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Right of First Refusal... (by KC):

mary1625 wrote:

I just had the latest sales presentation and asked about sellers on Red Week that were so much less than Marriott. I was told that there is a clause in all Marriott sales that places a lien on everyone's deeded condo. Marriott will let the sale proceed up to the day of closing, and then (if it is one of their prime weeks and locations) they will step in and buy the unit, placing it in their inventory rather than allowing it to be sold. In other words, they will block the sale. Can anything be done about this? They assured me it would do me no good to attempt to buy one of their timeshares unless you are paying a high price for their worst week of the year. That they would allow to go through. This seems to go against the picture they draw at their sales presentation about how you own the unit, it is deeded, you can rent it, sell it, leave it to your heirs, etc. Seems this may not be so.

I respectfully submit that you are not accurately portraying the nature of "Right of First Refusal" (usually abbreviated as ROFR). It's not really a "lien" and ROFR does not "block" a resale . If ROFR is contained and overtly expressed within the original condo documents, ROFR is the lawful option of the developer to step in on any resale transaction and buy the timeshare back --- for the same price which has been agreed to between the current owner and his / her prospective private resale buyer (as documented in a proposed purchase and sale agreement). ROFR does not "block" a sale; it simply provides the developer an option to lawfully step in to become the buyer. In the final analysis, it's the exact same end result and sale proceeds for the owner / seller, but the would-be willing buyer essentially just gets "aced out" of the transaction entirely if / when a developer opts to exercise ROFR.

ROFR is not routinely practiced by all "chains", but any and every timeshare on Planet Earth is much less expensive when purchased in the resale market vs. buying developer-direct. Where ROFR exists, the tricky part is finding the elusive resale "sweet spot" price that a buyer is willing to pay, but that the developer is not willing to match, opting instead to "pass" on exercising ROFR and allowing the resale transaction to proceed between the owner / seller and their willing buyer.

Based upon your post, it seems that either the salesperson was misrepresenting the facts and details regarding ROFR, or perhaps he / she was being entirely truthful and you perhaps simply misunderstood what he / she said about ROFR.