Great Smokies is depressed due to the fires there. I've passed on several good opportunities there but for someone looking for 10 month points it would be an opportunity.
Having started this thread let me jump back in on two points - cost comparisons (apples to apples) and missing points.
Cost comparisons should ALWAYS include the closing cost. I have a spreadsheet I've used for several years detailing every ebay ad I've ever recorded. It has points, auction price, closing costs, transfer fee and published maint fees. Price, transfer and closing are added together and divided against the points, AND then divided by 1,000 to get a base cost per 1,000.
IMPORTANT THAT one MUST include closing/transfer fees to get an actual cost.
Yes a 200k contract looks great at $400 but when you add in $799 in t&c that $1,200 isn't such a great price anymore. I've been tracking these for over 3 years on a weekly basis. I would strongly suggest including t&c or your missing the whole point of estimating. This is why I have no problem walking away from contracts. I know what they sell for and I walk when they get higher than the 12 month average.
As to missing points. I had never experienced this until lately and I ran upon two different instances. I walked on both.
1. Seller listed 700k points. When the auction closed I asked for the Estoppel (always do this before transfering funds regardless of what seller says or demands).. This showed that there were zero points for 2017. Knowing that current transfers are taking about 4 months on cwa, I knew that I could be paying 6 months of fees for no points. The seller kept replying - "well you can use points from 2018" but I could never get them to agree that I would be borrowing what I should own on both years. In the end we all agreed it was just a cost of purchase. I recalculated the cost based on the maint fees paind for no points and it came out at $9.50/1000. I walked obviously.
2. Seller listed 430k points but I was to take over maint fee immediately upon the auction close by prepaying maint fees. This was not disclosed - though it did say buyer would be responsible it did not say upon auction close (until I got the purchase agreement). There were points on the 2017 year available and they argued that I would only be paying for what was going to be mine anyway. I recalculated and my great $3.5/1000 CWA went up another $2/1000. I walked and here's why. There are too many contracts in which the seller covers the maint fees until closing and in fact this is what Wyndham requires. The most important factor here - time. Requiring the seller to pay maint fees until closing ensures a speedy transaction. What I didn't say is that I did this once before when it made sense (and when Wyndham was running about 2 months on cwa transfers). Unfortunately the seller took THREE MONTHS to get the documents to Wyndham. Guess who paid
To that point. The last contract I purchased was 546 CWA for $2.65/1000. It has all points from 2016 renewing in March/17 and all for 2017. Seller paid closing, transfer and maint. When I signed the purchase agreement I asked the seller to have the remaining 2016 points transferred to rci - and then to MY rci, before they expired. This was done and completed in less than 2 days. As a matter of fact the wholesaler just sent me their log in information and I did it myself. The contract hasn't finished transferring yet, but when it does I will have all of the 2017 points having only paid 9-10 months of fees PLUS 546 into RCI at no cost to me. AND the seller because of a problem with their documents took a full month to get the documents to Wyndham -- guess who had to pay that extra month of maint fees.
I share this because I want everyone to be a winner. There are LOTS of options. Wyndham contracts will continue to be sold. People will continue to get out and while I know that ovation offers many another alternative, everyone wants to get SOMETHING for their asset, even if its only $1,000 cash in their pocket. That is better than nothing to many. Ovation has reduced the inventory, but not by much in my opinion. Smart buyers can still get below $5/1000 on CWA and if you search hard you can get below $3 but that is hard to find. Just watch the fees - that is critical and blows the whole deal because some sellers place with no cost and get a higher sales price but some list with fees and get a lower sales price...this has to be calculated along with when the points convert, whats available and who's paying maint fee until closing.
Good luck shopping
