New $500 Resale DVC Transfer Fee

[DebbieB]

I’m selling 2 contracts to pay for my new direct contract, and really going to be threading the needle to get closure by 1/1. Even if we close by 1/1, if Disney hasn’t done their part by then, does it count? Do we have a fee to pay? I feel a little annoyed.

If they have been submitted for ROFR, I don’t see how they can change the terms of the sale. It should be in the contract who will pay it. When they added the resale restrictions, it applied to contracts submitted after x date.

 

[Dodgerburt8]

A lose for us all. Whether we buy or sell, no one is going to want to pay that. Glad im done buying resale. Won't stop people from buying or selling resale though, $500 is still better than an extra 10 grand.

Wonder what other creative way they'll come up with to devalue resale next. More money in their pockets, but a lot of resale people cannot just buy a bunch of direct because the gap is going to keep narrowing.

If all my resales were 30k plus I wouldnt be having all these and buying direct instead anyways. Pretty soon the amount of points to stay in anything other than a studio is going to be for ballers only

Just my opinion, but to me this also devalues direct DVC. Knowing that it’s likely going to cost even higher transaction costs to exit your membership makes me even more reluctant to buy direct. Disney increasingly is making their own product more and more like a typical BS timeshare.

 

[DanCali]

Just my opinion, but to me this also devalues direct DVC. Knowing that it’s likely going to cost even higher transaction costs to exit your membership makes me even more reluctant to buy direct. Disney increasingly is making their own product more and more like a typical BS timeshare.

Totally agree with that. But we are a small minority of members who know and understand resale. Unfortunately, most average buyers don't know there is a resale market.

 

[Girlstar30]

Just my opinion, but to me this also devalues direct DVC. Knowing that it’s likely going to cost even higher transaction costs to exit your membership makes me even more reluctant to buy direct. Disney increasingly is making their own product more and more like a typical BS timeshare.

Agreed, more fees is never good for anyone except the person charging it

 

[Chili327]

Yikes! That's huge on smaller contracts!

Out of curiosity, is there anything preventing them from charging $5000, or $50,000? What are the chances that this gets challenged in some way?

What do they currently charge? I guess it is a 0.

I think likely it will just drive resale prices a little lower... Especially small contracts... where between higher closing costs and now this fee, much of the cash savings may be erased.

Yeah. My mind immediately went to the following:

50-pt contract: $500/50=$10.00/point
100-pt contract: $500/100=$5.00/point
150-pt contract: $500/150=$3.33/point
200-pt contract: $500/200=$2.50/point

Absorbing a lot of this in real time, but my understanding is that no notices have been provided on this to resale or title companies. Unfortunately at the moment there are just lots of questions and few answers... but this is very common in the timeshare industry. As others have stated, we're just going to have to wait and see the overall affect it has on value.

I skipped about 10 pages, but… Just one more step closer to becoming a regular timeshare, just like all the rest that people are deathly afraid of. lol
imo, killing resale, is killing what makes DVC different. First it was the restrictions, now more fees, next the fees just go up and ruin all the value.

Just wait until they have a closing lighting lane option for another $250

Haha, no, seriously though. lol

 

[Moonspinner]

I’m wondering if they are trying to stop entities from buying, stripping, and flipping contracts?

 

[zavandor]

It's an hobby of mine to remind the world what happened in 2019. DVC published a point chart that increased the lockoff premium and reallocated points across units.
The general consensus was that Disney has an army of lawyers, so it would certainly be legal and it would be futile to fight it.
And yet a handful of members fought it and the changes were rolled back.

So at least one of the following is true:
- Disney doesn't have an army of lawyers
- lawyers are not consulted for every decision
- the lawyers are incompetent
- the lawyers warn management of the risks of a certain decision but greedy management do it anyway

So thinking this fee is legal just because Disney has lots of lawyers is not wise.

 

[smileyanna]

On a positive note, I can finally say “I’m glad I bought my contract back in the good old days, before <horrible new conditions for resale> were implemented!”

I maintain that the agents/brokers/title will absorb a small portion of this cost over time. A first time seller will call DVCRM or wherever, and the list of fees will be enough for some of them to decide to shop around first. This is a tax on volume/turnover.

 

[SL6827]

It's an hobby of mine to remind the world what happened in 2019. DVC published a point chart that increased the lockoff premium and reallocated points across units.
The general consensus was that Disney has an army of lawyers, so it would certainly be legal and it would be futile to fight it.
And yet a handful of members fought it and the changes were rolled back.

So at least one of the following is true:
- Disney doesn't have an army of lawyers
- lawyers are not consulted for every decision
- the lawyers are incompetent
- the lawyers warn management of the risks of a certain decision but greedy management do it anyway

So thinking this fee is legal just because Disney has lots of lawyers is not wise.

Yep. I always thought that was one of the dirtiest moves by DVC. It also really made me wonder how honest they were with thier dues.

 

[MyDogTink]

Could the transfer fee be required by Buyer when DVC gives the link and code for new membership fee? For existing members, could DVC send an email prior to loading the points requiring the fee? This would eliminate interaction with the resale agent. Just throwing this thought out there.

