Newport Plat: avoiding the ROFR?

Hi folks,

I'm interested in obtaining a Newport platinum week on resale. I see a bunch of units for sale at $8500. I was thinking of offering a lower price, but a broker assured me (persuasively) that Marriott has been ROFRing at or below $8000. So, do any of you know what the non-ROFR price is at present? I don't want to waste a lot of time having units snatched, but don't want to overpay as well. I did check the Marriott resale site; they're asking $13,500 for a Newport plat. So, somewhere in between is the magic area; otherwise they'd just troll Redweek and MyResortNetwork and make offers themselves.

Any ideas, advice?

I do not understand this whole thing with ROFR. Offer what you want to pay. If Marriott takes it with ROFR then offer more the next time. So you wasted a few weeks on something you plan to use for a few decades was that really so bad.
OR just follow the advise of your broker and offer a little more than $8K and likely pass ROFR. Remember, at $8,000 you'll be paying about $25K less than Marriott was selling the same week back in 2010.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying ($8100). The broker reported recent ROFRs at $7500 and $8000, with one at $8500, but including an August 2015 reservation. So, I'm resigned to repeat the process, stepping up $100 at a time. There seem to be no lack of plats listed at $8500, so that might be the magic figure. It's weird; there are a flock of folks dying to get rid of their units, but they are forced to wait until someone picks them, seemingly at random, to force a ROFR or finally get a sale. Lowering their price doesn't help much, as the benefits of a price cut go to Marriott, not the buyer. If these folks tried to sell to Marriott directly, though, they'd get a royal hosing, far below the enigmatic ROFR trigger. In the meantime, though, Marriott would be perfectly happy to SELL a traditional week to you at $13,500!

I love the resorts, but pretty much hate the company.

Newport ROFR, plus Custom House rave

Just a quick update: my purchase of a platinum Newport at $8100 just passed ROFR. Kind of a relief, as I'd begun to wonder whether the world of resale is dying. When you see what Marriott now charges for prime hotel rooms on the retail side, you wonder why they don't ROFR everything they can grab.

And, on a completely different note: recently returned from Boston and a week at the Custom House. What an amazing property! Hands down the nicest urban hotel I've ever visited. We had a unit on the 18th floor, looking over the harbor (straight ahead) and the city (to the side). While not overly large by vacation club standards, the one bedroom unit absolutely shines compared to almost anything else in downtown Boston.
We found the staff extraordinarily friendly, and the daily cultural offerings (a capela group from Berklee, flamenco guitarist, amazing jazz duo) were unexpected and free. Add in a superb location (*****), with everything right there, and you have an unbeatable choice.

Sat through a frenetic points presentation that, surprisingly enough, banged the drum about regular rewards points. Made me nostalgic for Jeff Miller at Ko Olina, who spun magical scenarios about what you can do with a couple of million points. He nearly sneered us out of the room when we confessed to using our meager point stash for free Residence Inn nights. "Folks, just get umpteen thousand rewards points and the world is yours, for free, first class all the way." Bah humbug.