ROFR Exercised/Passed

[bizaro86]

I just had HGVC exercise ROFR on a week 51 2 bedroom at Kohala Suites. Price was $1495 for an EOY deed.

 

[Smclaugh99]

Well, it may be 3 for 3. It’s been about six weeks since they sent out the ROFR to Hilton. The person at the title company emailed me this week that “we are able to proceed with the deeding for the West 57th transaction”. I’m trying to get exact confirmation but I think that means that Hilton did not exercise ROFR. I’m not getting my hopes up until I see it with my own eyes and the deed is finalized. It makes no sense for them not to buy back because they sell similar package for $90-100k.

Sean

Update on my 2 transactions through EBay. I purchased Kingsland 14.4k 2br platinum for $10290 in late July 2018 from Discount Properties. I then bought 10,500 double platinum week at West57 for $7680 from KBTravel. Each purchase (via AmEx) went to VPTitle to complete the transfers. The initial email said the entire process takes (on average) 12-16 weeks. I was diligent about emailing the person at VPTitle to inquire about status, esp the ROFR. Supposedly everything passed and I thought the hardest part was done. Then it dragged on. Every couple of weeks she would say it’s in various phases (deed/title search). At one point, they were waiting on death certificate to clear a deed. The delays were blamed on Hawaii and NY being slow around the holidays. Yada yada. Needless to say, I was skeptical. I demanded the Estoppels and (after a delay), finally got them and they seemed legit. In late January, she excitedly said the newly recorded deeds were submitted to Hilton. After a month, I called Hilton and they had no record. The Hawaii and NY websites (which are chock full of info) had no record of this.

I threatened to submit fraud claim and contact the BBB and now VPTitle said that the delay is due to Sellers pulling the LPOA and canceling the transfers. As of yesterday, (supposedly) money will go back to AmEx.

I’m pretty sure the whole thing is a scam. I posted the details as a cautionary tale. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m going to delete my entries in the ROFR.net database.

Sean

 

[taterhed]

Update on my 2 transactions through EBay. I purchased Kingsland 14.4k 2br platinum for $10290 in late July 2018 from Discount Properties. I then bought 10,500 double platinum week at West57 for $7680 from KBTravel. Each purchase (via AmEx) went to VPTitle to complete the transfers. The initial email said the entire process takes (on average) 12-16 weeks. I was diligent about emailing the person at VPTitle to inquire about status, esp the ROFR. Supposedly everything passed and I thought the hardest part was done. Then it dragged on. Every couple of weeks she would say it’s in various phases (deed/title search). At one point, they were waiting on death certificate to clear a deed. The delays were blamed on Hawaii and NY being slow around the holidays. Yada yada. Needless to say, I was skeptical. I demanded the Estoppels and (after a delay), finally got them and they seemed legit. In late January, she excitedly said the newly recorded deeds were submitted to Hilton. After a month, I called Hilton and they had no record. The Hawaii and NY websites (which are chock full of info) had no record of this.

I threatened to submit fraud claim and contact the BBB and now VPTitle said that the delay is due to Sellers pulling the LPOA and canceling the transfers. As of yesterday, (supposedly) money will go back to AmEx.

I’m pretty sure the whole thing is a scam. I posted the details as a cautionary tale. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m going to delete my entries in the ROFR.net database.

Sean

Sorry for your troubles.
Sometimes.....it really does pay to spend a little extra with a known entity.
Glad the money is coming back.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Sean, sorry to hear about your issues. Glad you will get your money back. May not have been a scam. It sounds like someone died, and the executor/family mistakenly gave LPOV to these discounters. The discounters then put a cut rate price on the deeds to sell quickly. When the family found out how little they would receive for the sale or perhaps researched the true value they contested the LPOA.

OTOH it could be a scam because I was surprised when you indicated that the NYC deeds passed ROFR.

Thanks for sharing your story (I know it's painful) and for updating the ROFR database. This is truly helping others and we now know not to deal with items posted by Discount Properties and KBTravel on eBay and not to use VPTitle for transfers.

 

[GT75]

I’m pretty sure the whole thing is a scam. I posted the details as a cautionary tale. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m going to delete my entries in the ROFR.net database.

Sorry to hear about this. I will log into rofr and delete the entries for you later today. Thanks for the update.

