Westin St John's Timeshare Resale re Staroptions

iqmavin · May 25, 2016

I'm purchasing a timeshare at the Westin St John. My question is can I have the staroptions banked before I finalize the purchase and ensure I get them? It's my understanding that this resort is a Mandatory resort so the star options benefits stay with the unit.

Pedro · May 25, 2016

iqmavin said:
I'm purchasing a timeshare at the Westin St John's. My question is can I have the staroptions banked before I finalize the purchase and ensure I get them? It's my understanding that this resort is a Mandatory resort so the star options benefits stay with the unit.

You might want to ask the question in the Vistana (previously know as Starwood) forum. I am sure somebody will have the correct answer there.

DeniseM · May 25, 2016

You cannot do anything, until the deed is officially in your name AND has been recognized by the VSE title office, and you are most likely miss the deadline to roll the Staroptions over, which is the end of June.

I recommend that you call the VSE Title Office and discuss it with them:

Title Dept.
You can email or FAX your new (recorded) deed to VSE/Starwood yourself-
Phone 1-800-729-8246 ext. 62291
Fax 1-407-418-7211
Email to send deeds to -
00SVO-TitleChanges@starwoodvo.com
or
00SVO.TitleChanges@starwoodhotels.com

SandyPGravel · May 25, 2016

iqmavin said:
I'm purchasing a timeshare at the Westin St John's. My question is can I have the staroptions banked before I finalize the purchase and ensure I get them? It's my understanding that this resort is a Mandatory resort so the star options benefits stay with the unit.

Wouldn't the options, if banked prior to transfer, stay with the previous owner's account? I don't think you could bank the options for yourself until the deed is in your name and the options would then go into your SVN account. Is the problem the deed will not be in your name before July 1?

Someone please correct me if I am off-base here.

Oops, Denise types faster than I do!

iqmavin · May 25, 2016

DeniseM said:
You cannot do anything, until the deed is officially in your name AND has been recognized by the VSE title office, and you are most likely miss the deadline to roll the Staroptions over, which is the end of June.

I recommend that you call the VSE Title Office and discuss it with them:

Title Dept.
You can email or FAX your new (recorded) deed to VSE/Starwood yourself-
Phone 1-800-729-8246 ext. 62291
Fax 1-407-418-7211
Email to send deeds to -
00SVO-TitleChanges@starwoodvo.com
or
00SVO.TitleChanges@starwoodhotels.com

Thanks for the QUICK reply and good info! I'll give them a call.

iqmavin · May 25, 2016

Pedro said:
You might want to ask the question in the Vistana (previously know as Starwood) forum. I am sure somebody will have the correct answer there.

Thanks Pedro. I'm new to this. Denise picked it up in this Vistana Forum about the same time you replied. All the best

DeniseM · May 25, 2016

These email addresses won't be accurate, since the recent roll-over to VSE, but hopefully, the phone number is.

00SVO-TitleChanges@starwoodvo.com
or
00SVO.TitleChanges@starwoodhotels.com

lawboy2001 · May 25, 2016

iqmavin said:
I'm purchasing a timeshare at the Westin St John. My question is can I have the staroptions banked before I finalize the purchase and ensure I get them? It's my understanding that this resort is a Mandatory resort so the star options benefits stay with the unit.

This is an arrangement you would make with the seller as part of your agreement. There should be no problem having the existing owner bank the options before completing the sale...the broker should be the go between and confirm with you that the options have been banked.

DeniseM · May 25, 2016

lawboy2001 said:
This is an arrangement you would make with the seller as part of your agreement. There should be no problem having the existing owner bank the options before completing the sale...the broker should be the go between and confirm with you that the options have been banked.

It doesn't work this way with VSE:

When you transfer a deed between seller and buyer, only the deed transfers - not the original owner's account.

If the current owner banks the Staroptions before transfer, they will go in his Acct. - not the buyers.

If the current owner has other VSE timeshares in his Acct. - the banked Staroptions will stay in his Acct.

If this is the current owner's only VSE mandatory deed, his Account will be closed, and the Staroptions will expire, when the deed transfers.

iqmavin · Jun 4, 2016

Westin St John transfer

Our attorney facilitating the transfer has completed the contract. I've been remiss in calling VSE and when I tried they were closed today. Plan on doing it first thing Monday morning.

I need a reality check if possible. How quickly can VSE recognize the title? Is there anything I can/should be doing to get this done before I'm locked out of banking the star options?

I've asked the attorney to include the expedited closing date in the contract. The tax clearance letter has been ordered and the title commitment will be ordered as soon as attorney has a copy of my trust.

Any other suggestions to get me through this?

I appreciate everyone's willingness to lend a hand. Look forward to return the favor and pay it forward.

All the best

SandyPGravel · Jun 4, 2016

iqmavin said:
Our attorney facilitating the transfer has completed the contract. I've been remiss in calling VSE and when I tried they were closed today. Plan on doing it first thing Monday morning.

I need a reality check if possible. How quickly can VSE recognize the title? Is there anything I can/should be doing to get this done before I'm locked out of banking the star options?

I've asked the attorney to include the expedited closing date in the contract. The tax clearance letter has been ordered and the title commitment will be ordered as soon as attorney has a copy of my trust.

Any other suggestions to get me through this?

I appreciate everyone's willingness to lend a hand. Look forward to return the favor and pay it forward.

All the best

Cross your fingers. I am pretty sure it took two weeks for the tax clearance letter and then another two weeks for the deed to be recorded and another two weeks for VSE to process the title when we did this last year. You should definitely call VSE as soon as you email the deed and if before the end of June beg them to process ASAP. Good luck, I'll cross my fingers for you too.

iqmavin · Jun 16, 2016

New Vistana Deed Transfer email address

I just completed my purchase at St John. As part of my follow up I found out there is a NEW email address for title transfers: titlechanges@vistana.com.

This has caused many transfers to be delayed because they were sent to the wrong address.

They are advertising 10-14 business day turnaround, but have been averaging less than that. I'm hopeful mine will be done before that.

All the best

SandyPGravel · Jun 16, 2016

Congrats!! :cheer:

Looks like you might make the deadline after all!

iqmavin · Jul 14, 2016

Success on the transfer and banking of star options

Thanks to everyone for all of your help. Made the cutoff date and now I am star options rich. Everyone at Vistana was very helpful.

Mw36 · Jul 15, 2016

Just out of curiosity how much are the Maintenance Fees for resort? I was looking at a similar offer.

DeniseM · Jul 15, 2016

Mw36 said:
Just out of curiosity how much are the Maintenance Fees for resort? I was looking at a similar offer.

At the top of the forum, there is a link to our MF data base.

DavidnRobin · Jul 15, 2016

Mw36 said:
Just out of curiosity how much are the Maintenance Fees for resort? I was looking at a similar offer.

If this is for WSJ-VGV:
Don't forget that PropTax are billed separately.
And SVN fee if you don't not already have SVN fees.