Ebay purchase of Welk Escondido points with HP Consultants

[CindyinSD]

i just won a bid on eBay for 540k Welk points - the seller is Larry Hansen with HP Consultants. The ebay ad stated seller would pay all closing costs. Larry sent me an invoice for 1/2 the sales price and a blank contract to sign and return. I asked him to fill in all the blanks first (missing were all the terms) which he agreed to send to me this coming Tuesday.

I expressed concern that he is not using a title or escrow company. He responded wth, "
The following "the seller is paying all of the closing costs which includes the transfer fee and the fee to HP Consultants for preparing the transfer paperwork. These Welk ownerships are basically a club based product and when the transfer is complete Chicago Title will send you a certificate showing you are the owner. If you are a current Welk owner this will be exactly the same as what you would get if you bought directly from Welk. In addition I have done almost 1100 transactions (including several hundred timeshares) and have a 100% feedback rating- zero complaints. I have also explained to you that by paying through paypal your purchase is 100% protected. On top of all of this I also carry an active California real estate license and HP Consultants is an accredited BBB business with and "A" rating. I have also sent you the details on the exact ownership you are purchasing including the contract number and information of the current owner-which you can verify with Welk if you like. If all of this is not sufficient for you I suggest you back out of the purchase and I will move on to someone else who wants the ownership. I actually got a call from one of the sales managers from Welk yesterday wanting to know if I had any more inventory because he missed out on this one. He told me they just sold a 540,000 point ownership for $56,000 and that all of the employees over there buy on the resale market.

Attached are two documents he sent me.

One looks like a maintenance bill, that he is providing as proof of the sellers ownership
the 2nd is the blank contract

QUESTIONS:
Is it normal to not use a title company to escrow the funds?
Does this sound normal to you? (I have never owned a time share)
Has anyone used Larry for the purchase of a points based timeshare? If so, what was your experience?
Should I ask for an estoppel certificate?
Any advice would be very much appreciatd!

 

[Roger830]

If you look at his feedback, it looks like he sold the same Wyndham contract twice, 713,000 points with October use year, which is an unusual combination. The dates were Aug 27 and Sept 7. It's been taking Wyndham about 3 months to close so it doesn't seem likely that feedback "Thank You! Trusted Seller" would be appropriate.

When I bought timeshares on ebay, I would only risk money that I could afford to lose.

 

[jhac007]

"I actually got a call from one of the sales managers from Welk yesterday wanting to know if I had any more inventory because he missed out on this one. He told me they just sold a 540,000 point ownership for $56,000 and that all of the employees over there buy on the resale market. "

The above comment is the part that would be troublesome to me!

 

[CindyinSD]

Duplicate deleted

 

[Roger830]

I'm surprised that others didn't weight in on this.

The forms that you posted are useless. I wouldn't sign a blank contract.

His statement that you are protected by Paypay might be true, because a few years ago when I bought mine, Paypal didn't allow use for timeshare auctions. I don't know the current policy.

An estoppel is good to have, but often they are outdated.

It would be good if you could use an independent closing company, but ebay sellers usually require their company to be used which might be the next desk.

This seller seems riskier than most.

 

[CindyinSD]

i just won a bid on eBay for 540k Welk points - the seller is Larry Hansen with HP Consultants. The ebay ad stated seller would pay all closing costs. Larry sent me an invoice for 1/2 the sales price and a blank contract to sign and return. I asked him to fill in all the blanks first (missing were all the terms) which he agreed to send to me this coming Tuesday.

I expressed concern that he is not using a title or escrow company. He responded wth, "
The following "the seller is paying all of the closing costs which includes the transfer fee and the fee to HP Consultants for preparing the transfer paperwork. These Welk ownerships are basically a club based product and when the transfer is complete Chicago Title will send you a certificate showing you are the owner. If you are a current Welk owner this will be exactly the same as what you would get if you bought directly from Welk. In addition I have done almost 1100 transactions (including several hundred timeshares) and have a 100% feedback rating- zero complaints. I have also explained to you that by paying through paypal your purchase is 100% protected. On top of all of this I also carry an active California real estate license and HP Consultants is an accredited BBB business with and "A" rating. I have also sent you the details on the exact ownership you are purchasing including the contract number and information of the current owner-which you can verify with Welk if you like. If all of this is not sufficient for you I suggest you back out of the purchase and I will move on to someone else who wants the ownership. I actually got a call from one of the sales managers from Welk yesterday wanting to know if I had any more inventory because he missed out on this one. He told me they just sold a 540,000 point ownership for $56,000 and that all of the employees over there buy on the resale market.
Attached are two documents he sent me.
One looks like a maintenance bill, that he is providing as proof of the sellers ownership
the 2nd is the blank contract

QUESTIONS:
Is it normal to not use a title company to escrow the funds?
Does this sound normal to you? (I have never owned a time share)
Has anyone used Larry for the purchase of a points based timeshare? If so, what was your experience?
Should I ask for an estoppel certificate?
Any advice would be very much appreciatd!

