The Ten-Year Cycle

In the late 1990’s, after being in the timeshare disposal business for several years and talking with thousands of timeshare owners desperate to get out from under the financial burden of owning an unwanted timeshare, I realized that a pattern had emerged.  It seems that virtually every single customer of ours, from the moment they decided they no longer wanted their timeshare to the moment they decided to pay us to dispose of it for them, went through the same process.   I wrote about it then and after many more thousands of customers later the premise still remains true to this day.  I call it ‘The Ten-Year Cycle’.  Let me explain.  It will probably sound familiar to you.

The Ten-Year Cycle begins when a timeshare owner decides that they no longer have a use for their timeshare and therefore it is time to get rid of it.  The trials and tribulations plus the money they spend in trying to accomplish this takes an average of ten years (some more, some less, but the average is about ten years), culminating in their understanding that their timeshare is worthless and the only way to rid themselves of this dinosaur is to pay a company to take it from them (similar to paying the junkman to come and take away a junker car that has zero value).   I still find it amazing that we hear the same story today from almost every timeshare disposal customer.  The best way to describe the Ten-year Cycle is in story form. 

John and Jane are having breakfast one Sunday morning when John turns to Jane and says “I just paid the annual maintenance fee bill on our timeshare.  You know, we haven’t used it since the twins went off to college three years ago.  It’s costing us money every year, yet we don’t use it.  I’m thinking it might be time to sell it.  What do you think?”  Jane says to John, “I think you’re right.  We’re getting older and I just don’t see us using it again.”  John says to Jane, “OK then.  How does one go about selling a timeshare?”   Jane responds “I’m not really sure.  But I do remember the salesman telling us that the timeshare is like any other real estate.   So, why don’t we just call our real estate agent and give him the listing?”  “Great idea”, says John.  “What do you think we should ask for it?”  Jane mulls that one over and says “Well, we purchased it about twenty years ago for $15,000.  Property values in that area have doubled in that time so let’s see if we can get $30,000 for it”.   John calls their neighbor Frank, who happens to be a successful local Realtor and asks Frank if he would like to list their timeshare for sale.  After about five minutes John thanks Frank and hangs up the phone.  Turning to Jane, John says “Frank told me that real estate agents don’t list timeshares because they don’t sell.  He said that even if they did happen to find a buyer for our timeshare the commission on a $30,000 sale would only be a few hundred dollars.  It’s just not worth their time and effort.  He suggested that we try advertising it ourselves but warned me that there isn’t much of a resale market for timeshares.”  Jane says “Well, that can’t be true of our timeshare.  It sits right on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, one of the world’s most desirable vacation destinations.   The resort is beautiful and the area is always bustling with vacationers.  I’m sure that if we offer it at a good value people will be fighting over it.  Let’s just figure out where to advertise it.”  “OK”, John says.  “How ‘bout we put an ad in our local newspaper?  We’ll ask for only $25,000 to get rid of it quick.”  So on Monday morning John and Jane spend $75 placing an advertisement in their local newspaper.  As the week goes on John and Jane are busy with work and errands and chores.  They completely forget about the advertisement simply because they don’t get a single call about it.  In fact, they don’t even think about their timeshare again until the following year when the maintenance fee bill comes again.  John turns to Jane once again over Sunday brunch and says “I just paid another maintenance fee for our timeshare.  It seems that we completely forgot about the darn thing after we put that ad in the paper last year.  I’m surprised we didn’t get any calls.”  Jane responds “Why don’t we try a larger newspaper and lower the asking price to $20,000?  That ought to do it.”  So the next morning they spend $500 on a three line ad in the newspaper that is circulated throughout their state.  Can you guess what happened?  That’s right.  No calls.  John and Jane spent their days busy as usual and forgot all about their timeshare until the next maintenance fee bill arrived a year later.  This pattern continued.  Over the next few years they graduated to placing an advertisement in the New York Times (very expensive) and dropping the price hoping just to recoup their purchase price of $15,000.  When that didn’t work they tried a few internet sites, they made up flyers and passed them out at their jobs, Jane even put one of the flyers up on the community bulletin board at their local supermarket.  With each year that passed they lowered the asking price, the whole time not understanding why they weren’t getting bombarded with buyers for such a fantastic vacation property. As each year passed they were also getting more and more frustrated by having to pay ever increasing maintenance fees and special assessments.  Finally, one Sunday morning over breakfast John turned to Jane and said “I did a little math last night.  I added up the money we’ve spent on the timeshare since the last time we used it.  Maintenance fees alone over the past ten years have cost us over $8,000.  We’ve had three special assessment during that time totaling over $2,000.  We’ve spent over $4,000 in advertisements trying to sell it.  That comes to over $14,000 in the past ten years alone and we haven’t used it once in all that time.  If we continue to own this timeshare for another ten years we’re going to spend at least that much again and I’m not even factoring in the usual hefty increases in maintenance fees.”  John took a deep breath and continued.  “I know we’ve been lowering our asking price again and again, but I think it’s time we bit the bullet and just offer to give it away for free to anyone that will take it.”  Jane agreed.  To their surprise they couldn’t even give it away.  They tried friends and relatives.  They put it on a few internet sites.  They even tried a couple of charitable organizations and were shocked when they were told “Thanks, but no thanks”.   Desperation started to set in.  They were getting up there in years and both were worried that if they still owned this timeshare when they passed away, their children and grandchildren would be forced to inherit their burden.  Finally, one day they decided to respond to an advertisement they’d seen touting a solution to their timeshare problem.  They attended a one-hour seminar, paid a company a fee, and the company took their timeshare away…just like a junker car.  That next Sunday, over breakfast, Jane turned to John and said “You know, you’re a doctor and a graduate of Yale.  I’m a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard.  We’re both pretty smart people.”  John responded “yeah, so?”   “Well”, Jane retorted, “It’s hard to believe it took us ten years to figure out how to get rid of a timeshare”.  

The characters above are fictitious.  But you probably recognize the story as being very similar to your own.  While some timeshare owners go through the ten-year-cycle in only four or five years, others may take fifteen to twenty years to finally get it.  But I call it the ten-year-cycle because that seems to be about the most common amount of time it takes for people to come to terms with the notion that their timeshare is actually worthless.  Unfortunately some never get there.  I believe it is ‘ego’ that prevents them from coming to terms with the truth.  These people go to their graves never allowing themselves to admit that the timeshare for which they paid good money no longer has any value.  Admitting it would mean that they made a mistake, and some people just can’t admit that.  And those are the people that die still owning that timeshare, thus leaving that burden to their children.  What a shame.