Lake Tahoe, NV -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/30/2008 -- Timeshare popularity among Americans has gained great momentum over the past few decades, and is now a thriving multi-billion dollar industry, with continued growth to come. Like any large industry, it can be an ideal breeding ground for money-making schemes and scams.

Karen Phelan, Broker/Owner of Preferred Timeshare Resales ( http://preferredtimeshare.com ), is a 23-year timeshare industry veteran, and a long-time timeshare industry advocate for timeshare resale consumer protection.

"Many first-time buyers or sellers in the timeshare resale market really have no compass as to who to trust, or what pitfalls to watch for. It’s important for everyone to take the time to practice their due diligence to help avoid the regret, wasted time, and money lost to unscrupulous timeshare organizations.” said Phelan, “There are new timeshare organizations mushrooming up all the time, which makes it increasingly more challenging to locate timeshare resale companies worthy of your business. I’m in the timeshare business, and sometimes it’s even hard for me to keep up with all the new organizations, much less the sales tactics they use to extract money from timeshare sellers and timeshare resale buyers.”

Timeshare sellers and timeshare resale buyers alike can eliminate much of the stress and uncertainty involved in choosing the right timeshare resale company, simply by making an inquiry on the Better Business Bureau website. With a few keystrokes, consumers can find out whether a timeshare resale or timeshare advertising organization is a BBB Accredited Member, and if there have been complaints filed by others who have done business with them in the past. Consumers can directly access the Better Business Bureau’s search page by clicking on this link: http://search.bbb.org

“When I see a complaint filed against an organization, I interpret the client became so exasperated in their efforts to resolve their issue directly with the organization, that they had to bring in a third party to hopefully help resolve their issue. To me, this is not a good sign.”, said Phelan. “There are plenty of trustworthy, credible timeshare organizations out there to work with. You just have to know where to look. The Better Business Bureau is a priceless resource for helping consumers distinguish who they want to do business with in a matter of seconds on the internet.”

Another valuable Better Business Bureau resource offered to Timeshare Sellers and Timeshare Resale Buyers is their page, “Reselling Your Timeshare”. The page can be found by on the following link: http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=309 “Although this page covers important pitfalls to avoid, along with sound advice on what to look for in a timeshare vacation ownership resale organization, the most important thing to remember is use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The power of common sense and sound intuition are often under-estimated.”, Karen shared.

Preferred Timeshare Resales(http://preferredtimeshare.com) is a licensed professional real estate firm, specializing in full-service timeshare resales. Since 1983, their knowledgeable staff has been part of the vacation ownership industry, representing thousands of successful timeshare transactions for buyers and sellers.