 

[tombanjo]

$7680 for 10,500 points at W57th would never pass ROFR. ROFR is by contract 30 days. So after 30 days from signed contract you should have an answer. If the problem was ownership was clouded by a death that is a different issue.

 

[Pathways]

May not have been a scam

TUG threads have NUMEROUS examples of these entities and their scams. The EBAY names churn but VPTitle and the individuals involved don't change. Hard to believe AMEX still allows their merchant terminal to remain active. Note the V/MC charge as an option is gone...

Scam, scam , scam.....

If the EBAY ad has Tennessee as the seller's state... beware

Thank goodness Smclaugh99 used AMEX. One tugger only got their money back after getting the local police dept to make a visit. Sadly, one can only assume the money they got back was procured from another unsuspecting client.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

It would be nice to see a compiled list of these scam entities and patterns from the thread data to help future buyers similar to how TUG lists MF by property, or property descriptions and link datapoints to them. (HT to @GT75 for a great job on this).

You can search the TUG thread but sometimes things are buried in the details. For example, @Pathways comment on Tennessee as a pattern would not come up easily on a thread search.

 

[bevans]

I had the same experience with VPTitle a couple of years ago and received the runaround until I threatened to charge back with Amex. Having then heard nothing new from them to squash my fears I contested two days before charge back period was up. Like the previous member said deal carefully with any entity from Tenn as they change names frequently. I also do not understand why Amex keeps them as a merchant after all their charge backs and poor management or questionable business practices.

 

[Pathways]

It would be nice to see a compiled list of these scam entities and patterns from the thread data to help future buyers similar to how TUG lists MF by property, or property descriptions and link datapoints to them. (HT to @GT75 for a great job on this).

Note I tried to word my post carefully. I too would love a list, but compiling such even with testament from numerous 'victims' could really open people up to legal action from a scammer with deep pockets.

How about a "Possible Scams" sticky that points to all the threads where these issues are discussed?

 

[rtp]

I just passed ROFR in under 3 weeks. I bought from JJtimeshare.com and they use Resort Closings in Montana. So far process has been smooth. I have listed it in ROFR.net

Elara 2 bedroom platinum 8400 pts annual for $6000. MF are $1190.62

 

[dayooper]

I just passed ROFR in under 3 weeks. I bought from JJtimeshare.com and they use Resort Closings in Montana. So far process has been smooth. I have listed it in ROFR.net

Elara 2 bedroom platinum 8400 pts annual for $6000. MF are $1190.62

Nice purchase. $.71 a point. I think the previous report of HGVC not exercising ROFR at Elara are correct. I guess they need as many people as possible paying MF’s in 1500 unit resort.

Please add to rofr.net

 

[cas42021]

I just passed ROFR in under 3 weeks. I bought from JJtimeshare.com and they use Resort Closings in Montana. So far process has been smooth. I have listed it in ROFR.net

Elara 2 bedroom platinum 8400 pts annual for $6000. MF are $1190.62

Great deal

 

[junk]

I just passed ROFR in under 3 weeks. I bought from JJtimeshare.com and they use Resort Closings in Montana. So far process has been smooth. I have listed it in ROFR.net

Elara 2 bedroom platinum 8400 pts annual for $6000. MF are $1190.62

Great deal!!

 

[csodjd]

Just passed, Lagoon Tower (Waikiki), 2-BR Oceanfront, 9600 pt, at $29k. Submitted March 4, notified March 26. Not necessarily a great deal, but there aren't a lot of those available and it's what my wife wanted.

 

[JIMinNC]

Just passed, Lagoon Tower (Waikiki), 2-BR Oceanfront, 9600 pt, at $29k. Submitted March 4, notified March 26. Not necessarily a great deal, but there aren't a lot of those available and it's what my wife wanted.

Congrats! We loved Lagoon when we were there a little over a month ago.

Just a curiosity, is a 2BR Premier at Lagoon so hard to book in Club season that it warrants spending $29K to book as a home resort when you could buy the same number of points in Orlando or Vegas for $8K or so? I assume it must be or you wouldn't have spent that much. I know we had no issue booking a 1BR Plus at Lagoon when the Club Season opened (for the last three nights of Presidents Day week even), but that was only a three night booking and was not a "top of the food chain" unit like a 2BR Premier.

