It was a beautiful Saturday morning in southern California. My wife and I were there by special invitation and indeed we felt special. Of course, we were young and wanted nice things. I do not recall the exact words of the sales pitch but I do remember that it made perfect sense and by the end of the presentation we had no excuses left for not buying; so we did. The well-orchestrated presentation preyed on every human characteristic and emotion that could be manipulated to separate us from a deposit and get our signature on a contract all while having us convince ourselves we were doing the smart thing.

The resort was exquisite. At least the room we saw was nice, so was the conference hall. The pool was as pristine as the picture on the postcard that promised a “free gift” for watching a 90 minute presentation. Before we left the resort we were the proud owners of a timeshare; whatever that is. We were told that we had invested in a deeded, heirable, highly valued piece of property. We were told that resort stays would be first rate and 5 star, and we would be paying next to nothing for fabulous vacations from now on.

Here’s your "Free Gift"

The “free gift” was a no name electronic video game that played a lot like Pong. It wasn’t Pong. It just played like Pong.

Sound familiar?

If so, you either own a timeshare or came close to signing. If you signed, you are now stuck. You cannot just walk away from a deeded property no matter how victimized you consider yourself to be. The deed is a legal document and the law is not on your side. If you walk away, which means you stop paying your fees, the timeshare company simply turns it over to a collection agency. Your credit takes a serious hit and you get visited by a large guy in a tank top with hairy shoulders.

Over the years, we were able to get some use out of our timeshare. We traded a total of 7 times since buying it 30 years ago. Our first trade was in Hawaii. It was not a 5 star resort. In fact it was a converted motel. It was not on the beach but a block from it. The beach looked nothing like the images of Hawaiian beaches you might see in an ad and our trade only gave us permission to use the beach in front of a another resort. Though it had nothing to do with the trade, it rained the entire week except the day we left.

Go ahead, make my trade.

Our experiences in Mexico were better and improved gradually each year as we gained experience. The first trade in Mazatlan was a converted hotel. While there, we identified the nicer resorts up the beach, for future trades. Our last trade in Mexico was at Pueblo Bonita and was actually very nice if you don’t count the crazy ’spirit dancer’ guests that created quite the stir. Again, that has nothing to do with the trade.

The other trades were in Florida. The resorts were acceptable and near Disney World. They weren’t 5 star but we had no real complaints. The complaints we have now are with our home resort. The one we originally purchased with. The fees are going up again. Just before getting rid of our timeshare, we payed annual maintenance fees of $650. I’m not talking about the property taxes, or trade fees; $650 for our share of the annual maintenance at the resort. Ironically, in the sales pitch, we were sold on the idea that by owning a timeshare our vacations would cost less than if we tried to book a similar vacation without owning. As it turns out, when you add up the maintenance fees, the property taxes, the cost for RCI membership and the cost for a trade, it is the same or less to just book it yourself and go where ever you want to go. Once we figured that out we knew we had to get rid of the timeshare.

How hard can it be?

When you do an online search these days, you have no way of knowing what is legitimate and what is a scam. Not just for timeshares but for anything. I recently got suckered by a solar panel company. The first rule is, “If it’s too good to be true, it is.” When you do a search on the internet for timeshare resales the response is a flood of promises and happy customers. You can list your timeshare for sale on hundreds of resale locations. Some are quite pricey. But the lesson to be taken from the glut of search responses is that they just want your listing fee and never expect to sell anything.

“If it’s too good to be true, it is.”

Next look up “Get rid of my timeshare.” There are as many web pages to help you detach from your fee obligation as there are to resell your timeshare. What lesson did we learn? Yes, they are too good to be true. Some sites claim they want to put your timeshare into an executive vacation pool. The sites that claim you can donate your timeshare seem like a great idea, but if they really worked, wouldn’t you have heard about them? Besides, what non-profit organization is willing to pay maintenance fees? I placed several ads on craigslist to sell our timeshare and got responses from the same sites that the internet searches yielded. That is a clear indicator of a scam.

I even put out a plea on craigslist and on a timeshare owners forum asking if anyone had ever actually succeeded in getting rid of a timeshare by donation, reselling or rescamming. Not one affirmative response. “Rescamming,” you ask? Desperate to come up with an idea to get rid of our timeshare, I concocted some scams of my own: quit claim the deed to a bum; pay someone with bad credit to take it since it wouldn’t make any difference to them and they could probably use the money; find a terminal patient with no heirs. I made a list of dead end possibilities a page long.

In all my searching I did find one person that had successfully sold his timeshare. He even made a little money on it. The timeshare was located in Vale, Colorado with a week at the peak of ski season.

What have I got to lose?

There is way to get rid of a timeshare. I found it and it worked. You don’t have to pay an agency thousands of dollars to do what you can do on your own in a few simple steps. It is perfectly legal. No rescamming required.

Before I tell you how I did it, I want to be upfront about two things. First, I charge a small fee for the information. For which I will show you the steps I took and the documents I used to get rid of our timeshare. Second, there is no guarantee it will work for you. The packet of information shows what worked for me. I owned only one timeshare so my empirical evidence is of a small sampling. However, the principles of why it worked are sound. The organization that agreed to take our timeshare will profit from the deal. That is the soundest principle you can find. That being said, if you choose not to put up the small fee, I completely understand. I have seen the web pages and been to the seminars and I know very well that there are unscrupulous people out there trying to separate you from large amounts of money with the promise that you will be free of your annual timeshare fee obligation. To restate the obvious, I am not asking for a large amount of money. Nor am I promising you success. Included in the packet is proof that we transferred the deed out of our names and over to a new owner. That is matter of public record.

Keep in mind that your annual fees are coming due soon. Next year they will be due again. For a chance to be free of that burden, ours is a small price to pay. When you click the “Buy Now” button below, you will be taken to a web page where you will be given several options. You can pay online and get an electronic download of a PDF that contains the documents and step by step instructions, OR, you can choose to decline. Had I declined before signing the contract for our timeshare, we wouldn’t be dealing with this mess today. One thing is for sure, declining my offer will continue to cost you every year. After that it will cost your heirs. Won’t that be a nice gift to pass on?