New $500 Resale DVC Transfer Fee

[Brian Noble]

They are now printing money through it.

$500 per transfer is not "printing money." One of the largest brokers handled 4K contracts in a year. Even if DVC processed 10K contracts in a year, that's $5M of revenue. For the entire year.

That's peanuts.

For reference, they are averaging 159,000 points per month just at WDW. This is ignoring VDH and Aulani. Figure an average net price of about $215/pp, for a revenue stream of $34 billion-with-a-B, plus change. (Mea culpa: it's million-with-an-M. I don't normally consider myself innumerate, but apparently I am. Still compared to the 400K/month for transfer paperwork....)

Every. Single. Month.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I am only on page 3 so it may be in the upcoming posts, but exactly which budget does this go into/come out of? I am all for hiring more people to speed things up but they cant possibly be hiring 2.2 million worth of new employees for this.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I don't like the way DVC quietly rolled out this new charge, but I can understand the logic behind them doing so. DVC makes no money off a contract resale, and bears an administrative cost for processing the transaction, so charging a fee seems logical.

Top that off with the people who cannot stand any waiting and call and email every day to check on the status taking up MS resources. I still think $500 is excessive unless it will somehow also benefit MS overall.

 

[maui22]

I wonder if this has always been part of Disney's plans prior to announcing restrictions?

I believe @pkrieger2287 resale data https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/dvc-resale-average-sales-prices-for-october-2025/ has shown some resorts holding higher resale prices.

When I look at it, I see two different perspectives:

• Anyone want to pay PVB resale at $166/pt, while market figures out if buyer, seller, or split $500 fee? They can buy PVB direct in the $190s? (D23 Gold $500 discount, sell back first year of points, other discounts brought our spring/summer purchase to around $197/pt).
• I would happily buy RIV resale ($118/pt figure out who pays the $500 fee) over Disney direct prices.

Personally, if I'm offering to buy, I'm now factoring in $500 extra that I want off the overall price. May not get it, but it's a good time to lower offers knowing seller have dues statements hitting right now.

I could see Disney hiking prices later in January to capitalize on possible uncertainty while resale figures this all out.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Another take

DVC Community: "Curb commercial activity"
DVCM: "We're doing what YOU want. We noticed a lot of activity related to commercial renters is with them buying and selling contracts, this is to discourage and slow them down. Look, Carl here did 20 transactions in the last month, its targeted at THEM. But you don't have to worry about that fee when buying from us."

View attachment 1028573

There really is other ways to deal with commercial activity, so you are saying this is their answer to commercial activity, they chose a way to harm average owners? Commercial entities will keep doing as they are doing.

 

[Sandisw]

I am only on page 3 so it may be in the upcoming posts, but exactly which budget does this go into/come out of? I am all for hiring more people to speed things up but they cant possibly be hiring 2.2 million worth of new employees for this.

It would be something that DVD is charging via using DVCMC who they hire to handle creating of servicing of ownership.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the budget related to us. It’s similar to the cost that DVD charges owners to buy direct, cover marketing, etc.

What they choose to do with the revenue? It would be part of DVDs overall revenue to use it as they see fit, like any profit they get as the developer.

 

[HeightRequirement]

Riviera is selling just fine and it’s almost sold out.

We are on year six right now which will finish I believe in March but it could’ve been January 2019 that they started I can’t remember.

Riviera has about 650,000 less points than AKL which took 7 years to sell out without restrictions and less upfront costs (not looking at inflation here)

Riviera most likely would have sold out by now if not for the pandemic.

I have seen posts referring to how sold out Riviera is, can you point me to a site that has this information?

 

[eticketplease]

I am only on page 3

Only have to get to page 8 as of now....

 

[VGCgroupie]

There is now no incentive for them to kill the resale market. They are now printing money through it. So they win all the way around. Now that the fee exists they simply increase it to a point where they see no appreciable gain in direct sales or resales. They can always lower it to tip the market back into alignment.

This is a very interesting take.

It would be something that DVD is charging via using DVCMC who they hire to handle creating of servicing of ownership.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the budget related to us. It’s similar to the cost that DVD charges owners to buy direct, cover marketing, etc.

What they choose to do with the revenue? It would be part of DVDs overall revenue to use it as they see fit, like any profit they get as the developer.

Do they have to show their accounting to us so we know what they are spending our money on?

 

[Stank]

Just because a company didnt charge in the past, doesnt mean they did not incure costs on said service or item. We at our company for 50 years didnt charge for certain papers that take us seconds to produce, but are valuable to our customers. We now do charge per page, no extra work, but it does now put a value on said paper. Our customers have no issue with it. I feel the same here. Does anyone think the agents that can do the paperwork for your resale needs the amount of time, after learning the steps, that is equal to the commission? What do you value your time and the resources?

Cost of doing business. Like how suddenly everywhere is deciding to charge 3% for credit cards “because that’s what it costs us.” Yesterday it did, too. And for the past decades it has when no surcharge existed. Just a money grab for the sake of it.

Of course, when everyone used cash, that came with all sorts of costs. Theft, miscounting, employee paid time to manage and keep track of cash. They act now like cash is costless and cards are 3%. Reality is money management is the cost of doing business for every business. You might as well charge for a building fee surcharge to customers because the business operates from a building, which is a cost.

