Get Out of a Timeshare and Find Down Payment Help to Buy a Home

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

The episode explores the financial complexities of managing timeshares and the availability of home buying assistance. The first segment foc

Key takeaways

• The American Resort Development Association reported $10.7 billion in new timeshare sales for 2025.
• Average annual maintenance fees for timeshares range between $1,500 and $1,600.

Main topics

• Timeshare exit strategies
• Timeshare maintenance fees

Notable quotes

Timeshares are the ultimate expense marketed as an asset.

Conclusion

Listeners should approach timeshare exits with extreme caution and tho

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Today's episode is brought to you by Vinted. Sean, Speaker 2 (0:02) do you have clothes in your trunk that you've worn but have no idea what to do with? Speaker 3 (0:07) You know what? I do not because my car is super clean right now. But I'm betting that you do, Elizabeth. I Speaker 2 (0:13) sure do, Sean, unfortunately. And I've been wondering what to do with these clothes. And then I found out about Vinted. So they're like this secondhand marketplace app. And their mission is to make secondhand your first choice. Speaker 3 (0:26) Yeah, Vinted helps their members find great deals and easily sell the clothes they no longer wear. And that helps give quality items a second life again and again. Speaker 2 (0:35) And it helps the planet too. And we care about the planet, don't we, Sean? We Speaker 3 (0:38) do. Well, Elizabeth, whether you're clearing out a bag of clothes in your trunk that's been sitting there for months and months, or you just have pieces in your closet you don't want anymore, Vinted makes it super simple to refresh your wardrobe, earn extra cash, and give your clothes a second life. Plus, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn from every sale. And Speaker 2 (0:56) also, the app is free to download. I think that's a great perk. Speaker 3 (1:00) Vinted makes listing items quick and simple. And once an item sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you, which takes out a lot of the burden of sending your items. See Speaker 2 (1:08) what's hiding in your closet or like me, your trunk. And you might be surprised how much you can earn with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start listing with absolutely no seller fees. Speaker 3 (1:19) Hey, smart money listener, you could win a $250 Amazon gift card and help improve our show. Speaker 2 (1:24) We're inviting you to take our annual listener survey. It's shorter than last year's and could bag you a sweet grand prize. We're giving away not one, but two $250 Amazon gift cards. To Speaker 3 (1:35) participate, just visit nerdwallet.com slash pod survey or check out the link in the show notes and submit the form by September 30th for a chance to win. Official rules are at nerdwallet.com slash pod survey. Good luck. Speaker 2 (1:46) Getting into a timeshare takes an afternoon, but getting out of one can take years and also thousands of dollars. Today we answer a question about how to get out of a timeshare when it's no longer financially beneficial. Speaker 2 (2:01) Welcome to NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Elizabeth Ayola. In case you're wondering where Sean is, he's going to join us later in the show. But today we're going to be discussing a question about timeshares. Here it goes. How do I get rid of a timeshare that my parents own but no longer use? They pay yearly fees and have access to a property every two years, but are not able to make use of it due to age and also travel. I am not interested in the property, which is in Orlando, Florida. We live on the West Coast. Thank you. Inca, long time listener. Well, thank you, first of all, Inka, for being a longtime listener. We value your listenership. Is that a word? It is. All right. So we have fellow nerd Craig Joseph here to help answer Inka's question. Welcome to Smart Money, Craig. Hey, Speaker 1 (2:54) Elizabeth. Thanks for having me. Hopefully we can help Inka out. I Speaker 2 (2:57) think we can. All right. So, Craig, when we got this question, I was like, you know what? Craig is going to be the perfect person to answer it. And why is that? Because you've written quite a bit on timeshares already. So let's start with the basics. What is a timeshare, Craig? So Speaker 1 (3:12) a timeshare is a type of vacation property with a leasing or ownership model where you pay an upfront purchase price to access a property. or a collection of properties along with other owners who can also use the property for a set amount of time each year. And that can be up to a few weeks per year or another duration depending on what the contractual obligation is. The timeshare industry sometimes now uses the term vacation ownership or vacation club instead of timeshare, where you can access more than one property under your contract, but the concept is much the same, and that industry is massive. According to a recent report from the American Resort Development Association, the timeshare industry accounted for $10.7 billion in new sales alone in 2025. And for comparison, that's in the ballpark of Chipotle sales worldwide last year. So evidently the public has the same appetite for timeshares as they do for burritos. Speaker 2 (4:06) I should hope not. Well, that's just my bias, but let's continue. I have a little story for you. I went to Jamaica over the summer with my boyfriend and that was my first experience with timeshare