I'm surprised that others didn't weight in on this.

The forms that you posted are useless. I wouldn't sign a blank contract.

His statement that you are protected by Paypay might be true, because a few years ago when I bought mine, Paypal didn't allow use for timeshare auctions. I don't know the current policy.

An estoppel is good to have, but often they are outdated.

It would be good if you could use an independent closing company, but ebay sellers usually require their company to be used which might be the next desk.

This seller seems riskier than most.

I just googled PayPal - their site says, " You can’t use PayPal to buy or sell real property, including buildings, land, or anything affixed to the land.

Besides the direct sale of real property, we also don’t allow transactions that involve:

• Timeshare transactions -- offers to buy, sell, or rent rights to the periodic se of a property. A timeshare is real estate that is jointly owned by people who share the right to use the property and take turns using it.

 

[alexadeparis]

The thing about eBay timeshare purchases is that there is always a risk. Knowing that,
I never bid more than I am willing to pay and I don't buy if I am not willing to risk that amount of money on a good deal. I have only once not gotten what I thought I was buying, although some transactions took forever to close. The one time that a description was wrong (stated as RCI points but was weeks) the seller, a known eBay bulk/postcard seller took it back with no issue and I got a full refund. So I guess, after a dozen or so eBay purchases, I have developed an instinct for what listings to stay away from. You MUST know what you are buying because the seller may NOT. What does your gut say? I think you already know the answer.

 

[HollyJexKaye]

i just won a bid on eBay for 540k Welk points - the seller is Larry Hansen with HP Consultants. The ebay ad stated seller would pay all closing costs. Larry sent me an invoice for 1/2 the sales price and a blank contract to sign and return. I asked him to fill in all the blanks first (missing were all the terms) which he agreed to send to me this coming Tuesday.

I expressed concern that he is not using a title or escrow company. He responded wth, "
The following "the seller is paying all of the closing costs which includes the transfer fee and the fee to HP Consultants for preparing the transfer paperwork. These Welk ownerships are basically a club based product and when the transfer is complete Chicago Title will send you a certificate showing you are the owner. If you are a current Welk owner this will be exactly the same as what you would get if you bought directly from Welk. In addition I have done almost 1100 transactions (including several hundred timeshares) and have a 100% feedback rating- zero complaints. I have also explained to you that by paying through paypal your purchase is 100% protected. On top of all of this I also carry an active California real estate license and HP Consultants is an accredited BBB business with and "A" rating. I have also sent you the details on the exact ownership you are purchasing including the contract number and information of the current owner-which you can verify with Welk if you like. If all of this is not sufficient for you I suggest you back out of the purchase and I will move on to someone else who wants the ownership. I actually got a call from one of the sales managers from Welk yesterday wanting to know if I had any more inventory because he missed out on this one. He told me they just sold a 540,000 point ownership for $56,000 and that all of the employees over there buy on the resale market.

Attached are two documents he sent me.

One looks like a maintenance bill, that he is providing as proof of the sellers ownership
the 2nd is the blank contract

QUESTIONS:
Is it normal to not use a title company to escrow the funds?
Does this sound normal to you? (I have never owned a time share)
Has anyone used Larry for the purchase of a points based timeshare? If so, what was your experience?
Should I ask for an estoppel certificate?
Any advice would be very much appreciatd!

I know Larry Hansen, and have worked with him and his office. Very nice guy and trustworthy. I just sold a 540K package for 4k. Now is a great time to buy resale as the points are going for low prices. I know it can feel sketchy, but I can assure you that Larry Hansen is operating in good faith. Enjoy your points!

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I know Larry Hansen, and have worked with him and his office. Very nice guy and trustworthy. I just sold a 540K package for 4k. Now is a great time to buy resale as the points are going for low prices. I know it can feel sketchy, but I can assure you that Larry Hansen is operating in good faith. Enjoy your points!

The original post was almost 2 years old. I'm wondering what eventually happened.

Also, Holly, I noticed that you joined on Saturday and then made your first (and only) post 2 days later.

I'm hoping that the OP comes back and tells us how things ended.

 

[HollyJexKaye]

I would like to know too. I have always had good experiences with Larry. In my personal opinion he has always operated in good faith. I finally found the time to join the forums and interact. We have had a few clients with Calresale and Calresorts give us some positive feedback on the site, so I thought I would join.

 

[SteelerGal]

I am currently waiting on a resale to close w/ Haven’t had issues so far. Just waiting for the resort to land in my account.