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[2007] Uri Fried - TTC Holdings

Carolinian

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Uri Fried seems to be still floating around out there, although apparently no longer on eBay. His current operation is called TTC Holdings, and it has had some activity on the Outer Banks, and I am certain that is hardly the only place. The majority of the deeds into his operation are from something called Florida Veterans Assistance Association. I wonder if this is some sort of shell charity? There are also some direct deeds from timeshare owners, which seem to all be deeds of gift and include some good summer weeks. This almost smacks of something like a postcard type operation. His operation uses lay employees to prepare deeds, and I see some of the typical deed problems that come from using out of state lay employees to prepare deeds.
 
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BM243923

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What are really saying about this U. Fried person. I was looking at a timeshare on Ebay that I was considering purchasing. From the telephone number of the closing company it came up U. Fried, then I read your post.
All he wants is a $1.00 for a summer week. I checked the Broward County Records under Florida Veterans and I found the deed where the owner has given there timeshare week to them. In turn it was sold to TTC Holdings. I sent him a question regarding the unit this morning, but did not get a reply yet. Is this someone I should stay away from??

The ebay listing expires today, but it has no bids and was relisted from 2 weeks ago when there were also no bids.

It is at the Fort Lauderdale Beach resort, week 28. I already own week 8 and 9 so I know what I am buying.

He sellers id is shares3000 item number is 320091157339
 

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http://www.veteransassistance.us/florida_veterans_assistance_time_share_donations.html is the site for donations to Florida Veterans Assistance Association.

There were problems on eBay with UFried in the past, I don't remember what they were.

If you are happy with Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort, I'd probably do it. I think the MFs there are a bit high, but that's from the perspective of someone who does Sunterra SunOptions/points.
 

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If a donated timeshare whose proceeds are meant to benefit charity is first put into the donation company's name and then sold to a company owned by the same person, that SMACKS of charity fraud to me.
 

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The Frieds are selling on ebay under the usernames of "shares3000" and "tttimeshare" (and maybe others?). I believe they operate their own closing company out of Waunakee, WI called The Timeshare Company.

Read their listings very carefully, as they are known to sometimes contain errors and omissions. IMO, they don't do it intentionally. They're just flipping timeshares and have no idea what they're selling.
 
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BM243923

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Pit

I agree with you their ads are not 100% correct. The ad I was looking at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort they state the view is intercoastal and a 1 bedroom with 1 bathroom. I am a owner their already and have the floor plans. The unit they are talking about is ocean view with 1.5 bathrooms. I sent in a question to them asking about this to verify the unit number was correct and they did not respond back to me. The listing expires shortly tonight, I am not concerned about that since they will relist it again as it was up 2 weeks ago and did not sell.

So that is how they make money by doing the closing themselves because they have a fee of 495.00 to do the closing plus this years maint. fee and 75.00 resort transfer fee. I checked on the Broward Web site and they paid the Florida Veterans $100.00 for this particular unit in January.

The price is fair but are they a honest group to deal with and will I get the deed. Since they are the closing company they get the money upfront within 7 days of the end of the auction.
 

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Ben,

As long as you know what you're getting, I think you'll be ok. Since you own there already, I'm sure you know more about what they're selling than they do. You might want to call them to get answers to your question(s) before bidding.

http://www.thetimesharecompany.com/Contact.asp
 

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If you go to thetimesharecompany.com website and click on the Buy A Timeshare link, you are redirected to another website, webuytimeshare.com, and greeted by a picture of the Frieds.
 

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I bought a cheap timeshare from Uri Fried a number of years ago. It had been advertised as a 2-br unit. He transferred a 1-br. unit from his name, after I had paid for the timeshare, plus annual fees, plus closing costs, to me. When I pointed out the error, I was sent a deed to re-transfer the unit back to him, and that he would then transfer me the correct one.

I deeded the timeshare back, and then was given the runaround with an excuse about needing tax ID numbers, etc., which I gave his company (webuytimeshares.com). He never transferred any timeshare into my name, and after many months of followup, I was told that the salesman was no longer with the company, and that I would not get anything. So I was out about a thousand dollars in purchase price, annual fees and closing costs.

In other words, I was flat-out defrauded. Don't trust him.
 

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I bought 2 timeshares from them a few years ago when they did their own closings for $99.00. I still have 1 and think I got a fair deal.
 

rickandcindy23

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Isle of Bali in Kissimmee has been Liki Tiki for many years now, yet that is how their website lists the resort. I would say this site is not kept up at all. Their inventory list is probably not at all current.

This does look fishy. Another bad company, probably just another postcard company or similar. I really hate these companies. :mad:
 

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With all the noise no one can argue that there are not issues dealing with Uri Fried but to be fair I want to say that I purchased a Week from him about 4 years ago at a decent price with only $99 closing costs. My transaction went smoothly.

GEORGE
 

BM243923

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His closing costs are now $495.00 and I guess thats how he makes his money. The resort I was looking at he paid $100.00 from the Florida Veterans. I think I will hold off, I really don't need another week at the same resort.
 

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An organized harassment campaign might work ?

Not my style. I just prefer to continue to tell the truth about him and his company, so that people who consider dealing with him will be informed about future dealings.
 

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My focus in this thread was the acquisition side rather than the sale said, but I have heard quite a bit of ''noise'' there for some time, too.

