Advantages/disadvantages to adding kids names to contracts?

[Terry S]

I was thinking of purchasing multiple contracts so I can give and/or will them to my childern (also if I have to sell). Is there any disadvantages to putting my husband, both my childern and myself on all the contracts? Is this even allowed, putting 4 names on each contract? Thanks again in advance for the replys.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

If I remember correctly, my guide told me the "children" must be at least 18 years old. She did not indicate there was a max number that could be on one contract. I told her that when my youngest was 18 I wanted to add all their names, she said no problem - you just have to pay a fee. Of course she didn't tell me how much and since I have to wait 3 more years for the youngest to turn 18, I didn't ask.

 

[Dean]

A minor can't inter into a contract. The children will need to be 18. Since you can will them anyway, it really doesn't add that much unless you want to give them the contract(s) while you're still living. I would support the multiple contracts as long as they were all at least 150 points each.

 

[Terry S]

Dean, my kids are 4 and 5 right now, I was hoping to maybe purchase 3 contracts at 200 points each and then when the kids are 20 or so give them each a contract and keep one for myself (I figure I won't be needing as many points since I won't need a 2 bedroom once the kids stop coming). I was hoping to be able to add their names so when the time comes that I want to give them each a contract I wouldn't have to deal with having their names added at that time. I didn't think about the fact that a minor couldn't enter into a contract. Thanks for the information.

 

[Dean]

Terry, makes sense and the end result can be the same. I'd suggest you consider Four 150 point contracts insteads of three 200. That way you can leave the each 2 if you decide and make it even. In the mean time, you get to keep 300 if you want.

 

[Terry S]

Thanks Dean, that does sound like a good plan. That way I could still give the kids each a contract and will them each a contract later! Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious, earlier in this post you say "as long as the contracts were all at least 150 points". Why do you use that number? I have read on this board a number of people doing smaller add ons and was just curious what the reasoning behind 150 was. Thanks again for your replys.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Terry S
Why do you use that number? I have read on this board a number of people doing smaller add ons and was just curious what the reasoning behind 150 was. Thanks again for your replys.

Well, actually you can buy less points if you already own at one resort and add on the same use year. While it's theoretically possible to buy less than 150 points resale as your first purchase, it's not likely to happen as Disney has the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) and can buy it back at your agreed upon price.

You could certainly buy one contract and then add on in increments as low as 25 for the same use year. You could buy more than one use year if your minimum was at least 150 and you could buy any resort Disney was selling. I don't know what you goals are as far as ownership is concerned. You could certainly buy multiple resorts and have home resort priority at each resort with the points you own at that resort.

The reason I chose 4 times 150 = 600 is that it was a number that fit in with the total you were looking at and was an even number for 2 children. Also contracts less than 150 pts could be much more costly and hard to sell as well as having a smaller resale market because generally you can only sell contracts less than 150 to those that already members. I wouldn't go below 150 for more than one contract in this situation if it were me. If you decided on less than 600 points but over 450, I'd still recommend either contracts of 150 plus one smaller one or 2 of 150 and the other 150+X.

The other factor is choice of home resorts. Buy where you want to stay most of the time. All else being the same though, consider buying resale for that many points. While you may not be able to get the exact pts numbers and make it exactly even that way, you could save around $6000 or more (up to around $10000) depending on the package size you buy. Of course you might get different size packages or one big package but the savings could be tremendous. Another factor is that maint fees will vary by as much as almost $500 a year on 600 pts from the lowest to the highest resort and could be around $2400 at VB and as low as $1940 at OKW. If you want a certain resort, consider buying there through DVC and then looking for other resorts resale. Frankly your best value might be looking for a larger contract of say 300-600 points. There are currently 6 packages of 500 or more listed on The Timeshare Store Website representing 4 DVC resorts and all but one are between 500-600, the other being a 1000. Those are the hardest to sell so you could likely get the best deal on one large contract.

Sorry to be so long but the possbilities are endless in this situation and I want you to know what the options are.