Making an Offer - Etiquette

I suggest you bid somewhat lower of what you really are willing to pay. Bear in mind that the average is just that, the average. Many are sold at a lower price. It is worth noting most people in these type of forums usually pay less than the average. You never know if they will accept your offer unless you try. If not you have some room for negotiations.

At the end of the day it is a numbers game. If determined and in no rush you can make multiple offers at the price you want to pay (within reason) and someone will eventually bite. Good luck!

You can offer whatever you want! Worst that can happen is they say no. Some of the best deals I've scored have been where I went in with an offer where I thought to myself, ok, if they accept this, this will be too good to be true. I've had a seller come back and accept my offer outright and I've had sellers negotiate further. And, I've had sellers just say they'll pass and they're not even bothering with a counter because my offer was just too low. Some sellers are desperate to sell as quickly as possible and others are going to hold out until they get the price they want.

Of course, on the flip side, as a buyer, what you offer may depend on how badly you want the contract on which you're offering. Is it exactly what you're looking for and you've been searching for a while? Or, would it work ok for you, but you don't mind waiting for something better come along, so maybe you'll only buy it if you can get a really good deal. Some people like negotiations and looking for deals and others would rather just pay average prices, get what they want and get on enjoying their points.

Only other thing I'll add is that not all brokers treat offers the same way. Some brokers act as pure conduits, simply relaying your offer to the seller, while I've had others give me unsolicited feedback on my offer. No big deal to me. I respect everyone's opinion, but I have typically formed my own before going into any contract negotiation.

There is no real etiquette, ignore average pricing and just submit the price you want.

Some sellers will get "insulted" and not counter or entertain another offer from you again if you lowball, but thats their problem imho.

Sure, offering $10/point on a $120/point contract is likely to get you completely ignored but you should be able to submit any offer that you're comfortable with. It is strictly business.

Like airjay75 said though, some brokers will give you advice and tell you your offer is too low or they will refuse to present your offer to the seller. Because there aren't buyer / seller agents, really 1 agent is essentially representing both interests here, so take what they tell you with a grain of salt. You cannot assume an agent is looking out for your best interest since they are not representing just you.

Agreed. I offered $10/point less than what I was willing to pay because I was ready to negotiate but it was also a contract that I really wanted and was the perfect fit for my family. They countered only asking $1/pt more than my offer so it was an easy yes on my end. If you're just looking to add on and just need points, feel free to lowball away. You never know the reason someone is selling, and guaranteed cash is better than no cash in a lot of people's minds.

Thanks - it's been an interesting experience as every contract that we were watching ended up selling quickly after it went to the save list. Yesterday, I almost put an offer on a Copper Creek that had some 2025 points left but the site it was being sold at sent up a warning that the seller wouldn't take less than a 1/pt off. (It ended up selling the next morning). We keep coming back to CC as an option so we'll keep some powder dry for that when the time is right.

If you go too low @TheROFRMonster is gonna get your contract

If you're going to hunt for a deal, strongly suggest you set yourself up an alert at dvcforless.com (if you haven't already), and when a contract comes up within your search parameters, make your offer and stick to what you're willing to pay. Eventually, you'll make a deal that works for you and the right seller.

And, personally, I wouldn't pay any attention to what contracts have been taken through ROFR. Disney does not ROFR based on price alone. They are often looking for points that belong to a specific unit because, while they can change the UY for a given contract, they cannot change the unit to which the points belong. Outside of VGF and OKW (2042), chances of a contract being ROFR'd are incredibly low right now.

Mostly out of curiosity but when you see resale contracts that say something like "can close starting 10/15/26" I take it that means the current owner has an upcoming trip in October and you can't close until its completed. Since that is 5+ months away, if you put in an offer what happens if prices drop? Are you locked in financially in anyway?

Yes and yes. For me, the longer a delayed closing is, the better the deal I would demand. All of the risk in that situation is on the buyer. The seller could technically walk away at any time up until closing and not lose anything (of course, you'd get your deposit back). And, it's a good rule of thumb anyways, but especially in that situation, I would not send closing funds until much closer to the date the contract can actually close.

I just set up an alert for Copper Creek so we'll keep an eye on that one!

A SSR contract came up that we put an offer in late yesterday and now putting a deposit! It had points for 2025 that we could use to extend our October Trip and some banked points to try to add in the December trip. That'll take care of our walk around points and now we wait to find a proper Copper Creek to finish up our points "for now".

Congrats! CCV and SSR are both really great resale options if I do say so myself!

5I agree. Both SSR and CCV are great options. But take what @airjay75 is saying with a grain of salt.... after all he was or still is in the market for a Vero Beach contract 😅🤣

what kind of ccv are you looking for? I was hunting awhile and finally find one that was a deal. I was pretty strict on how many points I wanted though (100).

LOL. I do lose my mind from time to time, especilly when I'm freshly sprinkled with pixie dust.

I'm looking to stay in the 200 range. There was a 215 pointer with 94 left in 2025 that we almost pulled the trigger on. There was a BIG 450-470 that had been on the market for a while and was trying to justify it but it sold (probably a good thing! lol)

I'm interested in a 75-125 point CCV. But I haven't seen any with my use year of Feb.

Is that b/c February UY is popular for CCV or b/c it's rare?

December seems to always have a little bit of stock even though it's strange how we get our points.

I'm beginning to think that Feb UY is rare for CCV. Given that the Feb use year points expire on 1/31 I think that it is not as popular for xmas travel which is one of the main reasons people get CCV.

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-menu/general-dvc-news/4954-availability-of-disney-vacation-club-points-by-use-year

That data is old, but CCV would have been declared sold out by then. It looks like it is actually somewhat better distributed across UYs than a lot of resorts from a quick glance.

Thanks! This is great data. Now I'm confused as to why I never see contracts in my range 75-125.

at the end of the day it is a transaction and you can decide what to offer.

some including th eboard sponsor will limit negotiations through "firm price only" prices, but if you can negotiate, why not.

I recently closed on a contract that I offered half of what the seller was listing the contract for. They took it without negotiation, and it made it through ROFR as well.

My view is you never know if you don't ask.

Thank you for asking this question and appreciate all the answers. We have a direct contract and considering a future resale. This is helpful to know for when we finally do decide to make an offer.

We almost made an offer a couple weeks ago via DVC Resale Market, but when I clicked the button, the only option was full price. That was enough to cause me to pause. That particular contract has since sold which is fine. There will be another and hopefully one where we can make an offer (or it's closer to the price we want 🤞).

Spot on! When I was purchasing my BCV resale contract, I did my due diligence across all the broker sites to get an idea of what my offer would be. I found the contract I wanted on one broker site and submitted my offer. The broker agent reached out to me and told me that offer would offend the seller. Offend? LOL. The offer wasn't "offensive" by any means. I told the broker that was my offer and he replied that the seller turned it down. Fine, no problem. I found a similar contract (it just had a different UY, which was fine) that actually had banked points (the first contract didn't) and offered the same exact price per point...and that seller accepted the offer.

The more experience I gained with this process shed light on the fact that some brokers, IMO, are not honest with their clients in terms of what they should expect as a fair asking price for the contract. I fell like some brokers sell their client on what they can get them for their contract, maybe to get the listing for that contract? I have no idea how that works behind the scenes, but there would be no reason for someone to get offended unless they were told they will be getting a lot more for the contract.

All this said, I do feel each buyer should put in some time to research what a fair offer would be. Personally, I wouldn't want to be seen as an idiot for offering A LOT less than a contract is worth based on current market conditions.

An offer is just that, an offer. Research the market prior to making offers. If someone gets offended by your offer, that’s on them.