A hypothetical situation

[melissa70]

Yes. Everyone does.

I believe it! You all must have some big annual fees!

 

[Brian Noble]

I guess I’m just afraid of making a mistake not so much financially but more of where to buy, why, etc.

There's a chance you will later decide that something might have been a slightly better fit for your needs. But you clearly know that you like BRV. A lot. So it will never be a terrible choice to have purchased there. Remember: The value of a timeshare is in using it! This is something that the broader DVC community does not always understand in their bones in the way that TUGgers might.

I’ve been watching YouTube videos and have heard a few “experts” say they always can find whatever they want at the 7 month window

So, about those "experts". A lot of them are involved in the broader DVC ecosystem--either they are sponsored by the resale brokers, or they are directly affiliated with one. So they will tend to put the best spin on things. If you really want to know what past booking patterns have looked like, there is hard data here: https://dvcfieldguide.com/availability-tables

DVC Help has some too, but it appears they have had some data collection issues, because they have a swath of weeks for which no availability was available anywhere at any time, which I am pretty sure means they weren't collecting data those weeks.

And, as mentioned above, past performance is no indiciation of future results. There are a vareity of reasons for this, not all of which are necessarily going to get worse. For example, we are just coming out of a period where there was an excess of poitns sloshing in the system because banking rules were significantly relaxed during the lockdown. Things also ebb and flow with the macroeconomic environment---when times are tough, more points go into breakage.

Stalking is heartbreaking, I feel like a prisoner to this system, home resort priority please set free me

I've had surprisingly good luck with waitlists. I do find other things by stalking, but so far, my waitlists have hit before I have found the same thing online most of the time. I am not typically looking for unicorns, though, so that might help.

 

[melissa70]

So someone on Reddit decided to call me combative and annoying. and sent a link to this chat. Happened to see it as I was scrolling through Reddit. Wonder if it’s anyone from this group. Again, I am sorry if I have offended anyone - I know you all are much more experienced and I do appreciate all the help. You’ve actually opened my eyes up to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of. My broker is probably on here too. Apologies to everyone

 

[intamin]

I believe it! You all must have some big annual fees!

We do.. I need to buy probably 4 to 5 more 1k gift cards and I already preloaded 3k worth on the DVC website :X

So, about those "experts". A lot of them are involved in the broader DVC ecosystem--either they are sponsored by the resale brokers, or they are directly affiliated with one. So they will tend to put the best spin on things. If you really want to know what past booking patterns have looked like, there is hard data here: https://dvcfieldguide.com/availability-tables

DVC Help has some too, but it appears they have had some data collection issues, because they have a swath of weeks for which no availability was available anywhere at any time, which I am pretty sure means they weren't collecting data those weeks.

And, as mentioned above, past performance is no indiciation of future results. There are a vareity of reasons for this, not all of which are necessarily going to get worse. For example, we are just coming out of a period where there was an excess of poitns sloshing in the system because banking rules were significantly relaxed during the lockdown. Things also ebb and flow with the macroeconomic environment---when times are tough, more points go into breakage.

I like how we all put experts in quotations but really the real experts have been right here on disboards and I'm grateful for all the info/opinions from the members on here because it was only a couple years ago when I was asking similar questions

So someone on Reddit decided to call me combative and annoying. and sent a link to this chat. Happened to see it as I was scrolling through Reddit. Wonder if it’s anyone from this group. Again, I am sorry if I have offended anyone - I know you all are much more experienced and I do appreciate all the help. You’ve actually opened my eyes up to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of. My broker is probably on here too. Apologies to everyone

You haven't offended any of us. I'm just excited to figure out what you end up doing Seriously though, figure out what seasons you're most likely to travel, what room types you want and then reference the field guide that @Brian Noble posted and see where you think you might want to stay and is it hard during that time? Does it require home resort priority? If it doesn't, then maybe going for somewhere with more value would be a better option or simply somewhere else that may provide a valuable 11m booking at another time you're interested in going.