Can You Sell a Timeshare? Resale Prices, Fees and When to Quit

Can I actually sell my timeshare?

Some owners do find a buyer, but a lot of resale weeks go for a sliver of the original price, and some never draw an offer. Ask the developer, in writing, about taking the week back before you list, pay nobody a large fee up front, and pick a date when you will stop trying. A resale makes the most sense for a week people actually want, owned by someone the developer has already turned down.

The FTC is blunt about it: the market is overcrowded, selling a timeshare “might be hard, if not impossible,” and it calls anyone promising a guaranteed sale or big returns a scammer. A March 2020 piece published by the National Association of Attorneys General said developers “rarely buy back timeshares” and described a secondary market “oversaturated with timeshares priced at a penny.”

The industry’s own figures explain the glut. The 2026 study that ARDA, the developers’ trade group, paid Ernst & Young to prepare found that existing owners accounted for 61% of 2025 sales volume, and the average transaction price across all sales was $24,740. It also classed 47% of the resorts in the study as not in active sales, and roughly 84% of that group opened in 1985 or before. You are competing with a developer that sells new points, with financing, mostly to people who already own.

Why do timeshares resell for so little?

The buyer takes over your bill. The maintenance fee moves with the deed. ARDA’s study put the 2025 average at $1,550 per weekly interval, up from $1,120 in 2021, and 39% of reporting resorts averaged $1,600 or more.

State law warned buyers at signing. Florida’s required offering statement tells buyers not to purchase for “an appreciating investment or with an expectation that the timeshare interest may be resold.” Nevada requires a bold, separate-page notice that “Real estate agents may not be interested in listing your time share.” Virginia makes buyers sign an acknowledgment that there is “no assurance that a purchaser may resell a time-share for a certain price or on particular terms.”

A resale buyer may get less. Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s annual report says resale buyers “may not be entitled to receive certain ancillary benefits,” including full access to its internal exchange programs.

The developer can sometimes step in. Hilton Grand Vacations reports in its 10-K that most of its intervals carry a developer right of first refusal when they change hands on the resale market, and that it uses that right in some cases.

The loan may come due. Nevada’s disclosure also tells owners to check whether the purchase contract or note “will be fully due and payable upon sale.” Hilton Grand Vacations’ resale FAQ answers for its own owners: “The loan will need to be paid in full before ownership is transferred.”

Should I call the resort before I list it?

Yes. The FTC tells owners to ask the developer or the resort’s management company about their options before paying any company to sell, and to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly” when they want out. Put the question in writing: ask which surrender, deed-back or exit program applies, its price and its conditions. A take-back for little or nothing ends the fees sooner than a listing that sits. Our page on deed-back programs covers what the large developers publish.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it.

Vacation Ownership Consultants (VOC), the exit firm we work with, makes this its own first step too: “Contact your resort and check the resale market.”

Be ready for a sales pitch on that call. Upgrades made up 72% of Travel + Leisure Co.’s net sales of vacation ownership interests in 2025. At Hilton Grand Vacations, existing owners accounted for 74% of 2025 contract sales, and at Marriott Vacations Worldwide about 70%. An upgrade is a larger contract with a larger fee, and it ends nothing. Don’t sign anything during the call or at an owner update meeting, and if an upgrade offer is the only answer you get, record it as a refusal.

Three developers have rules about outside help that you should clear before contacting any firm:

• Wyndham. Its Certified Exit page tells owners to make the company their “first and only call,” cautioning that options “may be limited or nonexistent” for owners who work with anyone besides its Certified Exit Specialists. It lists voluntary surrender under the heading for owners with a paid-off loan; owners still paying are steered toward a hardship exception or a featured reseller. Get its answer in writing before going elsewhere.
• Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Owners forfeit the Horizons program if it detects a third-party exit company on the account. File a Horizons application and hold off on contacting any exit firm, even for a free consultation, until Horizons answers in writing.
• Westgate. According to Rebecca Tushnet’s law blog, an exit company alleged in a lawsuit decided in 2024 that Westgate has conditioned repossessions on an affidavit that the owner has not worked with “any timeshare exit company, lawyer or law firm.” Westgate disputes that the language covers all lawyers, and the court called it “sweeping.” Ask the Legacy Program whether any such condition applies before contacting an exit firm.

