Buying Third Party Platinum Welk Points

DayTraveler · May 25, 2019

Hi Folks. My wife and I hold 300k Annual Platinum Points with Welk. We pay almost $1700 each year. We wanted to add points. We went to the web site Sell My Timeshare and put down a one thousand dollar good faith deposit on our Capital One Credit Card. The sale was as follows:

180k points $1450 TBS Submission Fee $349 Closing Free $525 Resort Fee $295

If we return docs in 5 days we get $400 off of the closing fee

The broker is VACATION OWNERSHIP BROKERAGE LLC
doing business as Timeshare Broker Services (BBB rating of C-)
8545 Commodity Circle Suite 325 Orlando, FL 32819
The registered agent is Vacation Ownership Brokerage, LLC (same physical address)

The title company is Timeshare Closing Services (BBB rating A+)
with the same address: 8545 Commodity Circle Suite 325 Orlando, FL 32819

It's like they all have the same address and they all loop back around if that makes sense

I then reached out to Timeshare Broker Services and put in a low ball offer
of $600 on 240k points and the broker says they accepted offer. So now we have
a second purchase in the works with another good faith deposit of a thousand.

I'm just not sure this is all authentic. The broker says he has a 2 million point business client
that bought a bunch of small point accounts and that he was able to combine into one account.

I was on with Welk a lot today and I am convinced that Welk can do what they want to do. Welk told me third party sales don't climb the status Select, Elite, Pinnacle, etc. And they told me that the accounts would have to be kept separate with individual maintenance fees but that the cost would be the same as if they were all in one account. Then I called again and asked for a supervisor and I believe she was inferring that if we went to an owner update that they can join the accounts together. And now today I read on this forum that a member found out that if the seller and buyer go to Welk and they sign the deed then they can be joined at the time of sale.

SO - I am please wondering if any of you folks know about these companies we are buying from and what the real answer is on joining accounts. Any help would be so very appreciated.

Thank you,
Nick

Shankilicious · May 25, 2019

I messaged you about what I was told by OS regarding combining resale accounts.
I don't know anything about the company you may be working with but know people who have purchased from www.calresorts.com and I have emailed the owner/operator of the site and gotten fast and friendly responses every time. Holly Jex is her name.
The closing costs and TBS fee seem excessive. Calresorts or calresale.com only charge $395 closing cost and the resort fee is the same of $295. So that part of what the company you're dealing with seems on par.
I know that @nuwermj had some old fixed weeks and they let him convert one of those into points and while doing so combine a resale account with the points account. But Welk REALLY wants to become a %100 points system.

DayTraveler · May 25, 2019

Thank you very much for your comments they were helpful!

DayTraveler · May 27, 2019

I'm new to this forum trying to add new info. to this post. I spent 3 hours researching this transaction last night.
The contract I signed and did not read carefully enough says they keep 800 of our 1000 if the contract is terminated.
And they said they would check with seller to see if the seller would accept offer but I contacted seller and sell (73
year old) gave a power of attorney to these guys so they don’t even get involved. I am hoping that alone is enough for
us to prove fraud and get our 1000 back from Capital One. I located all the people involved in these companies and they
are not of a very high quality to say the least. It may turn out ok but I am very skeptical.

T-Dot-Traveller · May 27, 2019

NIcholas Day said:
.....Platinum ..with Welk.... We wanted to add points. We went to ..Sell My Timeshare and put down a one thousand dollar good faith deposit on our Capital One ..CC
180k points $1450 TBS Submission Fee $349 Closing Free $525 Resort Fee $295
If we return docs in 5 days we get $400 off of the closing fee

It's like they all have the same address and they all loop back around if that makes sense. .....

SO - I am please wondering if any of you folks know about these companies we are buying from and what the real answer is on joining accounts. Any help would be so very appreciated.
Thank you, Nick

Sell My Timeshare is a legit company . They make money convincing folks to pay them a listing fee .**

When someone (like youj makes an offer - they do the loop around / vertically integrated -at full profit
margin for them . If the net total price makes sense for you - then complete the deal .
Other TUG member have bought through them - (knowing this) without issues / because SMTN had a listing that they wanted .

RE - Welk contracts and combining - Welk points owner / Shankalicious is knowledgeable on this topic.

*******

** SMTN - probably charged the seller (IMO) $ 1800 + for listing . That is a significant sum for essentially doing nothing / and then having a full pop $ closing service that is required due to how their contract works .
BUT - if what you want is there ; and the net/ all in price works for you - you will become the new owner .

