Adding points to an existing DVC account

[Noelle]

I just called our DVC guide last week to ask about adding on at Vero. She looked in her inventory and told me that they have 1000 August UY points for Vero. We couldn't find the exact amount of VB points we wanted in our use year on the resale market. So we bid and had an offer excepted for a 60 point contract which is in ROFR now. And if and once it passes ROFR, I'll call my guide back and buy the remaining 25 points we need to meet our vacations needs. I'm pretty sure we'll pass ROFR on our resale contract.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

In general, unless you are buying a small number of points (25-50), or buying Poly or Aulani, most people who own a direct master contract will save a lot of money going resale.

 

[mustinjourney]

You can pretty much get any of the resorts via direct right now, with the exception of VGF, BCV and VGC.

With that said, I was able to get 25 points from BCV last week after emailing my guide and asking several times. Right now, the prices for Poly on the resale market are not low enough to make sense buying resale. With current incentives, you're better off just buying direct.

For all other resorts, resale is the best way to save some serious cash.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you buy direct from Disney, they will try to match your Use Year. If you buy resale, matching your existing UY makes it easier to use your point. So if you have a Dec contract and buy a February contract, you would have to transfer between the two contracts at seven months out if they were different and you wanted to combine those points for one reservation. If they were the same resort, but different UY, you would still have to transfer one to the other to use all of them at 11 months out. If both contracts have the same UY, you can just use them together at seven months out if they are different resorts.

 

[Matty B13]

If you are thinking of adding on to your Poly contract, I would just go direct. You won't be able to find a resale contract that would make it worth it for all the hassle and time it takes to buy resale. The process of buying resale can take from 60 to 90 days, it could take longer if there is a problem with the sellers or the contract.

If you are looking at other resorts, then resale can save you a ton of money over buying direct, but it is a long process and takes a lot of patience. People on Disboards have had multiple contracts taken during the ROFR stage and had to start all over. If you have plenty of time to buy then resale will save you money.

Make sure to read through all the threads in the "Purchasing DVC" forum to get a good understanding of the whole process and what UY and "loaded" and "stripped" contracts mean. The "ROFR" thread is a great resource for pricing a bid on a contract.

We bought VGF recently and are in the process of buying AKV with different UY, but it shouldn't be a problem for us since we have kids in grade school and can only travel certain times of the year and have to plan a year in advance.

Keep asking questions if you don't understand something, the members of this forum are a great and friendly resource and have helped our family out a lot from purchasing resale to understanding the in's and out's of our DVC contract. Good luck!

 

[SSGNCNG]

Keep asking questions if you don't understand something, the members of this forum are a great and friendly resource and have helped our family out a lot from purchasing resale to understanding the in's and out's of our DVC contract. Good luck!

One is always in danger of learning something when you ask questions of people who already know the answers!

 

[SSGNCNG]

If you buy direct from Disney, they will try to match your Use Year. If you buy resale, matching your existing UY makes it easier to use your point.

That idea seems to be a common theme from responses and in looking at the listings from one reseller matching UY doesn't appear to be all that difficult. It would seem to me that when buying multiples from resellers matching the UY just eliminates potential confusion and simplifies everything. That is something we're going to stick with I think.

 

[SSGNCNG]

They do have (or used to have) waitlists for various resorts that are reportedly very long, but then people on the forum will randomly get offered VGF out of the blue. Some have even speculated that Disney has almost no inventory of anything, but they basically grab a contract out of ROFR when they make a sale (which is why they hold everyone's contract in ROFR for so long), which is an interesting theory.

This is something that provokes another set of questions....

With contracts/points sold now what is the restriction on reselling versus the older contracts/points?

I think our second purchase is going to be more points at Poly since it is tough to see them throw money on the table in the form of a discount and not take advantage of that. However, my wife loves the Boardwalk area and the resort specifically, she wants points there as well.

 

[SSGNCNG]

You can buy other resorts direct and they are all different prices. OKW is $140pp direct.

If you plan on traveling together it makes sense to me to have all your points in one bucket. So I would buy more Poly. If you might like to stay somewhere else on a different trip, then get a different resort but keep the UY if possible.

Just my thinking if it were me...

In reading through all the responses your thinking is spot on, that does seem to be the simplest way to keep things organized and minimize the number of balls we would have to simultaneously juggle. Synchronizing the UY makes a LOT of sense.

 

[DisBuckMan]

I think our second purchase is going to be more points at Poly since it is tough to see them throw money on the table in the form of a discount and not take advantage of that. However, my wife loves the Boardwalk area and the resort specifically, she wants points there as well.

That 5% discount that Disney is throwing down on the table is peanuts compared to the 30-50% discounts you'll get by buying resale.

 

[SSGNCNG]

That 5% discount that Disney is throwing down on the table is peanuts compared to the 30-50% discounts you'll get by buying resale.

I haven't seen Poly points at a 30-50% discount from a reseller.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

With contracts/points sold now what is the restriction on reselling versus the older contracts/points?

Disney legally cannot prevent you from reselling the contract at prevailing market rates. It is a real estate interest, not a contract with Satan for your eternal soul.

The buyer os the resale contract won't get certain discounts, but will get the defined real estate interest.

It is critical to always remember: This is a real estate interest, and the laws and rules that apply come from that.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I haven't seen Poly points at a 30-50% discount from a reseller.

Poly won't discount much in resale. That's why I say that unless you are buying a small point contract or buying Poly/Aulani, resale is better.

