Best company to get rid of a timeshare? Here's how to vet one

Last updated 2026-07-25

Is there actually a single best company to get rid of a timeshare?

No. Anyone who tells you there's one best company to call is selling something, and probably selling it to you before you've asked a single question. The Federal Trade Commission sued a timeshare exit company called Vacation Consulting Services (which did business in part as Timeshare Exit Team). The 2021 settlement order permanently banned the defendants from the timeshare exit business after the FTC alleged deceptive practices that took millions of dollars from consumers in upfront fees ^[1]. That track record is exactly why "best company" is the wrong question. The right question is: what's the least risky path out of my specific contract, given my state, my deed type, and how many years I've owned it? For some owners that's a rescission letter mailed this week. For others it's a deed-back program run by the resort itself. For a smaller group, it's a licensed real estate attorney reviewing the contract for a violation that supports cancellation. Very few owners actually need a $5,000 to $8,000 exit company retainer, and the ones who do should pay in installments tied to completed milestones, never a lump sum upfront. If you want a structured way to organize your own paperwork before paying anyone, our Timeshare Exit Kit is a $149 one-time toolkit built for exactly this: it walks you through rescission letters, deed-back requests, and documentation, instead of a $6,000 retainer with no guarantee attached. It's not a law firm and it doesn't contact the resort for you. It's a paper trail you build yourself.

How do you get out of a timeshare, step by step?

Start with the calendar, not a phone call. If you signed your contract recently, your first and best option is rescission, a legal right to cancel within a fixed window that every state sets by statute. Miss that window and your options narrow fast and start costing money. Here's the realistic order of operations: 1. Check your closing date against your state's rescission period. Every state has one, the length varies (some as short as 3 business days, others 10 or more), so confirm your state's rescission window before doing anything else ^[2]. 2. If you're still inside that window, send a written cancellation letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, following your contract's exact instructions. Do this yourself; you don't need a company for this step. 3. If the window has passed, contact the resort or developer directly and ask about a deed-back, surrender, or exit program. Many major resorts and brands run these, sometimes for a transfer fee, sometimes free. 4. If the resort won't take it back and you want to sell, try the resale market realistically (see the sale price data below) before assuming you need paid help. 5. Only after those steps, if you're still stuck, consider a licensed attorney or an exit company, and vet them hard before paying anything. The how to get out of a timeshare guide walks through each of these in more depth, state by state.

How do you get out of a timeshare if the rescission window already closed?

You're not out of options, but every remaining option takes longer and usually costs more than a same-week cancellation letter would have. This is the point where a lot of owners panic and call the first company that shows up in a Google ad. Don't. Deed-back and surrender programs are the cleanest next step. Marriott Vacation Club, Hilton Grand Vacations, Diamond Resorts (now part of Hilton Grand Vacations), and Wyndham Destinations have all operated some version of a voluntary surrender or deed-back program at different points, though availability changes and isn't guaranteed for every owner or every contract. Call the resort's owner services line directly and ask what's currently available; don't rely on a third party to make that call for you. If deed-back isn't offered or you don't qualify (some programs require the loan to be paid off, maintenance fees current, and no liens), your remaining paths are resale, gifting the deed to someone willing to take on the fees, or hiring help to negotiate a release or pursue a contract-based cancellation claim (misrepresentation at the sales presentation, for example). Each of those has real cost and real timeline attached, which is why the comparison table below matters more than any single company's marketing.

How to sell a timeshare (and what it's actually worth)

Here's the number that surprises most owners: timeshares have almost no resale value. The American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the industry's own trade group, publishes average purchase price and fee data that, alongside what consumer advocates report about the secondary market, points to the same reality: resale prices on secondary sites routinely run from $0 to a few hundred dollars for many weeks-based products, especially older or less desirable resorts ^[3]. Some deeded weeks at strong-brand, high-demand resorts do sell for more, but they're the exception, not the rule. If you want to try selling: - List on a licensed timeshare resale marketplace or broker that doesn't charge large upfront listing fees. Legitimate resale companies get paid after a sale closes, not before ^[4].

