One of the first questions I asked a broker was, who do you represent? They represent neither buyer nor seller - they are merely a transaction facilitator. They make money if a sale occurs and more money if the price/point is higher. You haven't probably gotten this far yet, but some brokers will let you pick the title company to use because the title company is actually the entity that does most of the work to close the purchase and sale. And, I think it's fair to say that not all are created equal, both in price and service. I think two of the better regarded ones by folks on these boards are
dvcclosings.com and
masontiitle.com.
AKV - well, you're a 1 BR preferred view person, which at AKV means safari view (which I personally think is great). You need home resort priority during the holidays (sort of like almost every
DVC resort more or less), and you need home resort priority for their value and club level 1 BR villas. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can't guarantee a view with those and they can be incredibly difficult to book, even if you're ready to go at 8 am 11 months from your desired reservation date - people probably "walk" them. The club/value room inventory is very low and they are a quite unique category of rooms. For all other 1 BR villas (really, regardless of view), you'd be better off economically with SSR points and using them to book AKV when you want to stay there. They're pretty easy to book at 7 months.