Hey friends - as the author of the post referenced on page 9 that I'm not allowed to quote because the anti-spam filter doesn't seem to like me, I'll add in with what I learned manually reviewing hundreds of contracts on the Orange County site. (Could a Mod ping me and help get that fixed so I can quote post 175 and 176?)
First things first: I do think that a more accurate description of the dataset is "Contracts where Disney was the Grantee, but it wasn't a foreclosure, and it wasn't a transfer in-lieu of foreclosure." and not necessarily that 100% of them are ROFR. There are definitely a couple in there that aren't ROFR, and are instead likely a buyer with buyer's remorse where Disney stepped in. (Looking at you, Doc 20230419978 at VGF and you Doc 20230005622 at RIV). But I do believe that most of them are ROFR until someone can give a better explanation for what's going on with them.
Foreclosures have a really distinct format. They are multi pages. There are newspaper filings of notice posted. Etc. Example of what a foreclosure looks like: Doc 20230380053
"Surrendered" Contracts when the owner gives it up in lieu of foreclosure also have a very distinct look to them. They are filed as "Warranty Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure". They look like this: Doc 20230381144
I didn't include any of those ("foreclosure" or "warranty deed transfer in lieu of foreclosure") in my dataset. All of the ones that I DID include look more like this: Doc 20230009656. This format looks just like a direct purchase agreement, but in reverse (where Disney is the grantee instead of the grantor). On most of them it even has the little palm tree and Mickey icons where input is needed just like everyone would recognize from when they bought direct.
So short of there being some other program that none of us have heard of where Disney proactively tries to directly buy contracts nearing distress, but AREN'T considered transfers in-lieu of foreclosure, I don't know what else they would be but ROFR.
I'm always eager to learn more! So if anyone has insight that I'm missing, I'm all ears!
Note: I tried to include direct links to the contracts referenced above, but the anti-spam filters prevented the reply :-( If you do a google search for orange county florida official records search you should be able to find the county website and search for the doc numbers I called out above.