Any Feedback on TTS?

[mickey's bud]

I'm going through the buying process (for the first time), and am going through TTS. Can anyone offer an opinion or insight on them? Good, bad or indifferent?
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

 

[andriade]

You and I are in the same boat. I am a week into this and have had really good luck. The escrow company even called me yesterday. Hopefully we will both be DVC owners soon. Good luck! My stuf is at Disney now for the ROFR.

 

[GGjertsen]

I'm in the middle of my second purchase through them. I had absolutely no problems at all with the first and the second is going just as smoothly.

 

[DVCconvert]

I currently have two pending contracts through the Timeshare Store, and have purchased 4 others from them over the last year +.

Polite, friendly, professional, prompt, helpful;
Are the words that first jump into my mind in offering my assessement of their service and personnel.

A year or so ago I did buy a contract with another broker. While that went 'ok', it was no wheres near the level of professionalism as the purchases I've made with TTS.

Unless they could find me a 1000 point contract for BWV @ $ 25 per point (and have Disney pass it) -- I couldn't be happier with them!

I think you're in good hands!

 

[dianeschlicht]

FYI, while we have only heard positive things about TTS, we are hearing some pretty awful things about how their closing agency is handling things. My advice is that you have an attorney looking after your interests for closing.

 

[dis-happy]

TTS (The Timeshare Store) is a great resource for resale contracts. When I was first looking, they had the most to choose from with new ones coming up every day. We've purchased twice through them. The closing agent is a different company: Timeshare Closing Services. Some people (myself included) have had some problems---some of the mistakes posted lately were doozies. However, loads of other contracts have gone through without a problem. The thing to remember is this: as the buyer, YOU get to choose the closing company. There are several to choose from (ask the seller's broker for some names), call around and compare fees, and make your decision. If you say nothing, TTS will automatically feed you into TCS for closing. HTH

Edited to add: TTS is not just a good resource, all the agents there are very knowledgable and helpful. It is very well run, someone will answer your questions or get back to you right away. People here are the boards even have their favorite agents to brag about...

 

[Cruelladeville]

As a seller, I can't say enough good things about them. My timeshare was sold, and the money was in my hands in less than 4 weeks. It was painless. Now, as a potential buyer I have had nothing but bad luck with them. 5 years ago I tried to buy two separate contracts, and after 5 months of being strung along, I bought directly from Disney, and it took two days. Recently I tried to buy several other contracts from them, and it was the opposite--everything was rush, rush, and there were so many people waiting in line to buy that no offers were considered. It was suggested that I might want to bid ABOVE the asking price, so I went elsewhere, and purchased a 270 pt contract, which I'm happy with.

 

[JimMIA]

I recently purchased through TTS (Pat Spell was my agent) and I was very happy with everything in the end. I had a situation with a seller that I was not pleased with, but TTS handled that perfectly.

Others will offer glowing recommendations for other brokers who have done good jobs for them, but I think everybody recognizes that TTS is the major force in this market. They are very professional at all levels of the organization, and it is a mark of their committment to their industry that they are the sponsor of this particular DIS board.

The DVC resale space is a difficult market, and the process itself is complex, frustrating, and unreliable. In that environment, I want the most experienced, most professional people on my side. That's not to say that other agents aren't good - they are - but if I had it to do all over again, I would certainly use TTS. I would recommend TTS without reservation.

Your question was specifically about TTS, so I think I'll leave it at that.

 

[mickey's bud]

Thanks all for your thoughts/input. So far I only have nice things to say about them. Today I talked to Disney directly inquiring about "resale" through them. The woman I spoke to was great, and even "endorsed" TTS to a certain degree.
However....has anyone heard this: when I talked with her, I told her I was considering a contract with TTS, and she gave me a few things to look out for. One of them specifically hit home....in my contract, there were 160 "on hold" points that "must to be used by 2/1/06". The DVC advisor I spoke to told me even if Disney approves the contract, they do not transfer those points. That is a fairly large "bummer" to me....that's enough points for a 4-5 night stay that I was looking forward to.
I'm re-running the numbers, and considering going direct through Disney on their "wait-list" (according to the advisor, I'm first in line). Any idea how long a 225 point contract with no specified UY will take?
Thanks again!!

 

[TENNDVC]

You don't mention which resort you are looking at but I received an email that Disney now has 2000 OKW points in inventory for sale with April use year. Good luck with your purchase

 

[JeanJoe]

One of them specifically hit home....in my contract, there were 160 "on hold" points that "must to be used by 2/1/06". The DVC advisor I spoke to told me even if Disney approves the contract, they do not transfer those points. That is a fairly large "bummer" to me....

Wow, I'd never heard that before, and that would change the value of the contract somewhat (although not as much as normal "banked" points).

I have to wonder whether it is accurate information from DVC, though, because TTS has been around long enough to know that if this were true, you would think they would not be including this information in the resale contract descriptions.

Anyone here who has bought a resale contract with distressed points able to clarify?

 

[dianeschlicht]

I suspect the holding points might actually have to be canceled. I'm not sure, but I think points in holding might be treated much like a reservation, and those are canceled by Disney when a sale is made. I would pursue that question a bit higher up.

 

[awatt]

Our recent experience with the TSS has been great. The whole process has been very easy and our agent Jason was right on the money with advice and timeline. Would not hesitate to use them again.

