Japanese Sellers Question

[TexasChick123]

I know that some in the UK have reported it taking up to a month (or more) to get into the embassy for the notarized signature on the resale documents. Our sellers are Japanese, so I was wondering if anyone had any personal dealings with Japanese sellers and knew how long it took to get into the embassy there. My broker said 1-2 weeks, but this seemed much shorter than what others have posted on here. I am specifically asking about sellers in Japan and the timeline to get into the embassy for a notarized signature. I'm aware that other factors like the sellers actually making the appointment, having to travel to the embassy, etc. are at play, and we cannot predict that. I just wanted to see if anyone else has any experience with this specific scenario and what their timeline was. Thanks.

 

[TexasChick123]

I guess no one has had this experience. Oh well. I tried.

 

[LilyJC]

We found out the day we received our closing documents that our sellers are Japanese. I'm curious as to whether you've gotten more information/made any progress. It's been about two weeks, but our closing date is set for the 11th. Super curious to see if closing will actually happen in a week?!

 

[TexasChick123]

We are still waiting on them to return their closing docs. I haven't had any updates really except they "planned to make an appointment at the embassy" a few weeks ago. I didn't send in my money yet because I assumed it would take a while, and I didn't want my money just sitting at the title company collecting dust. They have until the closing date though which is over a month away from now. Should the docs not make it to the title company by then, we will probably walk. With all the craziness in the fall followed by the holidays, we'll happily just keep the money.

 

[mj2vacation]

Sounds like you are purchasing Aulani. Hawaii requires a US notary. The seller has to physically go to a US embassy to sign. It can take weeks to even get an appointment and possibly travel hundreds of miles to get there.

Not trying to discourage you, just set a realistic expectation.

Best of luck!

 

[TexasChick123]

Sounds like you are purchasing Aulani. Hawaii requires a US notary. The seller has to physically go to a US embassy to sign. It can take weeks to even get an appointment and possibly travel hundreds of miles to get there.

Not trying to discourage you, just set a realistic expectation.

Best of luck!

It is a BLT contract. They said 1-2 weeks for a notary appt which was 3.5 weeks ago. The broker is trying to get an update as to if/when the appt has been scheduled, but so far no word from sellers. My broker said she has reached out to them a few times this week with no response. We will see. I know it sounds bad, but I'm ok with it going through or not going through at this point. I've been dealing with trying to buy BLT since February. Between Disney exercising ROFR on us twice, 2 different sellers using points after sending to ROFR, and international sellers being nonresponsive, I'm ready to take a break from resale. I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason. I'll keep y'all updated to let you know how it turns out. They have until the second week of September, so there is still time.

 

[mustinjourney]

It is a BLT contract. They said 1-2 weeks for a notary appt which was 3.5 weeks ago. The broker is trying to get an update as to if/when the appt has been scheduled, but so far no word from sellers. My broker said she has reached out to them a few times this week with no response. We will see. I know it sounds bad, but I'm ok with it going through or not going through at this point. I've been dealing with trying to buy BLT since February. Between Disney exercising ROFR on us twice, 2 different sellers using points after sending to ROFR, and international sellers being nonresponsive, I'm ready to take a break from resale. I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason. I'll keep y'all updated to let you know how it turns out. They have until the second week of September, so there is still time.

on an unrelated note -- United has much lower fares today than yesterday for flights out of IAH to MCO. Mine were all at least $100 cheaper per ticket per leg. If you haven't booked yet, you might want to check them out.

 

[TexasChick123]

on an unrelated note -- United has much lower fares today than yesterday for flights out of IAH to MCO. Mine were all at least $100 cheaper per ticket per leg. If you haven't booked yet, you might want to check them out.

Thanks. We bought a while back. The airfare is the same as when we purchased.

 

[sndral]

I bought my air flight tickets last week, so I'm afraid to look
Even after the sellers get their documents notarized, international mail and customs adds time. My sellers were British and it took several days for their notarized doc.s to get to the USA/title company.

 

[TexasChick123]

I bought my air flight tickets last week, so I'm afraid to look
Even after the sellers get their documents notarized, international mail and customs adds time. My sellers were British and it took several days for their notarized doc.s to get to the USA/title company.

