Advice for prospective DVC buyers

[JimMIA]

To answer some of the other responses on this thread. I was told that the 100 vacation point must be used by the end of the year. She didn't indicate that they are bankable.

Also it is a choice between the $8 discount OR the 100 points.

When we were talking about the 100 point bonus, we were talking about the add-on incentive, not the initial purchase. The incentives are different. With the add-on, you are paying $89 pp, but they have several choices of incentives depending on the use year. Earlier, people were able to get '04 points, '05 points, AND the 100 point bonus. You have to check carefully which incentives are in place for you right now, and then see if you come out better doing one contract at $87, or an initial contract + an add-on.

I believe that paslea's calculation's are spot on. They included maint in the resale contract, most likely because the points for this year are still available. The maint isn't in the Disney side of the contract because Disney is picking it up.

"That depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." If you have a use year of September, that is when your dues start. My understanding is Disney will pay all of the dues which accrue during 2005 - which for you and paslea would be Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec, or 1/3 of the annual dues. From Jan '06 on, I think you pay the dues, so to get apples/apples you need to add those 8 months. That will make some difference in your calculations, but probably not enough to cause you to choose resale over direct.

Also I was told that I could start making reservations against my Sept points right after my deposit was accepted.

Right, but be careful which questions you ask. You can make reservations right away, but you can't stay until you close. So if your closing is June 1, for example, you could make ressies, but not for stays prior to closing. If you stay June-Sept, you would borrow points from your Sept '05 use year.

I also explored the resale route. After factoring in the $8 discount, resale closing costs and potential maint fees, buying directly from Disney is only costing $1 more a point.

Your numbers may be a little off because of the dues/maintenance issue, but if you are comparing buying SSR direct or resale, the difference will still be small. If you do as I and others have suggested and take a long-term view of ownership, a difference of $1-2,000 in initial cost is really not as important.

 

[DrTomorrow]

[...]
8) It is simple math - (assume 10,000 points total resort)
. . . "10,000' points total capacity
. . . "10,000' points sold to members
. . . capacity full

9) Let's look at another scenario
. . . "10,000" points total capacity
. . . "10,000" points sold to members
. . . "100" points banked to next year by one member
. . . all other members did not bank or borrow
. . . "10,100" points needed next year
. . . not enouigh capacity

This doesn't take into account the number of points that expire, unused, every year. Although there are no official statistics, there is anecdotal information - as well as human nature - that suggests this is a non-trivial amount....

 

[jade1]

Very well written OP, agree almost 100%, especially if you DO WANT TO STAY AT A PARTICULAR RESORT AT PARTICULAR TIMES (like we do) you better own there or you will be out of luck. 1 month to go for Spring Break 2006 ressies at BCV.

 

[DisOrBust]

Bless you for this thread, . I had looked into DVC in the past and quite frankly found it to damm confusing !

My thoughts...why wouldn't I buy at SSR for the "extra" 12 years..isn't that a no brainer???

What I don't know is how hard is it to reserve at 7 months out? Percentage wise is there 50% chance of getting a room ?? Etc...

Use Year. When you points "begin" for that year. Independent from your time you can reserve, is this correct? Do you have to have the points in your bank before you can make a reservation??

where is the maintaince per point? Is any of this tax deductable if you itemize??


TIA!
Sue

 

[Tramp68]

My thoughts...why wouldn't I buy at SSR for the "extra" 12 years..isn't that a no brainer???

Unless you want to stay at busy times of year or at the smaller resorts such as BCV BWV VWL, I think you are correct. There are a ton of posts on this in a different thread(s)

What I don't know is how hard is it to reserve at 7 months out? Percentage wise is there 50% chance of getting a room ?? Etc...

I have never had problems booking at OKW 7 months out or LESS
I am sure SSR will be the same. This is not true for VWL BWV BCV, percentage depends on type of room and when you want to go...The pickier you are the harder it is to get what you want...

Use Year. When you points "begin" for that year. Independent from your time you can reserve, is this correct? Do you have to have the points in your bank before you can make a reservation??

