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Disney Vacation Club Resale Process: What I Wish I Had Known (& What Could Be Improved) - YouTube
Channel: Pixie Dust PhD
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Hi everyone, it’s Jacqueline for Pixie Dust
PhD and in this video we will be revisiting
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my experience buying a Disney Vacation Club
contract on the resale market. By all means
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I would still highly suggest you take this
route; you end up saving a lot of money on
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that up front initial purchase price and I
didn’t run into any bumps that made the
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overall experience unfavorable. That being
said, at least in my case, I definitely think
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there’s room for improvement. In this video
I’ll be putting on my PhD critical assessment
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cap and letting you all know about some aspects
of the DVC resale process that I wish I had
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anticipated, or at least that were improved
a little bit – stay tuned!
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Hey all, if you’re new here be sure to hit
that subscribe button and you can ring the
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bell icon to receive notifications whenever
I post new videos. We have previously gone
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over more or less my full process of buying
a DVC contract on the resale market in a three
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part video series. I will link those in the
description below. There is a lot of rich
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detail in those videos, so if you are new
to this process I hope you check them out!
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Today’s video is going to have a slightly
different tone; it’s definitely going to
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be critical rather than only factually based.
Before we begin, I do want to preface that
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very genuinely I would still absolutely recommend
the DVC resale company I worked with to anyone
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looking to buy a contract on the resale market.
It overall was a good experience, there just
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is still room for improvement. Also, do note
that I am only able to speak about my one
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single experience. Other companies, or even
other people working with the same company,
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may have had wildly different experiences
– so keep that in mind.
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With that being said, let’s get into some specifics.
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The first is really on me. Going into this
process, I did know that I could haggle the
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price, but I don’t think I did it nearly
as aggressively as I should have. The contract
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I ended up purchasing was listed at $149 per
point., Myself and my partner put a counter
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offer in at $143 per point. The thought process
behind this was at $143 per point, with the
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amount of points we bought and all of the
closing costs and fees, that would get our
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total initial purchase price in under $13,000.
Naturally though, the seller came back and
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wanted to meet in the middle at $146 per point.
Because this was a relatively small contract,
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the difference of $3 per point was only a
couple hundred dollars and definitely not
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a sticking point for us. We did end up going
ahead at that price of $146 per point. However,
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had I thought things through more beforehand
I probably would’ve put in an aggressively
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lower offer knowing that the seller would
want to meet in the middle. When you put in
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an offer below the asking price, especially
one that's going to be sort of aggressively
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low, you of course do risk the seller just
saying no and then that contract is no longer
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an option for you. But if you aren’t in
a huge rush to get that DVC contract, haggling
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a little bit aggressively may end up being worth it.
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The rest of this video will focus on other
parties involved rather than my own mistakes.
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One, I really think the forms could be updated.
The very initial forms were sent through DocuSign
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which was great. But other than that, there
were loads of PDFs from both the resale company
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and the title company that were clearly kind
of ancient. It was obvious that some of these
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forms had actually been printed out and then
scanned in to a computer, rather than made
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fresh in a Word document processor or similar.
In my opinion, none of these of forms were
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really created with the customer’s use in
mind. Although I am a PhD scientist, my job
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has a strangely role in customer service,
as we do rely solely on clients. When I create
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PDFs for our clients to fill out, I always
make sure it's as easy for them as possible.
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It's pretty simple honestly. You can create
the PDF to where lines are already fillable,
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and then checkboxes you can click and then
check them, for example. During my DVC resale
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process, none of the forms I [was] sent were
formatted in this way. Now, as a user you
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can use the free version of adobe acrobat
and utilize that fill and sign tool. In this
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case, even though the form wasn't created
to be fillable, you can still go ahead and
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type as you want. That being said, the fill
and sign tool has no regard for whatever else
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is on the form. These less than user friendly
forms were true time and time again from both
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the resale company and the title company.
This isn’t the biggest deal all things considered;
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that being said, I certainly would not make
my clients use forms like this.
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Second, which I have mentioned previously,
but an aspect of my contract was actually
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drawn up incorrectly. I pointed this out to
the contract managers at the resale company,
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and it was fixed very quickly, which is great,
but overall that’s kind of concerning. I
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wonder if perhaps these employees are pressured
to work super fast? If that is the case though,
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I would much rather things be delayed by a
couple of hours, or even a couple of days,
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to give those folks time to make sure that
everything is correct the first pass. I am
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a detail oriented person, I absolutely read
everything before I sign it, so I did notice
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this error and and point it out. However,
had you signed these legal documents in their
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incorrect form, and later in the process the
error was noticed by you, or the seller, or
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someone who works at the company, then they
would actually have to redraft everything
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in the correct version, and you would have
to go and resign it all. Again, this is somewhat
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minor and it was taken care of very quickly.
