annual fees

[firecracker]

We're at the beginning of our investigation into buying DVC. I've read the FAQs and several posts, but have not found information on annual maintenance fees.

We heard from another DVC member that fees were about $70 a month. If that's true, that's $840 a year. We paid much less than that for a 5 night stay by renting points at OKW this year. Why would we pay $15K plus $840 a year when we could just rent points for less than than than the annual fees? Is there something that I'm missing? How is this a good deal?

Thanks for your patience with the uninformed...

 

[RobDoc]

Dues vary by resort and are on a per point basis.

OKW's dues are currently $3.49 per point.

Depending on the room size and dates of your five nights- you could have used as few as 40 points for a studio or 80 for a 1BR. Multiply that by $3.49 to see what your stay would have cost. (as little as $120 - $240 for 5 nights in a studio and 1BR at OKW in Sep/Jan/early Dec.)

$840 in dues would likely have been for 200 - 240 points depending on the resort owned and would have allowed far moe than 5 nights. Dues range from $3.49 at OKW to a little over $4.00 at VB. The amount owed is based solely on the number of points actually owned.

If you have other questions, please ask.

 

[mbhoxsie]

Let's not forget that in some states that property tax portion of the dues are tax deductable..

Also, the accomidations are much more family friendly in your traditional 1BR or 2BR than in one of the resort hotels.. (Not that I'm knocking the resort rooms.. I love them, but as a father with 2 kids under 3, we LOVE having the kitchen...)

 

[MarylandPizzaman]

Also I wanted to know if the fees increase? How much will they go up before the next 40 years. I am not sure I want to heir this to my daughter to pay for after I am gone.

 

[RobDoc]

Historically, dues have increased about 3% per year. Some years a little more- some years they have even decreased.

Here is a summary of the past few years.

OKW - $3.16/ $3.13/ $3.22/ $3.49
BWV - $4.02/ $3.83/ $3.92/ $4.10
HHI - $3.26/ $3.32/ $3.49/ $3.69
VB - $4.08/ $3.98/ $4.17/ $4.37
WVL - NA/ $3.63/ $3.80/ $4.05
BCV -- NA / NA / $3.77/ $3.97

 

[crisi]

We like to figure "dues per trip" since we don't travel every year. Next year our trip will be seven nights, 282 points at $4.10 a point - so $1152 for a two bedroom BWV unit - and there won't be any room taxes.

Renting those points at $10 per would run $2820.

Two rooms at the AKL (there are six of us going): $275 a night, x 2 rooms, x 7 nights x .6 (40% discount from codes or Fairytale package or whatever) x 1.115 (room tax) = $2575.

So I "save" about $1400 this trip. Which, since I bought my points for around 9k, will take between six and seven regular trips to pay off my initial "investment." Plus I get a kitchen, washer and dryer, jacuzzi, and a room separate from my children. And I don't have to depend on the code being available (I've never been a bargain shopper anyway).

Now, if we didn't own DVC, we'd only be four people. And we'd only need one room. So there is the flip side - it becomes "easy" to invite family or friends (which is worthwhile in and of itself) and easy to take more frequent trips than you otherwise would. So, in the real world, I don't believe I "save" anything, but I think I'm buying something worthwhile.

 

[SamSam]

crisi, I like the way you think! I also figure our 'cost' by the number of points used x dues. Then I figure where we would be staying if we hadn't bought BCV; usually that would be Beach Club at whatever discount rate I can find. I always end up feeling terrific about being DVC members. Like so many others, my only regret is that we didn't take the plunge years ago!