Effective immediately, iDonate will suspend acquisition of new timeshares.
The timeshare market has rapidly deteriorated. According to a recent USA Today article, “customers are flooding the resale market, where some are trying to unload contracts for as little as $1.” The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) was quoted as saying the following in the same article:
Since their creation in the 1960s, timeshares did not have a down year until 2008, when sales dipped 8% to $9.7 billion. They plunged 40% more in 2009.
Operators are retreating – Wyndham Worldwide, the largest timeshare operator in the US, saw sales fall 51% in the first 9 months of 2009; and Marriott’s sales fell 38% in the same period.
We are disappointed to discontinue this service. However, we trust you can appreciate that we must suspend any service through which we can no longer provide a result that is consistent with our mission: to foster a culture of revolutionary generosity through the cost-effective processing and liquidation of non-cash assets for the benefit of nonprofit organizations. Due to the market conditions mentioned above and the near-term outlook for the economy, we have concluded that we can no longer provide a good value in timeshare liquidation.
For your convenience, we have provided some tips from our experience.
Validate the donation company with the Better Business Bureau: www.bbb.org, and be cautious toward any company that requests large sums of money up front.
Validate the ownership-transfer process, especially for deeded timeshares.
A new deed must be recorded with the county in which the timeshare is located.
A copy of that recorded deed must be sent to the resort for transfer—usually with a fee. If the resort rejects the new deed, the maintenance fees will still be billed to the original owner.
This process typically takes six to twelve weeks to complete.
Here are a few alternatives we routinely recommend although we cannot guarantee that these services have broader acceptance criteria than ours. (Please note that we do not endorse or certify any other services.)
The Timeshare User’s Group: www.tug2.com (List, trade, or rent.)
We remain very active with other types of non-cash donations, such as vehicles and cell phones. We will continue to invest in building out our capabilities in these areas in order to provide superior, cost-effective service consistent with our mission.
