Original Message:
Manhattan Club Owners - what's with developers having "first refusal"? (by Mike N.):
cyndia2 wrote:That said, we were told during our closing that, if we ever chose to sell, the developer would have first refusal in buying our time back from us until every timeshare was sold. They said very convincingly this would probably occur within a year or so....NOT SO!Anyway, we were considering selling if we could get back what we paid but I am seeing people on Redweek offering up their units that have similar specs as ours for much less than we paid. How can there be such a variability on the prices people are charging and can anyone further educate me on what this "first refusal" catch is and when, if ever, this expires?
First, don't expect to be able to sell your TS for what you paid for it. DVC and a few others hold there resale value better. People will sell their TS for whatever the market may bring. Some are more "desparate" than others, so they just want to get out from under the high MFs.
Regardless of what the salesperson told you, the "Right of First Refusal" (ROFR) does not mean the developer will buy back the unit at the price you paid. What it does mean that when you sell, you have to provide a copy of the sales contract to the developer and the developer has the right to buy the unit from you at that price (leaving your original buyer out in the cold).
So if you had a buyer that was willing to pay $10,000 for your unit, the developer can step instead and buy it from you for the $10,000. The developer would then turn around and re-sell it for a greatly inflated price.
You the seller still get your asking price, so it doesn't affect you. But the big problem is if you wanted to sell it to a friend at a discount, the developer can snatch it away at that discounted price. MC is not the only resort that does this. I know Marriotts has ROFR, but I've heard they are not excercising it as much, and only for high demand units.
As you said, you use it and enjoy it. I like most people, bought my first TS from a developer. If we didn't, we would not have traveled tothe places we did. You might want to start looking into exchanging for other resorts. Also, many people look for MC rentals. You might be able to rent to cover at least your MF.