DayTraveler · May 27, 2019

I feel very confused. Brian from this forum said that my deal has all the attributes of a scam and gave me the scam retaliation site for this forum. The contract that I did not read thoroughly says they keep 800 of my 1000 if the deal is terminated. The people behind these businesses i did background checks on them they are not quality people. The seller told me he gave them power of attorney but the broker's good faith estimate says that they will present my offer to the seller. (I guess you could say the attorney of fact is the seller that is not easy for me to understand right off the cuff). The seller says he never heard a word nor does he expect to says he is out of loop. The company and or companies associated with them have had more than a 100 complaints in three years and they are almost all by sellers. There should be buyer complaints I would guess. That confuses me. I can tell you know your stuff and I did learn that most complaints are due to large deposits made by sellers. I got an email from someone (kick myself for not saving) that says Welk did not refute sale. Spoke to member relations who said that if we buy points at owner update they will merge all accounts but that will be too expensive. And member relations gave me number to try to find out if Welk was really consulted on right of refusal. If not that would be a 100% scam confirmation. I have become a little brazen with broker thinking he is dishonest. Last night I asked him where the attorney in fact was located he was not upfront. Said he needed to check at office but this is a person in their office that represents the seller. So he knew location. I very much appreciate your feedback. I might be over thinking this but not sure. Definitely some things don't make sense. The LLC structure and registered agent is redundant and that seems odd in itself. A lot of names and looping back on one and the other. Thank you. Sorry much of this was repeat. I do that when I am uncertain and I know my wife will get mad at me for wasting family money. PS I had to look up vertically integrated. Interesting.

Guitarmom · Jun 2, 2019

Hello Nicholas Day! I know nothing about SellMyTimeshare.com. I do, however, have experience with Welk combining disparate resale contracts. They certainly made that offer to us!

Over time, we'd purchased three Welk resale contracts: 240,000 Platinum Points from aging relatives, Thanksgiving week fixed week/fixed unit, and a two-bedroom lock-off in Villas on the Greens. (We ALWAYS use the San Diego/Escondido location because our families live there.) We try to go at least two years between Owner's Updates, and last October, we sat through one. They were striving to sell us a Platinum Select package, combining all our contracts into 780,000 points. At one point, the sales rep left the table and my husband said, "If they'd offer this for $7,000, I'd do it." Then he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "They're listening."

Bingo. The rep came back with an offer of $7,000. When we figured out the savings in MFs, we realized that we break even in 7-10 years. So we took the offer.

At the end of October, one of our relatives in Escondido fell gravely ill. We have been using those Platinum Points and the 20% short-term booking discount right and left. We have frequently commented that if we had said no at the Owner's Update, we'd be kicking ourselves now.

Our only question is this: Were they listening? Or was the $7,000 a coincidence? At any rate, if you obtain multiple resale contracts, you stand a good chance of combining them into one of Welk's premium packages.

Shankilicious · Jun 2, 2019

Guitarmom said:
Hello Nicholas Day! I know nothing about SellMyTimeshare.com. I do, however, have experience with Welk combining disparate resale contracts. They certainly made that offer to us!

Over time, we'd purchased three Welk resale contracts: 240,000 Platinum Points from aging relatives, Thanksgiving week fixed week/fixed unit, and a two-bedroom lock-off in Villas on the Greens. (We ALWAYS use the San Diego/Escondido location because our families live there.) We try to go at least two years between Owner's Updates, and last October, we sat through one. They were striving to sell us a Platinum Select package, combining all our contracts into 780,000 points. At one point, the sales rep left the table and my husband said, "If they'd offer this for $7,000, I'd do it." Then he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "They're listening."

Bingo. The rep came back with an offer of $7,000. When we figured out the savings in MFs, we realized that we break even in 7-10 years. So we took the offer.

At the end of October, one of our relatives in Escondido fell gravely ill. We have been using those Platinum Points and the 20% short-term booking discount right and left. We have frequently commented that if we had said no at the Owner's Update, we'd be kicking ourselves now.

Our only question is this: Were they listening? Or was the $7,000 a coincidence? At any rate, if you obtain multiple resale contracts, you stand a good chance of combining them into one of Welk's premium packages.

You're the only instance I've heard of them doing that for. I've been told by sales reps and OS managers that they won't combine retail with resale. And I'm betting they did that for you because of your fixed weeks as Welk is trying REALLY hard to be 100% points.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk