Do contracts go this fast?

[CarolMN]

I posted about this is the Waiting to Pass ROFR thread - I think I was the first. I'm in ROFR now on a VGC resale through Fidelity. Found out about the $195 admin fee AFTER the negotiations were over through an email from Fidelity with the estimates of my costs outlined.

There it was - right with closing costs, etc. - admin fee. When i called to ask, I was told since I was a repeat buyer from Fidelity they thought I already knew about it so didn't bother telling me. The date of the email was 1/17, so since the fee started on 1/1 that' hard to swallow. I hadn't bought another contract from them in those 2 weeks.

I'm starting to think this topic needs its own thread so people will have this info going into their negotiations, unlike me, and be able to factor this cost into what they want to pay.

Since it's a flat fee it's very regressive so buyers looking for small contracts will have to be extra mindful of how this impacts their price per point.

Sorry to hear evidence that the fee is not clearly disclosed until after an agreement is reached. That just seems wrong and IMO, the reason given is an example of very poor business practice.

Still, it's the overall price of a contract that would be important to me. As long as that is acceptable to me (with the fee factored in), it would not stop me from doing business with Fidelity if they had the best contract for me. They'd be the last place I'd look though as the fee adds an additional "complication" to the negotiations. Just my opinion FWIW.

 

[rojen]

I'm no expert, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. From researching buying resale, it seems like they're the ones to go through. They have a reputation of being more willing to let you low ball offers in to sellers, and they're more flexible with negotiations. Is this all true? I don't know, but it's definitely the consensus of the posts I've read on the subject.

I know they're supposed to do all this in order to earn the seller's commission. But I've only been looking for the last three days and I've already had 20 emails between me and S. I'm planning on trying to get the best deal available, and I figure I'll hear a lot of no's before I get a yes. That's gonna be a lot of work for the broker. If she can assist you in putting in low bids, and you end up paying $5-10 less per point, the fee seems very reasonable. As long as they're upfront about the fee, seems they earn it.

 

[GOOFY D]

Rachel no longer works at Fidelity and I bought my first contract before it was listed on the website in March.

I know she no longer works there, but I worked with her up until she left and that is what she told me. On the one I eventually bought (the week before she left), I called her to see if there were any that were not yet on the site. She told me they had a few that would be listed the next day but that she could not give me any info on them until they were published on the site, and that that was Fidelity's policy.

 

[Breyean]

I'm no expert, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. From researching buying resale, it seems like they're the ones to go through. They have a reputation of being more willing to let you low ball offers in to sellers, and they're more flexible with negotiations. Is this all true? I don't know, but it's definitely the consensus of the posts I've read on the subject.

I know they're supposed to do all this in order to earn the seller's commission. But I've only been looking for the last three days and I've already had 20 emails between me and S. I'm planning on trying to get the best deal available, and I figure I'll hear a lot of no's before I get a yes. That's gonna be a lot of work for the broker. If she can assist you in putting in low bids, and you end up paying $5-10 less per point, the fee seems very reasonable. As long as they're upfront about the fee, seems they earn it.

Yes, Fidelity has the reputation of having more inventory and lower prices than some other resellers. They get a lot of distressed properties from their contract with Disney - an owner calls Disney looking for a way out of their contract, sometimes to beat foreclosure, sometimes due to a divorce, that sort of thing.

Fidelity bid on and won that contract a few years ago. They charge the seller a commission. PLUS, they require sellers to have an exclusive sales contract with Fidelity for I believe 6 months. So no ability to list it with other brokers to get more exposure.

Their business is to make money selling the products they get. They help sellers set their asking prices. From what I've read, all brokers in FL are required to present all offers unless the sellers have set a minimum under which they don't want to be bothered.

My point is, Fidelity is now charging buyers extra for basically doing their jobs - presenting offers and closing contracts.

They don't have it on their web site.

They don't list it as a cost like TTS lists closing costs (Fidelity doesn't list ANYTHING other than the basic contract info).

They apparently aren't telling BUYERS about it until AFTER the sale is made, which is really bad.