Also, didn’t DVC just lower the minimum # of points for add-ons? Wonder if this is folded into the transfer fee concept?

 

[Cfabar1]

Could the transfer fee be required by Buyer when DVC gives the link and code for new membership fee? For existing members, could DVC send an email prior to loading the points requiring the fee? This would eliminate interaction with the resale agent. Just throwing this thought out there.

Also, didn’t DVC just lower the minimum # of points for add-ons? Wonder if this is folded into the transfer fee concept?

It could, but what happens if the buyer never logs in or pays the fee? Who "owns" the points?

 

[eticketplease]

Also, didn’t DVC just lower the minimum # of points for add-ons?

Yes, they recently lowered the number of points at the newer resorts to match the old resorts. You can now add on at all resorts with the minimum of 25 points in cash.

 

[Carouselofplanning]

This one I would support actually. If they charged for name change modifications, it would force the heavier users of MS to pay more, and curb spec renting.

Agreed - doesn’t hurt renting points but does help curb the “I can’t use my Christmas week grand villa reservation anymore but looking to rent it for $30 per point” nonsense.

 

[Carouselofplanning]

Yep. But I truly believe that there is a tipping point somewhere that will adversely affect Disney's beloved DVC cash cow. We might not be there yet, but at some point they will keep pushing and pushing to the point in which the overall DVC product is so diluted that it loses part of its appeal. I know this is somewhat unpopular opinion, but without a heatlthy, liquid and feasable resale market I think direct sales will ultimately be affected.

Flexibility and convenience. One of the very few timeshares you can easily sell if you need to - makes it feel like a safe way to spend vacation dollars. Take that away and it’s lost much of its attractiveness.

 

[Sandisw]

Could the transfer fee be required by Buyer when DVC gives the link and code for new membership fee? For existing members, could DVC send an email prior to loading the points requiring the fee? This would eliminate interaction with the resale agent. Just throwing this thought out there.

Also, didn’t DVC just lower the minimum # of points for add-ons? Wonder if this is folded into the transfer fee concept?

Since we don’t have many details yet other than it’s a contract administration fee, I think anything is possible.

But, I can see that this very possibly will be a fee required to be paid by the buyer as part of their closing costs.

And then become negotiable like everything else.

As I mentioned, my reading of the statute shared seems to be related to the condo association charging owners a fee.

This is DVCMC LLC charging it just to process the transaction once it’s done.

So, does that make a difference? I think it does but that just my own interpretation of it.

What this statute does support IMO is that DVC can’t institute a charge to owners to rent their points since we don’t need their approval to do so.

We shall see and I am sure that those that deal in resale will be on it.

I also think that there is a good chance that contracts that were entered into prior to January 1st, even if not officially closed, will be exempted.

Yes, they did use the world close which is why I lean now it may be added to the buyer side of things as part of their closing costs.

 

[Carouselofplanning]

Great thread and input from everyone. Thank you!

While I have no issue, not that it matters, with them charging a fee for the processing of the contract, I do have an issue with the 30-day notice. I have a 175-point contract that went to ROFR on November 17th, and I will likely have mine pushed to close to after January 1, so the $500 fee is too short of a notice in my opinion when the deposit and process was well underway prior to this announcement. A 90-day notice would've been more reasonable and may have caused me to offer a different price and the same goes for the seller at the time.

By the way a court might not agree “notice” has even been given. Throwing it on the website in a buried fashion isn’t “notice”. Neither is a very observant owner who caught it and posted it here.

 

[mkatsy]

By the way a court might not agree “notice” has even been given. Throwing it on the website in a buried fashion isn’t “notice”. Neither is a very observant owner who caught it and posted it here.

But it’s right in keeping with their “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” strategy for brainstorming innovative solutions

 

[Patmcpsu]

On a positive note, I can finally say “I’m glad I bought my contract back in the good old days, before <horrible new conditions for resale> were implemented!”

I maintain that the agents/brokers/title will absorb a small portion of this cost over time. A first time seller will call DVCRM or wherever, and the list of fees will be enough for some of them to decide to shop around first. This is a tax on volume/turnover.

"A tax" is exactly what I'm picturing it as. Disney knows there's a lucrative resale industry and they want their cut of it. Disney can't become their own resale broker, so this is the next best thing. And if it nudges some prospective resale buyers to go direct, even better.

 

[Carouselofplanning]

Please, not again

lol like I said in the dues chat just wait until we see the fleet of shiny new imagineered housekeeping carts in 2026! Those don’t pay for themselves!

 

[Carouselofplanning]

All we have so far is the language in the FAQs. If you read the language plainly, if you close 1/1/2026 or later, it has to be paid by someone. Disney isn't a signatory to resale purchase contracts, so I think they are pretty much within their rights to do that if they so choose. And, accordingly, buyers/sellers could see their deals fall apart if one or both of them aren't willing to come up with the $500.

I think they practically have to allow signed 2025 ROFR submitted contracts go through without the fee. Because technically the negotiation of who pays this fee is a modification of the contract. The contract that closes is different than what went to ROFR so Disney could arguably not honor the transaction as not having followed ROFR rules.