6/2/2010 3:59 PM (PST)

Unfortunately, the BBB's report on this company is pretty sparse. They have a C rating, which is average, no complaints and no reviews. For some general advice on timeshare sales and scams, click on the New Scams section in the top menu bar here on TrustLink and see the article we have posted on "Selling Your Timeshare: Important Things To Know"

Over the years, there have been a lot of companies that came to life with the promise of helping people sell their timeshares. Most of these companies are located in areas where there are a lot of timeshares, like Florida and California.

Typically, they make a lot of promises about their abilities and claim that there is an army of people dying to purchase timeshares, and all of this will be available to you if you pay them the requested fee.

Reality is completely different. The truth is that timeshares are next to impossible to sell. There's almost no secondary market for timeshares, especially given the current economy and all of the problems in the housing market. Furthermore, if there really was a strong secondary market, these companies wouldn't have to charge a fee, they could make more money charging commissions on sales. The bottom line is that you should not pay any upfront fees to sell your timeshare to somebody else.

There are legitimate title transfer companies that will actually purchase a timeshare, and the benefit to the timeshare owner is that when closed, it gets them out from under the continuing obligations for common area fees. But the whole industry is hot with scams and fraud.

Be aware of a sequence of slick sales tricks - here are some scenarios:

1) The timeshare company offers to list your timeshare and you pay them a marketing fee, but after a few months when it doesn't sell they try to upsell you into an upgraded marketing package of some sort for more exposure (and more money) with so called guaranteed results.

2) After a few months of it still not selling they then offer to do you a favor and take it off of your hands for free so that you don't have to pay the monthly maintenence fees. The monthly expenses are a cost burden to many people who become desperate to get out from under these. These companies know that and use it against you.

3) They try to convince you to turn over the timeshare and "take it off of your hands" for free - now they really start marketing your timeshare, which they now own, and they sell it at a profit. The point is that the only timeshares they are actually selling are the ones that they themselves own through their process of psychologically wearing down so many timeshare owners and convincing them to give up their timeshare properties.

6/2/2010 4:05 PM (PST)

Also, as a side note, I just checked TrustLink and found another thread regarding this company:

http://www.trustlink.org/ViewQuestion.aspx?QuestionID=2779

When I looked at their website, it says they're not affiliated with "the" Charles Schwab company whatsoever, so don't let the name fool you into believing they're reliable without always checking first!

1/19/2011 8:21 AM (PST)

I've dealt with Charles Schwab Properties--A SCAM---if they can't get you to agree to pay the fee, they have another company called Timeshare Depot--with the same people using different names. I've been told by the attorney general's office to NOT get involved with any company that wants up-front fees (these fees may be called different things)but it still means they want up-front money. I was fortunate to have used my credit card and with filing a dispute got all of my money back. This company is NOT associated with the investment firm --one of the scammers claimed to be a personal friend of the Mr. Schwab. These up-front fee companies are NOT licensed real estate people, so they couldn't sell your timeshare anyway.