TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #96 Nov/Dec, 2007 | Page 5

TimeSharing Today

Page 5

****
This is a follow-up to the Sept/Oct
article regarding Timeshare Resale
Scams. We’ve been trying to sell one of
our weeks (one bedroom) in Palm Beach,
Florida. We received a call from a “broker”
who came out swinging saying he already
had a buyer ready to spend $18,000 for
our week. I immediately knew what this
was leading to and decided to now engage him with some counter-enthusiasticic
responses.
Wow, this sounded so good. The highest selling units at this location usually
go for around $7,500 and that’s a two-bedroom unit. I asked him how well he knew
this property and he recited of a list of
everything that is available in the Palm
Beach area. I asked him once more about
specifics of this property only. He waited
a few seconds and then came back with
some semi-accurate basics about this property. OK so far.
I then asked how was he so sure he
could get such a price “that’s why we’re
in business - we produce sales. We’re a
California based business, hold seminars
regularly and have ready clients with
money who are tired of going to Hawaii
and now are ready to invest in Florida,
specifically the Palm Beach area.” I was
amused at this statement and asked what’s
the catch. “For a small listing and processing fee of $599, we’ll get this sold for you
quickly. This covers the seminars, administrative fees, etc.” I told him that I wasn’t
about to pay a fee for a service that I can
get just by advertising. He countered, “I
know that I personally can sell this; let me
see if I can convince my manager to lower
the fee for you.” He came back in a few
minutes with “The manager says that in
your case, we’ll do it for $99, since that’s
what it would cost you to advertise yourself.”
I then waited a few seconds and came
back with “You sound like a real positive
person and very sure of your abilities, so
I’ll make you an offer you shouldn’t
refuse. If you can sell this unit for anything over $10,000, I’ll pay you double the
$599 you originally quoted.” There was a
long pause, then ”We can’t do that!” I
asked why not? “That’s not the way we
do business in California. Let me send
you our contract at $99, review it so you’ll
see that it’s legal, then sign it and we’ll
sell your property.” I again repeated my

offer. He didn’t respond and then said,
“I’m going to send you our contract and
you’ll have the $18,000 in a matter of
weeks.” That’s how the entire conversation ended and I haven’t heard from him
since.
That was back in July. I guess there
are many people who are anxious to sell
their units and fall for these scams every
day. I only hope that your readers took
the time to read your article in it’s entirety
and learned something.
George Fencik, Brick, NJ
****
I recently received a call with another
variation of the scam described in the
Timeshare Resale Scams article in your last
issue. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the
name of the company.
Although my timeshare is not for sale,
I played along with the salesman on the
phone just to see what the deal would be.
(He called about a timeshare which I had
recently sold for $4,500 after advertising it
in a few issues of TimeSharing Today. )
The salesman asked what I was looking to
get for my unit and I told him that I wanted
$6,000. He put me on hold to “research

Nov/Dec, 2007

the value” and came back on a few minutes later to suggest that I list it for $15,000
and could probably get about $12,000.
The salesman’s pitch was that they
made their money from the buyer’s financing. I didn’t have to pay a listing fee, appraisal fee or even a commission. Instead,
they would only charge me closing costs,
which I should be happy to pay because I
had sold the unit. He gave me a breakdown of the closing costs, the total of
which was $1,400, consisting of title search
charges, attorney’s fee, deed preparation
and a few other things.
Finally came the clincher. “Of course,
we’ll need a deposit of $700 to cover half
of the closing costs; you don’t have to
pay the other half until the closing.” When
I told him that I would pay all the closing
costs when the unit was ready to close,
he had numerous reasons why I needed
to pay half now. I hung up.
Herbert Black, Butler, NJ

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