My Timeshare Sucks! (And What You Can Do About)

This article originally appeared on the Freedom Formula for Physicians Podcast.

I have a client who is making great money. He is a consultant.

He has been working on for Fortune 500 companies and he just runs this life that is so hard to keep track of everything.

Back about five years, he bought a time share. He and his wife are now paying hundreds of dollars on a regular basis just to pay the maintenance dues.

They hate it. They don’t use it. They don’t go to Vegas, where this time share is located.

Personally, my wife and I own a timeshare. My family and I enjoy using it. We don’t have any debt on it. We paid cash for it.

I am not against timeshares per se, but I am against them if you don’t use the things and the money is just going to waste.

So, with this particular client, we are looking at two different options.

Option 1: Sell It.

What do you do with a timeshare when you don’t want it? You sell it!

And one of the things that you first want to look at is on eBay. You can put your timeshare up for sale on eBay. Although, I must caution you, it depends on how big it is.

The timeshare company through which my wife and I got our timeshare is called WorldMark. It’s pretty sizeable and has many different locations and credits. That’s much easier to sell on your own if you want to because it has so many different places.

I would suggest not to try and sell units where it is a one-location property because there are not as many potential buyers due to the smaller number of properties to choose from.

So, check out eBay.

There are also a whole bunch of dedicated sellers. Check out Sharket.com for prices, and Ebay, RedWeek.com, and the Time Share Users Group for selling.

Option 2: Donation.

The second strategy that I’m actually strongly suggesting for this particular client is to donate, rather than sell, his timeshare.

There are certain websites that can help you do this. The most popular one is DonateforaCause.org.

The site allows you to donate a timeshare. What’s so cool about that is that you get a tax write-off for just donating the timeshare. A word of caution: this particular website will only take on certain kinds of properties. So, they reserve the right to say no.

I checked them out on Better Business Bureau.

They’ve sold about $1 million worth of properties and they will turn around and sell it (to turn a profit). So, they essentially will sell it for you and then send the proceeds to charities.

What I liked about this particular case is that the overhead costs were really relatively low compared to the profits that they reap. You can see that they are donating lots and lots of money from those profits. It seems as legit as could be.

Final Thoughts

Consider your situation.

Do you have a timeshare? Do you want to get rid of it or do you love it?

If you love it, use eBay or some other source to buy more shares. But please, please, please, don’t go through the developers because they are going to want to charge you thousands upon thousands of dollars. Instead, purchase shares from one of the dedicated sellers who want to unload these things as soon as possible to minimize the amount of time they have to pay maintenance dues.

Meanwhile, if you hate your timeshare, consider selling it or donating it to get a tax write-off!

Be the physician who takes the bull by the horns and don't be afraid to ask for help.

5 Steps to Get out of Debt for Physicians, The Insurance Guide for Doctors, The Tax Reduction Prescription, and his new book, The Freedom Formula for Physicians.

You can snag his latest podcast at DoctorFreedomPodcast.com.

He’s glad to answer any questions about timeshares or other financial matters. You can contact him at (800) 548-1820, at dave@daviddenniston.com, or visit his website at DoctorFreedomBook.com to get a copy of The Freedom Formula for Physicians.

Dave Denniston, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), is an author and authority for physicians providing a voice and an advocate for all of the financial issues that doctors deal with. He is the author of