DVC Right of First Refusal (ROFR): May ’17 Report

Disney's Hilton Head Resort

Summary

In the month of May, Disney exercised their right of first refusal (ROFR) on 13 of 182 contracts sold through the DVC Resale Market, representing 7.1% of the contracts sold.  This lowers the year-to-date (YTD) buy back rate to 9.2%.  While May represented a big change in what was being bought back, it stayed fairly consistent with April’s buy back rate of 6.4%. The 2017 buy back rate remains slightly more than 2x that of the 4.4% buy back rate of 2016. In May, 92.9% of contracts were waived by Disney, bringing the YTD waiver rate to 90.8%.

The two biggest changes in May were the high buy back rates on low point availability contracts and Hilton Head contracts. Prior to May, nearly 80% of the buy backs were contracts with at least nearly all the 2017 points available.  In May, only 23.1% of the contracts bought back had high point availability.  Price seemed to be much more of a key factor than point availability for buy backs in May.

Hilton Head (HH) buy backs accounted for nearly half of the 13 buy backs in May.  6 out of 10 HH contracts sold through DVC Resale Market were bought back in May.  Six buy backs for HH is astonishingly high considering that is more HH buy backs than we have observed in the past 16 months combined.  The increase in the rate of Hilton Head buy backs is having a strong impact on the listing price for Hilton Head contracts.  In the last two months, the average HH listing price has climbed from an average of $61/pt. to just over $70/pt.

What is Right of First Refusal?

For those new to the concept of Right of First Refusal, it is the option Disney Vacation Club has to purchase any resale contract after a sales price has been agreed upon, and the contract has been executed. Each contract must be forwarded to DVC for review. DVC may take up to 30 days to review the contract. At their discretion, Disney may step in and purchase the property themselves at the terms agreed upon by the Seller and original Buyer. DVC then becomes the Buyer, and the purchase is complete. Once DVC is the buyer there is not an opportunity to come back with a better offer in hopes of still purchasing the contract.

Resorts Bought Back in 2017

Please refer to the graph below for the total amount of buy backs at each DVC resort for contracts sold through the DVC Resale Market.

Year to Date Disney Buy Backs through ROFR

 

Details and Data

In May, a big change in direction occurred with buy backs as over 3/4’s of them were low point availability contracts, meaning contracts with zero to very few points remaining for 2017.  Previously in 2017, low point availability contracts accounted for just over 20% of the total amount taken through ROFR.  Price dominated over point availability for buy backs in May.  Hilton Head dominated the buy backs for resorts.  This was a big change from anything previously seen, especially when considering there were 6 HH buy backs in May compared to 1 the entire year of 2016. Below is a table including all of the buy backs from May.

 

Resort $/Point Pts. on Contract Price Closing Costs Paid by ’17 Dues Paid By Use Year Point Availability
Animal Kingdom $82 160 $13,120 Buyer Seller Sep 0 pts.’17 + 160 pts.’18
Animal Kingdom $83 200 $16,600 Buyer Seller Sep 12 pts.’17 + 200 pts.’18
Animal Kingdom $81 160 $12,960 Buyer Seller Sep 0 pts.’17 + 160 pts.’18
Bay Lake Tower $102 180 $18,360 Buyer Seller Jun 0 pts.’17 + 0 pts.’18
Beach Club $100 210 $21,000 Buyer Seller Feb 0 pts.’17 + 210 pts.’18
Hilton Head $59 175 $10,325 Buyer Pro-Rate Feb 15 pts.’17 + 175 pts.’18
Hilton Head $55 230 $12,650 Buyer Pro-Rate Mar 11 pts.’17 + 230 pts.’18
Hilton Head $55 300 $16,500 Buyer Seller Jun 0 pts.’17 + 0 pts.’18
Hilton Head $65 70 $4,550 Buyer Seller Apr 0 pts.’17 + 0 pts.’18
Hilton Head $54 250 $13,500 Buyer Pro-Rate Jun 16 pts.’17 + 250 pts.’18
Hilton Head $59 250 $14,750 Buyer Buyer Dec 158 pts.’16 + 250 pts.’17 + 250 pts.’18
Old Key West $77 270 $20,790 Buyer Pro-Rate Jun 360 pts.’17 + 270 pts.’18
Vero Beach $57 200 $11,400 Buyer Buyer Mar 200 pts.’17 + 200 pts.’18

 

Resort Buy Back Rates

There were 6 different DVC resorts to be bought back in May for contracts sold by DVC Resale Market.  The table below shows the percentage of buy backs for those 6 resorts.

Resort Buy Backs Number Sold Percentage Bought Back
Hilton Head 6 10 60.0%
Animal Kingdom 3 35 8.6%
Beach Club 1 11 9.1%
Bay Lake Tower 1 16 6.3%
Vero Beach 1 8 12.5%
Old Key West 1 15 6.7%

 

Browse DVC Resale Market Listings

Comments

  • Jason
    June 20, 2017

    Hi Nick. Thanks for this information. My wife and I just passed ROFR about two weeks ago on Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani. We bought 240 points at $85 per point. We are so happy that Disney passed on our contract! We purchased the contract through your company, and I wanted to say how wonderful it was dealing with Sue Saunders. She was genuinely concerned with my family getting what was best for us, whether it be through resale or direct. She was always available to provide information, advice and answers to my many questions. I know this is not a forum for praise, but I guess any forum can make exceptions for acknowledging your team’s great work. So, now, to add a few points to my current use year (would like to add a small point contract), is that possible through resale, and if so, how do I do it? If I get it at same use year, will the points then combine to be used towards our 11-month and/or 7-month booking windows? We have decided we would like to visit more often and for longer! Thank you so much.