The reverse of that is that for small point contracts, Poly and Aulani, many buyers will be better off just purchasing direct. But the reason they'll be better isn't the "direct buyer benefits!" generally so much as it's just "cost is similar, and/or it's just easier when dealing with small contracts, which are rare on the secondary market."

 

[SSGNCNG]

Disney legally cannot prevent you from reselling the contract at prevailing market rates. It is a real estate interest, not a contract with Satan for your eternal soul.

The buyer os the resale contract won't get certain discounts, but will get the defined real estate interest.

It is critical to always remember: This is a real estate interest, and the laws and rules that apply come from that.

Satan.....

 

[DisBuckMan]

I haven't seen Poly points at a 30-50% discount from a reseller.

I was referencing the BWV points your wife seems to be fond of. Or, pretty much any resort other than Poly, GFV, or VGC.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

With contracts/points sold now what is the restriction on reselling versus the older contracts/points?

Trying to sell a direct contract and a resale contract is exactly the same. Disney is trying to promote direct sales by removing some of the perks for resale owners, but if you're trying to sell a contract, it won't make a difference since the buyers won't get the perks either way.

Boardwalk Villas are $160 pp direct and $90 pp resale. In your case I see very little reason to buy direct if you buy there. If you buy 200 points you will be saving $14,000 dollars. And you already have the perks. Take that $14,000 you save and buy a new car.

Even if you end up with a different UY, it maybe slightly annoying, but I will manage it for you if you buy me a Toyota Corolla with the money you save .

As mentioned above,if you want to buy Poly specifically, the spread between direct and resale prices is very small because there is not that much supply on the resale market. People rarely buy DVC and sell it 2 years later. In 7 years, it will be a different story and there will be a wider gap. I do not believe that Poly will be worth more than VGF in the long run, but that is just my opinion.

 

[SSGNCNG]

I was referencing the BWV points your wife seems to be fond of. Or, pretty much any resort other than Poly, GFV, or VGC.

Yeah, you are right, the resale on BWI is the way to go for that resort. I am surprised at home many contracts I saw for sale for some of these resorts. Turnover looks fairly steady.

 

[LisaS]

What issues are there with buying points on the resale/grey market as opposed to buying points direct from Disney?

As mentioned already, there is nothing grey about the resale market. It's totally legitimate and there are several very reputable and experienced brokers that folks here have used to buy a resale contract.

Would we have two home resorts if we bought points direct from Disney for a different resort?

You would have two home resorts but you would not be able to combine your points to book one of your home resorts 11 months out. Just being an owner of a particular resort does not give you 11 month booking privileges. The points carry the booking privilege. If you want to book BWV in the 11-month booking window, you need enough BWV points to pay for the reservation. I don't own at the Poly but if you transferred your Poly points into my account, I could use them to book the Poly 11 months out. She who holds the points gets to book 11 months out, owner or not. If they allowed owners to use any points they had lying around to book in the 11-month window, it would create a situation with way too many points chasing too few rooms in the 11-month window.

Is Disney selling used points and where?

There really is no such thing as "used points" or a "used contract". Some people think you get 50 years when you buy directly from Disney and just the remaining years when you purchase a resale contract but that is not true. The end date of each resort is fixed, no matter whether you buy from Disney or on the resale market.

And Disney does resell contracts that they have acquired through foreclosures and by exercising Right of First Refusal, when they step in as the buyer when an owner sells a contract on the resale market and they want/need that particular contract back for some reason. But those resales are full retail price of course. Your Poly contract could be a resale of a contract Disney got back due to a foreclosure.

If you buy from Disney vs resale, you stay in exactly the same pool of rooms as everybody else. They don't put direct purchasers in newer rooms and resale purchasers in older rooms, it's one pool of rooms. If you purchase a new resort from Disney and the Residential Unit to which your contract is tied just opened for occupancy, then you own a piece of a brand new room but since you would rarely if ever get assigned to the Unit you own, I (a non-owner with some resale points) might be staying in "your" room and you might be staying in the oldest room in the resort. It's just the luck of the draw and direct vs resale is not a factor in room assignments.

The only differences between purchasing directly from Disney vs purchasing on the resale market are the perks that you get, the time the transaction takes and the price, which can be as much as 50% lower when you purchase on the resale market. There is one other difference. Disney's contracts come with a full set of current UY points and all points going forward. Resale contracts could have the same, more or fewer points depending on how many points the current owner used before putting the contract up for sale. They may have stripped it of points for the current UY and borrowed all of the points from the next UY or, on the other extreme, there may be banked points from the previous UY, all current UY points and all future points intact (a "fully loaded" contract).

Yeah, you are right, the resale on BWI is the way to go for that resort.

Just an FYI: BWI is the hotel side of the resort, BWV is the DVC side of the resort.

 

[Matty B13]

Yeah, you are right, the resale on BWI is the way to go for that resort. I am surprised at home many contracts I saw for sale for some of these resorts. Turnover looks fairly steady.

The ease of reselling your contract, turnover, is what keeps the prices for these contracts as high as they are compared to other timeshares. That and Disney's ROFR rights. My family probably wouldn't have bought if we couldn't sell it later. I wouldn't count on making money selling your contract, but they seem to hold their value a lot better than other properties.

 

[SSGNCNG]

There really is no such thing as "used points" or a "used contract". Some people think you get 50 years when you buy directly from Disney and just the remaining years when you purchase a resale contract but that is not true. The end date of each resort is fixed, no matter whether you buy from Disney or on the resale market.

Okay, you just piqued my curiosity there....when you buy a resale contract from Disney they do not reset the contract to 50 years? How then are they selling them at such high prices for a period of time less than 50 years???