salespeople, if that is what you call them. And when I say they were aggressive, I mean, they were aggressive. Now, I thought I was just going there to get a free massage because they told us if we come to the presentation, we get a free massage. But we were there for hours and they were hounding us to pay for this timeshare. Now, I know for you, you have got. gotten things like discounted trips from timeshare presentations. I only got offered a massage. So can you tell me more about some of these incentives that these companies might offer people? Those Speaker 1 (4:45) tactics are one of the reasons why I don't care about taking advantage of this to the best of my ability. I think the sales taxes are high pressure to say the least. So sitting through a timeshare presentation can get you a discounted hotel room and a slug of points for a future hotel stay. And that's one of my favorite travel hacks. So the premise is simple. The property dangles a cheap stay in a desirable place like Las Vegas or New York or Cancun, in addition to other perks, such as massages, in exchange for you seeing through a high-pressure sales presentation that can take up to two hours. And it's during your stay, so you're actually taking time out of your vacation to sit through this. And their goal is to get you to sign a contract for a timeshare. Simple. So unless you want a timeshare, you should only do this if you're comfortable with saying no, and you're going to say no a lot. Speaker 2 (5:32) Man, Craig, when I tell you I was irritated because I felt like it was a challenge to the I call myself a recovering people pleaser. So no, it's still something that I work on saying. And I thought like, yeah, sure, I can say no. By the end of that presentation, I wanted to say yes so that they would leave me alone. It was gruesome. And you know, the worst part about it, Craig, we only got a 30 minute massage and we were there for two hours. Had I known, I would have said no to begin with. Like, what? That felt like a scam, Craig. I didn't like that. Speaker 1 (6:03) That math doesn't math. Speaker 2 (6:04) It wasn't mathing at all. Okay. Speaker 1 (6:06) Elizabeth, so I've done around a dozen of these presentations, and I've accumulated hundreds of thousands of hotel points with various brands over the years. In addition to receiving other perks, like I said, spa treatments, even Disney park tickets one time when I was in Orlando. Aww. And this strategy has helped me save thousands of dollars. Most recently on a trip to Las Vegas, I was out there for a concert at the Sphere, but I got a three-night stay and a pile of Hilton points for $150 out of pocket. I got all of that for taking two hours out of my day to go and sit through one of these presentations. And while I don't mind sitting through one of them, it's certainly not for everyone, and it sounds like it's not for you. My girlfriend sat through the last one I did and the tactics made her pretty uncomfortable. And that's all because the sales professionals tug at your emotions with aspirational fantasies while making you feel like family, right? They make you feel super comfortable, but they're super incentivized by commissions. So they want you to buy a timeshare. They want you to have lofty goals and aspirations of travel. And at the end of it, sign a contract that can last for the rest of your life. So they're using that hour or two to sell you on a lifetime commitment. I would argue for most people that that's probably not worth it. Speaker 2 (7:16) No, a lifetime is a long time. In fact, it's my whole life, literally. So I am not trying to be, you know, tied to some timeshare or tied to a timeshare for all this. And let me tell you, me and my boyfriend must have had a moment of intimacy after that, because after the presentation, he goes, yeah, I used to sit through these things all the time with my parents. Why didn't you tell me that before you dragged me into this presentation? And then he also tells me that his parents have a timeshare property that they're trying to get rid of. So this conversation will be helpful for him as well. Speaker 1 (7:45) Boy, it sounds like you need to have a conversation with him about forthcomingness. Speaker 2 (7:48) I know, right? He's like, I'm so sorry for making you sit through that. Yeah, well, anyways. Speaker 1 (7:53) Those presentations are actually pretty valuable for the industry. A few years ago, I talked to the CEO of the largest timeshare industry association, and he actually said that about 20 % of people sit through those presentations and then decide to sign a contract afterwards. So two out of 10. It seems pretty high, right? And that purchase, of course, comes with a huge financial commitment. So in 2025, the average purchase transaction for a timeshare was around $25,000, with an average annual interest rate for buyers at around 15%. It's crazy. So people are financing future vacations, and that's before accounting for monthly and annual fees, which we'll get to in a little bit. But just for comparison, right now, the average 30-year loan for a house that you own and that you can sell and build memories in day in and day out is around 6 % to 7%. So you're paying over $25,000. over double the interest for the potential to possibly use it a couple of weeks a year. Speaker 2 (8:50) Craig, this is insane. And it sounds like people need to get better at saying no. And also, I wanted to clarify about this 15%. So where are they paying the interest? Are they charging it to a credit card? Or tell me how the interest works. Speaker 1