Advice needed on renting points

[luckytso]

This board has been great in addressing some of my questions. Can you correct my thinking about the following:

Based on the Rent/Trade Board, it seems that it is relatively easy to rent out unused points.

For DVC veterans, is $10 the normal price that people have been charging, or just now? How is the rental price going? Has it gone up from the past?

What is your thoughts on the following 2 alternatives:

1. Buy more points and rent them out when you don't need them,

or

2. Buy less points, and if you need more, go rent them.

How safe do you think it is for me for rent out the points easily in the future?

Also, if you have ever rented points from/to someone, did you have anything you want to forewarn people?


Thanks

 

[TrudyZ]

May I recomend buying what you need?

I have been on both sides of the "tracks": I have rented points (before I bought DVC) and rented out extra from a banked contract I bought. The average price was $10 pp on both ends of the deal. I don't think I would want to make a living at it though. It is a lot of work, and you need to find the right combination of people who want the number of points you have, or you may end up with some left over.

These days, will all the codes out there and the season difference between CRO and DVC, renting for much more than $10-12 pp may not be a signifigant savings for the renter. Short rentals involving weekends and larger unit rentals are not always a bargain either. Check it out yourself and see. IMHO, if the renter does not reap substantial savings, then it is not worth the risk to them (ressies aren't very movable, usually no refunds, dealing with large sums of money to someone you don't know, paying up front for the unknown, etc.). No matter how much you try and calm their fears of the risk, in their opinion, they are still sending a check for a large some of money to someone they don't know who could cancel their reservation at any time.

None of us have crystal balls to know what the future of renting would be. All it would take is a couple of bad deals plastered all over the DIS pages and the market would dry up rather quickly I think. Now there are other outlets, such as Ebay, etc. but I will let those familiar with that comment on it.

The price per point has hovered around $10 for as long as I can remember (about 2 years). Perhaps there are others who can report back further? There are times when there are people renting for less, and time when people are asking more ($11 or $12). So, at least in this arena , I haven't seen much of a surge in price (the price per point has gone up several times and the rental price still seems to remain the same).

We also considered buying a much larger contract and renting off the extra points. We ended up buying what we thought we would need. It seems now we are a few points short for our Dec trip. Either have to rent them or purchase an add on .

If you are purchasing a bigger contract because you see that you will have a need for the extra points in the near future (retiring in a few years and can travel more, just added a family member and will soon need a bigger unit, etc); then I would recommend purchasing the extra points now. If not, I suggest purchasing what you think you will need.

Just my .02,
Trudy

 

[stlrod]

Trudy has provided you with a nice analysis. If you are considering buying DVC however, the first and last lines of her note are the most important: rather than trying to buy too little or too much, try to estimate what you will use. While it is fairly easy to rent points to someone else (as I think you know, I have done it on ebay), no one gets rich. And as stated in the purchase materials, Disney has a strong competitive advantage. I do not think you can make a profit from renting points. However, it is a good alternative if, as in my case, you want to use your prepaid vacation dollars for something other than Disney. Immediately prior to buying DVC, I rented points from someone else and it was extremely easy. However, when I changed nights (and used some of my newly acquired points), I lost the value of one night of points I had purchased from him. And because it was so late, they became holding points and could not be transferred to my account. While I am sure he would make a reservation with those points if I asked him to, I haven't bothered. The cost of the points differs somewhat based on what they are used for as well as the seller's situation. During high occupancy periods, sellers will get more. Sellers with points expiring soon may charge less. As noted on anothe rpost though, I would be wary of a deal that seems to good to be true.

 

[luckytso]

Thanks for the advice. I have already bought points for BCV and done an add-on. But it just seems that no matter how many points you buy, you can always find ways to use them and they are never enough (isn't that human nature!). That was why I posted the question since I was wondering if I should do another add-on.

 

[Dean]

The ideal number of points is exactly what you need to accomplish your trips. Try to plan your basic plans the next 5-7 years and how many points it will cost. You need a few more than that, maybe 5-10% or so depending on your choices. One reason you may need more is that if they rebalance the points, you don't want to get stuck not having enough. Don't buy points to use for non DVC options.

 

[mep319]

I don't know how easy it is but maybe I'm impatient. I purchased a re-sale that had 40 banked points that had to use by 10/1/02. I didn't really get too many responses and the ones that did were unreasonable about the cost, or at least I think so ($8.00/pp). I figured I'd just use them myself so we are going in August before school starts. Maybe I did something wrong but I didn't like how it went. Maybe b/c it was so little a point value! Just my 2 cents!