It’s all just a part of ripoff culture. It’s not “capitalism.” We’ve had capitalism our entire lives. The difference is endless spigot of available consumer debt reduces the cost frictions as people buy now and pay later. So now people are dogpiling and pushing gluttony as far as it can go. Ripoff culture. It’s everywhere. And the sob stories justifying it are eyerolling.

 

[eticketplease]

I have seen posts referring to how sold out Riviera is, can you point me to a site that has this information?

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...n-club-direct-sales-fall-back-in-october-2025

@maui22 has also posts about it here on the boards.

 

[Sandisw]

There really is other ways to deal with commercial activity, so you are saying this is their answer to commercial activity, they chose a way to harm average owners? Commercial entities will keep doing as they are doing

I look at it as something that may have a side benefit to the flip contract model that people do, but more that they have decided to charge for something to process the transfer vs it being free.

Years ago, DVD didn’t charge closing costs at all for direct purchases…then it changed….and I guess they decided to now charge for resale transfers

 

[VGCgroupie]

Whew made it to the end! I enjoyed seeing everyone's take on it. At the end of the day $500 isn't make a break for me personally on buying or selling, but I do think it will impact resale prices overall. I am not selling anytime soon so things will have leveled out before the $500 impacts me directly. Id really just like an explanation for why the new fee was imposed, which we wont get. I can see how this could impact these large buyer/sellers, but I really do think there is are many ways to handle this to avoid impacting us normies.

Also if the $500 now includes the estoppel then that makes it a bit more of a reasonable increase.

 

[Sandisw]

This is a very interesting take.

Do they have to show their accounting to us so we know what they are spending our money on?

Nope because this is the developer. This isn’t our money….its a fee that DVD is charging for transfers.

We don’t pay for that aspect of it all….we only pay for the management of the program via DVCMC and not anything related to sales…

Even with the management fee we pay DVCMC. It’s a straight 12% fee. We don’t have the right to ask them to explain how they use it.

All we know is that they have to provide the services we contract for which is to run the program.

We can review the accounts of how the annual operating budget was decided, but the profit loss statements and budgets of DVCMC and DVD are not something we are entitled to at all, it’s like any other TWDWC division.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Nope because this is the developer. This isn’t our money….its a fee that DVD is charging for transfers.

We don’t pay for that aspect of it all….we only pay for thr management of thr program and not anything related to sales…

Even with the management fee we pay DVCMC. It’s a straight 12% fee. We don’t have the right to ask them to explain how they use it.

All we know is that they have to provide the services we contract for which is to run the program.

Well that really is ... I cant think of the right word for it. 12% of my dues plus $500 in the future just blindly given with no accountability sucks. But thats what I signed up for.

 

[RivShore]

a transaction with an almost negligible cost

How can you possibly know that? And are you including cost of answering constant phone calls about status of a transfer?

It doesn’t have anything to do with the budget related to us. It’s similar to the cost that DVD charges owners to buy direct, cover marketing, etc.

So where do you think the cost for this work is currently sitting? If it's buried in our dues somewhere, I could actually support the moving of the cost from all of us to the few who actually cause the need for the cost.

 

[pzw90]

There really is other ways to deal with commercial activity, so you are saying this is their answer to commercial activity, they chose a way to harm average owners? Commercial entities will keep doing as they are doing.

I'm not saying this is their answer to it, I'm just saying this is what they might hide behind or could be the excuse they provide. As long as they say they are targeting commercial activity, the masses will applaud.

Agree that commercial entities will keep going. Look at the board sponsor, every contract Monera now reposes from defaults is costing them $500, but when they resell they are making their money back when they flip it, just maybe $500 less, which is peanuts on a five figure transaction. Or they'll find fun ways to pass the cost on to the buyer

 

[VGCgroupie]

How can you possibly know that? And are you including cost of answering constant phone calls about status of a transfer?

I had a gut feeling people hounding MS about their purchase was going to come back to bite us, I just didnt know how. I have posted in other threads it's not a great idea to call and email about status unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Sandisw]

How can you possibly know that? And are you including cost of answering constant phone calls about status of a transfer?


So where do you think the cost for this work is currently sitting? If it's buried in our dues somewhere, I could actually support the moving of the cost from all of us to the few who actually cause the need for the cost.

It is not…it is paid for by DVD…..the hard part of it all is that both DVD, the developer, and the condo associations both use DVCMC to provide them with services.

It’s very intertwined but separate at the same time. You have the same phone number to access MS, MA, and accounting, but behind the scenes they have different sections that do different tasks.

For example, member accounting deals with both dues and loans for purchases. Dues would be something part of the running of program yet loans is not. Expenses in that department would be shared….in a way like a shared resort.

 

[MagicDVC]

So where do you think the cost for this work is currently sitting? If it's buried in our dues somewhere, I could actually support the moving of the cost from all of us to the few who actually cause the need for the cost.

I think it was within the Member Administation budget, but now they are passing some of the expense along to the resale members by instituting the fee. When I bought resale in 2023, it took 2-3 weeks to get the contract loaded and another few days to get the points loaded. They probably needed to add to staff to account for more buy/sell transactions.