I recently closed on a GCV contract that was quite the nightmare-over four months, start to finish. After taking some time to recover (and successfully book my first trip), I thought I'd come back and share my story to warn anyone considering financing through timesharelending.come. I am hoping to not have the focus of this thread be reprimands or warnings about financing this purchase at all-we made the decision to do so after looking at the rarity of contracts that met our need at Grand Californian, our desire to do a big family trip next year, and our ability to quickly pay the amount we borrowed off.
First, the details:
100 points GCV, fully loaded (banked points from 2016, all points going forward), August use year, $141.
We are a family of 5, and live on the West Coast. We love WDW, but DL is our favorite park, both for convenience, but also for ease of touring while there. In addition, my husband is not nearly the park fan the rest of us are-he hates commando touring, and also would just as soon spend most of our time in Southern California on the beach or visiting college friends. Finally, while I prefer the DLH's retro Disney feel, he loves the style of the Grand and I knew this was a way to get him on board with the purchase. We fully expect to use these points almost entirely for stays at the Grand, ideally an every other year 5-7 day trip.
Offer: July 6
Passed ROFR: July 21
Loan App completed: August 15
Closing docs: Supposed to be to me no later than Aug 22; I email on the 21st as I still don't have them. Barbara with timeshare lending immediately blames the Title Company (Duncan) and our Broker (Bee at Buy and Sell DVC). There was inaccuracy after inaccuracy-some by the lending company (wrong amount, insisting they'd sent docs when they hadn't-and some by the title company (wrong state on forms, for instance).
Seller docs received: Sept 26. They were in Canada, then we had Irma-not sure what else delayed this.
Final points summary ordered: Sept 28
Final points summary received from Disney: Oct 10
Oct 11: title company says they have never received quit claim deed from my spouse, which was sent with all other docs. I resend.
Oct 18: still waiting; lending company says they mailed a check, rather than completing an electronic transfer.
Oct 24: Funds still have not arrived at title company. Both broker and title agent mail lender with no response.
Oct 25: Funds arrive but are $300 short. I ask lender to wire the missing $300 that day; she refuses, saying they don't wire amounts under $10K (Note-she refused to wire entire amount initially which was over that amount). This is one of my favorite quotes from our email correspondence with lending company:
We sent a check in the amount of $11,300.00; however, the amount
was written as $11,000.00. The title company did not catch our
error or we would have sent the balance of $300.00 two days ago.
I love that a check was somehow sent for an amount that it wasn't written for, and that it was the title company's error, not theirs. I ask her to make this mistake right immediately; no response.
Oct 30: missing funds finally arrive.
Deed Recorded: November 6
We were hoping to book a trip a specific week in June-the week after kids were out of school, but before points jumped for the summery, and we nearly missed the 7 month window, which I would never have anticipated when we started in July. This is the only lender able to finance with Disney for the Grand, but in hindsight we should've done a personal loan with our credit union. The broker warned us about Barbara at timeshare lending, and I have since seen warnings in older threads on this site.
It was also a reminder to be very proactive as you go through the process. There were some errors by the broker and title company, as well, and the title company did not seem to have much of a sense of urgency; in hindsight, I should have been nagging starting early in August when I didn't get closing docs quickly.
On the bright side, we got what I think was a good price on this contract, and we were able to book a 2 bedroom for the five nights we wanted in June. It all ended well, but was such a stressful process-I wanted to warn anyone else considering!
First, the details:
100 points GCV, fully loaded (banked points from 2016, all points going forward), August use year, $141.
We are a family of 5, and live on the West Coast. We love WDW, but DL is our favorite park, both for convenience, but also for ease of touring while there. In addition, my husband is not nearly the park fan the rest of us are-he hates commando touring, and also would just as soon spend most of our time in Southern California on the beach or visiting college friends. Finally, while I prefer the DLH's retro Disney feel, he loves the style of the Grand and I knew this was a way to get him on board with the purchase. We fully expect to use these points almost entirely for stays at the Grand, ideally an every other year 5-7 day trip.
Offer: July 6
Passed ROFR: July 21
Loan App completed: August 15
Closing docs: Supposed to be to me no later than Aug 22; I email on the 21st as I still don't have them. Barbara with timeshare lending immediately blames the Title Company (Duncan) and our Broker (Bee at Buy and Sell DVC). There was inaccuracy after inaccuracy-some by the lending company (wrong amount, insisting they'd sent docs when they hadn't-and some by the title company (wrong state on forms, for instance).
Seller docs received: Sept 26. They were in Canada, then we had Irma-not sure what else delayed this.
Final points summary ordered: Sept 28
Final points summary received from Disney: Oct 10
Oct 11: title company says they have never received quit claim deed from my spouse, which was sent with all other docs. I resend.
Oct 18: still waiting; lending company says they mailed a check, rather than completing an electronic transfer.
Oct 24: Funds still have not arrived at title company. Both broker and title agent mail lender with no response.
Oct 25: Funds arrive but are $300 short. I ask lender to wire the missing $300 that day; she refuses, saying they don't wire amounts under $10K (Note-she refused to wire entire amount initially which was over that amount). This is one of my favorite quotes from our email correspondence with lending company:
We sent a check in the amount of $11,300.00; however, the amount
was written as $11,000.00. The title company did not catch our
error or we would have sent the balance of $300.00 two days ago.
I love that a check was somehow sent for an amount that it wasn't written for, and that it was the title company's error, not theirs. I ask her to make this mistake right immediately; no response.
Oct 30: missing funds finally arrive.
Deed Recorded: November 6
We were hoping to book a trip a specific week in June-the week after kids were out of school, but before points jumped for the summery, and we nearly missed the 7 month window, which I would never have anticipated when we started in July. This is the only lender able to finance with Disney for the Grand, but in hindsight we should've done a personal loan with our credit union. The broker warned us about Barbara at timeshare lending, and I have since seen warnings in older threads on this site.
It was also a reminder to be very proactive as you go through the process. There were some errors by the broker and title company, as well, and the title company did not seem to have much of a sense of urgency; in hindsight, I should have been nagging starting early in August when I didn't get closing docs quickly.
On the bright side, we got what I think was a good price on this contract, and we were able to book a 2 bedroom for the five nights we wanted in June. It all ended well, but was such a stressful process-I wanted to warn anyone else considering!
