Am I The Jerk? - VGF resale offer edition

[CmdrThor]

This is what happens when you have dual representation of the buyer and seller. The broker works for the seller, not the buyer, so never expect the broker to hold your hand through the process. Some surely do, which likely will result in repeat business from that buyer, but others will do whatever they can to get the highest price for their seller (and thus highest commission for themselves).

Whenever brokers try tactics like that with me I thank them for their opinion and let them know my offer is my offer.

 

[MeggiesMom]

Those are NOT lowball offers. I recently closed on two VGF contracts. One at $180 and one at $181.

 

[Sandisw]

I have always said, you should pay what you feel works for you and keep trying until you find a seller who agrees with you. My response would have probably been, "Then I guess when I find one to head to ROFR at the low price, I will be prepared for it to be rejected...have a nice day!"

I think we saw VGF asking prices go up rather quickly and now starting to see contracts sit a little longer because it went to high for the buying public. I think the $180's are certainly a good price for them. Of course, I also know that sellers may want to hold out which is fine too!

Good luck! You will find the right one soon!

 

[gisele2]

These were not lowball offers. You offer what you are willing to pay. Continue your search.

 

[crisi]

I'm someone who if I sold, would list at a fair price and would NOT want the broker to give me ANY offers. That is a waste of my time, and yes, wasting someone else's time is a jerk move. But you aren't wasting my time if the broker is doing their job and intercepting the offers, and that is what the broker is paid to do, so no, you aren't being a jerk. Move on to the next contract. Be prepared to swing and miss many more times - not everyone wants to bargain and some people will just wait for an offer to come through at the price they want to sell at. And be prepared for some brokers who want to make you feel bad about it. But what do you care, this isn't someone you have a relationship with, its someone you are buying a contract through.

Someone here once posted that by Florida Real Estate law all reasonable offers need to be presented to the client. In which case I'd be ripping the broker a new one for wasting my time and you might get the blowback from that.

 

[fgaini]

You will find the right resale. I waited a bit and got ROFRed once, but at the end I got my VGF

 

[davidl81]

I would not add on the VGF right now for $195 since it’s likely that direct will be close to $195 after incentives in a few months. But that’s a guess on my part

 

[Stargazer65]

I would not add on the VGF right now for $195 since it’s likely that direct will be close to $195 after incentives in a few months. But that’s a guess on my part

This is good thinking, but you mean a few weeks...not months. October 1st is in a few weeks.

 

[DKZB]

Today I made two offers on VGF resales as follows:

1. Listing was for 160 points, $193/point, Dec UY, semi-loaded. I offered $185/point, which the agent told me was a "pretty good offer". This was through a company that supports the DIS. Ultimately the seller didn't want to come down that low but my husband didn't want to come up, so we passed for now.

2. Listing was for 150 points, $195/point, Dec UY, semi-loaded, can't close until the end of the year. I offered $185/point again (with paying closing costs and dues). This time, I received a rather rude email from the agent, for a company not associated with the DIS, telling me that the seller wants a full price offer and that "Honestly in order to get past ROFR you are going to have to be at or above the asking price".

Am I crazy to think that's simply not true and that my offer was fair? Of course, totally in the seller's rights to hold out for a full-price offer, no issue there. I just felt it was dishonest for the agent to tell me it wouldn't even pass ROFR. Her email made me feel shamed as if I'd totally low-balled the seller

TLDR: Is offering $185/point when it was listed at $195/point truly a lowball offer? and, more importantly, is it at risk for not passing ROFR? The ROFR thread here doesn't seem to indicate that my offer was out of whack at all.

I litterally just passed ROFR yesterday on a VGF contract at $170/point that included 80 bonus points (On 220 point contract). $185 is very fair and probably more than I would be willing to pay!

 

[DKZB]

Definitely! You know your stuff and some of these brokers make us feel like we are just sending in anything! Not to say I’ve tried to low ball “just to see” but if it’s what you’re looking for you already know what it’s worth. Do let them make you second guess yourself! Good Luck!

I am under contract on a 400 point SSR now that I threw in an offer to see what happens. It has DOUBLE points for 21. They were asking $125/point. I offered $120/point with Seller paid Closing and Seller paid 21 Dues. I didn't think i would get it but they accepted. Passing ROFR on this one is going to be the hard part IMHO

Put in an offer that you think it fair and maybe lower than you would want to go and you might be surprised when someone takes it!

 

[PaintsWithAllTheColors]

Thanks everyone!! This is all super helpful. FWIW - we did consider holding out on VGF for the new direct but we're making an educated guess that it'll be around $220/point and figure $180-185 is still a decent savings over that so we're okay with it. But we'll hold out for a contract that makes sense for us. Thanks again!

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

You can’t count on the seller’s agent to tell you what the market price is. You can look at recent sales on the Orange County Controller’s site to find ALL the VGF sales from the past few months. You can also look at the ROFR thread and get a small sample of the VGF sales, but with additional info such as whether it is stripped or loaded.

Once you have a good feel for the actual market, make any offer you see fit to make.

 

[Brian Noble]

Is offering $185/point when it was listed at $195/point truly a lowball offer?

It doesn't matter. That's what you felt comfortable offering. The seller can accept it, or reject it and possibly counter. If they (or their agent) were offended, that is a them problem and not a you problem.

is it at risk for not passing ROFR?

