the auction for your timeshare but the default option is 7 days. Again, you should take a look at the timeshares that have recently sold and see how long they were listed for.
When (if!) your timeshare sells, you will be able to contact the buyer to arrange for the transfer of title. Ebay will charge you an additional $35 (say 25) for the succesful conclusion of the auction.
Finally, remember that you if your timeshare doesnt sell, you will not get the listing fees back and you will have to pay again to re-list if you want to try again. For those that want to be able to just get someone else to handle the whole process, ebay do offer a trading assistant, at a fee, details which are in their timeshare seller guide.
By far the largest specialist timeshare auctioneers are BIDSHARES and their website is www.bidshares.com
They are the oldest timeshare auction site having set up in the year 2000 and offer no upfront fees, no contracts, no commissions or gimmicks. The website has top listings in all of the major search engines and attracts a lot of visitors interested in either buying or selling timeshare, so this is always a good option to consider for selling your unwanted timeshare by auction.
Because the site is entirely free to use, they will not handle the transfer of sale or process the exchange of money, however they do offer an escrow service through a third party for only $100 (about UK60) through a company called timeshare title, inc. They are a reputable company in the U.S. and will deal with all transactions, no matter where the timeshare is based or where the seller lives. They have some excellent feedback from users and their website is www.timesharetitle.com
Sellers can choose to run an auction for 5,7 or 14 days and typically, most bids are seen in the last three days of an auction.
Like ebay, all sellers and buyers must first create a username and password, allowing for the safe exchange of messages rather than disclosing email addresses to potential scams. Once an auction ends, a seller can log in to their free account to view the contact details of the winning bidder.
It takes about 15 minutes to create a free auction account and list a timeshare for sale. Be sure to find out the closing fees to transfer your timeshare for sale through a third party as the method of transfer, transfer costs to the buyer and details of any outstanding maintenance charges should be fully disclosed. A reserve price should be chosen to make sure that your timeshare attracts serious bids and like any auction, listings with pictures attract a lot more interest than those without.
Finally, you should make sure that you are available on the last day of the auction to answer any questions from potential buyers.