You can reserve anytime within your 11mo./7mo. Window as long as the points WILL be available at the time of your trip. (new points coming or points able to be borrowed, etc)

where is the maintaince per point? Is any of this tax deductable if you itemize??

Maintenance varies by resort. OKW and SSR are the lowest at about $3.85 per point per year. I think the rest are all in the mid $4 range

 

[JimMIA]

My thoughts...why wouldn't I buy at SSR for the "extra" 12 years..isn't that a no brainer???

Nope. Nothing with DVC is a no-brainer. There are so many angles and so many options that very few decisions are as easy as they first seem.

Tramp already gave you one reason for buying resale - you want to stay at a particular sold-out resort. You can buy those from Disney too, but they will generally be cheaper resale...sometimes a LOT cheaper.

In my particular case, for example, we wanted the most points we could get for the lowest overall cost. Also, we doubt we will keep our DVC more than 15 years, so the extra 12 years of points is not as important to us as it is to some (although I think the SSR resale will be better 15 years from now than what I bought).

So we bought 310 OKW @ $73 for a little over $23,000, including closing costs, and we got 149 '04 points free (all of which are still bankable).

For the same price, we could only have bought about 265 SSR; or put another way, we would have paid about $4,000 more for the same number of points at SSR, and we wouldn't have gotten the 149 '04 points.

Would I have bought 150 37-year points resale for $1,500 less than 150 49-year points...Naw, probably not, especially considering what I now know about ROFR and the resale marketplace.

The points are a)there are NO no-brainers, and b) everybody's best option will vary. The good thing is there are dozens of "best options."

 

[paslea_pooh]

Did you have to pay the maintenance fees for those 149 points that you got? That is what I was told by the resale person.. I am more confuse now than ever. I'm having doubts about SSR and maybe considering purchasing at OKW EVEN though it's 12 years shorter. I mean 37 years of vacationing is Alot!

I have to research this a bit more. Something else I wanted to ask you was How true is the fact that you have to make a decision about buying direct 3 days after you get home from your tour. Has anyone else heard this or is this just a sales ploy. We took the tour friday 3/25 we arrived home 3/28 and was told that the $8.00 per point credit would only be good until Thursday 3/31 - I called my guide yesterday and spoke with her for a few minutes, she told me she was going to call me right back and never did. I waited all day for her call. This concerns me as to what kind of service I'm going to get in the event I DO become a DVC member.

Any thoughts?

Alida

 

[DisOrBust]

Alright my head is begining to hurt again ,lol! I never even thought of the possiblity of selling it Later on. Part of the reason I am revisiting DVC is the fact is we will probably go to WDW ever year, have the past 6 years. We have caught the WDW bug. My 2yo can even find the hidden Mickey ( 3 ornaments) on the Xmas tree at Fields . We have trained her well.... . I do picture my DDs in the future also wanting to go to WDW regularly when I am not here anymore. Plus I figure you can always rent out the points....

However the devil is in the details... ...

For us I think it will be SSR. When we purchase will be another matter. In the past "Magical beginings " was offered. I really didn't pay attention to the details of it. Was this a good"deal"?

and to throw a wrench into the whole spiel...what about the DVC at Eagles Ridge??? . any news???

 

[JimMIA]

Did you have to pay the maintenance fees for those 149 points that you got? That is what I was told by the resale person

No, we did not. Everything is negotiable in a resale, but paying for those points did not even come up in our deal. Usually with resales, any extra points you get are deal-sweetners and are sort of factored into the asking price. That's why you will see resales at the same resort with rather widely varying per point costs -- some are "loaded" with free points, others are "stripped" of current points, and maybe even borrowed into next year's points.

A lot of the "loaded" situation depends on use year. In our case, 149 is less than half of 310, and our use year is October, so we will be able to bank all 149 of those up through the end of May. Before you start calculating the value of available or banked or bankable points, be sure you understand use year and banking deadlines. Those "available" points may not be much use to you -- or they may be very useful like ours were.