It's a flat fee regardless of how big the contract is, or how much time they spent with you closing the deal. They charge sellers a fee based on sales price. So bigger contracts net them more $$. Yet this fee is flat - I buy 50 or 500 points - same $195 fee. That's regressive and will add real $$ to the price per point on smaller contracts.

I agree that the contract as a whole is the important thing, and I'm hoping mine passes ROFR. It's VGC, my UY, right # of points.

But I still came away with a bad feeling of how this fee was added right at the end w/o any disclosure. Instead of a WOW! feeling of happiness, I had the added feeling I had been had to some extent, since had I known up front, I would have factored this in to the price.

Just seems a bad way to do business to me.

 

[Breyean]

I know she no longer works there, but I worked with her up until she left and that is what she told me. On the one I eventually bought (the week before she left), I called her to see if there were any that were not yet on the site. She told me they had a few that would be listed the next day but that she could not give me any info on them until they were published on the site, and that that was Fidelity's policy.

Yes, according to Sharon, they no longer are allowed to call buyers before the contract is posted on their site. Since they only update the site on Tuesdays and Fridays, and then don't work the weekends, you have to really call them during the week to check or email them with an offer if over the weekend.

The contract I'm in ROFR now with them was posted on a Friday, and I'm on the west coast and the they were closed before I saw it. I emailed my offer and Sharon said that was a good thing since I got mine in before people called on Monday.

In the past, I had done 3 contracts with her and none of them ever even hit their site - she called me and we did the deal. She knew I was serious and looking for VGC, so the inventory there of both buyers and sellers isn't that big. Don't know if that was a factor in her calling me.

I THINK there's been some sort of corporate change at Fidelity recently - maybe a merger of new management. Because between this new no calling policy and the new buyer's fee it seems like something shook things up there.

 

[disneynutz]

Wasn't the fee that they discontinued charged to the seller? It appears they now have decided to charge that fee to the buyer instead of the seller.

I posted because I have not read of any other broker charging a fee to the BUYER and it doesn't sound like many prospective buyers know about it yet. I wonder if they are waiting until a deal is struck to disclose it? I didn't see anything about it on their website.

I'm pretty sure that we were charged the fee a few years ago as a buyer and the fee was not disclosed until we received the closing statement.

Bill

 

[lodge]

I'm thinking Fidelity doesn't call people, prior to the contract being posted, is to allow fairness and eliminate favoritism or other disputes on making the public aware of a sale. Things tend to change when there's a problem with current methods.

 

[Missyrose]

I'm thinking Fidelity doesn't call people, prior to the contract being posted, is to allow fairness and eliminate favoritism or other disputes on making the public aware of a sale. Things tend to change when there's a problem with current methods.

Although they can't negotiate anything about the contract until it's listed on the site, they can let you know there's a contract you'd be interested in about to be posted. This is what happened with my BLT contract, I got a heads up it would be posted and as soon as it was on the site, I called Sharon with my offer. The deal was negotiated within about 15 minutes of the contract being posted.

 

[thptrek]

I'm in the middle of a transaction with Fidelity and have had great communications. When I placed my offer Rachel and then Sharon both ran through what my total closing costs (line by line) were going to be based on my bid. I knew what my total cost was going to be.

Now just need to pass ROFR on my BLT.

 

[puffkin]

I just signed a contract with Shawn Ray today and was made aware of the admin fee from the first offer. It doesn't bother me too much as I am looking at total contract price. I felt of all the big brokers she/Fidelity were the most willing to help the buyer negotiate.

 

[Missyrose]

I just signed a contract with Shawn Ray today and was made aware of the admin fee from the first offer. It doesn't bother me too much as I am looking at total contract price. I felt of all the big brokers she/Fidelity were the most willing to help the buyer negotiate.

Is Shawn Ray Rachel's replacement?

 

[Breyean]

Is Shawn Ray Rachel's replacement?

Yes.

 

[fmer55]

I'm no expert, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. From researching buying resale, it seems like they're the ones to go through. They have a reputation of being more willing to let you low ball offers in to sellers, and they're more flexible with negotiations. Is this all true? I don't know, but it's definitely the consensus of the posts I've read on the subject.

