Generally, you have two main ways to purchase a timeshare. You can buy from a developer, which is the typical way to do it for most people. The other method of buying a timeshare is through the timeshare resale market. This second method isn’t as well-known but comes with a tremendous amount of benefits you should know about. Read on to learn more.
What Is a Timeshare Resale?
A timeshare resale is a timeshare available for sale by the current owner, rather than by a developer, resort, or other entity. Cutting out the developer usually means the timeshare resale can have a price tag remarkably lower than many people would expect.
You can think of a timeshare resale as a secondhand timeshare or used timeshare. However, you should not think these timeshares are any different from those sold by developers or resorts.
Timeshare resales are fairly common, but traditionally, finding them wasn’t always easy. Now, you can find numerous places where people can list their timeshares for sale, as well as several timeshare resale brokers to help facilitate the process.
Why Are Timeshare Resales so Common?
When people first start looking into timeshare resales, they may find themselves a little surprised at just how many of them are available. The main reason you may not know about the abundance of timeshare resales is simply that an overriding industry to help advertise them never fully developed.
Developers and resorts have the resources to advertise heavily, run programs, and promote their offerings all over the country. By contrast, a person who wants to sell their timeshare won’t typically have the budget or time to run a full campaign to do so.
Nevertheless, the reason so many timeshare resales exist is because the timeshare market has far more sellers than buyers. The timeshare market is a buyer’s market. This fact gives you the opportunity to look through an endless number of timeshare options and find the perfect one at a price you’re okay with.
Why Do Timeshare Resales Cost So Much Less?
When developers and resorts sell timeshares, they must take their marketing costs into consideration. Businesses must recoup all those advertising costs, seminars, demonstrations, and other marketing methods. Typically, recouping those costs mean marking up the costs of the timeshares themselves. This is basic business practice, and developers are primarily businesses.
Most people trying to sell their timeshares aren’t businesses, and so don’t have those costs to recoup. This helps keep the prices low, even though they’re selling the same thing as the developer or resort.
Additionally, businesses can afford to wait for a while to find a buyer that’s willing to pay a higher price. Individual owners typically need to offload their timeshare sooner rather than later. Because buyers outnumber sellers, many timeshare owners are willing to part with their timeshares for less than expected.
What Are Some Other Benefits of Timeshare Resales?
The main benefit of timeshare resales is the ability to find a good timeshare for far less than buying from the developer. Since so many sellers exist, you can even sometimes negotiate a lower cost than the already low starting point. Still, you should consider several more benefits to timeshare resales as well.
A lack of pressure can represent another benefit of timeshare resales. Developers and resorts often employ high-pressure sales tactics. They want you to buy and they want you to buy right now. The secondary market of timeshare resale eliminates that pressure because it puts more of the buying power into your hands.
The ability to research is another benefit. You will have the time to research areas, check out reviews, and do more digging on a particular property. Since so many of them are on the market, you don’t typically have to worry about losing out on an opportunity, because another opportunity is likely already available.
You can comparison shop, especially if you find multiple timeshares offered in the same facility or project. You can compare what you find to what the developer offers and go from there. The lack of pressure combined with the ability to do your own research will help you come to a more timely and informed decision regarding your timeshare purchase.
A major benefit developers and resorts have over the resale secondary market is the ability to offer perks and incentives. Often, these perks and incentives are things like points for other services or amenities.
In this case, buyers must ask themselves if the perks outweigh the potential to save potentially thousands of dollars with a timeshare resale. In addition, sometimes the perks are transferrable from one owner to the next. This isn’t always the case, but you will have the ability to research and find out before committing to anything.
At Magical Realty, we offer a place for both buyers and sellers of timeshares to find each other. If you want to know what’s available on the timeshare resale market, check out our extensive listings right now.