Stroman in trouble

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

Here is a bit of a post on Street Talk about the upfront fee company Stroman century 21.

One part of great interest. ~80% of his advertising goes to advertising his own services not the TSs which he was paid a upfront fee to try and sell. The other 20% goes to maintain his website. Doesn't spend anything on trying to sell TS? But, he does have a great success rate, 3.7 % of the TS listed are being sold. (but may not be due to his efforts)

CONROE: Wayne Stroman, the king of timeshare resales infamy, has hit the Texas media in a not very flattering way. The Houston Press News has a 6-page expose of Stroman’s business that should not be a surprise to anyone following his career over the past couple of decades, or to the folks who have paid him upfront fees to list their timeshares.

“Critics say realtor Wayne Stroman is not quite as up-front as his fees in his timeshare resale business”, says the headline. No s*@t, Sherlock. The Houston Better Business Bureau, which revoked his membership in 1994, has a stack of complaints 4 feet high dating back 20 years.

In the spirit of fair use, I will quote only this small portion of the article, and then you should go read the rest.

Stroman is operating in a gray area. With apparently no one to stop him, he is mining a fortune $599 at a time. …

Up-front fees account for 94 percent of Stroman Realty’s income in its timeshare business, according to Hughes’s opinion [Hughes is a federal judge who presided over a lawsuit against Stroman by Florida & California]. In 1997, the company collected more than 18,000 fees and sold 680 timeshares, or 3.7 percent. Stroman spent about $3.5 million, or roughly 37 percent of its income that year, on advertising and on its computer system that lists properties on its Web site.

One of the chief complaints customers have had over the years is that they feel their up-front advertising fee has not gone toward the promotion of their property as promised. Stroman says it spends millions of dollars advertising in publications such as USA Today, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Consumers, however, complain they have been duped because the ads are for the promotion of Stroman Realty’s listing service, not the individual timeshare properties.

The court broke down Stroman’s advertising expenditures, saying of the approximately $3.5 million it spent on advertising, $3 million went toward promotion, while more than $450,000 went toward maintaining Stroman’s computer system, which houses the online database of all timeshare listi

ngs.

Also of note: In addition to the up-front fee, Stroman also charges a ten percent commission or $950, whichever is greater, on timeshare resales.

Texas Attorney General spokesman Tom Kelly says the AG “pursues cases based on patterns, trends, egregious behavior toward the consumer and massive fraud,” and is interested in hearing from anyone who has a complaint against Stroman.

By now any of you who are regular readers should know my opinion of resale companies that charge large upfront fees for listings. Among other things, if such companies worked half as hard at selling timeshares as they do at getting those listings, the value of resales would not be so low. What they are doing may be legal, but in my opinion it is far from ethical.

As the article also points out:

Howard Nusbaum, president of ARDA, is also concerned. “We do have an ethics code and we’ve censured members and removed members,” he says. “If they’re doing something, we’d want to know it.”

But perhaps Nusbaum is just like most everyone else, from ill-informed consumers to prominent leaders in Conroe, all of whom simply don’t know much about Wayne Stroman and his business. Nothing, that is, except he seems like a great guy.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Thanks for the information.....and confirmation about what most of us know about this type of slime. Too bad all those he has and continues to dupe do not have a clue.

This type of story cannot be repeated enough.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

Glad he is in trouble ! He owes me $99 from a long time ago because I sold my place before he did. At the time that is what they said.
" If you sell your timeshare before we do we will refund all the money that you paid us ! "
I don't see how the place has stayed in business all this time.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

I don't see how the place has stayed in business all this time.

He stays in business because he spends $3.5 million a year in advertising himself!!

[TimeshareVon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TimeshareVon]

Glad he is in trouble ! He owes me $99 from a long time ago because I sold my place before he did. At the time that is what they said.
" If you sell your timeshare before we do we will refund all the money that you paid us ! "
I don't see how the place has stayed in business all this time.

Mustta been a long time ago if you only paid the schmuck $99.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Why is there so much deception in the timeshare industry?

It is a great product for a family to vacation in style if people were only told the truth. Truth #1 is to buy for use mainly and you will be happy with your purchase. If you can exchange to another location, every once and a while, that would be icing on the cake.

[somerville Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close somerville]

Here is a link to the entire article. I don't know how long it will be valid.

Houston - News - Critics question realtor Wayne Stroman's timeshare resale business

[eal Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eal]

iconnections,
I so agree! Timesharing is the greatest thing since sliced bread - why are developers so greedy, why are their sales tactics so brutal, and why are there so many unscrupulous people associated with resales?

It has to do with potential buyer ignorance, but why has the public stayed ignorant for so long?

Thank goodness for sites like this one.

[TimeshareVon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TimeshareVon]

Thanks for sharing the link to the article. I thought it was very well written and accurately reflected the issues at hand with upfront fee companies like Stroman.

[Theo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Theo]

Thank you for your efforts in posting this link. Interesting article, although there are few surprises therein regarding the parasitic practices of "upfront fee" companies like Stroman. What I DID learn from the article was the fact that Wayne Stroman had actually prevailed in a 2005 federal court decision. That was news to me --- and not at all reassuring. Caveat Emptor........

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

Wouldn't it be great if timeshare salesmen was actually honest with buyers? All too often the owner becomes aware of something after the contract was signed and ends up costing big bucks for a very long time.
If they would just be honest ,that would improve the the whole business of timeshare clubs and what people think of them.
A timeshare salesman once told me, " there's nothing wrong with timeshares except for the way we market them. "
I have often wondered why one day they decided on to be dishonest.
It could have been a great product. You can get a lot more done by being honest !

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Wouldn't it be great if timeshare salesmen was actually honest with buyers? All too often the owner becomes aware of something after the contract was signed and ends up costing big bucks for a very long time.
If they would just be honest ,that would improve the the whole business of timeshare clubs and what people think of them.
A timeshare salesman once told me, " there's nothing wrong with timeshares except for the way we market them. "
I have often wondered why one day they decided on to be dishonest.
It could have been a great product. You can get a lot more done by being honest !

It all had to do with trying to sell all those Blue/White/Pink weeks. You can't sell those to the masses without lying. That's why the shift to points but they still lie.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

It all had to do with trying to sell all those Blue/White/Pink weeks. You can't sell those to the masses without lying. That's why the shift to points but they still lie.

This is a major problem for timeshares which have only one real season and the reason why some areas have few or no timeshares.
Getting back to Stroman, they have been skirting and ignoring the law for years and keep getting away with it.

[Theo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Theo]

Re: >> Getting back to Stroman, they have been skirting and ignoring the law for years and keep getting away with it.<<
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I'm not waving Stroman's flag -- not at all. That clearly stated, however, if Wayne Stroman wins cases against him in court (FEDERAL court at that -- not just some Podunk, Texas court) --- and he HAS done so --- then it would appear that either he is NOT in violation of the law, or the applicable laws are just grossly inadequate.