• Price it near zero if it's a maintenance-fee-heavy week at a mid-tier resort. Owners often give timeshares away, sometimes paying the buyer's closing costs, just to stop the fee obligation.
• Never pay an upfront "marketing fee" or "buyer waiting" fee to list your timeshare. This is one of the most common scam structures the FTC has pursued ^{[1] [4]}.
• Confirm the buyer will actually take title and that the transfer gets recorded with the county, or you may stay legally liable for fees even after you think you've sold it. Our how to sell timeshare style guidance and the resale reality check both point the same direction: treat any sale price above zero as a bonus, not an expectation.

How much does a timeshare cost, and how much are annual fees?

Average purchase price (2023)	~$23,940	ARDA State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry [3]
Average annual maintenance fee (2023)	~$1,170	ARDA State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry [3]
Typical resale value, secondary market	$0 to low hundreds (most weeks)	ARDA, industry resale data [3]
Upfront exit-company fee range (varies widely)	$2,000 to $8,000+	FTC enforcement actions [1]	If rising fees are your main problem rather than wanting out entirely, our maintenance fees coverage on exithonest.com digs into what's negotiable and what isn't, before you jump straight to exit.

Two very different numbers matter here: what you paid to buy it, and what it costs you every year to keep it. ARDA's 2023 State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry report put the average purchase price of a timeshare interval at roughly $23,940, and the average annual maintenance fee at about $1,170 ^[3]. Those are averages across both points-based and deeded products, so your contract could be well above or below that. Maintenance fees don't stay flat. They typically rise a few percent a year, and resorts can levy special assessments on top of the regular fee for major repairs, storm damage, or renovations, sometimes running into the thousands of dollars per owner in a single year. This is the cost owners underestimate most: the fee you signed up for at closing is rarely the fee you're paying five or ten years later. | Cost category | Typical range | Source |

Are timeshares scams?

The timeshare product itself usually isn't a scam in the legal sense. It's a real, disclosed contract, even when the sales pitch is aggressive and the math is bad for the buyer. But the exit side of the industry has a real scam problem, and that's where owners get hurt twice. The FTC brought an enforcement action against a company that promised to "guarantee" a timeshare exit, charged thousands of dollars upfront, and then did little or nothing for many customers. In its 2021 action resulting in a permanent ban against the Vacation Consulting Services defendants (who did business under names including Timeshare Exit Team), the FTC alleged the companies made false promises about their ability to get owners out of their timeshares and took large upfront fees without delivering results ^[1]. So the honest answer: the original timeshare purchase is a legal, if often overpriced and hard-to-exit, product. The scam risk concentrates in the secondary market, in exit companies that take money and disappear, and in resale "buyer waiting" schemes. Your state attorney general's consumer protection office is the right place to check complaints before paying anyone in this space; most state AG sites (search "[your state] attorney general consumer protection timeshare") keep public complaint databases or press releases naming companies they've acted against.

How can you tell a legitimate exit company from a scam?

A few concrete checks catch most of the bad actors before you sign anything. First, payment structure. Legitimate attorneys and reputable exit firms increasingly use escrow or milestone billing, meaning you pay in stages as work completes, not one lump sum before anything happens. If a company demands the full fee upfront, that alone should make you walk. Second, guarantees. No company, no attorney, no kit, nothing, can guarantee a timeshare cancellation. Contracts, deed types, and state law vary too much for a blanket promise to be honest. Any sales pitch using the word "guarantee" is a script, not a legal fact. Third, check your state attorney general's office and the FTC's complaint system (reportfraud.ftc.gov) for the company's name before paying anything. Many state AGs, including Florida's, Texas's, and Arizona's (states with heavy timeshare concentration), have published consumer alerts specifically about timeshare exit and resale fraud. Fourth, ask who's actually doing the work. Is it a licensed attorney in the state where the resort sits, or a sales rep reading a script? Ask for the name and bar number of any attorney supposedly handling your file, and confirm it independently through your state bar association's lawyer directory. Fifth, never let anyone tell you to stop paying your maintenance fees or loan payments while they "work on it." Stopping payments you owe under a valid contract can trigger delinquency, damage your credit, and in some states expose you to foreclosure on the timeshare interest, regardless of what any exit company promises will happen next. If in doubt, keep paying while you pursue any of the paths above, and get advice on your specific contract from a licensed attorney in your state, not from the company trying to sell you an exit.

