Worried about purchasing sight unseen. Opinions, please.

Originally posted by DeeP
I agree with Richyams (wonders never cease!) regarding the home equity loan. It is a much better rate than what Disney is offering, plus it is deductible on your taxes!
Good luck!

It is my understanding that the Disney financing can also be deductible as a second home. Of course my guide stated that she cannot give tax advice, she said many members use this interest deduction.

Any tax experts out there that can add anything to that?
 
We purchased a small contract at OKW sight unseen. We will be taking our first trip in a little more than a month and we are excited!

Well, I am. My wife is still not totally 'Disney-fied' yet, but she will be when we walk into that spacious and wonderful 1-BR unit at OKW! I can't wait.

At any rate, we are in the same situation (Me and wifey 31 with only 9 years left to own outright) so a home equity loan does make it seem like you're working backwards. But, if you aren't 100% sure about purchasing at such a large amount of points (150 minimum to 'buy-into' DVC), then purchase a resale contract with banked points! I got a 75 point OKW contract with all 75 points from previous year banked....that means, I have 150 points right up front on the contract! You can either 'rent' those points to others and then create your own little 'Magical Beginnings' program or just enjoy the heck out of it! It's a smaller up front investment and you can always do add-ons after that.

Good luck with your decision making.
 
Ive been a DVC member for about 6 yrs-my only regret is that I didnt add on more pts! I did when I was on the Aug 30 cruise, but I cant get those pts until May @ Saratoga Springs! My son-geez hes only 20 yrs old-thought about it all week & the last night-he bot 150 pts! He just recd his book of info/papers etc to sign-the interest rate is 10l75! we are both going to pay DVC off in Mar 04 bef we have to pay interested-did you figure what you will pay in interest charges for the whole 10 yrs?? Thats a lot of pts! its like 7,000 for just 150 pts! & Im in Canada, so geez-thats over $10,000 in just interest!!!
 
Originally posted by DeeP
[BOLD]I agree with Richyams (wonders never cease!) regarding the home equity loan. It is a much better rate than what Disney is offering, plus it is deductible on your taxes!
Good luck![/BOLD]

Sorry to belabor a point you seem set on....but....

I would say that it is actually a more responsible move to take the home equity loan at the far lower interest rate. It is certainly much cheaper in the long run. The only people that should be taking out Disney high interest loans are those not responsible enough or too young to have equity in their homes.

I think your idea of 'responsible' is somewhat restricted. I would recommend speaking to a financial advisor, find the most conservative one that you can, I am certain that you would be advised to use the equity in your home as a tool to lower your cost on this additional debt.

You have it, why not take advantadge of it??
 


Originally posted by Richyams
Sorry to belabor a point you seem set on....but....

I would say that it is actually a more responsible move to take the home equity loan at the far lower interest rate.

Any financial planner who is actually out to help you will never force you into a financial decision that you are unconfortable with.

Each person has a different risk tolerence level. A good financial planner will take your risk tolerence level into consideration.

While I am happy to invest 100% of my retirement money in stocks (I am only 31) I am NOT going to use my home equity for any other purpose then to improve my home.

I would not be able to sleep at night.
 
I bought into DVC in 2000, sight unseen as well. Have never regretted it for a moment!

But if you're pretty unsure, I'd take DeeP's advice and hang on until you go down in November. Then take the tour, check out as many of the DVC properties as you want, and see what you think.

Good luck, and keep us posted! :D
 
My recommendation is to rent some points and go visit the resorts for yourself and decide which you want as a home resort. Through the resale market you have lots of choices. You may not be thrilled with the location of SSR, and you might be. But it's lots of money, a long time span of use, you don't want ot have ownership in one home resort wishing that you had choosen another. If your thinking of SSR, there's no rush anyway. Check the place out. There are lots of advantages to WLV, BCV and BWV resorts in my opinion. FOr some comparison information check out:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=428249&highlight=factual
 


If you are that risk adverse to a home equity loan, why not wait and pay cash. A lot of DVC members purchase without any financing.

I don't like debt at all. We don't have any except about three years left of a mortgage (not bad, considering we bought this house five years ago). I keep a home equity line of credit available - because I'd rather use that for surprises than a high interest credit card - but I threw out that checkbook - when the money is required I have to go to the bank and do a transfer (I can do it over the internet as well, but its not so simple).

When it came time to purchase DVC, we waited until we had cash available (actually, closing - despite being late - beat the cash arriving we were using, so there was a two week home equity loan in there).

Where others say "we should have done it sooner" I'm perfectly happy to say "I'm glad we waited until I could pay for it from my savings account."
 
We bought in 2001 sight unseen at OKW. Everything went great and we bought an add-on last December. Remember, they are correct when they tell you to buy where you want to stay.
 
Tax 58, did you buy your addon @ OKW? thru resale? or did you put your name on the waiting list? thanks
 
We were lucky to have stayed at OKW with cash before we bought. We didn't know there was a timeshare there until we were on sight. I saw people taking tours and when we got home and found out we were going again the next year, I called. They sent me the info and we bought on the phone. I have to say the info they send is correct and the pictures are real. What you see is what you get. All the info online is great and should help with your choice. Don' worry about buying sight unseen. You will not be disappointed. We stayed at SS before it was SS. It is a lovely location and very close to OKW where we are members. We used the home equity loan because I could do all the paper work here and not by mail. I think these loans are cheaper. As for buying from Disney, I would because it is easier and cheaper for SS.
 
Wow! This has turned out to be a super thread! You have all given me so many things to think about. I truly appreciate all of the great info and opinions.

Thanks so much,
Gretchen

P.S. I'll be sure to let everyone know what we ultimately decide.
 
We bought sight unseen in April. We have been going to WDW and staying in the Deluxe rooms and decided to buy after I watched the video. We will be making our first trip home in Dec. and I know that we will love it.
 
Count us in as 'sight-unseen' DVC members. We bought at the BCVs having never seen any of the DVC units or the Epcot resort area. The only way we were comfortable with this was the great information and satisfaction represented at this board and the quality of Disney's resorts in general.

We have yet to see BCV, but I don't expect to be a bit disappointed. I feel like I probably know DVC as well as many of those who have toured thanks to the helpful people here.

Best of luck with your decision! Don't wait too long, the prices continue to rise...
 
No question - we bought site unseen at WLV, 225 points, thanks to members of this board answering all of our questions. We made our first trip home July 2002 and our only regret was not buying sooner. Now keeping with the tradition of buying site unseen and being addicted to DVC, we just added 125 at the BCV.

We can't wait to spend Christmas there this year... 19 - 27 December!
 
Have you ever been anywhere Disney that was not Magical?

We purchased an OKW resale in November 2002. We used a Home equity loan because of the low interest rates and the tax deduction. We are 33 and 35 with a DD who is 6.

SSR wasn't available at the time. OKW was our favorite! Not sure how we would have decided between the two at this point in time.

We will be "Home" in one month and are very excited to see what we have purchased. We have been to HHI and LOVED it! We are going back to HHI in March.

Not only did we buy DVC sight unseen, but we haven't really experienced WDW in 12 years. We have never been to AKL, Epcot or MGM.

We love all things Disney, so the DVC was a no brainer for us.

We thought we would be paying on our 300 points for years, but due to a mistake on a stock sale we will have our resale purchased paid off in 1 year instead of 10!:Pinkbounc
 

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