Timeshare Pagoda Girl
For many years, timeshare exit companies have given our industry a bad name, greatly tarnishing the reputation of the timeshare resale market by promising a “legal” means for owners to exit their timeshare contracts … after payments of huge up-front fees. These Bad Guys then fade away into the sunset, leaving owners angry and frustrated. Many are now in jail.
What we haven’t heard much about, however, are the Good Guys who have a long history of helping timeshare owners sell their no longer wanted/used products. They have remained quietly under the radar. Among the businesses that are true specialists in the secondary timeshare market, seven companies are generally recognized as the main players in the field. These include SellMyTimeshareNow.com, Timeshares Only, Vacatia, BuyATimeshare.com, RedWeek.com, DVC Resale Market, and Timeshare User’s Group (TUG).
PhocusWire has published a 24-page document White Paper entitled The Rise of the Secondary Market that tracks the emergence of the resale market from a historical viewpoint and shares stats about organic search engine traffic among the industry’s leading companies. It is an extremely well-researched and written document, available without charge.
According to this publication, “the sale of a timeshare directly from one owner to another, with no involvement from the developer, has existed informally since the earliest days of the industry. The secondary (or resale) timeshare market came into its own in the 1990s, when the internet boom exploded, and people were actively searching online for a way to sell their timeshare.” That’s when several reputable companies emerged.
Many owners who purchased timeshares in the first few decades of the industry, later found the product was no longer a good fit. But developers had no viable return system in place. They knew there was a growing issue with owners who wanted to transition out of ownership but understandably did not want to compete with themselves or have a plan to resolve this issue.
Related: Timeshare Exit Companies: How We Got Here
Some of the early developers like the Mariner Group in Southwest Florida – which later morphed into Hilton Grand Vacations – always had on-site sales offices at each resort. (They still do). In those days, the internet did not exist. Mariner offered resales from day one, making a purchaser promise that they would help them exit when the buyer was ready. Even when they were selling developer and resale weeks, they put a priority on resales to validate their commitment. Allen Ten Broek, former CEO of Mariner Group said this promise added dramatically to their closing percentage on developer sales. They also offered resale financing from the late 70s through 80s, unheard of at the time. But all companies did not see resales the same way.
Added Kim Kreiger, founder of The Kreiger Group, “Imagine if Chevrolet or Ford didn’t take trade-ins, or there were no outlets like Carvana or CarMax that would give you a check for your car so you could buy a new one? The auto industry and other retail products have always had a robust primary and secondary market that does not impact new product sales. It took our industry a long time to recognize this. Some major developers are now offering resale, or buy-back options for owners and growing rental agencies provide a place for owners to rent their unused timeshares.”
According to this report, the measurement of each company’s ability to attract potential buyers and renters is determined by web traffic and keyword rankings in popular search engines. Search engine traffic is a vital indicator of a healthy marketplace since it represents consumers actively searching for vacation ownership products to purchase.
SellMyTimeshareNow.com appears within the first 10 results (generally the first web page) for 13,100 keywords, according to data compiled by SEMrush, online visibility management, and content marketing platform. RedWeek ranks second with search engine traffic shown for other timeshare resale websites, which are significantly lower. The publication was printed in 2021.
Shared Bryan Rand, President of Vacation Innovations and SellMyTimeshareNow.com, “Since 2018, we’ve generated more than half billion dollars in offers to rent or buy timeshare resales and more than 10.1 million unique visitors through our family of websites. We are proud to be a market leader in this space.”
The company generates more than five times the organic search engine traffic for timeshare resale as compared to competitors. Post-pandemic, they are witnessing some of the highest volume months in the company’s history with owners netting substantial proceeds at the end of the useful life of their products. According to SMTN, they’ve also generated more than $5 billion in offers to buy or rent timeshares on their platform since they were founded in 2003.
Chad Newbold, CEO of Vacation Innovations and SellMyTimeshareNow.com said his company has handled multiple transactions each year well above $100,000, representing the entire industry. Their largest transaction was a whopping $335,000. Resale transactions for most of the major brands are happening at high volumes, with a reasonable balance of supply and demand.
Sam Pontius, President of Timeshares Only said their average sales price in 2021 was $8,700 with 86% of their inventory selling at an average price of $10,000 or more; over a third have an average price of almost $21,000. Bert Blicher of the same company says that Legacy resorts are not faring as well, sitting at the bottom of the supply-demand equation.
Legitimate and ethical companies described in this publication provide significant value to consumers, developers, and the entire timeshare industry. This is an exceptionally great read for professionals in all facets of our industry. Congratulations to Vacation Innovations and writer Diane Merlino for their fair representation of today’s resale market.
Download the full report here. https://www.phocuswire.com/Timeshare-in-transition-rise-of-the-secondary-market
Marge Lennon has been writing about the timeshare industry and its resorts since forever. She can be reached at Marge@LennonCommunications.com.
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As the pioneer of the Hawaii Timeshare resale industry, back in the 1980's, before the internet ever existed, it is nice to see someone write about the importance of the secondary market.
When I started Timeshare Resales Hawaii, only one timeshare resale transaction was recorded in the State of Hawaii.
Timeshare Resales Hawaii has since recorded over 18,000 Hawaii timeshare resale transactions, without charging up front advertising or listing fees to our sellers.
Our business model and success in doing business honestly with integrity, prompted Ralph Stone at the Federal Trade Commission to declare us the only legitimate Timeshare Resale company in the nation as well as Kiplinger Magazine and the Wall St. journal coming to Hawaii to write articles about us.
It wasn't easy as we had to endure onslaughts of attacks from developers and State of Hawaii regulators, who were following the money, who didn't want to see a legitimate secondary market.
Although we do not have the internet presence of the companies mentioned in this article, we are still going strong, with a hybrid business model that includes three office locations in high tourist traffic areas in Hawaii that are staffed by licensed Hawaii timeshare resale experts, as well as our web presence at http://www.timeshareresaleshawaii.com.
Because we were the real pioneers of the secondary timeshare market in Hawaii, and have the bruises to show it, we should at least be given honorable mention, in this article.
Aloha,
Randy Ragon
Pres/CEO
Timeshare Resales Hawaii