Resale Scam Alert

For over 7 years, Timeshare Closing Group has received calls from timeshare owners asking questions about a potential sale of their timeshare. The facts of the situations are always very similar. Typically, a cold call offer from an outfit that sounds legitimate offering to go to contract on the sale of a timeshare for a $20,000 – $50,000 sales price. Once you sign a contract, the people you are dealing with request money for upfront closing costs and they require it to be wired or sent via Western Union or a method where you don’t have fraud protection. These payment methods cannot be reversed. They will never accept payment via credit card where you could contest the transaction later. There have been periods of time where calls were frequent and other times where call volume has been scarce. The offers are always something that sounds too good to be true.

I can’t stress this enough. Please check out who you are dealing with. If you are selling a timeshare for any value and are to receive proceeds from the sale that would exceed the money they are asking you to pay, then your costs would be deducted from the gross price and you would get an net amount. (For example, a $25,000 sale, with costs to seller of $2000, would result in net proceeds of $23,000. The seller would not pay $2000 up front for closing).  You would not pay closing costs up front unless the sales price was very low (under $1000 for instance).  The phone scam isn’t new, but the callers using a name similar to this company has been frequent at times over the years. Calls to this firm went down when the warning below was inserted on this website.

Timeshare sales are real estate transactions and covered by real estate laws in the states where the property is located. A realtor or broker contacting you regarding a sale will be able to provide broker license information you can verify with the state where they are licensed. Please do your homework on anyone that contacts you with an offer to purchase your timeshare property.

Note that Timeshare Closing Group is a timeshare transfer company, most of our business comes from direct referrals from licensed real estate brokers or referrals timeshare owners with existing relationships with this firm. We do not make cold calls to customers with offers to purchase.  You may be contacted by a broker that is legitimate as sales calls are made in this industry. But verifying their information would be easy as they will be more than happy to provide referrals. If you are selling a timeshare and there is real value in the sales price, you won’t be asked to come out of pocket to pay closing costs in advance of closing.  If you think a purchase offer is “too good to be true,” it probably is. Always feel free to contact us directly with any questions or concerns.

 

consumer-warning