Opinions on Resale Realtors

[NoleFan]

We had great experiences with DVCbyResale & TSS.

 

[Gandalfs Apprentice]

Had very good experiences with DVC by Resale, Timeshare Store and Fidelity. Don't worry too much about others experiences. Just pick the best contract and go for it! Good Luck!

Same three for me! Only purchase process with Fidelity, but all helped with offers. Within the small scope of professional DVC brokers (so perhaps excluding eBay), choose the contract, not the broker.

 

[agie65]

We were the first buyer. Our process was completed in that the seller accepted our offer.
The second buyer came along after but Fidelity got a better commission from them and bounced us. She posted on here when she made offer and when it was accepted--both were after us.
It would have been great and the ethical thing if they allowed the first buyer (us) to complete the process through closing.

Interesting, if seller had already accepted the offer then you are right it must be the commission.
Interestingly, I have put offers with other big brokers and they will not return my call/offer but after some time they will call and say " other agent sold it for full asking price".
So brokers some time will do some thing you know may be unethical but they are the only one knows the real truth, and may be for money they will do it again and again.
By the way why you did not call fidelity and dealt directly rather then going thru other broker?

 

[agie65]

Yes I read your post. Thats usually key before crafting a lengthy response, as I did to your initial thread. I understand that you are frustrated for having lost out on an ideal contract. Unfortunately, it comes with the resale territory, and is part of the pain that we deal with for the discounted price vs buying direct. If you lost the contract as a direct result of deceitful practices on behalf of Fidelity, then your frustrations are definitely warranted. If I could see definitive proof that Fidelity engaged in the practices that you described above, then I would change my opinion of them and would consider other brokers for future purchases. The point that I am trying to make is that you are assuming that this all played out as YOUR broker told you. Did you ever speak to anyone directly at Fidelity yourself? Im guessing the answer to be no. Does YOUR broker have anything to gain from making Fidelity look bad? Sure they do.

Consider this plot: You made your offer on Friday to YOUR broker, offering to pay asking price + closing costs. Your broker assumes this to be a slam dunk as there will be no negotiations, tells you that the offer has been accepted, and waits until Monday to formerly submit the offer with Fidelity. Low and behold, by the time your broker contacts Fidelity first of the week, the contract has already sold. Rather than telling you that YOUR broker dropped the ball, they point the finger at Fidelity.

Is this a stretch? Probably. But who really knows? Youre going on the word of your broker alone. Im going on my past experience, and the experience of many others on this forum that have been positive.

You have a valid point.

 

[blessed2BaMama]

We worked with Fidelity for our first ever DVC contract in May. Sharon was pleasant and competent. I have 2 major problems with them, one that is a common thread throughout many people's experiences the other is strictly mine.
1) they did not EVER follow up with the seller when the documents or signatures had not arrived without my calling, emailing and begging for information. Yes, sellers can take their time and Yes, Fidelity deals with a high volume of clients BUT if I was Fidelity and I received a certain document from one party, I would make a reminder in my computer to follow up with the other party if documents weren't received within a week. With Fidelity, when I called, it was always: "Oh, let me check...No we haven't received anything from the seller...Let me check with them..." What if I never asked?? This was our first resale and we wanted that membership number and points asap and we lost close to 3 weeks with no follow up from Fidelity to the seller when documents were not received.
2) I sent a letter with my initial contract and another with the closing documents to both Fidelity and the title agency (First American Title) with my SSN and a password to be added to my account when Disney set up the account in hopes of being able to confirm my identity by phone and receive my membership number by phone from Member Services/Member Administration. Guess what - Disney never received any of this information and again, once my account was set up and the points were loaded, I had to wait another 9 days for the letter in the mail...I confirmed with many people in the MA dept who checked over and over as well as by the title company who talked to someone in the DVC contracts dept and this info was never received and could not be added. Someone dropped the ball and it was not me...

We are currently in the process of closing on our second resale contract, this time using the Timeshare Store and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Documents arrived within hours of offer accepted and we were in ROFR the NEXT DAY! The title company has been faster and more thorough and they have notified us that our documents will be arriving soon by email and asked for confirmation from seller and buyer as soon as we receive them - (a major source of delay with Fidelity was the sellers claiming they never received their package). While everything is not finished, I will recommend TSS from now on as they have performed much better in my contract process...

My final thoughts:
1. Fidelity is known for having cheaper base prices for contracts however they do not update their website faithfully and you never know if what you see is available. Also many contracts are under water and in distress and must have a much higher price than those on TSS. You may save a few dollars per point but I am not sure that it is worth it when you add on the $195 fee. If time is of the essence, especially for first time buyers, Fidelity is slower consistently and you may find yourself following behind them to make sure things advance!