It doesn't matter. That's what you felt comfortable offering. Anyone who tells you they know what the drunken monkey throwing ROFR darts is going to do is either misinformed, lying, or violating a non-disclosure agreement.

I wouldn't do further business with that broker.

I certainly wouldn't list with them. But, I wouldn't rule out making offers through them. Doing so only limits my choices.

 

[kmorlock]

We have paid slightly more for a contract than I wanted but, what we needed is kind of hard to come by in a specific UY. If I had to do it over, I probably would have gone direct and just paid the extra $1K to be done. The process started in early June, closing & estoppel came quickly, end of July but, MA has yet to load points after about 6-7 weeks. With VGF2 coming, it might be worth the wait or, check VGF direct with any incentives. Sometimes, it’s closer in total price than we know. Plus there’s no wait.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

This isn't the first time I've heard stories like this and I don't understand it. A short/succinct message saying the sellers are only accepting full price offers is all that needs to be said. Being rude to a potential client and scaring them away from making offers is stupid.

I looked at both dvcresalemarket and disboard's ROFR threads and the highest taken is $160. I have to imagine that Disney is pretty unlikely to ROFR VGF right now also due to VGF2 going on sale soon.

 

[Nabas]

Thanks - I just double-checked and there aren't any notes indicating "no offers" or "full price only". I hadn't thought to look for that before, so I'll keep that in mind as I keep shopping.

I've been following VGF extremely closely for several months. $185 seems about right for a 160-point contract, which is roughly a mid-sized contract. There was a price run-up earlier this year but prices leveled off this summer. Consider this chart from https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/dvc-resale-average-sales-prices-for-august-2021/




However ...

Price depends on how many points the contracts have. Did either of these have 2020 or 2021 points?

 

[Sandisw]

I'm someone who if I sold, would list at a fair price and would NOT want the broker to give me ANY offers. That is a waste of my time, and yes, wasting someone else's time is a jerk move. But you aren't wasting my time if the broker is doing their job and intercepting the offers, and that is what the broker is paid to do, so no, you aren't being a jerk. Move on to the next contract. Be prepared to swing and miss many more times - not everyone wants to bargain and some people will just wait for an offer to come through at the price they want to sell at. And be prepared for some brokers who want to make you feel bad about it. But what do you care, this isn't someone you have a relationship with, its someone you are buying a contract through.

Someone here once posted that by Florida Real Estate law all reasonable offers need to be presented to the client. In which case I'd be ripping the broker a new one for wasting my time and you might get the blowback from that.

They do not need to do it if the seller directs them to reject offers outright if not a certain price.

I did that selling BWV. After I got an offer much lower than asking and countered, I told the broker that was the lowest I’d go. If this buyer turned me down..they did..they didn’t have to bring me any others that were below that.

The next offer I got from them was above my low number. I have no idea if they had gotten lower offers that never made it to me.

 

[crisi]

They do not need to do it if the seller directs them to reject offers outright if not a certain price.

I did that selling BWV. After I got an offer much lower than asking and countered, I told the broker that was the lowest I’d go. If this buyer turned me down..they did..they didn’t have to bring me any others that were below that.

The next offer I got from them was above my low number. I have no idea if they had gotten lower offers that never made it to me.

That makes FAR more sense than the "must present reasonable offers." After all, I'm an adult...if after a few weeks I have no offers at all, I can call the broker and we can agree that my floor is too high and I can lower it if I desire. Yeah, all those buyers I passed on have moved on, but that's my problem, hopefully they've found contracts that meet their needs. And if they haven't, a listing with a lower price might cause them to resubmit their offer on mine. Or I can say "cool, leave it up - perhaps I will get a taker."

 

[crisi]

I certainly wouldn't list with them. But, I wouldn't rule out making offers through them. Doing so only limits my choices.

I might list with them, it depends on what their terms are. On the seller side, you really don't care how the broker treats the buyers - you want someone who is going to get your floor price for your contract. And there isn't "selling" really involved - in twenty years there has never been a market where "fairly" priced contracts haven't moved - sometimes "fairly priced" has been low (during 2009) and sometimes fairly priced has been high (this last Summer). The broker blaming ROFR isn't honest, but I really don't expect anyone in the timeshare business to be completely honest - people with strong ethics don't usually become timeshare resale salespeople. I just want someone who will sell the contract and usher it through the closing process competently and in a timely fashion.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I might list with them, it depends on what their terms are. On the seller side, you really don't care how the broker treats the buyers - you want someone who is going to get your floor price for your contract. And there isn't "selling" really involved - in twenty years there has never been a market where "fairly" priced contracts haven't moved - sometimes "fairly priced" has been low (during 2009) and sometimes fairly priced has been high (this last Summer). The broker blaming ROFR isn't honest, but I really don't expect anyone in the timeshare business to be completely honest - people with strong ethics don't usually become timeshare resale salespeople. I just want someone who will sell the contract and usher it through the closing process competently and in a timely fashion.

I would be hesitant to list with them if I have the knowledge that they treat potential buyers poorly. That pushes buyers away and could potentially cost a sale. Not to mention the long term impact of poorly treated customers not even checking listings with that broker.