What's the difference between a deed-back, resale, and exit company?

These three paths solve the same problem in very different ways, and mixing them up wastes time and money. A deed-back (also called a surrender program) means the resort or developer takes the deed back directly, usually because you ask and you qualify (loan paid off, fees current). Cost is often low or zero, sometimes a processing fee in the hundreds of dollars. This is the cleanest exit when it's available, because you're dealing with the party that actually holds the other half of the contract. Resale means you find a buyer and transfer the deed yourself or through a broker. Cost of a legitimate resale is often nothing upfront, since brokers who don't charge until closing are the honest model; the risk is your net proceeds may well be zero or negative once you account for closing costs and fees. An exit company is a third party you hire to negotiate a release, pursue a legal cancellation claim, or otherwise get the resort to let you go. Cost ranges from $2,000 to $8,000 or more, and the FTC's enforcement history shows this is where the worst fraud concentrates ^[1]. Use this route only after deed-back and resale are ruled out, and only with milestone billing. For a side-by-side breakdown by state and program, see timeshare exit companies and timeshare cancellation.

What if you inherited a timeshare you never wanted?

Inherited timeshares are their own category of headache, because you may not have signed anything, but you can still end up legally responsible for the fees once the deed transfers to the estate or to you personally. An estate's executor generally has the option to disclaim an inheritance, including a timeshare interest, under most state probate rules, which means refusing to accept it before it transfers. Once you've accepted the deed or the resort has recorded you as owner, disclaiming becomes much harder or impossible. If you're an executor and the estate holds a timeshare nobody wants, get this on the list of things to resolve before probate closes; talk to the estate's attorney about disclaiming the interest or negotiating a deed-back with the resort before distribution. If you've already inherited and the deed is in your name, the same deed-back, resale, or exit-company hierarchy above applies. You're just starting from a different original decision point (someone else signed the purchase contract, not you).

Should you hire an attorney instead of an exit company?

For many owners, yes, and it can cost less than you'd think. A real estate or consumer protection attorney licensed in the state where the resort is located can review your original purchase contract for actual legal defects, like a violation of state timeshare disclosure law, misrepresentation at the sales presentation, or a lender violation, any of which can support a cancellation claim beyond the standard rescission window. Attorney fees vary by state and by hour versus flat-fee arrangements, but a contract review and demand letter is often far cheaper than a multi-thousand-dollar exit company retainer, and you get direct attorney-client privilege and malpractice accountability that a sales-driven exit company simply doesn't offer. Ask any attorney upfront for a flat fee for review and a demand letter, separate from any further litigation cost, so you know the ceiling before you commit.

How exithonest.com fits into all this

We're not a law firm, we don't contact your resort, and we don't promise an exit, cancellation, or release, because nobody honestly can. What we built instead is a $149 one-time Timeshare Exit Kit: rescission letter templates matched to your state's window, a deed-back request template and checklist, a documentation tracker for your contract and payment history, and plain-language explanations of what each path actually involves. It's meant to replace the first few thousand dollars of an exit company retainer with paperwork you do yourself, in the cases where that's realistic, and to leave you better prepared if you do end up needing an attorney. If your situation needs a licensed attorney or a state-specific legal claim, the kit tells you that too, instead of pretending a template can do a lawyer's job.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get out of a timeshare fastest?

The fastest legal exit is rescission, canceling in writing within your state's statutory window right after you signed. Send a certified letter following your contract's instructions exactly. Confirm your state's specific rescission period before acting, since it varies by state and is usually short (days, not weeks).

How do you get out of a timeshare after the rescission period ends?

Ask the resort about a deed-back or surrender program first; many major brands offer one if your loan is paid off and fees are current. If that's unavailable, try resale (expect low or zero value) or consult a licensed attorney about contract-based cancellation claims. Avoid upfront-fee exit companies until you've ruled out both.