2. TSS has slightly higher initial prices but they also will tell you if a price/offer will most probably not pass ROFR, Fidelity told me - "we can try". They have consistently sent all paperwork immediately and that is impressive! I think the price I paid for my recent BLT contract through TSS was right in line, and even slightly lower than the averages and Fidelity currently doesn't have any for sale (that are loaded like mine) at that price either so I didn't pay more to work with a more attentive company! They have my loyalty!!

 

[agie65]

We worked with Fidelity for our first ever DVC contract in May. Sharon was pleasant and competent. I have 2 major problems with them, one that is a common thread throughout many people's experiences the other is strictly mine.
1) they did not EVER follow up with the seller when the documents or signatures had not arrived without my calling, emailing and begging for information. Yes, sellers can take their time and Yes, Fidelity deals with a high volume of clients BUT if I was Fidelity and I received a certain document from one party, I would make a reminder in my computer to follow up with the other party if documents weren't received within a week. With Fidelity, when I called, it was always: "Oh, let me check...No we haven't received anything from the seller...Let me check with them..." What if I never asked?? This was our first resale and we wanted that membership number and points asap and we lost close to 3 weeks with no follow up from Fidelity to the seller when documents were not received.
2) I sent a letter with my initial contract and another with the closing documents to both Fidelity and the title agency (First American Title) with my SSN and a password to be added to my account when Disney set up the account in hopes of being able to confirm my identity by phone and receive my membership number by phone from Member Services/Member Administration. Guess what - Disney never received any of this information and again, once my account was set up and the points were loaded, I had to wait another 9 days for the letter in the mail...I confirmed with many people in the MA dept who checked over and over as well as by the title company who talked to someone in the DVC contracts dept and this info was never received and could not be added. Someone dropped the ball and it was not me...
We are currently in the process of closing on our second resale contract, this time using the Timeshare Store and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Documents arrived within hours of offer accepted and we were in ROFR the NEXT DAY! The title company has been faster and more thorough and they have notified us that our documents will be arriving soon by email and asked for confirmation from seller and buyer as soon as we receive them - (a major source of delay with Fidelity was the sellers claiming they never received their package). While everything is not finished, I will recommend TSS from now on as they have performed much better in my contract process...

My final thoughts:
1. Fidelity is known for having cheaper base prices for contracts however they do not update their website faithfully and you never know if what you see is available. Also many contracts are under water and in distress and must have a much higher price than those on TSS. You may save a few dollars per point but I am not sure that it is worth it when you add on the $195 fee. If time is of the essence, especially for first time buyers, Fidelity is slower consistently and you may find yourself following behind them to make sure things advance!

2. TSS has slightly higher initial prices but they also will tell you if a price/offer will most probably not pass ROFR, Fidelity told me - "we can try". They have consistently sent all paperwork immediately and that is impressive! I think the price I paid for my recent BLT contract through TSS was right in line, and even slightly lower than the averages and Fidelity currently doesn't have any for sale (that are loaded like mine) at that price either so I didn't pay more to work with a more attentive company! They have my loyalty!!

Disney does not adds SSN until unless you bought direct and finance with them.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Disney does not adds SSN until unless you bought direct and finance with them.

We bought resale and paid cash 5 years ago and they have asked for the last 4 of our SSN. Before online booking they usually if not always asked when you call.

 

[francie57]

So far I have had great contact from the TSS and never heard back from Fidelity. Fidelity has a few contracts where the price per points seem extremely low compared to all the other agencies. That makes me worry that Disney would use the ROFR on that one since it is so low. We have two contracts that the TSS has and are putting together our offers. We are going to offer lower than the price per point that they are asking and will negotiate from there since the price is much better than the $130 that Disney is asking for the BW. Hopefully this will all go well and we will have the first contract done soon since the other one can't close until after the first of the year since I guess the owner must have a trip planned. The first contract more than covers our annual Aug trip so we could make that reservation as soon as we have the points available. Wish us luck on all this since it is a new experience for us to go through.

 

[SFlaDisneyfans]

We recently closed on our resale using TSS. Overal the process was smooth and we would use them again. The one opportunity for them is that we felt the communication with our agent at TSS could have been better. We would definitely use TSS again when we purchase our next contract but will prefer another agent handle the purchase. This issue was not something we attribute to TSS as a whole as we have had great communication with other agents when renting points and the like.

 

[agie65]

We bought resale and paid cash 5 years ago and they have asked for the last 4 of our SSN. Before online booking they usually if not always asked when you call.

Not any more.

 

[quandrea]

Just closed with fidelity. Have also bought from TSS. I felt the rss was less willing to present lower offers. I got an amazing deal with fidelity. $60 per point at akl. Loaded contract with banked points. Seller paid closing. 160 Pts. TSS would, and did talk me out of presenting such offers.

Anyway the deals to be had with fidelity are worth having to chase them a little. They were professional, responded to email and all went smoothly. Took a little time but so worth it.

