In 2003, Jason Tremblay and Mark Eldridge saw an opportunity and they took it. Noticing that the timeshare resale industry is a $10-12 billion business and that there were no easy, reliable ways to sell timeshares, they created SellMyTimeshareNOW.com.
How It Works. Rather than serving as a typical broker that would take a commission, they came up with a simple advertising model: the seller would pay once to advertise the timeshare until it sold.
Pricing ranges from $199 for a timeshare owner looking to rent out his interest for a year to $497 to the owner looking to sell a timeshare outright. The company itself does not handle the sale transaction, merely acting as a facilitator in the deal. But earlier this year they opened a closing company to handle transactions and they're already up to 7 employees.
The Results. By applying the FSBO concept to the timeshare industry, SellMyTimeshareNOW.com seems to be tapping into some real interest. Each week, more than 1000 offers are made to purchase advertised timeshares, with a total offer value of more than $4 million. Through a combination of search engine optimization and marketing, as well as other online marketing efforts, the site brings in 40-50,000 visitors per day. And that seems to be the key to the company's model: put lots of interested eyeballs in front of motivated sellers.
Staffing. Today, they are a rapidly growing business that employees 57 people, mostly in Dover, NH, but some in Orlando, FL as well. (And Jason told me in an interview that they're looking for technical, sales, and customer service employees in NH now.)
Funding. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com reinvests its revenues into growth and has yet to take any outside funding. However, Jason told me that they expect to be in the market for venture funding, perhaps later this year. He also indicated they have had some interest in the company on the part of potential acquirers, though they believe the opportunity for growth is large enough that they would prefer to take on funding to take it to the next level.
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Selling timeshare these days are a good investment in your place,ah. Some says it's very expensive and contented with spending their own funds in a vacation. Some says it's far down cheaper than having an unplanned vacation. Well, if you're an outgoing person, it's really for you.
-liz
Posted by: timeshares for sale | Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:48 AM