Buying a Resale WKV from WantedWeeks/Ebay

[clsmit]

Re: 2009 MFs

My advice still stands: don't pay the MFs until you have title, Starwood agrees you're the owner, and you are ready to do something with your week.

Things could still get messed up and it will take a little while for everything to go through. When you own you can pay the MFs. The current owner isn't going to pay them. The fact that they don't pay them on time isn't your problem. It's not you that would owe interest on them.

If not paying the MFs is a deal-breaker, have the current owner or the closing company mail/fax a copy of the invoice to you and call Starwood to figure out how to pay the MFs on the unit.

Enjoy the property!

 

[RLOGO]

My advice still stands: don't pay the MFs until you have title, Starwood agrees you're the owner, and you are ready to do something with your week.

Things could still get messed up and it will take a little while for everything to go through. When you own you can pay the MFs. The current owner isn't going to pay them. The fact that they don't pay them on time isn't your problem. It's not you that would owe interest on them.

If not paying the MFs is a deal-breaker, have the current owner or the closing company mail/fax a copy of the invoice to you and call Starwood to figure out how to pay the MFs on the unit.

Enjoy the property!

Can you write a check directly to SVO for the MFs?

 

[Robert D]

Terry mentioned that he was buying a TS from Intervalmax and compared them to Wanted Weeks in that they don't use a 3rd party closing company to hold your money until the transfer is completed. I've bought 2 TS's from Intervalmax and one from Wanted Weeks and feel like I have a pretty good grip on this stuff. I dealt with a guy named Don at Intervalmax and it is correct that they don't use a 3rd party closing company but I'm convinced that these guys know what they're doing, are responsive to your questions, get an estoppel from the resorts before listing a unit on Ebay (which they sent to me before I paid any money with a copy of the sellers' deeds), and for the most part accurately describe what they are selling. My only complaint about Intervalmax is that they couldn't or wouldn't make a reservation for me before the the transfer was completed, which this time of the year can result in one year's wasted maintenace fee.

I don't have any such good feeling about Wanted Weeks. Don't assume that anything in their listing is correct unless you verify it with 3rd parties. The week that they tried to give me was a worthless flex week vs. a good ski week and luckily I knew enough about this stuff to catch it before it went very far. They did take care of the problem and gave me an acceptable replacement week but then their in house "closing company" prepared the deed incorrectly and this delayed closing by at least a month which resulted in me not being able to get a reservation for one of the best ski weeks. I got a very good deal on this week but it was by far the toughest deal of any of the 9 TS's I've bought and I wouldn't want to go thru it again. I'm not saying that Wanted Weeks is crooked but a firm that makes so many errors and is so reckless with the accuracy of their listings scares me. My concern is that if their entire business is run like this they probably won't be in business long and someone will get screwed in the end. The deal I did with them was under $1K and it was plenty scary, but I would never take the risk of giving them $12K (or even a fraction of this amount) upfront. I'd insist on a real and reputable 3rd party closing company to handle this transaction and also offer to pay for this service and would spring for the extra $150 for title insurance. The deal you're getting will justify paying an extra $500 or so for this stuff and not have to worry about the security of your money.

 

[fresca]

Title Insurance

Robert, thanks for the perspective. I showed the docs to a real estate attourney (my sister-in-law...at Christmas eve dinner...), and she also thought title insurance was in order.
Do you know where to get such, how to get a policy? My concern is Starwood may verify the sellers have no debt to them, but it may have been refinanced somewhere else. If so, I would be on the hook, and have to take the sellers to court in their home state (Indiana).

tom

 

[Ken555]

Keep in mind that it's very hard to refinance a timeshare. Even so, title insurance is a great thing to have. I believe mine was thru Chicago Title, and it was handled well (but that was a few years ago) - hopefully someone else will post more on this for you soon.

Again, congrats on a superb deal. If I only had more time off, I'd buy another Kierland Plat and then make every trip into 2-3 weeks.

 

[Robert D]

You can do a search on the county recorder website in the county where the TS is located and look at every document filed under the seller's name. If he has a loan on it, there would be a deed of trust or some other document recorded to secure the lien and you'll see it. Regarding buying title insurance, I think any reputable closing company can get it for you - ask them before you decide on any specific closing company. I think the cost is $150 for a TS title policy.