Timeshare owners often get into vacation ownership contracts when they are ensnared with pushy and deceptive timeshare sales presentations. They only discover later that timeshare contracts are a way of locking them into paying hefty annual maintenance fees, special assessments, and often a separate fee for a company called RCI, or Resort Condominiums International.
RCI isn’t a timeshare developer. Rather, it’s a timeshare exchange company that charges its own membership fee for the ability to briefly swap your timeshare with a specific company or resort for another unit somewhere else in the world. So, for example, if your “home resort” is a Hilton timeshare in Florida and you want to spend a week at a Club Wyndham timeshare in Mexico, exchange companies like RCI let you do that.
Some people see the high membership fees charged by RCI and may think that RCI runs their timeshare or will buy it back. This article will discuss what RCI does and how you can sell or otherwise get rid of your RCI-affiliated timeshare.
So, can you sell your timeshare back to RCI? The short answer is: No, because you didn’t buy it from them in the first place.
Given that you are likely charged tons of fees for everything from annual maintenance to timeshare resort improvement projects, it’s understandable that you could look at the fees you pay RCI and make the assumption that it manages your timeshare. But it doesn’t.
RCI is actually a timeshare exchange company that allows its members to temporarily trade their timeshares so they can take vacations in locations that don’t have the presence of their chosen timeshare company. RCI charges fees to be a member of their network, and just like other timeshare fees, they can get expensive — whether you use their “RCI points” or “RCI weeks” options for exchanging timeshares at affiliated resorts.
When you are trying to exit your timeshare though, RCI is not the place to look. RCI is a company that has made a successful business by taking fees and not actually managing any real estate itself. Given the lesser overhead costs involved in its business, RCI is not likely to start buying unwanted timeshares now.
In fact, if you ask RCI about selling your timeshare, it will simply try to sell you an RCI membership plan. That doesn’t solve your issue, of course. All it might do is lead even more fees on top of the burden your timeshare ownership has already imposed.
So, selling to RCI is not going to be an option. This might reasonably lead one to wonder, “Can you sell a timeshare back to the resort? What about selling it to someone else?” Unfortunately, the answers to those questions are not much better.
You were probably sold your timeshare with promises that it would be a real estate investment. That statement is simply not true; timeshares are a terrible investment. Just owning them requires constant, ever-inflating fees, and selling them on the secondary market is extremely difficult, if not impossible. In the rare cases where it can be accomplished, you will almost certainly not make money on the deal.
A sale might be possible where you have a deeded real estate interest in a particular location that is very desirable. For instance, if you have a beachfront timeshare in the most pristine corner of Maui, there is a chance you could find a buyer. If you have a run-of-the-mill unit in the middle of Orlando, though, you’re probably out of luck.
Some disillusioned sellers have turned to sites like eBay or Craigslist, trying to unload their timeshares for as little as $1 in an effort to escape the endless fees. This is a fruitless effort though. Even worse are the scams like timeshare resale companies that take an upfront fee and then don’t deliver any results.
If you are serious about trying to sell a timeshare, you should consult with a licensed Realtor who specializes in the timeshare resale market and can be honest about your chances. You should also begin thinking about different ways to exit your timeshare, some of which are discussed below.
Selling to RCI or a timeshare company is not going to be an option. In some cases, however, you can enter into a “deed-back” deal with the company that originally sold you the timeshare. A “deed-back” means that you just give the timeshare back to the resort and lose the money you paid for the purchase, but you don’t have to pay fees anymore.
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Keep in mind that deed-back transactions are extremely difficult to accomplish. First, you usually can’t even discuss a deed-back unless the timeshare is fully paid off and you’re current on all fees. Even then, timeshare developers are extremely resistant to letting owners out of their contracts and won’t do it unless sufficient pressure is applied or they have no other choice.
That option might not sound great, but it is a more solid way out than trying to sell a timeshare to RCI. Another option could be hiring a timeshare exit company like Centerstone Group to help you convince the developer to let you out. Centerstone Group’s proprietary pressure campaign has dedicated professionals with decades of knowledge in the industry, working as hard as they can to convince greedy timeshare companies to set you free.
Sometimes, you may even need legal help. These are the cases where a timeshare company has lied, defrauded, or otherwise wronged you. Centerstone Group can also help you in these cases by referring you to law firms and attorneys who offer discounted legal fees to Centerstone Group’s clients.
There are limitless situations out there, and you should not lose hope simply because a resale is difficult. But it is hard to know what your options are without professionals on your side. That’s why calling Centerstone Group is a smart idea.
Centerstone Group is the premier timeshare exit company, with a variety of options to suit different timeshare problems. Even better, it is a company accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which has awarded it an A+ rating. Plus, customers on the BBB site have awarded Centerstone Group with 4.77-out-of-5 stars.
Contact Centerstone Group today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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