What really sends a big red flag up is his acquiring summer beach weeks through deeds of gift from individuals. It makes you wonder if he is claiming to owners that they are worthless or maybe even playing the postcard company game of making people pay to ''unload'' a valuable week.
 

BM243923

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I went to their web site and selected sell a timeshare. They have a form to fill out with information regarding your timeshare and then you send it back and they respond instantly back to you with a value of your timeshare. They told me my timeshare was worth $300 to $600, and if i agreed with their evaluation they would find a purchaser and send me a cheque within a few weeks. If I did not agree with with they suggested donating the timesare to charity who would give me a receipt of up to $5,000. Since I would be donating I would have to pay the closing costs. They recommened a company which turns out to be their closing company who would do it a reduced price.
Later on I found an email stating how they were sorry I did not agree with their evaluation and again suggested donating my timeshare to charity and how I could contact their company to do the closing.
 

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Uri's Sept 2004 TUG posting

Aloha,
I rarely save TUG threads. For reasons I don't fully remember, I saved a thread from 2004 that included Uri's response to TUG discussions about him. I'm willing to post either his note alone or the entire thread if I get the sense that it is OK to do so. The word document containing only text of the full thread is 111Kb.
Jack
 

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What really sends a big red flag up is his acquiring summer beach weeks through deeds of gift from individuals. It makes you wonder if he is claiming to owners that they are worthless or maybe even playing the postcard company game of making people pay to ''unload'' a valuable week.

Quite a few people who are in real estate come into deeds when someone purchases other property from them or someone else connected to the transaction. In exchange for the reduction of the purchase price of a home that someone is interested in, many timeshare owners will turn over their timeshare deeds. Many people do so as they often do not use their units anymore and they sometimes do not even bother to deposit their week with an exchange company. It relieves them of the burden of paying MF's in exchange for a reduction in price of their new property. This is not to say that something else isn't going on and that Mr. Fried is not making these types of claims when obtaining these weeks. He also might have obtained lists of timeshare owners that have not paid their MF's or taxes. Sort of like how people go after owners of homes whom are in the pre-foreclosure stage.

As for Uri Fried, I too purchased a week from his company many years ago. As has been mentioned, the week did not come as advertised and I had to have it corrected to get what I paid for. In my case, everything worked out. Then again, I think my week cost $99. However, his company was notorious for having inaccurate information within their ads.
 

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Dani, Are you suggesting that these people all bought homes from Uri Fried? I did not know he was in that business, too!

Quite a few people who are in real estate come into deeds when someone purchases other property from them or someone else connected to the transaction. In exchange for the reduction of the purchase price of a home that someone is interested in, many timeshare owners will turn over their timeshare deeds. Many people do so as they often do not use their units anymore and they sometimes do not even bother to deposit their week with an exchange company. It relieves them of the burden of paying MF's in exchange for a reduction in price of their new property. This is not to say that something else isn't going on and that Mr. Fried is not making these types of claims when obtaining these weeks. He also might have obtained lists of timeshare owners that have not paid their MF's or taxes. Sort of like how people go after owners of homes whom are in the pre-foreclosure stage.

As for Uri Fried, I too purchased a week from his company many years ago. As has been mentioned, the week did not come as advertised and I had to have it corrected to get what I paid for. In my case, everything worked out. Then again, I think my week cost $99. However, his company was notorious for having inaccurate information within their ads.
 

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Dani, Are you suggesting that these people all bought homes from Uri Fried? I did not know he was in that business, too!

Not at all. As I said, many people who have connections within the real estate industry do this. Many have connections to realtors. They could be a part of the process in many ways. I know several people who get their weeks this way. Some are resellers on ebay. It might also be as I also suggested that he is simply obtaining lists of people who have not paid their MF's or taxes. That would give him a nice list of people who might be in distress as far as their timeshare weeks are concerned. This is what most flippers do when it comes to the purchase of homes at low-ball prices. They simply find the many ways that people are in distress.
 

Carolinian

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Dani-

Summer beach weeks are worth a lot more than one year's m/f and on the OBX, the taxes are paid by the HOA and included in the M/F, so unpaid taxes would not enter the equation. Also, there is a long established local t/s rental market, and these weeks would have brought far more than that for rental.
 

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Dani-

Summer beach weeks are worth a lot more than one year's m/f and on the OBX, the taxes are paid by the HOA and included in the M/F, so unpaid taxes would not enter the equation. Also, there is a long established local t/s rental market, and these weeks would have brought far more than that for rental.


I have no doubt that you are right about that. However, what if someone is behind on the MF's? It's easy to target these people if you have access to the information. Even if someone is not behind, many people just do not use their weeks. I know many people like this. They either let their weeks expire without using or depositing them, or they let their weeks expire in RCI's or II's space-bank. Someone like Uri Fried comes along and offers to take the unit off of their hands for little or nothing. He may even agree to pay the back MF's fees, especially if he's looking at a summer beach week or other strong trader. Maybe it's part of another deal....maybe a trade-in so to speak for another unit that they are purchasing. Maybe Uri has a friend or two or three in real-estate who tells clients that he/she can shave a few dollars off the purchase price of a new home in exchange for their timeshare. I don't know. He obviously has some connections somewhere. I know that he used to sell a lot of VRI weeks. I always thought that he had an inside track on VRI weeks.
 
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