Thinking of buying and want opinions on my plan

dfGoofy

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
I have been thinking of buying DVC for a couple of years now. We took our first trip in 11/09 and then again in 2/12 and now we are planning another trip for 10/13 and again in 1/16. We have 3 DD ages, 8, 5 and 2. We would like to go every other year and my wife would love to stay in the Deluxe rooms, however those are pretty pricy. Once my DD2 turns 3 we will have to stay in larger rooms too and there are not many options at the mod level, without getting as pricy as a deluxe.

I was thinking that eventually we will want to start getting a 1 bedroom somewhere. So my thoughts turned to DVC. I have been analyzing things and think I can get 250 points to meet our needs. We really only want to go in the offseason like October/November timing.

Since we only plan on going once every other year I feel I have 2 options. My plan is to buy resale. First option is to buy 125 points and bank them every other year or buy 250 points and rent them out every other year and thus cover my maintenance fees both years through rental. I am leaning toward option 2.

I would like some opinions from on my 2 options, specifically if renting is really that easy to do. I understand there will be work in booking but are there as many prospective renters as there seems to be from reading here. Pros and Cons on renting your points out. Should we stay in a DVC first, by renting points ourselves to see if we like it? I have never stayed in one but I have friends with DVC who really love the rooms. If someone can think of something I am missing other opinions are always welcome.
 
If you plan every year, I'd go in between. 125 will be harder to find. I'd go for around 150 to 180 or so if you can't find a 125-140 at a good price. You'll have more options and be less likely to get stuck not having enough points. It'll take you several years before you'd have to worry about any possible extra points.
 
My advice is to buy only what you think you will use yourself.

There is no guarantee that you will be able to rent your points and there are risks to you to do so. (You are responsible for your guests' treatment of the room, for example. If there are problems with the credit card your guests use, Disney may expect you to help resolve them and freeze your DVC account until they are). Disney has made some changes in the past that made renting more difficult. They are in control and may make other changes. Many here will tell you that renting is easy. If all goes well and according to plan, it certainly can be. That said, one "not so great renter" can sour your plan quickly.

Right now, there does not seem to be major issues getting points rented, but that can change. If you are counting on renting to pay your MFs, it could put you in a bad spot.

If you buy more than you need for your every other year trip, you will be very tempted to use the points yourself and end up going more often. Nothing wrong with that unless it puts you in a bad financial situation. Most who buy DVC thinking it will save them money do not. They end up going more often, staying in larger,more expensive villas and/or treating family and friends.

Good luck with your research - I'm sure you will get lots of opinions and some will be very different from mine, LOL.
 
I sort of agree with Dean, 150-180 point buy in would be an easier contract to find rather than the 125, you mentioned. And it would be a couple of years before you would have to worry about renting extra points. Also as your children get bigger, if you still want to vacation at Disney, a 1 BR will start to feel small, and you will eventually be looking at 2BR costs.

Be aware though that October and November are busy DVC months, despite being lower crowd times in the parks. So, buy where you want to stay & make your plans early, 10-11 months out.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards App, please excuse any typos or autocorrects!
 


I have been thinking of buying DVC for a couple of years now. We took our first trip in 11/09 and then again in 2/12 and now we are planning another trip for 10/13 and again in 1/16. We have 3 DD ages, 8, 5 and 2. We would like to go every other year and my wife would love to stay in the Deluxe rooms, however those are pretty pricy. Once my DD2 turns 3 we will have to stay in larger rooms too and there are not many options at the mod level, without getting as pricy as a deluxe.

So far it seems like you are a good candidate for DVC. Make sure you look at what DVC resorts will allow 5 in a 1 BR as opposed to 4, because this will make a difference for you. You can find this information by examining the point charts.

I was thinking that eventually we will want to start getting a 1 bedroom somewhere. So my thoughts turned to DVC. I have been analyzing things and think I can get 250 points to meet our needs. We really only want to go in the offseason like October/November timing.

Be careful doing the math on a 1 BR. Typically DVC can save you money if you are comparing booking a DVC studio to a regular hotel room or a DVC 2 BR to two hotel rooms. 1 BRs are a big jump in points from a studio, so make sure that this can actually be an efficient way for you to spend your lodging dollars. Also, October/November might be the off season for the parks, but it's a high demand season for DVC.

Since we only plan on going once every other year I feel I have 2 options. My plan is to buy resale. First option is to buy 125 points and bank them every other year or buy 250 points and rent them out every other year and thus cover my maintenance fees both years through rental. I am leaning toward option 2.

I would like some opinions from on my 2 options, specifically if renting is really that easy to do. I understand there will be work in booking but are there as many prospective renters as there seems to be from reading here. Pros and Cons on renting your points out.

Pros: It's relatively easy and it's a great way to get money for points you wouldn't use. If you use a point broker it's even easier.

Cons: It is a lot of work, especially for someone "new" to the DIS who might not have the history or reputation that potential renters are looking for. Also, it's a great way to get money for points that would otherwise go to waste. But if you crunch the numbers on simply buying points to rent out for "profit", it rarely is a good idea. Plus everything that Carol said is a con as well. :)

Should we stay in a DVC first, by renting points ourselves to see if we like it? I have never stayed in one but I have friends with DVC who really love the rooms. If someone can think of something I am missing other opinions are always welcome.

If you were going to buy a car, would you test drive it? Or would you just buy it because your friend likes the way it handles?

As for other options, you can become the renter, not the owner, and stay in DVC that way with no commitment year to year.
 