That being said, these just are legal documents,
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so it is always concerning when they are not
correct the first time you receive them. Certainly,
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as a customer I don't feel like I should have
to point out those errors.
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Third, I felt like I constantly had to ask
for clarification. If I pay for the deposit
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with a credit card is there a fee associated
with using a credit card? Has the estoppel
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certificate arrived? Can you please send me
the Notice of Disney waiving their right of
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first refusal? Can documents be signed electronically
or do need them printed out and mailed hard
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copies? Can you send over instructions for
wiring the final payment? These are some examples
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of a smattering of questions I ended up needing to ask.
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There’s a lot on both the resale company
side and the title company side I think they
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could do to improve communications. Pre-emptively
tailoring instructions so buyers don't have
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to ask these questions could save on a lot
of time, both for the buyers and for the employees.
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The email chains I had back and forth with
these folks, in my opinion, were unnecessarily
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long. Had I been provided the information
up front we could have avoided all of this.
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Let’s go over a couple of categories within
a lack of information.
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First, sending along information about where
we are in the process. I have learned that
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apparently it is not usual process to send
over the actual waiver from Disney where they
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are waiving their right of first refusal.
The resale company does let you know once
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you’ve made it through right of first refusal,
but they don’t pass along that actual documentation
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from Disney. This likely isn’t a big deal
all things considered, but personally I do
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like to retain documentation of everything
for my own personal records. Also, I happened
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to get one of these resale contracts where
language in this waiver directly from Disney
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had been updated. And that made it seem like
they were maybe going to be lifting resale
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restrictions on the Riviera Resort. The resale
company had not noticed this change in language
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until I pointed it out. Frankly, I think that's
reasonable because this is their job; they
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surely get tons of these waivers all the time.
I probably wouldn't read all of them either.
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But if their normal process had included passing
this documentation along to the buyer, there's
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a good chance that at least a few of your
buyers actually will read it and they will
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notice. I certainly am that type of person,
and I would have been able to flag this language
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for them much sooner had they passed this
documentation along. Instead, essentially
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there was a rumor going around this changed
language; so I actually proactively asked
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my resale team to pass that waiver along.
And it had been a while since it was issued.
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Next in this category: knowing when the estoppel
certificate is issued. This is arguably again
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not that important. But for the sake of records
keeping, it was something I was interested
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in that again I was not provided, and I had
to actively ask about. And last in this subtopic,
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which I actually think is quite important:
I was never told when the seller was done
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turning in all their documents. I specifically
asked for this to happen. I was not thrilled
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with the idea of wiring over ten grand to
a company without knowing that the seller
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had turned in all of their documents and was
done with their part. Ultimately, the seller
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could walk away from the deal, and so I would
rather not wire the money until knowing that
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it would be final. Once you wire money it’s
gone. And if the seller didn't complete the
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end of their deal, I’m sure that the companies
would work hard to get that money back to
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me, but what a huge hassle. Instead, the title
company could just let me know when the seller
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is done with everything on their end, and
then I could proceed with the wire. Alright,
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so I proactively asked to be notified of this;
the title company noted that that is not standard
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practice, but they would make a note in my
file and let me know. They never did. Interestingly
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apparently it is standard practice, at least
at this title company, to let the sellers
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know when the buyer is done with everything.
Why does this practice not go both ways then?
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Frankly, as a buyer, who again is wiring over
a large sum of money, I have more to lose
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than the seller. Anyway, despite being told
I would be notified when the seller finished
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their part, that never occured. After waiting
about a week I decided to wire the money over
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anyway, and just hope that everything would
run smoothly. After I wired the money over,
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all of the documentation closed almost immediately
the next business day. This certainly makes
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it feel like yes the seller had already turned
in all of their documentation, and they were
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just waiting for my money. Very genuinely
I think buyers should be notified that the
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seller has completed everything on their end
before being expected to wire over that full
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amount.
Second under improved information flow would
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be clearer instructions. Apparently if you
are buying resale with financing then some
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of the forms you turn in do need to be notarized.
This means you can't electronically sign them
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and email them over; you would have to get
them notarized and then snail mail them in.
