Guaranteed week pitfalls

[Thisdman]

We are close to buying VGF and I have been reading up on the guaranteed week deed. There seems to be a very small, of any, downside to this. We are interested in buying 160 points and plan to stay exclusively at the VGF in a studio. I am looking at locking in week 50. I know it will cost us at minimum 138 points to buy in but we want 160 points anyway. Now we don't plan on using this week very often but I thought it would be a good week to lock down since its so popular and there is no penalty that I can see for doing so. Questions:
1. If we were to stay week 50 will we be charged 138 points or would we pay the same 125 points everybody else is currently paying?
2. If we are charged 138 points what is stoping us from just canceling our reservation and making another one at the lower cost? This will most likely occur anyway because we don't like to stay for a full 7 days.
3. Most important. What does everybody think this will do to the resale value if we ever decide to sell? I know this is a new offering to WDW and I am concerned it might scare away potential customers who are unfamiliar will the deed.
Thoughts? Help? Any other problems I might be missing? Sorry to be such a newbie but I really want to get this right. Thanks.

 

[Dean]

We are close to buying VGF and I have been reading up on the guaranteed week deed. There seems to be a very small, of any, downside to this. We are interested in buying 160 points and plan to stay exclusively at the VGF in a studio. I am looking at locking in week 50. I know it will cost us at minimum 138 points to buy in but we want 160 points anyway. Now we don't plan on using this week very often but I thought it would be a good week to lock down since its so popular and there is no penalty that I can see for doing so. Questions:
1. If we were to stay week 50 will we be charged 138 points or would we pay the same 125 points everybody else is currently paying?
2. If we are charged 138 points what is stoping us from just canceling our reservation and making another one at the lower cost? This will most likely occur anyway because we don't like to stay for a full 7 days.
3. Most important. What does everybody think this will do to the resale value if we ever decide to sell? I know this is a new offering to WDW and I am concerned it might scare away potential customers who are unfamiliar will the deed.
Thoughts? Help? Any other problems I might be missing? Sorry to be such a newbie but I really want to get this right. Thanks.

If the number of points, retail purchase and home resort fit, the only downside I can think of is that I don't believe you can break it up into smaller increments than the base of the fixed week. In your example you could get 138 & 25 for 163. The only way to get the week for the lower points is to take points instead and then try to book at 11 months out or you could use other points to reserve the week and then later cancel the fixed week and take the points. I don't think it'll be much of an issue either way for resale for studios, for larger units, the higher points in a contract will likely have a negative effect but the same as any larger contract.

 

[disneynutz]

We are close to buying VGF and I have been reading up on the guaranteed week deed. There seems to be a very small, of any, downside to this. We are interested in buying 160 points and plan to stay exclusively at the VGF in a studio. I am looking at locking in week 50. I know it will cost us at minimum 138 points to buy in but we want 160 points anyway. Now we don't plan on using this week very often but I thought it would be a good week to lock down since its so popular and there is no penalty that I can see for doing so. Questions:
1. If we were to stay week 50 will we be charged 138 points or would we pay the same 125 points everybody else is currently paying?
2. If we are charged 138 points what is stoping us from just canceling our reservation and making another one at the lower cost? This will most likely occur anyway because we don't like to stay for a full 7 days.
3. Most important. What does everybody think this will do to the resale value if we ever decide to sell? I know this is a new offering to WDW and I am concerned it might scare away potential customers who are unfamiliar will the deed.
Thoughts? Help? Any other problems I might be missing? Sorry to be such a newbie but I really want to get this right. Thanks.

You will have 2 contracts, one fixed week for 138 and one for 25 points non-fixed week.

1. If booked as a fixed week you pay 138.

2. Availability.

3. Unknown, since fixed weeks are limited in number it may be a sellers market.

We own week 49, 1 bedroom lake view.

Bill

 

[wdrl]

1. If you actually use your Fixed Week, you will be charged 138 points.

2. Yes, you could opt-out of the Fixed Week each year. If you do, you'll have 138 DVC points that can be used as traditional DVC points, such as banking or borrowing the points, or using them as VGF points to book other reservations at VGF or other DVC resorts. You could opt-out and book the same week and accommodation for 125 points, saving you 13 points. The drawback to this strategy is that you'll have to make the reservation on a first-come, first served basis, meaning that you run the risk of not being able to secure the same exact dates due to competition from other VGF owners.

Another drawback to the strategy of opting out and rebooking your fixed week for 125 points each year to "save" 13 points is, well, you only get 13 extra points. There is nothing that you could do with 13 points at VGF -- the cheapest studio costs 17 points. You'd have to wait until the 7-month window opens and either find an a studio at a different DVC resort that costs no more than 13 points, or combine your 13 points with One-Time Use points to book something at VGF or elsewhere. Conceivably, you could bank the 13 points to use them with your points from the next Use Year. But then that forces you to opt out of the Fixed Week for the next year.

