This is one take on it. But my take is I wouldn’t pay for MFs for which a seller has already paid. And I would not deal with a broker who tried to force me to do so. That is a dishonest broker. It is fine for a broker to encourage me to do so, but for a broker to say buyer pays member fees, end of story? That is a dishonest broker, end of story. Not all points are valuable until you are sure you will be able to use them in a manner that is at your leisure. Here is why “extra” points do not have intrinsic value to me:
1. You have no idea exactly how long it will take to close. In theory, about 60 days. But many things can happen, and I have seen some weird cases where it has taken much, much longer. Right now it seems to be taking 3-4 months. You cannot book anything until points are in your dvc account. Then you have to hope something is left to book. As the process drags on, those points have less to no value. In order for the buyer to even consider reimbursing the seller for already paid MF, the contract would need to discount the points on a future closing performance timetable. When you buy points directly from Disney, you receive your points immediately, not so with resale.
2. I cannot just vacation because I have extra points. My world does not organize itself around dvc points. Dvc points fit into my world. If we have “extra” points from a resale contract that just closed, we may not be able to use them with our vacation schedule. Our vacations are planned for a couple of years out. That is why dvc works for us. Dh has to put in for vacation over a year out, so that everyone at work gets a chance to go on vacation. My schedule is a bit more flexible but still has to be considered. We have different school calendar schedules for different kids to accommodate. We can try to squeeze something short in but there is no guarantee that will happen.
3. We also plan our Disney travel around bi-annual pass purchases. To use those points may make me incur extra costs. It does sound funny, but a good lawyer would write those extra costs incurred into the contract. Points that force me to reorganize my life have much less value to me than points I can use at my leisure.
4. We do not rent points, so points have no rental value for us. There is liability involved, and we try not to take unnecessary legal risks. If a person rents my points and destroys the villa or worse, ultimately I am legally liable. So, no thanks. We think about it this way, if someone approached us and asked would you take on open ended legal liability if I pay you $1000-$5000 (or whatever it is you would make on the rental), we would say absolutely not. If I reimburse the seller for MFs already paid, essentially the seller is getting the rental value of points without the legal liability. In assuming I can make up the MFs by renting, a broker is pushing liability on the buyer and in order to reimburse MF, the contract should account the seller for that potential liability. There is also no guarantee that if a buyer wanted to rent out the extra points that it would be possible. The contract should account for that too.
Obviously this is all personal preference, and if a buyer wants to pay MF, that is a perfectly legitimate position. It is not legitimate, however, for a broker to say MF are non-negotiable across the board. Maybe in the broker’s made up reality, but not in the real world. And a broker who lives in an alternative reality is not a broker I would trust!