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Okay, great; that effectively means there
are two different sets of expectations for
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forms depending on if you are financing or
if you are paying in cash. Now at least 3
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times I had indicated on prior forms, and
very early in the process, that we were paying
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cash. Therefore both the resale company and
the title company had this information available
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to them. Yet still I was constantly asking
if we could e-sign things and email them over,
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rather than print them out, sign them, and
mail them in. Why can’t these companies
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just have 2 sets of instructions? One for
folks paying in cash, and one for folks financing.
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Then send over the correct instructions. I
also had to ask for things that seemingly
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could have initially been provided to save
the hassle. For example, instructions for
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wiring over the final payment. Why not just
attach that form in the email, rather than
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me have to ask for them? Again, none of this
is a deal breaker, it’s just so silly to
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me. When I work with clients I make sure they
have everything they need. I would never let
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one of my clients know to finish something
you can either send a cashiers check or wire
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over money, and then not include the instructions
to wire over the money. I just don’t understand
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the thought process behind that.
Moving on, the last real criticism I have
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that I think could be drastically improved
is that I was passed along to so many different
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people. In my work, when I am organizing
large groups with various external vendors
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everything goes through me. If my client wants
to know something about the process, all they
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do is contact me, and I take care of everything
on the back end and then funnel them all of
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the information they need. I understand the
DVC resale process is complicated and there
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are a lot of vendors included; that being
said, I deal with very similar situations
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in work all the time, and I am the one passing
along pertinent information to my clients.
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I'm not asking my clients to go ahead and
talk to all of these different bodies. At
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least for my Disney Vacation Club resale process
there was no central person. When I initiated
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this purchase I started with the company's
marketing and sales director. They were great.
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And then after the seller and I agreed on
a purchase price I was then passed along to
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three folks who are contract managers at the
resale company. Eventually the title company
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gets involved, so then I was dealing with
an employee there. At one point that persons
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assistant emailed me, so now there is a second
person at the title company to work with.
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This assistant let me know that if I had any
questions I needed to contact my closing agent.
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They listed the closing agent as a person
named Brenda. Brenda was not copied on the
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email, I was given no contact information
for Brenda. I literally had never interacted
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with a Brenda before at the title company
or the resale company in this process. Honestly,
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still to this day, I don’t know if Brenda
exists, if Brenda does work at the title company
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or the resale company, etc. All in all I was
passed along 6 different folks divided up
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between the resale company and the title company,
as well as this 1 fake person, Brenda. Truly,
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the first person I was in contact with, this
sales director at the resale company, was
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great and any time I had questions I would
usually contact them directly, or just contact
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who I thought would be best and then copy
the sales director to make sure that someone
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knew that I had questions and someone was
keeping track of me. That being said, it just
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feels like kind of a low level of customer
service to me. Again, I would never want my
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clients feeling like they didn't have a point
person. I had no clue who my point person
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was throughout this process; honestly, I don't
think there is a point person. That kind of
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seems like a problem to me. If I did this
at my company, passed our clients along so
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many different people without acting as a
point person, I would be fired for sure. I'm
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expected to provide that kind of white glove
level of service at my company where everything
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is sort of happening behind the scenes and
the clients really only have to contact me;
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and I am their point person, I will get everything
handled for them. I found being passed along
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through so many different people actually
fairly frustrating. Especially because instructions
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and other communications weren’t super clear,
so when I did have questions, which happened
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frequently, I didn't really know who I was
supposed to contact. Ultimately, I think enhanced
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communication that is client-focused would
really help with transparency and overall
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customer satisfaction.
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Again, I truly want to make it clear that
this was still what I would consider a good
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process. I absolutely would recommend this
resale company without hesitation. But working
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with clients myself there were some glaring
gaps, especially when it comes effective communication,
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passing along pertinent information, and overall
just anticipating the clients' needs. Going
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into the resale process I really wasn’t
expecting what at times felt like some level
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of disorganized chaos. I am a big believer
that going into anything with correct expectations
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makes the process a lot smoother and more
satisfactory for everybody involved. Therefore,
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I hope sharing my story helps set up reasonable
expectations for your process with the resale
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market. Truthfully, I really want everything
to be less frustrating for you than it was
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for me. If you have any questions about the
resale process or Disney Vacation Club in
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general definitely feel free to leave a comment
down below, and I'll do my best to get you
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a useful answer! We can also chat outside
of YouTube over on Twitter and Instagram @PixieDustPhD.
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If you have already been through the resale
process and you have some improvements you'd
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like to see, or if everything went swimmingly
well for you, definitely let me know! I love
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hearing your stories and getting to interact
with you all. Thank you so much to everyone
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who did leave a like on this video as well.
I hope you all have a magical rest of your
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day, and we’ll see ya real soon at Pixie
Dust PhD!
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