# Possible pitfalls of buying on Ebay



## dkride4 (Jan 16, 2011)

I have been looking on Ebay and have seen several timeshares at the Westin Ka'anapala for $1 starting bids.  The fees are all posted that will be due on purchase.  

What possible pitfalls are there to bidding on these?  Are they for real? 

Thanks so much.

Bridget


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## falmouth3 (Jan 16, 2011)

Hi Bridget,
These are for real.  However, most of the bidding for the good timeshares will be in the last minutes or seconds.  Many people "snipe" their bids then.

Watch a few before you make any bids.  Ask questions here - people will be happy to give you advice.

Also, before bidding, look at the ratings for the sellers.  

Good luck and welcome.

Sue


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## MommaBear (Jan 16, 2011)

I have made three seperate purchases of timeshares over the last year. All have gone smoothly. The things I look for are those with good history (many sales), good ratings (happy customers) and those that spell out the week, the unit, the view, the closing costs. You can also see history of successful bids. I would love to buy at Ka'anapali, but the price of admission and the annual maintenance fees have me buying units I can use to exchange in there. You should also look at the "for sale" ads here on TUG, as the prices seem to be comprable to those on ebay and you are often going through a real estate broker. The other wrinkle with Hawaiian TS sales is that you need to use a closing agent based in Hawaii.  Happy hunting!


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## dkride4 (Jan 16, 2011)

Thanks so much Sue.  I really appreciate the people on the boards here helping me work my way through it.

the ones I am lookin at have sellers with high four digit ratings.  

Am I allowed to ask who to stay away from?   

Bridget


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## fishingguy (Jan 16, 2011)

*lots to consider and prepare for (sorry for the long post)*

I'll answer things from a little different perspective, since you've already got some good advice.  Buying from eBay does require some thought and leg work; and it can take more effort than one would intially imagine.  So here are some things that can go wrong, what you want to be on the look out for after you make the sale, and how to prepare:

-* What you are being offered in the follow-up documents is not what was in the auction.* Read any followup purchase agreements with the seller, contracts with the title company, etc. to ensure the descriptions match what was listed in the sale.  In addition, make sure to do a detailed review on any estoppel letters (descibing the property), deed submittals, etc. to ensure they reflect your expectations. In fact, request a copy of an estoppel letter as soon as you can from the seller/closing company -- it is typically provided by the resort and identifies if MF are in overdue, property description, week ownership, and other details about the property.

Ask any questions you have at the time you get the document for review. Asking later can lead to surpises and will slow down the processes.

- *There are errors in followup documents.*  Make sure to carefully review any submittals that are being made, you'll very likely be in the process of verifying the accuracy of paperwork, before it gets sent to the county/resort/etc.  Closing companies and associated staff see lots of paperwork and are very busy, and many are prone to making typographical errors along the way.  [We had one that prepared an early submittal and sent it to us for our review. It was for a property at a different resort, being sold to someone else besides us, and the addresses were wrong.  YIKES!]  

So review everything closely, and then do a second-check by reviewing it again -- don't allow yourself to get in a hurry along the way and dedicate the time to doing a thorough review to prevent an error later.  Always verify that they got any corrections that you submitted, to ensure that they get incorporated!  Deliberately force yourself to do the reviews and understand what is in the documents -- *you are the quality control for the accuracy of paperwork, in this process*.

- *Changes that you make can be disaterous to the process.* Closing personnel were definately overburdend in the TS closings I've had. They were juggling several transfers at any one time, preparing multitudes of paperwork, and making submittal at various and different locations continiously. So there is a risk of de-railing your transfer and closing, if you want/have to make any changes in mid-stream!  Do yourself a favor and before you even buy consider the following:
a.) what names you want on a property. Keeping things the same and consistent throughout the process is important -- keeping things simple will also help!
b.) what ownership you want the property in (Joint, Joint Tennants, Right of survivorship, etc.) If you don't know what these are do your homework now, so you don't hold things up later!
c.) what email addresss and mailing address you will use; stay with the same one throughout the entire process and don't change anything. Also make sure that any spam filters or junk email blockers don't prevent you from getting email from the closing company, seller, and so on!
d.) know how you are going to pay for the eBay purchase and any fees ahead of time. If you are going to use a credit card for paying MF make sure it will not expire over the next 6-12 months. Save important email from the seller/closing company/resort/etc. in a special folder in your email client -- you just might need to refer to it later, and especially if you need to resolve a problem
e.) print the eBay listing and save an electronic copy (html format). You'll likely want to refer to it throughout the process, and the eBay listing will expire after 2 months.
f.) determine where you will get a notary public from, and what bank/financial institution you will use if you need to have one do a signature guarantee or other ownership validation. 

