Optimum time for putting a contract up for resale

[GramMo]

We are newbies to the resale market and thought we would ask the experts on this forum for some advice.we will be looking to sell a contract but it would be a delayed closing since we booked a trip for May 2024 on borrowed points (UY October) I’ve read that if the price is reasonable some buyers would be willing to hold the sale with a deposit until after our trip which would be fine with us. Should we post it now or wait? Would it be detrimental if it lingered on the resale site?I’m afraid I’m equating selling a time share contract with buying a house, too long on the market, buyer beware! Lol.

 

[Sandisw]

I have sold two and bought two delayed contracts. Longest delay was 4 months out but I have seen 6 months too.

I don’t think it hurts at all to list it now. And thank you for not mentioning resort!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Have you spoken to a broker about this yet? An experienced once might have some good insights

 

[Ruttangel]

More listings go on the market in January after people have paid dues and decide they don’t want this obligation any more. Most people are also looking to buy at this time too so could be ideal.

Alternatively if you listed from March onwards then the closing is within 60 days of your reservation and nobody would be bothered about the delayed closing and may not even be quoted on listing. This happened to me earlier in the year when listing in Feb and couldn’t close until early April.

Listing it now increases the time someone could back out before the closing date (lose their deposit of course) but it kind of depends if you have exactly what a buyer has been looking for.

Good luck

 

[SG131]

For the right price, I'm sure you could find someone willing to buy, but do you really want to reduce your price to get a buyer sooner? What is the reason you want to list it now verses waiting until your trip is over?

 

[sndral]

Stripped contract w/ a 7 month delayed closing? I’ve never sold, but as a buyer I wasn’t interested in lengthy delayed closing contracts, too much risk that the sellers would change their minds & walk away if the market was rising & my personal fear, that ‘last’ vacation taken by the sellers would cause them to change their minds about selling and they’d back out . Plus, too much lost opportunity as a buyer if the market was falling (as it appears to be lately.) That said, if it’s a hard to find resort/use year &/or rock bottom price, some buyers seem willing to take the risk.
It sounds like a stripped contract, no banked points, no current points, no or fewer 2024 points so another factor exerting downward pressure on price. If the seller is paying their MFs monthly the rest of the 2023 MFs owed as well as all 2024 MFs will have to be deducted from the seller’s proceeds since the buyer shouldn’t be expected to pay MFs on those 2023 & 2024 points they aren’t getting.
Conventional wisdom is that winter sees an increase in listings (& thus downward pressure on prices) due to sellers wanting to unload contracts before having to pay MFs or to recoup MFs they just paid on points they won’t use.
Since the sellers don’t get paid until the contract closes anyway, I’ve never quite understood why sellers list delayed closing contracts rather than just waiting a couple of months so as to appeal to more buyers .
Personally if I really wanted to take that last vacation on those points I’d likely list it in March w/ a more reasonable sounding 2 month delayed closing after the winter time MF regret listings have cycled out of the market.

 

[Sandisw]

Stripped contract w/ a 7 month delayed closing? I’ve never sold, but as a buyer I wasn’t interested in lengthy delayed closing contracts, too much risk that the sellers would change their minds & walk away if the market was rising & my personal fear, that ‘last’ vacation taken by the sellers would cause them to change their minds about selling and they’d back out . Plus, too much lost opportunity as a buyer if the market was falling (as it appears to be lately.) That said, if it’s a hard to find resort/use year &/or rock bottom price, some buyers seem willing to take the risk.
It sounds like a stripped contract, no banked points, no current points, no or fewer 2024 points so another factor exerting downward pressure on price. If the seller is paying their MFs monthly the rest of the 2023 MFs owed as well as all 2024 MFs will have to be deducted from the seller’s proceeds since the buyer shouldn’t be expected to pay MFs on those 2023 & 2024 points they aren’t getting.
Conventional wisdom is that winter sees an increase in listings (& thus downward pressure on prices) due to sellers wanting to unload contracts before having to pay MFs or to recoup MFs they just paid on points they won’t use.
Since the sellers don’t get paid until the contract closes anyway, I’ve never quite understood why sellers list delayed closing contracts rather than just waiting a couple of months so as to appeal to more buyers .
Personally if I really wanted to take that last vacation on those points I’d likely list it in March w/ a more reasonable sounding 2 month delayed closing after the winter time MF regret listings have cycled out of the market.