 

[DrTomorrow]

[...]
and to throw a wrench into the whole spiel...what about the DVC at Eagles Ridge??? . any news???

OK, you're really obsessing over some of these details, DisOrBust --- which means you're going to fit right in here!

If you mean the Eagle Pines resort, it was fairly well along in the planning stage, but 9/11 - and other reasons - shifted the focus to building SSR on the Disney Institute infrastructure. Haven't heard much about EP lately; with SSR announcing Phase III, and the current boost being given the ever-green "DVC at The Contemporary" rumor, I doubt that EP is on the near-term (next few years) radar.

 

[DisOrBust]

You had to say DVC at the Contemporary didn't you ! Me obsess,never .

It only took me 4 years to decide on which car to buy. Thank god there is Consumer Reports for DVC...or is there....I'll have to goole and see...

I figure 1 year before I sign the paperwork..maybe...

Sue

 

[paslea_pooh]

When I spoke to the guide that gave us our tour at SSR I asked about DVC resorts AFTER the 2042 period, she mentioned Eagle Pines, golf resort as a possibility but it wasn't yet confirmed from Disney.

 

[paslea_pooh]

Is there a Consumer Reports for DVC, I don't think so, I checked about 2 days ago and they only had an article on Timeshares in General! I guess I"m obsessed too, lol!

 

[ferastu]

Jim and everyone else - thanks for all the helpful advice.

I'm looking to spend about $20,000, so about 230 points at SSR with the $8 discount.

Of course now you really have me thinking because that same $20,000 looks like it could buy 270 points at OKW or BV looking at a couple of current listings. That's not including closing costs and any maint on points from this year though...

However, I also plan to be alive and well and still vacationing at Disney in 49 years, I don't know about the rest of you. I'll still be a young 84!

What I'm thinking now is that trying to figure out which way is the best way to spend $1000 less, or get $1000 more value is not worth it. I've didn't worry when the Toyota I wanted was $500 more than the comparable Ford. And I'm not going to get worked up because buying DVC one way is a grand cheaper.

Instead I'm going to do what 'feels' right for my family. Which is buying new at SSR.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[JimMIA]

Doing what feels right for your particular circumstances - which may not necessarily be the same as 'conventional wisdom' - is what this thread is all about. Congratulations!

 

[JimMIA]

just bumping this up for new readers

 

[JimMIA]

bumping again for new folks

 

[JimMIA]

Bumping again for new folks

 

[ThreeTiggers]

Thanks for starting this thread JimMIA. This was one of the first threads I saw when I was trying to make my decision. After many weeks of crunching the numbers, I decided to buy a Boardwalk resale. For my situation, I think buying resale was best. However, I still need to get past the ROFR to know for sure!

 

[Stitch 626]

We just took the SSR tour yesterday and we did receive some information regarding future DVC resorts. While our guide could not be specific, he told us that one of the execs (sorry, I can not remember his name) has recently told employees that there will be no future "hotels" at WDW only future DVC resorts. Our guide also hinted that there is at least one future DVC resort in its final phases of planning. I asked about Eagle Pines, but he said he was sworn to secrecy.

As far as a time limit on the 8$ discount per point (or 100 developer points that expire Dec '05), he said that he knew for sure that it was good until April 30th. It may last longer, but they are only given about a week or two notice on when deals are going to end or change. They were also offering us no maintenance fees until Jan '06, and no down payment or interest until the building was completed on Aug 2nd but with the remaining DVC membership perks starting within 24 hours of signing (hopefully next week.) As stated in other threads, there is a planned price increase per point scheduled in June of '05.

In regards to when you can book for first vacation if you buy into SSR, within 24 hours of becoming a member you can begin making reservations within the normal 11 month/7 month guidelines. The only limitation on when you can use them is that your building must be complete. They were offering us a Sept. use year and our building would be complete on Aug 2nd. We could book a reservation in May, but we could not actually take the vacation until after Aug 2nd. I hope that answers one of the previous questions.

We are going to buy into DVC at SSR, but we are still deciding on what point level.