Of course, the number-one reason for buying a timeshare unit on the resale market is price. In some cases, you can find perfectly great units for sale at 50 percent or less than the developer's asking price on new units in the exact same timeshare resorts. There are, however, other reasons to consider buying on the resale market, not the least of which are being able to walk through, thoroughly examine, and perhaps even determine the historical exchange value of the exact unit you are buying.

Better Prices

Without a doubt, you stand to save a great deal of money if you choose to buy a timeshare unit on the resale market instead of from a developer. In fact, many timeshare owners who purchase second, third, and even fourth timeshare units do so only on the resale market — after they have had a chance to learn about their needs and how to make the most of the worldwide exchange system.

How much money can you save? Most experts agree that 50 percent or more is standard. The key is learning that there really is no benchmark for timeshare resale prices. Since supply is so much greater than demand, the best price a seller can get is simply equal to the highest price the overcrowded market will bear. If you are a buyer, this of course works beautifully in your favor.

Another way you stand to save when buying on the resale market is through financing. Remember, when you buy a new timeshare and need financing, you almost always have to get it from the resort developer — sometimes at long-term interest rates of 15 percent or higher. When buying on the resale market, you are free to finance the purchase however you wish. You can pay cash and avoid interest payments altogether, you can get a loan from your local bank at a more favorable rate, or you can use a home equity line of credit and (in many cases) turn the interest you will pay into an annual tax write-off.

Simply avoiding the resort developer's financing terms, then, can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in interest payments during the length of your timeshare agreement. When you combine those savings with the half-price or better cost of the unit in the first place, you begin to see why so many people are willing to do the extra legwork that buying on the resale market requires.

Existing Properties

As you read in Chapter 9, sometimes when you buy a new timeshare directly from the developer you are asked to make the purchase on a preconstruction basis — meaning your particular unit has not yet been built. There can be serious ramifications to this, such as construction snafus and last-minute changes that may leave you with a property that ends up being less than you bargained for when you made the original deal.

You do not run this risk when buying on the resale market. By simple definition, a property that someone else already owns is likely to exist in bricks and mortar, and that means that you will have the opportunity to set foot in it and examine it thoroughly before agreeing to any deal.

Of just as great importance is that, with a resale unit, you also will be able to tour the resort and learn about its history of maintenance, fees, problems, and the like. You can meet other unit owners and ask their opinions about the place, and you can learn about the history of timeshare construction in the area — to protect yourself against buying in a soon-to-be-built-out region.

Proven Track Records

If you are planning to buy a timeshare unit simply so that you can exchange it annually on the worldwide market, then buying resale makes some sense because you may be able to determine your particular unit's track record for garnering exchanges at the kinds of properties that interest you.

Some experts recommend that when buying for the sheer purpose of exchange, you should purchase only a top-level week at a resort of highest demand. This is a good bit of advice in many cases, but if you know there are only two resorts that you ever hope to visit — and neither is a high-demand place or at a high-demand time of travel — then a lower-end resale unit might be exactly what you need (saving you even more money in the long run).

You can check with the unit's current owner about his or her history of exchanges, or you can try contacting the owner's exchange company directly. You will not always be able to get such personal information from an exchange company without the current owner's permission, but taking the extra step may prove very valuable to you during the length of your timeshare ownership.

Rent Before You Own

Many people who are hoping to sell their timeshare units put them up for rent while looking for potential buyers. This gives you, as a potential buyer, a great opportunity to actually experience at least a minivacation in the unit of choice before agreeing to a long-term ownership commitment.

On a broader scale, the fact that there are so many more timeshare sellers out there than there are buyers means that you can rent several units during the course of a few months or even a year, just to test out different types of resorts during high- and low-demand seasons. Doing this may cost you a bit of cash up-front in rental fees, but it will give you a wealth of timeshare-use experience to help you make a smarter long-term purchase when you finally decide to buy your own unit.

No Dreaded Sales Presentations

While it is true that you do not have to sit through a sales presentation before buying a timeshare unit directly from a developer, most people do — and most people dislike them. With a resale market timeshare, the only sales presentation you will need to endure is the one from the unit owner or the resale broker, and in many cases, he will be a regular person just like you.

You do need to be careful to verify anything and everything that a timeshare owner or resale broker tells you. (After all, he is trying to get you to buy something he wants to sell.) But in many cases, most of the pertinent information will be listed on the classified or Internet ad that gets your attention in the first place, and all you will need to do is ask a few pertinent questions. These can include:

• Why are you selling the timeshare unit?

• Are all maintenance and other fees paid in full?

• How will the title transfer, money transfer, and closing contracts be handled?

If there are questions that you feel the current owner is not answering in full, you can contact the timeshare resort or exchange company to try to get more information. If you are working with a resale broker (which you will learn more about later in this chapter), she can also sometimes be of great help in filling in information gaps.