If you still owe on the purchase, the sale has to clear the loan. Because the week has almost no resale value, few lenders will lend against it. A personal loan can replace the developer loan if you qualify for a lower rate; our timeshare loan payoff page covers what paying it off does and does not change.

What does selling a timeshare actually cost?

Three things: a commission, the resort’s transfer charges, and every fee that comes due while the listing waits.

Hilton Grand Vacations’ resale FAQ is one of the few developer documents that spells this out. It puts the expected commission at about 25% of the price, and lists an Ownership Change fee of $425, a Membership Activation fee of $609 per timeshare, and an estoppel fee of $70. The FAQ presents these as fees a seller may incur. Here is what they do to a modest sale if you pay all of them:

Sale price	Commission at 25%	HGV transfer charges	Left before loan payoff
$1,000	$250	$1,104	Minus $354
$3,000	$750	$1,104	$1,146
$6,000	$1,500	$1,104	$3,396

Our arithmetic from the HGV resale FAQ (2022). Other developers charge their own versions, and these amounts may have changed.

Below a certain price, the sale costs more than it brings in. The bills keep arriving while you wait, too. Florida’s timeshare act makes an owner personally liable for assessments that fall due during ownership, so every month on the market is a month you still owe.

What paperwork should I gather before listing?

Collect these before you sign with anyone.

1. Your deed or membership contract. It shows whether you own real estate or a right-to-use contract, and exactly what a buyer would take over.
2. The governing documents. Florida requires resale-advertising contracts to warn owners to check the original purchase contract and project documents for a developer right of first refusal or other resale limits. Do that check yourself first.
3. A statement of what you owe the resort. Under Florida law, the managing entity must answer a written request from the owner or the owner’s designated agent within 30 days with a signed certificate of assessments, transfer fees and other money owed, plus amounts approved and due in the next 90 days. Other states and resorts have their own versions, often called an estoppel.
4. A loan payoff figure, if anything is still financed.
5. Your recent maintenance fee bills, so a buyer and any broker see the real yearly cost.

What do state laws say about resale fees?

Several states with large timeshare markets regulate the people who sell or advertise resale weeks:

State	What the law says
Florida	Brokers and sales associates are barred from taking money in advance to list a timeshare. A resale advertiser needs a signed written contract before collecting $75 or more in any 12-month period, must give you an unwaivable 10-day right to cancel with a refund within 20 days, may not claim a specific resale value, and may not claim a buyer without giving the buyer’s name, address and phone number. If it claims a specific number of past sales, it must also give its ratio of sales to listings for each of the prior two years. A contract that breaks these rules is voidable by the owner for one year.
Nevada	A resale broker that takes an advance fee must hold 80% of it in a trust account and return that money within 10 days if the listing expires without a closing. It may not imply a specific resale value or claim a buyer without naming one, must accept a cancellation sent by midnight on day five, and must refund everything within 20 days of that notice.
Virginia	Resellers must register with the state board (there is an exemption for those handling no more than 12 resale time-shares a year). They may not misrepresent the likelihood of a sale, misstate fees or assessments, or guarantee sales or rentals in order to get money.

Sources: Fla. Stat. 721.20 and 721.205; NRS 119A.4779; Va. Code 55.1-2244.

The FTC has catalogued the promises resale ads make. It labels “The market is ‘hot,’ so we’ll sell your unit fast” a lie, and gives “We have lots of buyers ready to purchase your timeshare” the verdict “Doubtful.” A company that only puts your week on a list, it adds, “may not be very helpful.”

How do I list without getting scammed?

Check the license in the right state. Use only a licensed agent or broker, the FTC advises, confirm the license with the agency that licenses agents where the resort sits, and ask for references from clients who closed.