How much is a timeshare, on average?

ARDA's 2023 industry report put the average purchase price at roughly $23,940 for a timeshare interval, with average annual maintenance fees around $1,170. Individual contracts vary widely by brand, location, and points versus deeded structure, and fees typically rise a few percent yearly plus occasional special assessments.

How much do timeshares cost to maintain each year?

ARDA reported an average annual maintenance fee near $1,170 in its 2023 State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry report. That's an average across a broad market; luxury or larger-unit timeshares often run well above it, and special assessments for repairs or storm damage can add thousands more in a single year.

Are timeshares a scam?

The purchase itself is a legal, disclosed contract, though often oversold and expensive relative to what you get. The bigger scam risk sits in the exit and resale market: the FTC has sued companies for charging large upfront fees and failing to deliver promised cancellations or sales.

How can I sell my timeshare?

List with a licensed resale broker or marketplace that only charges a commission after closing, never upfront. Price realistically, most resale weeks sell for very little or nothing given oversupply. Confirm the deed transfer actually records with the county so you're not still liable for fees after the 'sale.'

What's the best company to help get rid of a timeshare?

No single company deserves that title, and any that guarantees an exit is a warning sign. Compare deed-back programs (often free or low cost), resale, and, only if needed, a licensed attorney or exit firm using milestone billing, verified against your state attorney general's complaint records first.

Can I just stop paying my timeshare maintenance fees?

Don't stop paying without legal advice specific to your contract and state. Unpaid fees can trigger delinquency, credit damage, collections, and in some states foreclosure on the timeshare interest, regardless of what an exit company promises will happen while they 'work on it.'

Do deed-back programs really work?

Yes, when the resort offers one and you qualify, typically requiring the loan paid off and maintenance fees current. Availability varies by brand and changes over time, so call the resort's owner services line directly to ask what's currently offered rather than assuming a third party's claim about it.

How do I check if a timeshare exit company is legitimate?

Search the company name plus 'complaints' on your state attorney general's consumer protection site and on reportfraud.ftc.gov. Confirm any attorney's bar license independently. Avoid full upfront payment; legitimate firms increasingly use escrow or milestone billing tied to completed steps, not one lump sum at signing.

What happens if I inherit a timeshare I don't want?

An executor can often disclaim an inherited timeshare interest before it transfers, under most state probate rules, refusing the inheritance outright. Once the deed is already in your name, the same options apply as any owner: deed-back, resale, or, if needed, an attorney review of the contract.

Is a timeshare exit kit worth it compared to hiring a company?

For owners who can follow a checklist and send certified letters themselves, a low-cost kit (ours is $149 one-time) replaces the first few thousand dollars of an exit company retainer. It won't contact the resort for you or guarantee results; complex legal claims still need a licensed attorney.

Sources

1. FTC, Vacation Consulting Services settlement: FTC settlement resulting in a permanent ban against timeshare exit company defendants accused of taking large upfront fees from consumers without delivering promised exits
2. Cornell Legal Information Institute, state timeshare rescission overview context: Rescission (cooling-off) rights and periods vary by state; consumers should confirm their state's specific rule
3. ARDA, 2023 State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry (executive summary via ARDA Roundtable resource page): Resale values on the secondary timeshare market are typically very low compared to original purchase price
4. FTC Consumer Advice, "Timeshares and Vacation Plans": Legitimate resale companies get paid after a sale, and consumers should be wary of large upfront fees
5. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Explains what a timeshare is and financial considerations consumers should understand before purchasing or exiting one.
6. Florida Office of the Attorney General: State attorney general guidance on identifying timeshare resale and exit scams, relevant to distinguishing legitimate exit companies from fraudulent ones.
7. Internal Revenue Service: IRS Publication 544 explains tax treatment of sales and dispositions of property, relevant to the tax implications of selling or gifting an inherited timeshare.
8. American Bar Association: Provides guidance on when consumers should consider hiring an attorney versus other services for contract disputes, relevant to the timeshare exit attorney comparison.