    • Nick Cotton
      June 20, 2017

      Jason, thank you for feedback! To answer your question, just like with direct, you can add-on with as little as 25 points via resale. However, with resale we do have to wait for that small contract to come to the market, but certainly they do. Moreover, our app is great for getting alerted quickly once they hit the market: https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/buying/dvc-resale-market-app/

      If you get the same Use Year and keep the names on the contract the same, the add-on contract as well as the contract you have now will stay under the same Membership. If you get a different Use Year, you will have 2 different Memberships, which is fine, but you do have to transfer points from one Membership to the other Membership to use them together. For more insight, please see the following: https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/what-is-a-dvc-use-year-and-does-it-matter/

      Regarding home resort priority with your add-on: that would all depend on if your add-on is at the same resort as your original contract or not. If all the points are at the same resort regardless of Use Year, you will have the 11 month booking window for that resort with all your points. However, lets say you have 240 points at AKV and add-on 100 points at Bay Lake Tower. You would still have your 240 points of home resort priority at Animal Kingdom, but would also now have 100 points of booking priority at Bay Lake Tower as well. However, you would not have 340 points of home resort priority at both resorts.

      I hope this helps, and we look forward to assisting you with that add-on!

      • Jason
        June 21, 2017

        Thanks so much for the wonderful information. I was not aware that if I buy a second AKV contract, even at a different Use Year, I can still combine the points from both contracts and use them towards my 11-month priority booking. That is what you have indicated, correct? So, my Use Year is December at 240 points. Let’s say I buy a June Use Year for my current home property (AKV) at 150 points; I could technically book a trip in October of 2017 for September of 2018 and use 390 points (2017 December Use Year points + 2018 June Use Year points) for that 11-month booking? I can see how keeping track of borrowing and banking could get a bit tricky, but otherwise, that is awesome! It also gives me a second 11-month start window.
        .

        • Nick Cotton
          June 21, 2017

          Jason, to confirm, yes, points from different Use Years that are from the same resort can be used together to book at the 11-month window. Keep in mind with different Use Years they will go into different Memberships though, and prior to making the reservation you will have to transfer points from one Membership to the other Membership first. Also, keep in mind only regular points can be transferred, meaning that banked and borrowed points cannot be transferred. However, you can bank transferred points.

          • Jason
            June 21, 2017

            Thank you, Nick. I have your app working for me.

  • Kris
    June 19, 2017

    This ROFR buyback information gives a great start in determining a good place to determine starting bids on resale contracts. Would it be possible to see a more complete list to see what Disney did NOT exercise ROFR on?

    • Nick Cotton
      June 19, 2017

      Kris – we are looking into probably doing something like an attachment that would include information on which contracts passed. The challenge is that the list will typically be over 200+ and putting that into a user friendly format and including all pertinent information such as price, resort and point availability is quite a task. Keep following our ROFR reports as we will get it in there at some point.

  • Lanette
    June 9, 2017

    I find it incredibly interesting they’re buying back so many Hilton Head contracts. I often think the do random things just to keep everyone guessing.

  • Drew
    June 5, 2017

    This is interesting. I actually bought a 200 pt contract at HHI (0 2017, 200 2018 pts) that passed ROFR 2 weeks ago through another broker. I paid $52/pt with seller paying 25% closing. Based on DVC Resale Market buybacks, mine should have been taken. Maybe there isn’t any reason some get bought back at all.

    • Nick Cotton
      June 5, 2017

      Drew, congratulations on the purchase and getting it through ROFR. Their buy back model certainly changes quickly over time as we’ve seen them go from a buy back rate of nearly 15% to a buy back rate of nearly 5% within just a couple of months. So, I’m sure their model changes within the month as well, and you certainly got past ROFR with a great purchase. And to your point, I know historically there has been some element of randomness if for no other reason than to keep the market guessing, however there has certainly been strong correlations too.

      • Drew
        June 5, 2017

        Thanks Nick. Always enjoy your blog. Would have gladly bought through you if you had a similar contract at the time.

        • Nick Cotton
          June 5, 2017

          Drew, understandable and thank you for the kind words. Hopefully, next time whether it be buying or selling we can assist you.

  • shannan
    June 3, 2017

    we have a contract currently in ROFR at Saratoga Springs for 505 points per year. No points until 2018. Do the number of points per year play a factor?

    • Nick Cotton
      June 3, 2017

      Shannan, at the same price we’ve seen more buy backs of smaller contracts. However, since the smaller contracts tend to sell at more per point we typically see contracts 100 points or higher bought back more often. We have seen them buy back contracts that were around 500 points before, but it is not often.

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