I don't mind if it takes extra time to close as I won't get points until June 2018. I knew going in that international sellers take longer. However, having no reply when asked about whether they've made a notary appointment is disconcerting. It'll work out how it is supposed to. There is a closing date for a reason so that people have a deadline. I wouldn't mind if they said, "We've got a notary appointment, but it is 2 weeks out from now, and we may not have everything back by the closing date." That's at least letting me know they're trying to get it closed. We'll see how it turns out. I honestly have no idea what to expect.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

We had a Japanese seller; I can assure you it will NOT be two weeks, more like 2 months. We made our offer in September and closed in March. no issues to speak of just the time for sellers to get docs then schedule at their embassy (which takes time) travel there, get them back and then "Hawaii Time". So if you're planning a trip, have a back up.
*by Christmas they had just received their docs in Japan fyi

It was part of the process and it was worth it because it was a great contract and price and in the end we rented for our next trip but had more points the next year.

Escrow is pretty useless in keeping track or caring . They have been the hiccup in both of our buys in both Hawaii and Florida. Your point of sale has no real way to help you but was my savior once to contact The seller to return missing docs. escrow will do nothing but send an email and only after you bug them. That said a watched pot doesn't boil. You can't make the embassy appointment come sooner or their ability to travel there.

 

[mustinjourney]

I bought my air flight tickets last week, so I'm afraid to look
Even after the sellers get their documents notarized, international mail and customs adds time. My sellers were British and it took several days for their notarized doc.s to get to the USA/title company.

I bought the outbound leg sometime last week. I booked the return flight on SWA. Economy flight with United was $350 for just one leg, and return flight was $220. Today, the outbound flight was $130 badpc. Too late to cancel my original ticket -- so that is $460 (2 tickets) I won't be getting back. I am glad that I was able to switch my return flight from SWA to United though, since it allows all of us to be on one plane and I don't have to worry about logging in to make sure we're seated together.

 

[mustinjourney]

I don't mind if it takes extra time to close as I won't get points until June 2018. I knew going in that international sellers take longer. However, having no reply when asked about whether they've made a notary appointment is disconcerting. It'll work out how it is supposed to. There is a closing date for a reason so that people have a deadline. I wouldn't mind if they said, "We've got a notary appointment, but it is 2 weeks out from now, and we may not have everything back by the closing date." That's at least letting me know they're trying to get it closed. We'll see how it turns out. I honestly have no idea what to expect.

I've talked about this another thread (https://www.disboards.com/threads/is-this-even-possible.3611672/#post-57764958) -- still hoping someone can try it out.

www.Notarycam.com

From what I have found, while FL does not allow notaries by cam directly, FL does accept notaries from other states. Virginia allows these types of notaries...which means that Florida "should" allow them as well. I haven't heard either way of anyone using them though.

The person in that thread said their closing company wouldn't do it.

 

[LilyJC]

We had a Japanese seller; I can assure you it will NOT be two weeks, more like 2 months. We made our offer in September and closed in March. no issues to speak of just the time for sellers to get docs then schedule at their embassy (which takes time) travel there, get them back and then "Hawaii Time". So if you're planning a trip, have a back up.
*by Christmas they had just received their docs in Japan fyi

It was part of the process and it was worth it because it was a great contract and price and in the end we rented for our next trip but had more points the next year.

Escrow is pretty useless in keeping track or caring . They have been the hiccup in both of our buys in both Hawaii and Florida. Your point of sale has no real way to help you but was my savior once to contact The seller to return missing docs. escrow will do nothing but send an email and only after you bug them. That said a watched pot doesn't boil. You can't make the embassy appointment come sooner or their ability to travel there.

Which broker were you using? My broker at Fidelity assured me it wouldn't delay the sale as they have a broker in Japan who helps move the proceedings along... Our contract is for VGC so we thankfully don't have to deal with Hawaii time issues in addition to having a surprise International seller. Everything has moved quickly up until this point so I'll try to remain optimistic about our timeline.

 

[TexasChick123]

Which broker were you using? My broker at Fidelity assured me it wouldn't delay the sale as they have a broker in Japan who helps move the proceedings along... Our contract is for VGC so we thankfully don't have to deal with Hawaii time issues in addition to having a surprise International seller. Everything has moved quickly up until this point so I'll try to remain optimistic about our timeline.

We are using Vacatia. They also have a Japanese rep, quite possibly the same one as Fidelity. They told me that it shouldn't hold up the sale too much, but people have stated otherwise, as you can see. The rep doesn't help the sellers get the embassy appointment, but she does tell them how to make it and the steps they need to take. They told me that they cannot make the sellers make the appointment and travel to the embassy when I asked about the process up front. Just be ready for a bit of a wait. If it moves along quickly, then it will be a pleasant surprise.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

Which broker were you using? My broker at Fidelity assured me it wouldn't delay the sale as they have a broker in Japan who helps move the proceedings along... Our contract is for VGC so we thankfully don't have to deal with Hawaii time issues in addition to having a surprise International seller. Everything has moved quickly up until this point so I'll try to remain optimistic about our timeline.

