Questionable Star Ratings on resale deals

[VGCgroupie]

Hi! Bob from dvcforless.com here. Can you share with me the specific listing(s)? If it is a resort with very few listings, e.g. Disneyland Hotel, the star ranking is less reliable. We are planning on overhauling the algorithm to account for cases like this and similar ones but just haven't gotten around to it yet. We're working on some other features first that we plan to release soon. I do think the stars are very useful in the vast majority of cases but I DO see the same issues you all see.

Listings are grouped by resort and "point bands", and we're looking back between 60-X days to establish market rate (varies depending on how many lists are available to compare agains). Point bands are ranges of points that help group small-med-large-XL contracts together. There are a few other parameters we look at as well.

There are pros and cons to our current approach. The cons are most obvious when looking at a resort with very few listings, or when two similar contracts are in different "point bands" despite being only a few points apart. A few months ago we worked out a new algorithm with the help from a data scientist that found us here on Disboards (thank you H). The new algorithm will eliminate these deficiencies, and change how we value stripped/banked points a bit. It is a big change so it will take some time to implement. Once we finish the current features we're working on. I think we'll end up targeting this.

By the way, one of the new features we're working on will allow us to notify you of new listings/listing-changes much much faster without us being a bad citizen to the brokers by hammering their site. We chose to prioritize this feature because of the feedback here on Disboards, so I do want you to know our roadmap follows the feedback we get from you all.

Amazing as always thank you

 

[juliebee]

Hi! Bob from dvcforless.com here. Can you share with me the specific listing(s)?

I do think the stars are very useful in the vast majority of cases but I DO see the same issues you all see.

Hi Bob, I just messaged you with the contract info and you are correct about this resort not having a lot of other comparables. That makes sense that would alter the star ratings. Love your website and it's been wonderful for hunting for that next contract. I appreciate that you are creating such a valuable resource for DVC! You are awesome!

 

[E2ME2]

A few months back I purchased one of four identical 50 point Bay Lake contracts, listed by the same seller, with same exact points and price. It seemed odd that they didn’t all get the same star rating. Three of the four identical contracts ranked as 2 star, and one ranked as 3 star.

Six days later, an 85 point contract at the same price per point from the same broker, with the same use year and full points also, listed six days later, ranked as a three star. I was scratching my head on this.

If this level of detail is verboten on sold contracts I will remove the details if notified; I know we can’t discuss active listings but I assumed sold from quite a while back might be ok.

... and , of course, you bid on the one that was ranked as three stars !?
I've noticed the same oddity in the rankings...

 

[airjay75]

I just want to re-iterate how much I love the dvcforless.com site. If it weren't for that site, I probably would not be under contract for the resale points that just went to ROFR. The stars system may not be perfect, but when you see a 5-star deal pop into your inbox, it is very hard not to give it a significant look! And, in my case, I very much agree with the star rating that was given.

 

[Matty B13]

Dvcforless.com is the best resale contract aggregator that I've seen so far by a wide margin. We have been in the resale market since 2016 and have seen all the website up their game, but this one is the best by far.

 

[Adam723]

I just want to re-iterate how much I love the site. If it weren't for that site, I probably would not be under contract for the resale points that just went to ROFR. The stars system may not be perfect, but when you see a 5-star deal pop into your inbox, it is very hard not to give it a significant look! And, in my case, I very much agree with the star rating that was given.

Agreed. We just bought a 50 point contract at BWV. Had alerts set up for what we were looking for. I saw a 5 star 50 point contract and had an accepted offer in a few hours.

 

[Seansperry]

One of the things i’ve noticed is that stripped includes three years of zero points and two years of zero points. They are not the same obviously.

 

[Takeitforgranite]

Their market report showing average resale for the previous month is handy. Is there a way to see average resale further back, like for the previous 6 months?