4/15/2010 8:14 AM (PST)

Good Morning Mary,

I found two reports on Divine Vacations one with a B- and one with an F rating.

http://www.seflorida.bbb.org/Business-Report/Divine-Vacations-Inc-92016194

http://centralflorida.app.bbb.org/newsearch2.asp?ComID=073300154622837

If this company contacted you saying they have a buyer for your timeshare if you send them a check for title insurance or some other related cost, then it is likely a scam and you should steer clear of them.

Check out the New Scams section here at Trustlink, there is some useful information on timeshare companies.

Thank you.

4/22/2010 10:58 AM (PST)

I just received a call from "Ken Whitehead" at Divine Vacations Inc., who said that they will begin marketing my Timeshare immediately and only contact me again if they have a buyer who has put a $5k deposit down and who has been credit approved for the balance. At that time, they will be asking me to pay the closing costs which would be re-imbursed to me once the property closes (usually within a few days).

4/22/2010 11:15 AM (PST)

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. Check out the Florida AG's website also:

http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/main/9161973ee14fdb1a85256cc900600947!OpenDocument

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.