Timeshare Relief 360

Reporter: In this tough economy, many homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages, but what about paying for vacation homes?  Timeshares were embraced by Americans in the 1970s, but more than 30 years later, it looks like their time has come and gone.  Reporter Margaret Sharp explains:

Margaret Sharp: Having a vacation home can prompt visions of tropical islands and beautiful scenery.  So many are drawn to timeshares thinking it’s an affordable way to have it all.  But for some timeshare owners, what was once a dream has turned into a nightmare.

David MacMillan: We have a location in Las Vegas and they told us that by investing in this timeshare, we’d be able to own property and real estate that we could sell for a profit.

Margaret Sharp: Over ten years ago, David MacMillan and his wife, Cindy Martin-MacMillan, bought a timeshare.  They liked the idea of having vacation property that multiple parties owned and shared.  But the MacMillans soon figured out that along with the property came never ending fees.

Cindy Martin-MacMillan: Maybe you move from one side of the country to the other and you don’t need it anymore.  Maybe there’s been a divorce or a death or an illness and you’re not using it.  But you’re still having to pay the maintenance fees whether you go or not.

Margaret Sharp: So the couple started Timeshare Relief, Inc.  The company helps timeshare owners who want out of their contracts.

David MacMillan: We have a series of disposal companies that find alternative uses for the timeshare.  And they can be anything from vacation clubs to actually selling them in bulk to a large corporation.

Margaret Sharp: And it’s a service that clients appreciate, especially with maintenance fees rising each year.

Nancy Gruttemeyer: What started out as like a $270 maintenance fee kept creeping up and creeping up.

Margaret Sharp: Nancy Gruttemeyer was a timeshare owner for many years, but when her annual maintenance fee skyrocketed, she had to find a way to opt out.  Even Gruttemeyer’s daughter, Jamie, thought the timeshare was more trouble than its worth.

Jamie Gruttemeyer: It’s not like it’s a special heirloom.  It’s something that you really can’t get out of.  Once you’re in it, you really can’t get out of it.

Margaret Sharp: Luckily, Timeshare Relief was able to get the Gruttemeyers out of their contract.  For some other owners, it was the timing that was the problem.  Timeshare contracts only allow owners to use their homes during an allotted time.  Owner, Gerard Hartley owned his property for ten years and never got the timing right.

Gerard Hartley: I never saw it – the unit that I bought, which was in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Margaret Sharp: It’s clients like these that have made Timeshare Relief, Inc. a Best Performance winner two years in a row.

David MacMillan: Our company was started in our living room, and it was just Cindy and I.  And we believed in what we were doing.

Margaret Sharp: Today the company has a sales call center, customer service department, and 50,000 clients in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom.  And in this slowing economy, the company has actually grown.  Their work is in high-demand as people try to cut unnecessary costs from their lifestyles.

Cindy Martin-MacMillan: I always wake up in the mornings saying, “Who am I going to help today?”

Margaret Sharp: The company’s best advice for those of you who are looking in to buying a timeshare is buyer beware.  But for those of you that already own a timeshare that you don’t want, the company is there to help get you out.  For CitiCable 3, I’m Margaret Sharp.

Thanks, Margaret.  Timeshare sales reached their peak in 2007, bringing in more than $10 billion in revenue.  But by 2009, sales dropped by 30 percent and continue to decline.

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The news program was produced by the City of Torrance for the This Week in Torrance program on CitiCable 3.