 

[csodjd]

Congrats! We loved Lagoon when we were there a little over a month ago.

Just a curiosity, is a 2BR Premier at Lagoon so hard to book in Club season that it warrants spending $29K to book as a home resort when you could buy the same number of points in Orlando or Vegas for $8K or so? I assume it must be or you wouldn't have spent that much. I know we had no issue booking a 1BR Plus at Lagoon when the Club Season opened (for the last three nights of Presidents Day week even), but that was only a three night booking and was not a "top of the food chain" unit like a 2BR Premier.

Its a fair question for which I don't have a perfect answer. I'm sure the answer is that it depends on time of year. We still have a daughter with a bit of high school and college to go, so spring breaks and summer remain the primary times for a bit longer. There are a very limited number of the ocean front rooms at Lagoon Tower, just two per floor. So this takes that issue off the table. I just looked and there isn't a week available right now until December 10. In fact, hardly even a day.

 

[JIMinNC]

Its a fair question for which I don't have a perfect answer. I'm sure the answer is that it depends on time of year. We still have a daughter with a bit of high school and college to go, so spring breaks and summer remain the primary times for a bit longer. There are a very limited number of the ocean front rooms at Lagoon Tower, just two per floor. So this takes that issue off the table. I just looked and there isn't a week available right now until December 10. In fact, hardly even a day.

Makes sense. I've always read on TUG that Lagoon Tower is very hard to book in Club season and if you have narrow travel windows you should own there. Based on those stories, I was concerned about how hard it might be to book the three nights we were wanting for our trip we took last month, and was actually surprised how easy it was to book what we needed when the window opened last spring. But as I said above, what we were trying to book was not something that would have the same supply/demand dynamics as a 2BR OF. Congrats again!

 

[csodjd]

Makes sense. I've always read on TUG that Lagoon Tower is very hard to book in Club season and if you have narrow travel windows you should own there. Based on those stories, I was concerned about how hard it might be to book the three nights we were wanting for our trip we took last month, and was actually surprised how easy it was to book what we needed when the window opened last spring. But as I said above, what we were trying to book was not something that would have the same supply/demand dynamics as a 2BR OF. Congrats again!

I have not noticed any particular challenges to using points for the 1-br and 2-br ocean view rooms, especially right at that 9-month window, and at the prime times of spring break and August (big travel time for those in Japan).

 

[Magus]

HGV Elara - 2 Bedroom Plus, Platinum, 9600 Annual Points for $1,190 MF cleared for $8k purchase price, plus ~$600 in closing costs ex HGV fees on 3/26. Just added to rofr.net as well.

 

[dayooper]

HGV Elara - 2 Bedroom Plus, Platinum, 9600 Annual Points for $1,190 MF cleared for $8k purchase price, plus ~$600 in closing costs ex HGV fees on 3/26. Just added to rofr.net as well.

Congrats!

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@Magus Congrats on great deal! Does your closing cost of $600 include the separate HGVC transfer fee? Where did you find it?

 

[Magus]

@Magus Congrats on great deal! Does your closing cost of $600 include the separate HGVC transfer fee? Where did you find it?

Thanks! No, $600 is the brokers fees, plus all the normal HGV fees ($409/$609; already paid club dues) - will be like $9,600 counting all the normal HGV fees and broker fees. My broker that I used on the one that had ROFR exercised I mentioned previously had a seller looking to unload a handful of 7k+ point locations in a short period of time (divorce or something). I was expecting Hilton to exercise ROFR but pleasantly surprised they did not.

 

[Hsahota1]

HGV Boulevard - 3400 pts EOY odd year with $634 MF passed for $430. Seller picked up closing/transfer fees as well as MF for this year. Rofr updated. Thanks!

 

[terces]

I see there is a report by DanY on the rofr Experiences page of a 2 bdrm platinum on the Boulevard that passed on 5/6/2019 for $6,900, but I don't see a thread here at all for it. The agent I am going through says that HGVC is exercising above $10,000 for this 2 bdrm Platinum Boulevard unit. Is DanY around and can you confirm, was this just an offer that you had made that never closed or did it in fact pass at $6,900. I also see one from 12/1/2018, same unit reported by "HS" that passed at $6,100. Are these sales confirmed? The agent I am using is well known here and reputable and I am just wondering why I am getting such different stories.