 

[T.E. Yeary]

This was the PM I sent to "Mickey's bud" earlier. I saw the posts on this board and I'll just post it again for you here!!!!!

The information you recieved from the guide, as you've related it to me, is wrong, wrong, wrong! Could she have misunderstood what you were saying? If not, then I want your guide's name and I will be speaking to their supervisor. Disney needs to know when their guides are misrepresenting, or are in ignorance of their product on the Resale market. It really galls me that someone who represents a company with a squeaky clean reputation, would seek to tarnish ours!

We have been transferring holding points on a consistent basis for many, many years. As long as it is written in the contract, NO PROBLEM!

We take pride in the job we do for the DVC sellers and those that purchase their packages. We certainly could not have survived over 11 years and over 4,000 sales later with misrepresentation!

I spoke to Jason at his home and he will be in touch with you on Monday.

I look forward to hearing from you with that name.

Regards,
Tom

 

[rinkwide]

...Disney needs to know when their guides are misrepresenting, or are in ignorance of their product on the Resale market...

You think they really care?

If our guide is typical of the rest (and I'll bet he is) they'll do anything to disuade you from looking into the resale market.

A favorite strategy seems to be using half-truths as scare tactics like the above example. When my guide found out I was going to buy resale he scoffed and said, "You'll never pass right-of-first-refusal".

 

[JimMIA]

I'm sure your guide just misspoke, and it is probably an understandable mistake. I'm sure if DVC ROFRs a contract with points in holding status, they just throw the points away. But, as Tom said, in a resale you will get whatever points are present in the contract at the time of closing. Everything will be specified in the closing documents.

Whether holding points are of any real value to you, however, is another matter. Be sure you understand what they are and how they must be used because they are not "normal" points.

Holding points can only be used for a DVC property reservation made less than 60 days from check-in, or a Disney, World Passport, Concierge, or Adventure Collection reservation made less than 60 days from check-in, and more than 60 days prior to the end of your use year.

Those are severe restrictions, and you are going to have very limited availability less than two months out. The points are not unusable, but you are going to have to be flexible and take whatever you can get.

 

[JimMIA]

I would also encourage you to take some comments made by guides with a very large helping of salt. They are very knowledgeable with their product, their terms, incentives, financing, etc.

They're not particularly knowledgeable about the resale market and obviously have a vested interest in encouraging sales direct from DVC. They also are frequently wrong about all sorts of perks, where the next DVC property will be, and a million other things.

For most stuff, they're guessing just like the rest of us. Some people are just congenitally unable to say "I don't know!"

 

[CarolMN]

I'm sure your guide just misspoke, and it is probably an understandable mistake. I'm sure if DVC ROFRs a contract with points in holding status, they just throw the points away. But, as Tom said, in a resale you will get whatever points are present in the contract at the time of closing. Everything will be specified in the closing documents.

Whether holding points are of any real value to you, however, is another matter. Be sure you understand what they are and how they must be used because they are not "normal" points.

Holding points can only be used for a DVC property reservation made less than 60 days from check-in, or a Disney, World Passport, Concierge, or Adventure Collection reservation made less than 60 days from check-in, and more than 60 days prior to the end of your use year.

Those are severe restrictions, and you are going to have very limited availability less than two months out. The points are not unusable, but you are going to have to be flexible enough and take whatever you can get.

I agree with you. But that said, the points don't expire until 2/1/2006. That's lots of time. I can't imagine that the purchaser will have too much trouble using /renting them before then. He/She may not get top dollar for renting or prime season DVC reservations, but I don't think he/she would need to have a "fire-sale" either - at least not until November, LOL.

Best wishes -

 

[dianeschlicht]

This was the PM I sent to "Mickey's bud" earlier. I saw the posts on this board and I'll just post it again for you here!!!!!

The information you recieved from the guide, as you've related it to me, is wrong, wrong, wrong! Could she have misunderstood what you were saying? If not, then I want your guide's name and I will be speaking to their supervisor. Disney needs to know when their guides are misrepresenting, or are in ignorance of their product on the Resale market. It really galls me that someone who represents a company with a squeaky clean reputation, would seek to tarnish ours!

We have been transferring holding points on a consistent basis for many, many years. As long as it is written in the contract, NO PROBLEM!

We take pride in the job we do for the DVC sellers and those that purchase their packages. We certainly could not have survived over 11 years and over 4,000 sales later with misrepresentation!

I spoke to Jason at his home and he will be in touch with you on Monday.

I look forward to hearing from you with that name.

Regards,
Tom

Good to know that holding points can be kept intact. I would have wondered about that simiply because existing reservations are canceld by Disney when a contract is sold. I thought perhaps holding account points were handled the same way.

 

[JimMIA]

You think they really care?

If our guide is typical of the rest (and I'll bet he is) they'll do anything to disuade you from looking into the resale market.

A favorite strategy seems to be using half-truths as scare tactics like the above example. When my guide found out I was going to buy resale he scoffed and said, "You'll never pass right-of-first-refusal".

My guide did the same thing. She told me they'd had a big meeting and DVC was going to start ROFRing EVERYthing!

I was buying an OKW resale (and she knew that), and less than a month previously DVC had sent out a batch of emails to current members saying they had what appeared to be more than 10,000 OKW points in inventory available for anyone who wanted them. That's hardly a situation which should encourage them to ROFR aggressively, but she still insisted nothing was going through. Needless to say, my contract passed ROFR.