We were with Fidelity. They have great prices and are lighting fast getting offers to escrow. From there, there isn't a lot they can do or will do. If you don't. It escrow, no one will and you'll find out days or weeks after recording that's it's done and in my experience only after asking escrow. Escrow was First Am both times I think.
This last time took over three mos with an American seller. 2 docs were missing and no one mentioned a word until I asked escrow if we had recorded after not seeing it in Orange Cos log and they were like oh yeah the seller hasn't returned everything. We'll email. *eyeroll*. That's when I went to the broker and asked her to check or help me find a new contract if he's changed his mind ( not that there are any out there) and she is the one who called him and told him to fax his sniz.

With the Japanese sellers 3 mos later I call escrow To make sure and they got our money etc and she says, The docs were only just sent to Japan; it's going to be a long time. And it was. Again had to ask if it had recorded 3 mos later. It had a week before but no one bothered to tell me.

Lesson- I miss totally hands off when I'm not in a rush and I too was like what is meant to be will happen and we had already rented points for our next trip. But, when I do it again and if I go resale, I'll be like white on rice with escrow. They be like ugh- lets close this piece so this lady stops emailing and calling! Squeaky wheel...

That being said, escrow can't do much until they get the docs back from Japan.

Take heart, it will close and it's going to be awesome. I'm typing this from a 1bed at VGC!!

 

[LilyJC]

Hmm, these experiences weren't quite what I was hoping to hear, but thankfully we aren't in a huge rush. I will get super antsy if we approach the end of September and still haven't closed as I plan to bank all the 2017 points by the end of October. I will definitely touch base with our broker this week though to attempt to keep the ball rolling.... Thanks again for sharing about your similar situations!

 

[amccu18007]

It is a BLT contract. They said 1-2 weeks for a notary appt which was 3.5 weeks ago. The broker is trying to get an update as to if/when the appt has been scheduled, but so far no word from sellers. My broker said she has reached out to them a few times this week with no response. We will see. I know it sounds bad, but I'm ok with it going through or not going through at this point. I've been dealing with trying to buy BLT since February. Between Disney exercising ROFR on us twice, 2 different sellers using points after sending to ROFR, and international sellers being nonresponsive, I'm ready to take a break from resale. I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason. I'll keep y'all updated to let you know how it turns out. They have until the second week of September, so there is still time.

I didn't realize that this contract was having issues too! I am so sad to read this

 

[TexasChick123]

Hmm, these experiences weren't quite what I was hoping to hear, but thankfully we aren't in a huge rush. I will get super antsy if we approach the end of September and still haven't closed as I plan to bank all the 2017 points by the end of October. I will definitely touch base with our broker this week though to attempt to keep the ball rolling.... Thanks again for sharing about your similar situations!

I didn't realize that this contract was having issues too! I am so sad to read this

I heard today that the sellers made their embassy appointment for next week and will send in their docs as soon as they get them notarized. I don't know if that's how backed up the embassy is or if that's when they could get there. We just wanted to know it was moving along. It's certainly more cumbersome for sellers, especially if they're international, than buyers. Seems like it'll work out ok. I'll let everyone know when it closes to give a better idea of a timeline with international sellers.

I have to add that our first contract had American sellers, and it took 3 months because they were dragging their feet and had nothing to do with being in a different country. It's one of the trade offs for the savings of resale.

 

[mustinjourney]

I heard today that the sellers made their embassy appointment for next week and will send in their docs as soon as they get them notarized. I don't know if that's how backed up the embassy is or if that's when they could get there. We just wanted to know it was moving along. It's certainly more cumbersome for sellers, especially if they're international, than buyers. Seems like it'll work out ok. I'll let everyone know when it closes to give a better idea of a timeline with international sellers.

I have to add that our first contract had American sellers, and it took 3 months because they were dragging their feet and had nothing to do with being in a different country. It's one of the trade offs for the savings of resale.

Hopefully the sellers know they need to bring their own witnesses to the embassy. Most embassies do not provide witnesses.

Make sure your broker reminds the sellers of this requirement. Otherwise you'll be waiting even longer.

https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/notarial-services/