silly question on direct vs resale

[janischa]

hi,
We bought BWV some time ago on the resale market and loved it. Now we're considering an add-on, but we're thinking rather to add on a small number of points. Now I was wondering, with all the closing costs involved, maybe direct would make more sense? Does anyone know if there's any difference in closing costs? We would be looking at SSR, 100 points.

 

[disneynutz]

Yes there is a difference. Call your Guide and get Disney's price, then contact the major resellers and get theirs.

Bill

 

[DizBub]

hi,
We bought BWV some time ago on the resale market and loved it. Now we're considering an add-on, but we're thinking rather to add on a small number of points. Now I was wondering, with all the closing costs involved, maybe direct would make more sense? Does anyone know if there's any difference in closing costs? We would be looking at SSR, 100 points.

Ok, I just checked TTS and SSR is going in the mid $60'spp. Disney is charging $130pp.

Even if you pay $70pp I think that the $6000 savings would more than pay for the resale closing costs.

 

[Fignewtons]

I am in the middle of a resale purchase. Most closing costs seem between 425-500. A few of the timeshare agencies have up to $400 in admin fees, so watch for them and ask specific questions, they wont always mention it.
Closing costs are pretty set, so the fewer the points you buy, the more it adds into the cost.
Overall, $500 is a lot less than the $10000 resale cost compared to $20000 from Disney for my purchase.

Just curious, can anyone speak to if you get your current years maintenance free when you buy from Disney? As that would actually add to a resale fee compared to direct.

 

[Minniesgal]

You pay a prorata of the maintenance fee for the current use year but it is based on calendar months. We bought in July and Paid 5/12 of the MF

 

[ELMC]

I am in the middle of a resale purchase. Most closing costs seem between 425-500. A few of the timeshare agencies have up to $400 in admin fees, so watch for them and ask specific questions, they wont always mention it.
Closing costs are pretty set, so the fewer the points you buy, the more it adds into the cost.
Overall, $500 is a lot less than the $10000 resale cost compared to $20000 from Disney for my purchase.

Just curious, can anyone speak to if you get your current years maintenance free when you buy from Disney? As that would actually add to a resale fee compared to direct.

Maintenance fees are charged on a calendar year basis. So when you buy from Disney, you pay a prorated maintenance fee from the date of closing until Dec 31 of that year. Resale brokers typically don't follow this method and have the mentality that if you get the points, you pay the fees. So if you buy a contract that has an October UY and all the points are coming, most brokers will expect you to pay the full 2013 fees because you are getting the 2013 points, regardless of what time of year you buy. That being said, everything about a resale is negotiable, and you can certainly ask to pay prorated maintenance fees.

Bigger picture, though, is that even with higher closing costs and incentives factored in, right now there is no way that a resale should be even close to today's current direct prices (assuming that you're not buying a ridiculously overpriced contract). The question becomes whether or not it is close enough for you to justify spending the extra money in order for the convenience. If that's how you roll, then that's cool. That being said, I think that economies of scale play a big part in purchasing DVC, and you can almost always get a better deal on a larger contract, to the point where the out of pocket expense could be equal and you get double the points. (Yes, I understand that you have double the maintenance fees as well, but if you do the math you will see that it is still a tremendous deal).

 

[JimMIA]

A few of the timeshare agencies have up to $400 in admin fees, so watch for them and ask specific questions, they wont always mention it.

There are some legitimate administrative costs (minor), but you're right -- at least one broker (Fidelity) charges an extra $195 administrative fee. Ironically, they are the one broker who seems to have the lions share of administrative mistakes.

Good idea to get all that up front, as suggested.

Closing costs are pretty set, so the fewer the points you buy, the more it adds into the cost.

That's not necessarily true with all brokers. TTS (the sponsor of this discussion board) used to have a lower closing cost for smaller purchases. Not sure what their current policy is, but I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you.

Just curious, can anyone speak to if you get your current years maintenance free when you buy from Disney?

No. As others have noted, Disney pro-rates the maintenance fees according to the closing date.

One thing Disney timeshare salesmen will tell you is that you can get "free points" buying direct. That's about as close to a blatant lie as they will tell.

If you buy direct, you get the current years points which you are BUYING. You don't get anything free -- they just give you what you're already paying a very high price for.

 

[kristenrice]

We added on 50 points direct at HHI in Jan 2011 before the price change. We paid $80/point with no closing costs. If we'd gone the resale route, I figure we'd have paid about $55/point and the $425 in closing costs. By going direct, we paid about $750 more but it was worth it. There are almost ZERO small HHI contracts and we did not want a different UY so we could still be waiting. Since we have a Feb UY, we were also able to get 2010 points and bank them 4 days before they expired AND we didn't pay any MF's on them. (They were 2010 points that we bought in 2011).

Now that the direct price has gone up, it is almost impossible to justify paying the difference between resale and direct. The bottom line, though, is whether or not *YOU* feel it is worth it...not what others feel is worth it.