- *The communications can be less than you'd expect during the process. *Make sure you get good email addresses and phone numbers for the parties you'll be in contant contact with during the process. As a minimum that would include the seller, person assigned to deal with closing paperwork, and the closing officer for the closing company.  Some are better than others at keeping you informed of what is going on or what the next step is.  Unfortunately, some are not; so you should initiate any followup every 2 weeks to 4 weeks, or if you run into problems. 

Do yourself a favor and ask the person doing the closing at the closing company, who you would contact if there was a problem getting in touch with them. I always ask for a supervisors phone number/email address.

- *There will be delays, glitches, hic-cups and problems along the way. * You should expect that there will be delays from the county office that records the deed, resort that validates and changes ownership, and others.  Everything is done in series and that there is a lot of shuffled paper that is sent via mail/fed ex/etc. in series. Everyone that touches the paper and "does their thing" is prone to making a typographical or transposition error, so review the paper that gets sent/emailed to you. Deliberately look for problems, trust me when I say having one of these go off without a hitch is a rare happen-stance!

- *Getting the deed recorded with the county is a key milestone to watch out for.* It's far enough along in the process to give you a sense that things are actually going to happen, and the details will confirm that names/addresses/property/etc. are correct.  So if you can, go to the county website where the deed was previously recorded, and look-up the old owners. Most will allow you to do this without a charge or paying excess fees. [It's a good way to do some due diligence on your ebay purchase anyway, short of talking to Owner Services at the resort where you are buying.] Then you are in position to look for your deed coming through and being recorded. It's also a good check on how the closing company is doing too! Other milestones that you might be able to independently follow include: ownership transfer at the resort and RCI/II account set-up if applicable. 

I hope this all makes sense and flows together; I had several interruptions while putting it together.


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## dkride4 (Jan 16, 2011)

Thank you to everyone for answering my questions!  It really helps.

Bridget


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## DaveNV (Jan 16, 2011)

Bridget, one additional note to add to the above advice:  

I have purchased a number of timeshares, all on ebay.  Each has had its own journey, but all of them eventually closed - except for the last one.  I won an auction late last Summer for a California timeshare I really wanted.  I went through the process and did everything right, and escrow appeared to be moving forward normally.

But after more than four months, the deed still hadn't been recorded, and the deal hadn't closed.  I finally heard from the closing company that the owner of the week (who was not the Seller) owed back taxes on things, and the deal couldn't move forward.  After some back and forth, it became apparent that the only option was to cancel things, and refund my money.  I received a prompt refund, and that was that.

So be prepared for a possible disappointment - what may seem like a "done deal" may hit a snag that undoes everything.   

Dave


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## dkride4 (Jan 19, 2011)

Of course after reading all the advice and looking through the post here, we stuck our toe in the water - so to speak.     We placed a low bid on a condo that seemed to be to good to be true.  When it came close to the bidding closing, a bidder started bidding against us and gee guess what.  The bidder was a new Ebay buyer, no history other then bids for property that this company owned.  Hummmm.  We stopped bidding and learned our lesson.   

We need to study more.

Bridget


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## arc918 (Jan 20, 2011)

dkride4 said:


> Of course after reading all the advice and looking through the post here, we stuck our toe in the water - so to speak.     We placed a low bid on a condo that seemed to be to good to be true.  When it came close to the bidding closing, a bidder started bidding against us and gee guess what.  The bidder was a new Ebay buyer, no history other then bids for property that this company owned.  Hummmm.  We stopped bidding and learned our lesson.
> 
> We need to study more.
> 
> Bridget



you need to report that other "buyer" as a shill bidder to ebay - they don't appreciate that kind of behavior


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## DeniseM (Jan 20, 2011)

Bridget - Next time, I'd suggest deciding on your price and placing the bid with 20 or 30 seconds left.  In my opinion, placing you bid early just shows your hand, and runs up the price early.


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