 

[francie57]

We just put in two offers on two contracts with TSS. The agent had no problem with us making a lower offer than the asking price - he actually encouraged it. Waiting to hear back. I contact fidelity an a few occasions for offers they had for BW but never heard anything from them. They had one contract that was very low and I was actually worried about it not passing ROFR because it was much lower than the average price being paid. Hopefully we will get our offers accepted and move to the next stage of the process.

 

[JustTinking]

Just closed with fidelity. Have also bought from TSS. I felt the rss was less willing to present lower offers. I got an amazing deal with fidelity. $60 per point at akl. Loaded contract with banked points. Seller paid closing. 160 Pts. TSS would, and did talk me out of presenting such offers.

Anyway the deals to be had with fidelity are worth having to chase them a little. They were professional, responded to email and all went smoothly. Took a little time but so worth it.

Good for you. Thankfully AKV is actively being sold so Disney doesn't do much ROFR there yet.

 

[agie65]

We just put in two offers on two contracts with TSS. The agent had no problem with us making a lower offer than the asking price - he actually encouraged it. Waiting to hear back. I contact fidelity an a few occasions for offers they had for BW but never heard anything from them. They had one contract that was very low and I was actually worried about it not passing ROFR because it was much lower than the average price being paid. Hopefully we will get our offers accepted and move to the next stage of the process.

Never hurt trying.

 

[francie57]

We are extremely with the 2 offers we put in for the BW through TSS and both were accepted within a few hours. Sending back paperwork and now have to get through ROFR and then on to closing. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. Our agent with TSS has been great and actually got a few things added to our offers that save us even more.

 

[kroy]

Very helpful information on this thread! I've just started to seriously look into buying into the DVC via resale. It looks to me like the Resale Store gets consistently good marks, generally better than Fidelity. I first casually looked at what was available via resale last winter, and it seems to me that there were many more listings at that time. I'm interested in the VWL as my home resort, and there are VERY few current listings, while last winter there were many. Also, the price per point seems to have gone from about $65 to $80 or more. Is this all caused by supply and demand? Is it a seasonal thing? Should I expect more VWL listings to show up late in the year, and are prices likely to come down? I'm looking for 200-215 points, and the use year isn't critical to me.

 

[Andrew015]

Very helpful information on this thread! I've just started to seriously look into buying into the DVC via resale. It looks to me like the Resale Store gets consistently good marks, generally better than Fidelity. I first casually looked at what was available via resale last winter, and it seems to me that there were many more listings at that time. I'm interested in the VWL as my home resort, and there are VERY few current listings, while last winter there were many. Also, the price per point seems to have gone from about $65 to $80 or more. Is this all caused by supply and demand? Is it a seasonal thing? Should I expect more VWL listings to show up late in the year, and are prices likely to come down? I'm looking for 200-215 points, and the use year isn't critical to me.

Hi Kroy,

With the release of VGF, Disney announced a price increase for DVC purchases bought directly from Disney. They also had a significant increase in the amount of contracts that they exercised their ROFR on during this same time period. With both of these things combined, it caused resale prices to jump as well. So basically, you can call it supply and demand. But I wouldn't necessarily call it free market supply and demand rather, the market was partly manipulated by Disney's actions described above.

Nevertheless, "it is what it is" as they say. Resale prices have risen sharply over what you would have paid last year. If you are patient, I suspect that we will see another down cycle somewhere in the 2014-2015 time period, prior to the release of Poly DVC. Then I think its safe to say that we can count on Disney pulling the same strings with Poly DVC as they did with VGF - announcing yet another price increase and causing another "run" on DVC sales at that time. This is my opinion only, so take it for what it is worth, but I think the best time to buy will be the next slump prior to Poly DVC coming online. Please don't take this as gospel - I cannot guarantee that there will be a resale slump, but my feeling is that prices will pull back sometime between 2014-2015.

As for VWL, this is the smallest of all DVC resorts, and it has a pretty devout following, so the amount of contracts that come available tend to be on the low side. However, I promise, you WILL find one that fits your criteria, and it wont take that long. Don't be afraid to make a low-ball offer, but also know that with the limited amount of contracts that hit the resale market, it might be awhile before you see another one come up. You will have to determine what price you want to offer, and how long you are willing to wait for "the one". If you have lots of time and flexibility, I say hold out for one that meets your desired price. Search the ROFR thread and see what the lowest prices are sneaking through ROFR, and use this as a basis for your $/point tolerance. If you have to have it now, I recommend offering as close to asking price as your budget will allow. In the end, even at $80/point, you are far below what you would pay direct, even if it is substantially higher than what you would have paid last year. The good news is, as you can see, DVC tends to hold it's value pretty well when purchased via resale.

Best of luck with your decision, and I hope you find the perfect VWL contract.

 

[chrisaman]

Heres to hoping to good fortunes on the resale market