Prefer to pay from the sale. The FTC says a reseller paid after the sale is the better bet, and if you must pay something first, get the refund terms in writing. Hilton Grand Vacations’ own FAQ says legitimate companies take payment from proceeds at closing.

Ask how the week will be marketed, and how often you will get progress reports, as the FTC suggests. On owner-to-owner sites like RedWeek or the Timeshare Users Group, you post the week yourself and deal with the buyer directly.

Price from closed sales. Base the asking price on what similar weeks at your resort sold for, not on asking prices. If you want an appraisal, the FTC points to timeshare appraisal services and says the appraiser should hold a license in the timeshare’s state.

Search before you sign. Look up the company’s name with “scam” or “complaint,” and ask the attorney general where the reseller is based about complaints on file.

Can I write off the loss if it sells for less than I paid?

Probably not. The IRS says losses from the sale of personal-use property “aren’t tax deductible,” and Publication 544 says such a loss “is not deductible.” A week you used for your own vacations is generally personal-use property. If you rented it out, different rules can apply, so take your records to a tax professional before you assume anything.

When should I stop trying to sell?

Write down your exit point before the listing goes live. At the 2025 average fee, three more years of waiting costs $4,650, with no increase and no special assessment. The average climbed about 38% between 2021 and 2025.

Change course if any of these happens:

• Twelve months pass with no serious inquiry.
• You cut the price to a token amount and still nobody bites.
• The reseller wants more money to “feature” the listing or to close.
• The resort raises the fee sharply or levies an assessment.
• The resort has stopped selling new inventory and resale buyers are not appearing either.

VOC says it routinely hears from owners who kept a listing up for three to five years without a serious offer. In one account VOC published, an owner paid to renew a resale ad annually for almost four years and never saw a qualified buyer; VOC’s point was that the extra years of ownership costs hurt more than the ads. One man in his 60s, VOC says, handed $2,200 to a resale company and then heard nothing more. These are accounts from an interested party.

Once you stop, put the take-back question to the developer in writing, if it hasn’t been asked. If the answer is no and the listing has proved the week won’t sell, or the resort names a price you can’t accept, an exit firm’s free consultation and file review is the next thing to consider. VOC’s home page says its consultations are “supported by seasoned industry partners and experienced timeshare attorneys.” With VOC, you upload billing statements, the purchase agreement and the deed, if there is one, through its eligibility form. VOC checks what the ownership may qualify for, walks you through the options in a free file review, and only then do you decide whether to enroll for a one-time flat fee. In VOC’s words, it doesn’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” Not every firm’s review is free. If you have a documented claim about the original sale, your own attorney is another route; see hiring a timeshare attorney.

A firm worth paying looks at your documents before it names a price, puts a single flat fee in writing, tells you which attorney is on your file so you can look that person up with the state bar, and states in writing what happens to the fee if the developer says no. It never guarantees an outcome, never claims a tie to your developer, and never tells you to stop paying. The red flags page has the full list, timeshare exit companies explains the work, and the exit cost calculator sets a quote against more years of fees. Walking away from the bill carries its own costs, covered in what happens if you stop paying.

What if a buyer calls me out of the blue?

Treat it as a sales call from someone who knows you want out. The FTC’s 2024 alert describes callers posing as real estate agents with an interested buyer who then press the owner for money “to finalize the deal,” with small requests that grow into demands for thousands of dollars. It says these scammers have used public records to target U.S. owners of timeshares abroad, focusing on older adults. Ask for the buyer’s name, address and phone number, which Florida and Nevada require resale advertisers and advance-fee brokers to provide when they claim a buyer, and pay nothing. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and tell the attorney general where the resort is.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. This page’s author, Kira Fairbank, is a manager at Vacation Ownership Consultants. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

This page is general information, not legal advice or tax advice. Resale and transfer rules depend on the state where the resort sits and on your own contract, and the tax result of a sale depends on how you used the week. Have an attorney licensed in that state read any resale or listing contract before you sign it, and ask a tax professional about any loss.