We listed because we were told there are buyers out there who welcome that extra time to get the financial piece set in place. Both sold quickly.

We bought for the same reason. We didn’t need the contract and waiting for 4 months to pay was a nice bonus!

They are not for everyone, but just knowing they were sold was nice. Worst case? Buyer dropped out and we got half the deposit and listed it again.

Same with buying…worst case we lost it and started again! We were okay with both!

 

[sndral]

We listed because we were told there are buyers out there who welcome that extra time to get the financial piece set in place. Both sold quickly.

We bought for the same reason. We didn’t need the contract and waiting for 4 months to pay was a nice bonus!

They are not for everyone, but just knowing they were sold was nice. Worst case? Buyer dropped out and we got half the deposit and listed it again.

Same with buying…worst case we lost it and started again! We were okay with both!

I remember one of your sales you mentioned you priced it low & expected it to be taken in ROFR & it was, but I don’t recall if that one was a delayed closing one - but it does highlight how important the status of the current market is for making those decisions. Listing during a time when DVC is ROFRing a lot of contracts & there are fewer listings = ready buyers for contracts of all sorts. No ROFR activity & lots of listings = buyers are spoiled for choice & can be more selective in what they buy. Of course, if the seller lists & it doesn’t sell, I guess they can just update the listing once they’ve taken their trip, I know I didn’t pay much attention to how long a contract had been on the market when I was buying, I was more focused on price & whether/when I could use the points.

 

[Jwaire]

Detreminal? How? Are you worried about listing date and dealing with bargain hunters? If all else fails, you can just pull it down and re-list it again giving you a new listing date.

 

[Sandisw]

I remember one of your sales you mentioned you priced it low & expected it to be taken in ROFR & it was, but I don’t recall if that one was a delayed closing one - but it does highlight how important the status of the current market is for making those decisions. Listing during a time when DVC is ROFRing a lot of contracts & there are fewer listings = ready buyers for contracts of all sorts. No ROFR activity & lots of listings = buyers are spoiled for choice & can be more selective in what they buy. Of course, if the seller lists & it doesn’t sell, I guess they can just update the listing once they’ve taken their trip, I know I didn’t pay much attention to how long a contract had been on the market when I was buying, I was more focused on price & whether/when I could use the points.

The one I priced lower last year was my SSR

. The first delayed closing I sold was in 2010 or 2011. I sold in April and delayed closing until August. It was BRV.

The other one was BWV in 2020 and sold in March with delay to end of June.

As I said, not everyone is going to want it but from what brokers told me, there is a market for them so it doesn’t hurt to list.

For the ones I sold, I got pretty much close to market value for them…didn’t need to sell much lower

 

[Brian Noble]

In general, the late Fall through early Winter period has more supply than demand for timeshares. Lots of people are looking to unload things when the new maintenance fee amounts are published, and (non-timeshare-owning) vacationers are not thinking too hard about summer trips yet. Demand starts picking up again in the spring, when more people are thinking about vacation generally.

Given you have a delayed closing to May anyway, I'd just wait until mid-late March to list it.

That runs the risk of some economic downturn between now and then, but I don't have a crystal ball.

 

[Bucketfoot]

My two cents is that when I am looking at resale, I'm looking at things I can get now (within normal resale timeframes).

I would guess that is what the majority of people looking do, so the main negative would be that you are likely reducing your pool of buyers pretty significantly.

That said, if it is a good deal I'm sure there are also plenty of people that are always on the watch for these!

 

[RichVIII]

To me, the market has fluctuated so much that either a buyer or seller is taking risks. If prices go up, the buyer is happy but the seller is upset. If they fall, the buyer is upset and seller is happy. It’s why I avoid them.

 

[GramMo]

Update:
After reading all the thoughtful and varied opinions and suggestions, we decided to list our contract now, mainly to take it off our “to do” list, and see what shakes out. We are not in a hurry.
we spoke with a listing agent about our stripped and delayed contract and he suggested a price right In the middle of what we had been seeing in the listings. We agreed on a starting price a little higher per point. Listing went live 5 pm on a Wednesday. By 10am on Thursday we had an over asking offer which we accepted! It’s in ROFR now.
thanks to everyone for your insights!