We bought our first contract from home, having never been through a tour (though spent a lot of time researching and crunching the numbers). Our guide, Don, was helpful in every way possible. Any info I needed, sent instantly. He was honest, didn't try to pull wool over our eyes or anything of the sort. We purchased when the minimum was 75 (purchased 80). Don didn't push back at all or try to upsell.
For the most part, if you go in knowing what you want to purchase, you get connected with a guide, let them know what you want (resort/points/UY) and then from there they just give you the pricing info. If you like, pay or set up financing. Only issue you could run into is if you're requesting points from an already "sold out" resort. You may have to go onto a waiting list if the amount of points/UY is not available.
We paid cash up front so he took my credit card info and we were all set.
Welcome package and documents came about 3 days later through FedEx. Signed and sent back in.
From this point, we never really got confirmation when our contract closed, but about a month after we sent in our paperwork, my wife and I got our blue cards and a nice welcome home 8x10.