The easiest timeshare units to buy directly from the developer are those that are part of brand-name resorts. Companies like Disney, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Starwood have well-designed Web sites that you can use as a starting place for exploring your options within those particular companies. In some cases, the Web sites even promote new resorts that are under development at any given moment — giving you the option of a preconstruction purchase. You can find links to the Web sites of the major brand-name timeshare developers in Appendix A.

After you take some time to look through the materials on these companies' Web sites, you can click on the “Learn More” or “Contact Us” button. From there, you will find a phone number that you can call, or you will be asked to provide your contact information so that a sales representative can contact you in the near future.

If you are interested in looking for a timeshare development that is not necessarily part of the brand-name conglomerates — but you want to do some research on your own, in privacy, without handing over your home telephone number and address — a good place to look is the Web site maintained by Resort Condominiums International, www.rci.com. It allows you to search through all of the exchange company's resorts worldwide, with basic information provided for each. In some cases, you will be able to learn everything from the types of units offered to the distance of the resort from the airport.

Remember, though, that Resort Condominiums International is a timeshare-unit exchange company, not a developer of timeshare resorts. If you find a resort on the company's Web site that interests you, you will have to contact the resort developer or its homeowners' association directly. You can do this either by researching the resort further on your own (simply finding its telephone number and calling will suffice), or by contacting Resort Condominiums International and requesting contact information for the resort's sales department.

The main competitor to Resort Condominiums International, called Interval International, does not allow nonmembers to view similar information on its Web site, www.intervalworld.com. However, Interval International does post contact information for several of its offices and departments, including customer service/customer relations, so you might start there if you are interested in buying a unit inside a resort that is part of the Interval International exchange network.