VGC large contract purchase?

[sleepymouse]

I am interested in buying at VGC. I live on the west coast and from what I have learned, it is very important to be able to book when the 11-month window opens up there.

I am looking for a 120-160 point contract. I saw a contract of 250 points being offered and wondered if it makes sense to consider buying a larger contract and possibly renting out 100 points most years through David's. I think it is probably better to stick with a smaller contract and keep things simple. Also, it should be easier to sell a smaller contract should the need arise.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

[lodge]

Renting out 100 to David's (being they have a minimum they accept) is a great way to defer your yearly maintenance fees. It's a higher up-front cost, but the points are yours... once bought you only have to worry about the maintenance fees (provided you are not financing, which may put it to be too costly).

If I could have bought a "larger contract" (over 250 points) I would have and did what you suggested. When I get older, I don't want to stay in a retirement home, want to LIVE at DISNEY!!! (and over a million dollars for their on-site homes is not an option)

[IandGsmom]

I wish we would have bought more points at VGC. As you mentioned you need to book at 11 months to get certain times as there are number of villas are limited. You can always treat yourself and/or family in a larger villa also. Go for it if you can swing it financially I doubt you will have many people here tell you not to get it..we all like to enable

[ToddyLu]

Get the resalers to put you on their email lists so you can see the contracts ASAP.

My name is ToddyLu and I am an enabler

[JimMIA]

I think it's folly to purchase any number of DVC points (or anyone else's timeshare) for the purpose of renting.

I mean really, if that were a viable business model, wouldn't DISNEY have already done it? Think about it.

Remember that when you buy DVC, all you are really guaranteed is to be able to use your points at your home resort. Nothing else.

DVC currently tolerates owners renting, and there is a school of thought that says they can't legally stop it. But, if they EVER decide to try, they can certainly make it difficult and unprofitable.

I would never spend actual hard cash, and obligate myself to many years of MFs, for the HOPE of possibly paying some of my MFs.

[Breyean]

Originally Posted by JimMIA

I think it's folly to purchase any number of DVC points (or anyone else's timeshare) for the purpose of renting.

I mean really, if that were a viable business model, wouldn't DISNEY have already done it? Think about it.

Remember that when you buy DVC, all you are really guaranteed is to be able to use your points at your home resort. Nothing else.

DVC currently tolerates owners renting, and there is a school of thought that says they can't legally stop it. But, if they EVER decide to try, they can certainly make it difficult and unprofitable.

I would never spend actual hard cash, and obligate myself to many years of MFs, for the HOPE of possibly paying some of my MFs.

I am in this camp.

We just sent in our contract to buy 125 points at VGC resale. Before that one came up, we were seriously considering going after a 240 point contract, which would have been way more than we need, considering we already have 200 points at VGC.

But the price was good on the 240, and we played with the idea of renting out whatever extra points we'd have each year. We decided, however, we didn't want to have to depend on renting, so we passed on it.

Then the smaller contract came along, and now we are waiting for ROFR to start.

[wbl2745]

Think carefully about how many points you actually need. We originally bought 160 points (minimum number you could buy as a new DVC member at the time) and quickly discovered that for what we wanted to do that was too little. Within months we purchased a 50 point add-on and now have 210 points.

The issue for us is that we immediately were spoiled and always get at least a one-bedroom villa. The studio is a larger hotel room with amenities that I usually have in other hotels (microwave, refrigerator), but the one-bedroom is just plain wonderful. Think about this before deciding that 250 points is too many.

I'd love to have more, but the yearly maintenance fees are already just about $1000, so on a yearly basis that's just about our limit.

Having the 11 month reservation window for VGC has been great too. I've always been able to get the reservations I want at 11 months. Despite what I said above about studios, my next stay will be at VGC in a studio during D23. For that stay I'm trying to conserve points so that I can take the whole family to WDW in 2014 (2-bedroom and a studio at AKV).

[sleepymouse]

Thanks for all the advice (and enabling). I am thinking I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I have no experience with DVC and should probably first try to secure a contract with the amount I think I need and then go from there. I can always look to add points. I haven't even stayed at the GC yet but will be there in April. I do love Disneyland though and plan to take my boys (2 and 7) many times over the years. I'm hoping to book studios so about 150 points should work well.

When I realized what my 5-night vacation there is going to cost me ($2500 for lodging alone), I began looking into DVC. I will be paying cash so at least only have to look forward to MF for years to come.

[bookwormde]

Here are my thoughts, If you bought 250 it would not be long until you were using them all yourself. If you read over the DVC boards you will see that once you try a Villa, you are hooked and do not want to go back to a studio (although many of us do becouse of not enough points).

[nunzia]

I started out small..2 65 point contracts at VGC (I had earlier purchased a 25 pt OKW resale with the express purpose of being able to buy small VGC contracts direct from Disney as add ons when the villas first opened. This worked perfectly except..130 pts was not enough..I then did 2 50 pt add ons through Disney before the resort sold out and guess what..still not enough. I am currently on a waitlist (since last April) for 65 more points. My circumstances though are I have a large family of grown children and 9 grandkids and studios just don't really work well very often since each of my 3 children have 3 kids and once their youngest hit 3 a studio is not allowed. I have also become spoiled to the 1 bedroom idea since we stayed in one once when we brought my brother and ister in law and another brother in law with us. We are much more likely to gift rooms now and really enjoy being able to do it. I do think the best thing I did was buy many small contracts so if circumstances change and we need less points we can sell off some and still be in the system. Once you try the villas you will be spoiled.

[G'sMaman]

Buy a little more than you think, but don't overdo it either. You can always bank the extras or rent out if necessary, but as others have said you will be spoiled once you stay in a one bedroom. With extra points, you can do that from time to time. The problem with VGC is that smaller resales are more difficult to come by and the closing costs are a bit higher so adding on lots of small contracts may cost more in the long run. Also, adding points directly from Disney can take a long time. We were on the waiting list for 120 points for over 8 months before we finally bought resale. We ended up with 180 points which seemed more than we needed, but has turned out to be perfect. My word of advice is to check out the three big DVC resellers. I see that one of them has a contract for 160 and another for 180 points. Good luck!

[sleepymouse]

I am on the email lists for what I think are the big 3 resellers. I am only interested in resale because of cost. I have seen the 2 contracts for 160 and 180 but they are essentially stripped for 2013. That would be okay if I felt the price reflected it, but it doesn't. The going rate seems to be $90-100 per point. Anyway, I will just be patient.

[G'sMaman]

All the prices are negotiable so it doesn't hurt to put in an offer for what you think is fair and see what happens. That's what we did and after a couple of counter offers - we got our contract.

[sleepymouse]

I thought about offering less, but I think the gap would be too large to bridge. After reviewing point charts, I am wondering if I should just jump into a larger contract. Though I plan to start in studios, I may eventually want more and if we ever stay in a one-bedroom, there's no looking back. You definitely need a lot more points at VGC than at other DVC resorts to make the magic happen.

[Breyean]

You definitely have to be patient looking for a smaller VGC contract. Over the past month TTS has had a couple of 125 point ones that went in a day or so.

I just had an offer accepted on a 125 point one at Fidelity - $90/point with 79 points banked from 2012.

But it took me almost a year to match up UY and # of points, and even now there's a really good chance it gets ROFR'd, although I did hear from Sharon at Fidelity they just had a VGC get through at $89.