Warning Re: Closing

[Mumof4mice]

Not Fidelity either. Thanks for the heads up. I'll watch out for it if I end up buying from them.

I'll pm you the broker. Glad your sale worked out in the end!

 

[Madame]

Oh my goodness, the saga will never end!

I just received the closing documents for my second contract. And it's when I found out that the seller is international. This has tax implications and is not a trivial bit of information like the seller's hair color. Every other broker has volunteered the information without being asked. And I feel the broker (NOT Vacatia. A different one.) deliberately withheld the information so she wouldn't lose a potential buyer. The broker did not apologize when I questioned her about why she chose not to inform us that the seller was international. She became defensive and acted surprised: are you disappointed because you have to wait longer? At best, that's incompetence (not knowing residency status is important in a sale). But more likely plain deception (lying by omission).

I realize that I have a short fuse at the moment because of the other seller. It's not outright fraud. Just unscrupulous behaviour by the broker. Could maybe have shrugged it off otherwise. But I am just really, really unimpressed!

So disappointed with myself for not thinking to ask a direct question and get it in writing (Gasp! Trusting a timeshare salesman). Because we are also international I think we may be required to apply for an International Tax Identification Number. Extra steps, extra time, potential costs. It's just something we wouldn't have chosen to enter into.

Yes you will have to get an ITIN number we are Canadian & considered buying from an international seller. I insisted to the broker that we would need an ITIN & she contacted the title company and yes it’s the case. Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news.

 

[gharter]

Sorry to hear about your terrible experience. Fortunately, most sellers are not like that.
Good luck going forward on your search. Hope the next one goes much easier.

 

[Mumof4mice]

Yes you will have to get an ITIN number we are Canadian & considered buying from an international seller. I insisted to the broker that we would need an ITIN & she contacted the title company and yes it’s the case. Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news.

Thanks. That's what I thought. Every other broker I spoke with let me know straight away if the contract I was interested in had an international seller. This broker never disclosed seller's international status and I stupidly didn't ask. I wonder if she would have told the truth anyway. She would have lost me as a buyer, so I guess she made the sound decision for her business.

When I saw the FIRPTA in the closing documents I phoned the title company and contacted the broker immediately. According the closing document Seller will also need to bring money to the table to discharge his loan. I followed up with an email stating I won't wire funds until the FIRPTA issue is addressed (suggesting using a FIRPTA agent) and the seller sends documents and funds on his part (sale price won't discharge his loan after commission and closing costs). Pretty reasonable, no? Considering the broker's failure of disclosure got me in this mess!

This was Thursday. No reply from either yet.

 

[Madame]

Thanks. That's what I thought. Every other broker I spoke with let me know straight away if the contract I was interested in had an international seller. This broker never disclosed seller's international status and I stupidly didn't ask. I wonder if she would have told the truth anyway. She would have lost me as a buyer, so I guess she made the sound decision for her business.

When I saw the FIRPTA in the closing documents I phoned the title company and contacted the broker immediately. According the closing document Seller will also need to bring money to the table to discharge his loan. I followed up with an email stating I won't wire funds until the FIRPTA issue is addressed (suggesting using a FIRPTA agent) and the seller sends documents and funds on his part (sale price won't discharge his loan after commission and closing costs). Pretty reasonable, no? Considering the broker's failure of disclosure got me in this mess!

This was Thursday. No reply from either yet.

Ugh, not very professional. We passed on the contract we were looking at too. We’d already lost one contract in ROFR & didn’t want all the hassle of the ITIN right then. We wanted to buy quickly. I was worried prices would go up even more & that that contract would get taken too - it was a low ppp. Sending you pixie dust that this all moves smoothly!

 

[citivas]

That's awful. Our situation wasn't that bad except it had a common element -- the title company not checking that there was a mortgage with payment due until the last day of what was supposed to be the close. And that was after months of them sitting around saying they were just waiting on the seller to return the closing docs.

 

[motherof5]

Just been informed by the broker that my contract has been cancelled. The whole situation smells. I'm suspicious that the Seller had nefarious intentions from the beginning.

I was told that Seller withheld information about being behind in her mortgage payments by a whole year (although shouldn't the broker/DVC have verified it during ROFR?). Seller needed to come up with funds in order to discharge the loan. She stated that funds had been transferred and urged the closing agent to close before her funds arrived.

Fortunately the closing agent was onto it. And I never transfer the balance to escrow until I get confirmation that all is in order anyway. Otherwise some of the horror timeshare scam stories would be repeated here, where the buyer takes over to find that they do not have clear title and need to come up with another $10k... Now that her game is up, seller decided to let the contract go into foreclosure.

The broker, title company and I have all wasted two months. Not a good start to my DVC adventure.

Anyway, I'm back on the hunt. Taking on board advice received from DIS members and prioritising a second home resort (PVB just worked out cheapest when I was looking before). I would call it turning lemon into lemonade except I love lemons. This is more like turning elephant poo into eco-friendly paper.

Anyone see a nice SEP/DEC BLT/VGF please shoot me a message!

Hopefully by now you found something you like and are closer to being a DVC member. Good luck!