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