I know they're supposed to do all this in order to earn the seller's commission. But I've only been looking for the last three days and I've already had 20 emails between me and S. I'm planning on trying to get the best deal available, and I figure I'll hear a lot of no's before I get a yes. That's gonna be a lot of work for the broker. If she can assist you in putting in low bids, and you end up paying $5-10 less per point, the fee seems very reasonable. As long as they're upfront about the fee, seems they earn it.

Did you see this one rojen?

Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort

$8,640.00

160

$54.00

Feb. 13-160 14-160

1354540

 

[rojen]

I didn't see that one.

Do you guys put a time limit on your offers? I put in an offer yesterday, then saw another contract I liked, had to wait for a rejection before I put in an offer on a different contract. Should I request a 24 or 48 hour window for accept/reject?

I've also been offering to pay MF and closing. I figure that this will make the offer look more attractive, since seller won't have to bring money to closing. Is this a good assumption? I just lower my per point offer to accommodate the MF I'm paying.

 

[puffkin]

I didn't see that one.

Do you guys put a time limit on your offers? I put in an offer yesterday, then saw another contract I liked, had to wait for a rejection before I put in an offer on a different contract. Should I request a 24 or 48 hour window for accept/reject?

I've also been offering to pay MF and closing. I figure that this will make the offer look more attractive, since seller won't have to bring money to closing. Is this a good assumption? I just lower my per point offer to accommodate the MF I'm paying.

It is a mind game with the sellers. Basically what I did was decide what my overall end price should be and then I worked backwards from there to craft my offer. I ended up paying closing and offering a lower per point cost because I felt it looked more attractive. Either way, my end result is the same.

I can say that I usually offered to split MF for current year points with the sellers and offered a lowish but fair per point cost and every single one of those offers got rejected. The contract I just got accepted I offered a very low price per point and offered to pay all closing and that offer was accepted. My end cost was the same either way, but take what you will from that.

 

[fmer55]

I didn't see that one.

Do you guys put a time limit on your offers? I put in an offer yesterday, then saw another contract I liked, had to wait for a rejection before I put in an offer on a different contract. Should I request a 24 or 48 hour window for accept/reject?

I've also been offering to pay MF and closing. I figure that this will make the offer look more attractive, since seller won't have to bring money to closing. Is this a good assumption? I just lower my per point offer to accommodate the MF I'm paying.

They shouldn't have to bring money to closing either way, dues should be paid already unless they are on the monthly plan.

 

[kenly777]

It is a mind game with the sellers. Basically what I did was decide what my overall end price should be and then I worked backwards from there to craft my offer. I ended up paying closing and offering a lower per point cost because I felt it looked more attractive. Either way, my end result is the same.

I can say that I usually offered to split MF for current year points with the sellers and offered a lowish but fair per point cost and every single one of those offers got rejected. The contract I just got accepted I offered a very low price per point and offered to pay all closing and that offer was accepted. My end cost was the same either way, but take what you will from that.

And on my offer, I origanally offered low pp, paying all costs, was counter-offered a little bit higher pp, but then had my offer accepted at their pp, but seller paying mf, so........ every deal is different, a game of going back and forth. Good luck to all of us!

 

[shwn]

I'm no expert, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. From researching buying resale, it seems like they're the ones to go through. They have a reputation of being more willing to let you low ball offers in to sellers, and they're more flexible with negotiations. Is this all true? I don't know, but it's definitely the consensus of the posts I've read on the subject.

I just had two contracts go to ROFR (one through the company that gets starred out on this site and one with DVC by Resale), but I made many offers using all four main companies over the past two months.

I agree with this too- Fidelity seemed really great about taking any offers to the seller no matter what. I also have also had really good luck with the company that can't be named on this site (they are my favorite to work with) and Shontell at DVC by Resale. But I have to say that I did not feel that way at all about the Timeshare Store. They seemed almost reluctant to take some offers, which seemed very odd to me- they are very seller friendly. I personally would not try to offer through them again, unless it was the exact contract I wanted at a great price.

 

[kenly777]

As a newbie, can I ask why one company gets starred out? Would love to know all options to buy through that are used by other members.

 

[CarolMN]

As a newbie, can I ask why one company gets starred out? Would love to know all options to buy through that are used by other members.

This Sticky Thread should answer your question:

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