If a new member's only DVC deed is a 138-point Fixed Week deed, then it will take some careful planning to prevent ending up with orphaned points. Its doable, but it will take planning to make sure you get full use of the points.

3. No one knows for sure how these Fixed Week deeds will be priced on the resale market. If it becomes difficult to book VGF even during the Home Resort period, then Fixed Week deeds will demand a premium. Even if it turns out that VGF is not that hard to book during the Home Resort period then, as Dean posted, the Fixed week deed should be no different than any other VGF deed for its relative size.

 

[Soul Brother]

I am looking at locking in week 50.

Have you spoken to a guide about availability for a standard view studio for week 50?

I bought week 50 in a standard view studio which I was told was the last one available and that was in very early June.
Week 49 was already sold out (was my preferred choice). My guide screwed up with my paperwork and by the time I called to correct it, week 49 was sold out. I was not too happy but settled on week 50.

They possibly may open more up when the rest of the resort is declared or maybe they put all the fixed weeks up for sale already. I don't know for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

I would be interested to hear if your guide is saying that it's available.

 

[wdrl]

They possibly may open more up when the rest of the resort is declared or maybe they put all the fixed weeks up for sale already. I don't know for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

There are several factors coming into play that might effect availability of Fixed Weeks. Since the Master Declaration limits Fixed Weeks to no more than 35% based on the week and accommodation type, there should be a maximum of 10 Standard View studios available for each week once VGF is fully declared for the DVC inventory.

As of right now, DVD has only declared 75.8% of VGF for the DVC inventory. Playing with the numbers, it might mean that DVD can only sell 7 Standard View Fixed Weeks for each week due to one-fourth of the resort not yet being declared. However, if DVD anticipates having more accommodations declared by December, then it will start selling more Fixed Weeks now.

Another factor affecting the sales of Fixed Weeks could be availability of the underlying villas. Right now, Weeks #49 and #50 can be booked by both VGF owners and non-VGF owners. If DVC lets everyone book the maximum number of villas with traditional points, then will there be any availability left for Fixed Week owners? Or is DVC holding back some inventory from traditional points users in anticipation that Fixed Week owners will buy that inventory in the near future?

As of July 31, 2013, Week #49 and #50 had only three Fixed Week deeds each that had been recorded with the Orange County Comptroller. There could be more in the pipeline that have been bought but have not yet been closed.

There is more information about Fixed Week sales in a recent article on the DVCNews (see http://www.dvcnews.com/index.php/re...63-fixed-week-sales-at-grand-floridian-villas).

 

[Thisdman]

Have you spoken to a guide about availability for a standard view studio for week 50?

I bought week 50 in a standard view studio which I was told was the last one available and that was in very early June.
Week 49 was already sold out (was my preferred choice). My guide screwed up with my paperwork and by the time I called to correct it, week 49 was sold out. I was not too happy but settled on week 50.

They possibly may open more up when the rest of the resort is declared or maybe they put all the fixed weeks up for sale already. I don't know for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

I would be interested to hear if your guide is saying that it's available.

I hope to find time to call my guide tonight. I will report back what I learn.

 

[Soul Brother]

There are several factors coming into play that might effect availability of Fixed Weeks. Since the Master Declaration limits Fixed Weeks to no more than 35% based on the week and accommodation type, there should be a maximum of 10 Standard View studios available for each week once VGF is fully declared for the DVC inventory.

As of right now, DVD has only declared 75.8% of VGF for the DVC inventory. Playing with the numbers, it might mean that DVD can only sell 7 Standard View Fixed Weeks for each week due to one-fourth of the resort not yet being declared. However, if DVD anticipates having more accommodations declared by December, then it will start selling more Fixed Weeks now.

Another factor affecting the sales of Fixed Weeks could be availability of the underlying villas. Right now, Weeks #49 and #50 can be booked by both VGF owners and non-VGF owners. If DVC lets everyone book the maximum number of villas with traditional points, then will there be any availability left for Fixed Week owners? Or is DVC holding back some inventory from traditional points users in anticipation that Fixed Week owners will buy that inventory in the near future?

As of July 31, 2013, Week #49 and #50 had only three Fixed Week deeds each that had been recorded with the Orange County Comptroller. There could be more in the pipeline that have been bought but have not yet been closed.

There is more information about Fixed Week sales in a recent article on the DVCNews (see http://www.dvcnews.com/index.php/re...63-fixed-week-sales-at-grand-floridian-villas).

Very good information. Thank you.

This means they must be holding back fixed weeks. If only 3 each are recorded and mine was purchased in early June and supposedly the last available for week 49 or 50, there are definitely more to come.

It will be interesting to see if they allowed those rooms to be booked with regular points or if they're holding onto them to sell more fixed weeks before December.
I would guess they've allowed them to be booked with regular points with it being so close now.