About Real Estate: Tips to unload an unwanted time share

A. There are a number of ways to resell a time share, and some pitfalls that you must avoid.

An estimated 5 million Americans have a time share, sometimes called #147;fractional ownership,#148; which allows the owner to use the property for a specified number of days each year. Besides the purchase price, the owner typically also must pay a monthly or annual maintenance fee to cover the cost of managing the property, keeping up amenities and the like.

Time shares are notoriously bad investments, in part because there are so many of them and maintenance fees can skyrocket as the project ages. Most time shares are currently fetching 25 percent or less than their original sales price, and some are worth nothing at all, according to the consumer-oriented Time shares Users Group (www.tug2.net).

Most resorts won#146;t buy back their time shares, though many of them operate a resale program. But brokerage commissions or other fees can be extremely high, so many experts suggest that it#146;s better for owners to try to unload their unwanted shares themselves.

You can list your time share for sale on eBay, Craigslist or the time share auction site Bidshares.com for free. Another website recommended by some veteran owners is RedWeek.com, which charges $14.99 to become a member and an additional $59.99 to post a for-sale listing for 12 months.

As an alternative, you could hire a professional time share broker referred by groups such as the Licensed Timeshare Resale Brokers Association (ltrba.com). Commission charges vary, and some brokers won#146;t even take a listing if the time share#146;s current value is less than a few thousand dollars.

Regardless of which option you choose, avoid any website or brokerage firm that would charge large upfront fees for their resale-marketing services without providing a written guarantee of a sale at a price that you find acceptable.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed several civil and criminal lawsuits in the past months against such resale firms, which charged as little as $300 to purportedly sell an owner#146;s vacation interest but instead walked away with the victim#146;s money and refused to give it back.

Q. I purchased my first home a few months ago and have made all of the payments before their due date. But when I checked my credit score last week, it was nearly 25 points lower than it was before I bought the house! What gives?

A. It#146;s fairly common for a consumer#146;s credit score to drop shortly after obtaining a mortgage, largely because creditors fear the new loan will make it harder to pay other bills.

Don#146;t worry about the decline. Your credit score will soon float back up and then rise even higher, provided you continue making your monthly mortgage payments in a timely manner.

Q. Can a landlord be held financially responsible if a tenant#146;s dog or other pet hurts a visitor to the rental property?

A. Sometimes yes; sometimes no.

A landlord often can be held liable #8212; and may even face criminal charges #8212; if he or she lets a tenant keep a pet that the landlord knows has attacked a visitor in the past or has shown violent tendencies.

The property owner also may be liable if a pet gets loose and bites because the landlord had let the property fall into disrepair, such as failing to fix a gate that the tenant had reported broken or not mending a wire fence that has a large hole in it.

Legislators in Maine recently approved a measure that would go a step further. Under the law, a landlord could be found liable even if he or she is not at fault for injuries to any person caused by a tenant#146;s pet.

Some legal experts worry that the measure could trigger a new wave of lawsuits against property investors in all 50 states. That#146;s because people who sue after being injured by a pet often target the person with the deepest pockets #8212; and that#146;s usually the landlord, not the tenant who owns the animal.

Ÿ For the booklet #147;Straight Talk About Living Trusts,#148; send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, CA 90231-2960.

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