What's more affordable - renting or buying resale?

Trying to decide between buying resale via the Timeshare Store or renting through one of the online rental sites. We usually go to Disney World every 2 years (I'd go every six months, But my husband hates planes). We usually travel as a party of 5 - myself, my husband, my son, my daughter & my mother. My husband teaches so we have to vacation during school breaks. Any advice would be so appreciated! Thank you

If you haven't tried renting give it a shot. You can try it out. As far as cost between the two it really depends. What resort you buy really matters. But renting points is cheaper than a dvc cash reservation.

Rents normally go for $12-15/point. MFs are 6, or thereabouts.

So, assume $13/point to rent, $6 if bought. Now, I'm going to make lots of assumptions and you know what people say about assumptions.

Let's also assume an average contract in today's resale world for every other year trips. Just as an example, I'll say AKV 150 points at $85/point.

Let's say you would want to stay a week every other year in at least a 1br if not 2br - due to your DH having his MIL there and growing kids.

So, estimate you'll use 300 points every other year.

Now, let's look 10 yrs out, a decent horizon for DVC ownership.

300 points x 5 trips at $13/point (inflation will almost certainly push lowest rent price to $13 within 10 years):

$19,500 for five wonderful trips to WDW.

Now, resale:

150 points x $85/point to buy (throw in $500 closing) is $13,250.

MF $6 x 150 pts x 10 yrs = $9,000. (Add $1,000 for creeping MF costs) = $10,000

Total cost to buy - $23,250.

Up front, It's cheaper to rent, in this example by $4,250. But that's not the whole story.

If you sold at 10 years, given historical resale patterns, you'd likely recoup your original investment of $13,250, or close to it. If you made $12,000 from your sale of AKV in 2025, then you'd be in the same place as renting: five great trips, no assets.

Cost: $19,500 to rent.
$11,250 to own.

Much cheaper to own and there is a substantial additional value of being able to control your reservations. I don't think that value could be easily underestimated. Just one blown trip because you couldn't reschedule renting but could have managed your own points affects this equation by thousands of dollars.

I'd buy resale. I did, in fact.

pennylane16 said:

Trying to decide between buying resale via the Timeshare Store or renting through one of the online rental sites. We usually go to Disney World every 2 years (I'd go every six months, But my husband hates planes). We usually travel as a party of 5 - myself, my husband, my son, my daughter & my mother. My husband teaches so we have to vacation during school breaks. Any advice would be so appreciated! Thank you

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Owning will be cheaper if you go resale for one of the cheaper option. The cheapest option/best value is generally going to be buying SSR and using at OKW. Buying a resort with a cheaper options (AKV value, BWV standard, BLT standard) will be pretty close ONLY if you use that villa type most of the time. Don't forget dues, they significantly raise the cost of AKV and lower the cost of BLT for example. If you have enough experience going and staying on property, can pay cash, can plan at least 7 months out (11 months for the highest demand options) and are OK with the compromises of a timeshare; DVC may indeed be a good option. The other thing to look at is room type. With 5 you'll be able to get by with a 1 BR but there will be pullouts involved. Even if AKV is the best location for the group of 5, buying SSR and staying AKV might still be the cheapest and the best option. You won't be able to do the AKV value 1 BR with the 5.

I'll actually say renting is "more affordable" - you don't need the significant cash outlay out front. If you want to skip a year, you just skip it without worrying about losing points or renting it. There isn't the temptation to take a trip when money is tight because 'the room is paid for' - even though you'll spend lots of money in transportation, food and park tickets. You maximize your resort flexibility - find an owner with the correct membership window, and you don't have to wait until seven months.

Buying might be cheaper over the long term- but you'll tie up a significant amount of cash, you need to understand seven month availability, and should the DVC resale market crash at the same time you need the money, you could find yourself with something that is worth less than you paid for it. In my book, those add up to "less affordable."

If you can pay cash for a resale contract, I would do that. If you need to take a loan, just rent. Owning has other perks.. discounts on APs, dining...
And the fact you control your trips.

I love ziravans analysis.

Using that scenario (with a tweak to fit our vacation style and property), I plan on having my dvc for 10yrs. I also plan on going yearly.

Renting: 400 pts x 10 trips at $13pp
$52,000
That's $5,200 every year out of pocket. It's unlikely the ppp will be as low as $13pp in 5-10yrs. But this is a conservative estimate.

400pts X 10 trips at $7pp (I have bwv and BLT, split evenly- taking into account maint fees in 10yrs- I'm assuming it wiil average out to about $7pp- at 3.3% increase at BW and 5% increase at blt).
Total outlay is $28,000

My bwv and BLT can each be sold now at $3-4K profit (conservatively, including brokers fee). I'm assuming bwv can be sold for $85pp, and BLT can be sold for $105pp.

So, assuming I profit $3k per property when I sell (6k total), and that is the lower end of the market now, my cash outlay will be $22k or less in 10 years time.

That means I will spend $2,200 per year (or less) on our Disney housing. That's a 2bd for between 5-11 days, depending on season. I'm ok with that.

However, I hazard to guess I estimated the resale value too conservatively and prices will be above the amount used in this estimate, thus lowering my cash outlay.

Note: we used cash on the dvc purchases that would not be in the stock market anyway, so no need to calculate how that cash outlay could have made money in the markets!

Thank you for cheap housing. My sons will grow up going to Disney at near property resorts!

suebeelin said:

I love ziravans analysis.

Using that scenario (with a tweak to fit our vacation style and property), I plan on having my dvc for 10yrs. I also plan on going yearly.

Renting: 300 pts x 10 trips at $13pp
$39,000
That's 3.9k every year out of pocket.

300pts X 10 trips at $7pp (I have bwv and BLT, split evenly- taking into account maint fees in 10yrs)
$21k

My bwv and BLT can each be sold now at $3-4K profit (conservatively, including brokers fee). I'm assuming bwv can be sold for $85pp, and BLT can be sold for $105pp.

So, assuming I profit $3k per property when I sell (6k total), and that is the lower end of the market now, my cash outlay will be $15k or less in 10 years time.

That means I will spend $1,500 per year (or less) on our Disney housing. That's a 2bd for 7 days. I'm ok with that.

Note: we used cash on the dvc purchases that would not be in the stock market anyway, so no need to calculate how that cash outlay could have made money in the markets!

Thank you for cheap housing. My sons will grow up going to Disney at near property resorts!

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I live in a college town.

Several parents that are having one or more kids come through have a choice:

Pay for dorms or off campus rents for their kids.

Or buy a duplex, put 1 to 3 kids through in stacked ages while renting out the other side, then sell on the back end.

The property is breaking even but the real ROI is savings on boarding kids through college. That savings is substantial.

If you're going to WDW (putting multiple kids through college) anyway, using money to save money is a fine plan.

I don't save money with DVC, but that's not my plan. I'm an RN on a 12hr fixed rotating schedule. 3 shifts/wk is 36hrs and full time. Once every 4 weeks, my schedule looks like this: sun mon tue first week, thur fri sat second week. In between is wed, thurs, fri, sat, sun, mon, tue, wed off: 8 days off in a row each month without taking vacation days. That's 13 times a year.

By prepaying room and tickets (APs), we can afford to come to WDW from Texas several times a year. DVC enables us to come to WDW just because we can. And, because my schedule is fixed, I can easily project it out to the 11 month booking window. In fact, Oct, 2016 is booked.