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Re: Getting rid of a time share.

Beware of the information in posts like the one above. It could well be written by one of the owners of Timeshare Relief. If you go to www.donateforacause and read the information thoroughly, you will see that if they are willing to accept your unwanted timeshare, they send you paperwork completely transferring ownership of your week to them. From that point on, you have no further legal responsibility for it. You will not have to pay any further maintenance fees, Special Assessments, etc...Yes, the company usually auctions the weeks off on Ebay. Some sell for $1.00 plus about $500. in closing costs paid by the new owner. Others have sold for up to $10,000.. The designated charity receives the net proceeds after costs are deducted. Guess what--companies like Timeshare Relief, Timeshare Solutions, et al. do the exact same thing. Only with them the proceeds go into their own pockets, along with the $3,500. fee they have already collected from the owner. There are very knowledgeable timeshare owners who attend the meetings just to see what is being said. At many of the meetings, blatantly false information has been provided--such as claiming that the owner can take a large capital gains deduction, or that their heirs will be forced to take possession of the week and pay all the expenses, even if they don't want it. It is scare tactics like this that often times motivates the owner to fork over large sums of money to "get rid of the burden." It makes no sense for someone to pay these outfits thousands of dollars if a charitable organization is willing to take it for free. There are millions of timeshare weeks owned by private parties. Some are very desirable and command a high price in the resale market. Some unfortunately have very little or no value due to factors such as the resort being old, rundown, not properly maintained, charges exorbitant maintenance fees, is billing for Special Assessments, has hurricane damage that has not been repaired, or perhaps has none of these problems but the week owned is way off season, etc... Anyone wishing to get rid of a timeshare should do a bit of homework first. Check Donate For A Cause's web site to be sure your resort and week is not on their "will not accept" list. If it's not on the list, Check Ebay and various websites like Redweek. com., MyResortNetwork.com., Bidshares.com, Holiday Group, Timeshare Users Group www.tug2.net, etc...to see what price is being asked for a similar unit. See if there are any brick and mortor resale companies in the area where your timeshare is located. The only time I would ever consider paying thousands of dollars to get rid of a timeshare would be if I determined that my unit would be impossible to sell, even for $1.00 on Ebay and if the annual maintenance fees were very high. Otherwise, why not continue to pay the fees for several years, meanwhile depositing the week with RCI or II and obtaining some vacation exchanges to use or give as gifts to family and friends. If the maintenance fees are around $400. per year, it would take about 9 years before you would be out the $3500. you would have given to Timeshare Relief. Maybe you will find someone during that time to take it off your hands for free. You can find more free information on this topic at the Timeshare Users Group www.tug2.net.