Redweeks4less and American Timeshare closings ... scares me!
The wealth of information on TUG has been INVALUABLE. As I've looked into a couple of purchases the responses to my posts and private messages have been apprecaited. Thank you.
Some of this is covered in other posts, but I want to be sure to share my experience in case it is helpful for someone else.
After winning an ebay auction I went to google to check out the closing company (I knew they were not title companies and were overcharging for what they do). This post came up, along with some others.
To recap some of what has been posted. It seems as though in October redweeks4less had their account suspended from ebay. Don't quote me on that, it's what I recall from one of the posts I read, although it seems as though IAVACATIONS (a/k/a redweeks4less) has had more than one ebay name.
Also of interest was that the BBS mentions that redweeks4less and American Timeshare Closings share the same physical address and are probably owned by the same principals ... won't go into details, but that would be bad, bad, bad from a standpoint of having an objective party involved with the transaction.
Also, be sure to check out their ratings, about half of their ratings are as BUYERS. It didn't occur to me to take a look at the breakdown. I was thinking 98% and 400+ sales, not too bad. I was wrong.
I became more concerned after reading the posts. Normally very conservative, I continued with due dilligence, including some private messsages to TUG members (thanks for the replies).
After a couple of days I was in the space of thinking about the trade off between price, hassle, and time around the purchase. Everything I read said that redweeks4less was good/nice, but issues seemed to be w/the American Timeshare Closings. Headed into the risk vs rewards space I though it *might* be OK to proceed as long as going into it I had reasonable expectations, ie maybe lots of follow up, some frustration, maybe six months to record. At the time I knew it was wishful thinking.
Today I received a call from Tommy at IAVACATIONS asking if I received the contract. After letting him know that I did and that the amount in the contract was over (not significantly), I asked for a copy of the deed. He had it and sent it right over.
This is where things got interesting and a little surprising. Getting the deed right away seemed like a good sign. Not like some others that had to wait for ATC to request the deed and other hassles. Sounded good initially. When I received the deed the sellers name and address were scratched out.
Finding the deed at the recorders office proved to be a challenge. I finally had to call. Even with the recording number, the person at the recorders office wasn't able to locate it. He put me on hold. When he came back he let me know that the deed is under a court ordered seal related to law enforcement and isn't available.
Fortunatley I haven't signed the contract and am within the 5 days within which I am supposed to pay. Plans are to chat with them to see what's going on with the deed (why scratched out? why not disclosed that the deed is under a court ordered seal?) and then agree to go our seperate ways with no feedback left.
Based on what I've read I'm not sure if it will go that easily and am prepared to have to take up the issue with ebay, but feel very fortunate to have taken the time to do due dilligence afterward (even though it should have been done before) and catch all of this prior to signing or sending money.
Hopefully this is helpful to others.
The wealth of information on TUG has been INVALUABLE. As I've looked into a couple of purchases the responses to my posts and private messages have been apprecaited. Thank you.
Some of this is covered in other posts, but I want to be sure to share my experience in case it is helpful for someone else.
After winning an ebay auction I went to google to check out the closing company (I knew they were not title companies and were overcharging for what they do). This post came up, along with some others.
To recap some of what has been posted. It seems as though in October redweeks4less had their account suspended from ebay. Don't quote me on that, it's what I recall from one of the posts I read, although it seems as though IAVACATIONS (a/k/a redweeks4less) has had more than one ebay name.
Also of interest was that the BBS mentions that redweeks4less and American Timeshare Closings share the same physical address and are probably owned by the same principals ... won't go into details, but that would be bad, bad, bad from a standpoint of having an objective party involved with the transaction.
Also, be sure to check out their ratings, about half of their ratings are as BUYERS. It didn't occur to me to take a look at the breakdown. I was thinking 98% and 400+ sales, not too bad. I was wrong.
I became more concerned after reading the posts. Normally very conservative, I continued with due dilligence, including some private messsages to TUG members (thanks for the replies).
After a couple of days I was in the space of thinking about the trade off between price, hassle, and time around the purchase. Everything I read said that redweeks4less was good/nice, but issues seemed to be w/the American Timeshare Closings. Headed into the risk vs rewards space I though it *might* be OK to proceed as long as going into it I had reasonable expectations, ie maybe lots of follow up, some frustration, maybe six months to record. At the time I knew it was wishful thinking.
Today I received a call from Tommy at IAVACATIONS asking if I received the contract. After letting him know that I did and that the amount in the contract was over (not significantly), I asked for a copy of the deed. He had it and sent it right over.
This is where things got interesting and a little surprising. Getting the deed right away seemed like a good sign. Not like some others that had to wait for ATC to request the deed and other hassles. Sounded good initially. When I received the deed the sellers name and address were scratched out.
Finding the deed at the recorders office proved to be a challenge. I finally had to call. Even with the recording number, the person at the recorders office wasn't able to locate it. He put me on hold. When he came back he let me know that the deed is under a court ordered seal related to law enforcement and isn't available.
Fortunatley I haven't signed the contract and am within the 5 days within which I am supposed to pay. Plans are to chat with them to see what's going on with the deed (why scratched out? why not disclosed that the deed is under a court ordered seal?) and then agree to go our seperate ways with no feedback left.
Based on what I've read I'm not sure if it will go that easily and am prepared to have to take up the issue with ebay, but feel very fortunate to have taken the time to do due dilligence afterward (even though it should have been done before) and catch all of this prior to signing or sending money.
Hopefully this is helpful to others.
