There are significant differences between timeshare and traditional real estate
including the differing amenities associated with a timeshare versus a home. There
are many variables to a timeshare, e.g., season of use, exchangeability, whether
it is a “lock-off”.
Like traditional real estate, the timeshare vacations industry also has a primary Retail market
and a secondary Resale market.
Unlike traditional real estate, however, competitive timeshare resale prices are
usually lower than retail. When prices improve it will help the viability of the
new sale developer future.
Marketing on the Internet has recently exceeded signage as the number one way buyers
would find real estate to purchase.
As consumer internet usage has increased, the Timeshare Resale Industry has benefited
significantly from the use of the Internet to advertise units for sale. This is
because timeshare owners/sellers have never been able to use signage to help with
their marketing due to resort restrictions. Since about 1995 the Internet has created
an interactive growing conduit for timeshare property information utilized by buyers,
wholesalers, brokers and sellers. The Internet is the single largest factor that
has improved the market for timeshare resales. In contrast, print media advertising
has fallen off in its cost effectiveness in drawing willing buyers. Several of the
major real estate franchise firms have cut back their print media budgets.
Web 2.0 is the new lift for timeshare resale marketing. New websites will emerge
that will assist buying consumers that are searching the Internet for interesting
offers at attractive locations and prices. See for example,
www.RPMLS.com. It utilizes Google Mapping to locate properties for
sale and is intuitive based on the user’s online actions.
Per industry surveys, 58% of all U.S. resorts offer no resale programs for their
timeshare owners. According to the 1997 ARDA U.S. Timeshare Industry Overview and
Economic Impact Analysis, it was also found that:
- 46% of all timeshare owners have some degree of interest in selling.
- 22.2% are actively pursuing selling.
According to the 2003 edition of “Resort Timesharing in the United States ,” prepared
by Ragatz Associates, it was found that a little better than one in four timeshare
purchases was a resale.
- 27% of total timeshare acquisitions are resales—as follows:
- 15% consumer resales.
- 8% POA resales.
- 4% gift, inherited or other.
This type of information is limited and is all that is available offering estimates
of numbers of resales by individual owners. We believe that the survey data above
is unreliable because of the limited number of responses to questions about reselling
individually-owned timeshare weeks.
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Timeshare Resale Study - Table of Contents