I have been thinking of buying DVC for a couple of years now. We took our first trip in 11/09 and then again in 2/12 and now we are planning another trip for 10/13 and again in 1/16. We have 3 DD ages, 8, 5 and 2. We would like to go every other year and my wife would love to stay in the Deluxe rooms, however those are pretty pricy. Once my DD2 turns 3 we will have to stay in larger rooms too and there are not many options at the mod level, without getting as pricy as a deluxe.

I was thinking that eventually we will want to start getting a 1 bedroom somewhere. So my thoughts turned to DVC. I have been analyzing things and think I can get 250 points to meet our needs. We really only want to go in the offseason like October/November timing.

Since we only plan on going once every other year I feel I have 2 options. My plan is to buy resale. First option is to buy 125 points and bank them every other year or buy 250 points and rent them out every other year and thus cover my maintenance fees both years through rental. I am leaning toward option 2.

I would like some opinions from on my 2 options, specifically if renting is really that easy to do. I understand there will be work in booking but are there as many prospective renters as there seems to be from reading here. Pros and Cons on renting your points out. Should we stay in a DVC first, by renting points ourselves to see if we like it? I have never stayed in one but I have friends with DVC who really love the rooms. If someone can think of something I am missing other opinions are always welcome.

In two years you will be buying park admission for three guests aged 10+ and two aged 3-9. That increases your costs (plus no doubt park admission will go up again, it not twice in that time). How will that affect your plans to go to WDW. DVC doesn't get you anything but lodging. No park admission, no dining, no transportation to and from your home. These steep park admission prices make me think about not going to the parks at all, but we do like to dine in the park restaurants.

Also, by that time dues on whatever DVC resort you are looking at purchasing will also go up a bit. Plus if you fly, you will now also be paying for the youngest one to fly.

There are still one bedroom villas that only have sleeping spaces for four - VWL, BCV, BWV, SSR. No sleeper chair in those locations. You'll have to provide for your fifth family member yourself if you stay in one of those one bedroom villas (and if DVC continues to allow a fifth person in those). And they also only have one bathroom. With five people, getting ready can be a little tougher to manage.
 
My suggestion is to rent and then tour all dvc resorts. If you go in 10/13 try renting points. This will give you a better understanding of DVC.
 


Thanks to everyone for all your advice. I think we will take some time and go tour some of the resorts on our trip in October and then, if we like them and I am sure we will, I will probably look for about 150 point on the resale market. That way I won't have way more than I need or be counting on renting.

Also, with 150 or so I will have enough points when we need to go up to the 2 br or if we have to book a higher point room or even decide to go in a higher season.

Thanks again for everyone's input. Your help is greatly appreciated. It's good to bounce it off of people who have been there and done it and not have to ask the person trying to sell it to you their thoughts!!
 
If you look closely, the ROI on renting isn't very good. If it were me, I too would buy only what I thought I'd use myself, more or less.
 
I agree with all the experts above. Some of the post counts around here are amazing. Now for some totally contradictory advise (at least to itself that is, not to others). I would never buy more points than I needed with the intent to rent them. However, Most people that seem to have the family need and the desire to go DVC find they usually don't have enough points not to many. We didn't rent points but did go through Disney to stay in the boardwalk villas 4 times before we bought in. Bought a BLT contract last year and already added another BWV contract that is pending. (There should be a twelve step program for DVC:).) Since then we have been once and have 2 other trips planned, and my daughter is in college. So at least for us it gave an excuse to go do something. We bought APA and Tables in wonderland. I called myself saving money. What it did was give me an excuse to go back.
To the point. If you are the kind that once every other year is a reality I would buy the 125-150 and bank. You can always add on. If you are like us and just needed and excuse to go. Go ahead and look for 2 contracts instead of one big one. I understand it increases your closing but it also gives you the freedom to sell one if you didn't use it and also give them to your kids. I have a friend that has a contract for each of his children.
HTH
Rad
 
We have 200 OKW and 75 HH points and are adding on 100 AKV points. MIL and FIL paid us to use 1/2 of our OKW points. We were wanting to sell them a few years back...really wanted to sell 100 of them because we were going to be going less frequently since we moved from NC to MD (and money was tight when we 1st moved to MD since cost of living here is sooooo outrageous). We wanted to break them up and sell half, but you can't break them up and MIL and FIL wanted about 100 points so they basically bought 1/2 of them from us and in a few years they will gift them back to us...sweet deal as they pay 1/2 of the MF for our OKW contract each year. So, I say buy what you need and if you find you eventually will need more...you can add on and I also agree with buying multiple smaller contracts. I'd like to sell the 200 OKW points and buy 100 BWV points and another 25 at HH...for three 100 point contracts that we can give to our 3 kids in about 10-15 years (would make nice wedding gifts). But DH prefers more points for his money and it would cost us more to sell our OKW and buy BWV...so he's happy with our 375 points as is (and he actually wanted to add on 150 HH points instead of the 100 AKV points, but I won that argument when I showed him the difference in annual dues...was only $336 but still that adds up over the years).
 
With cash and time to shop don't buy more than you need. Smaller contracts sell quickly for higher value if your future needs/financials change. We took our children to WDW about 5 times as they grew and their vacation interests now are elsewhere. Our DVC ownership is for us only.
 
I agree that you are making a good decision to try before you buy. We waited a few years and checked out a couple resorts. I like the smaller contracts buying two resorts doubles your 11 month choices. SSR and OKW seem to be available whenever so the 11 month advantage there is kinda wasted. That said we bought 320 SSR because it was such a great value and we love SSR
 

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