Anyone ever opt to buy dvc that has earlier expiration date because of annual dues?

[Disney73]

I can't decide whether to wait it out for the appropriate saratoga resale contract or possibly the wilderness. Love the wilderness but like the idea of cheaper dues and cost to purchase resale. Then I think of the projected increases of annual dues. What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year? Maybe it makes more sense to buy a contract that expires earlier because of this?

Any opinions?

 

[BillPA]

Dues will increase no matter where you buy. Keep in mind the number of points required for a typical stay at each resort you are looking to buy. The lowest dues may NOT be the least cost if you need 30% more points for the same length of stay. If the cost gets too high, you can always sell.

 

[Wakey]

So far there has been a healthy resale market. Most contracts priced correctly sell very quickly. Resale contracts over the last 25 years have steadily increased in value. Chances are if you ever want to sell you will, quite easily, and recover a good chunk of what you paid. As a result I think buying a shorter contract to limit dues exposure isn't necessary or desirable. As contracts near end of life resale prices will diminish. Additionally it is quite easy to rent points at sums above due costs.

 

[disneynutz]

I all depends on you. Some use DVC to only save money, least expensive resort, some care more about the quality of the resort, views, theming, knowing that it may cost more.

For us the resort is more important than the parks and we don't mind spending more to get our favorite resort.

Bill

 

[Wakey]

I can't decide whether to wait it out for the appropriate saratoga resale contract or possibly the wilderness. Love the wilderness but like the idea of cheaper dues and cost to purchase resale. Then I think of the projected increases of annual dues. What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year? Maybe it makes more sense to buy a contract that expires earlier because of this?

Any opinions?

You need to think what type of room you want, when you are going and whether you will book 11 months or 7. Certain times of year and certain room types mean at 7 months you are highly likely to get a room anywhere at WDW. So for example I got a loaded SSR at $75 a point because I go end of August in a 1 bed- I can book anywhere at 7 months, no problem. I also bought with the intention of trying different resorts as much as possible, so booking at 7 months. Thus paying an extra $100 a point would be a waste of money for me and increased my purchase price by 125%. However if I had to stop in a Copper Ridge studio at Christmas or I had to be in Beach Club studio at Food and Wine, I'd have had to pony up and buy there.

 

[ELMC]

I can't decide whether to wait it out for the appropriate saratoga resale contract or possibly the wilderness. Love the wilderness but like the idea of cheaper dues and cost to purchase resale. Then I think of the projected increases of annual dues. What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year? Maybe it makes more sense to buy a contract that expires earlier because of this?

Any opinions?

It sounds like you are thinking about an exit strategy before you buy, which is a very good thing. If you buy resale (Saratoga or otherwise) you have a much higher likelihood of getting your initial purchase price back should you need to sell than you would if you buy retail. I would think that if you are getting out of DVC due to financial reasons at some point in the future, you'll feel a lot better about getting most of your money back than getting back half of what you paid or possibly less.

Also, as was said above, not owning at a resort doesn't mean you can never stay there. It just makes it harder to get that reservation at 7 months out.

 

[kniquy]

You really need to figure out what you need for room type and what size contract you need. Like a PP mentioned you could stay in the same room type but it could require more points at one resort vs another.

A studio in May for 7 nights at SSR = 99/113 BRV/WL 120.

When you actually look at the yearly cost of MF between resorts there really isn't a hugh price difference.

So if you were comparing a 120 point SSR and WL contract (to cover your 7 nights at either resort in May) your MF would be:
SSR $672.84
BRV/WL $785.38
A difference of $112.54 - so there really isn't a hugh difference, yes it will go up each year, but both resorts will at a rate of typically 3-4%.

The biggest difference between the 2 resorts is the length of the contract. So that should be something else you factor in. Along with which resort you really want to be stuck at if you have to.

Really you are not lock in to DVC, if at some point the cost of owning becomes a burden. There is and probably always will be a very strong resale market for DVC. It holds pretty good value, so even if you bought in and used it for a few trips over the next 10 years and then needed to sell, you could with making back a good amount of your buy in. That maybe where your difference on return would be -- if you hold on to your SSR contract for 10 years then sell -- it will still have 27 years left. In the same scenario - WL will only have 15 years left. Purely speculation, but my guess is that a longer contract life at that point will have a better resale price. So in that case of retained value for future resale you might want to consider SSR (possibly AKL for a longer contract but similar buy in and dues as WL).

Many factors go into a purchase, but you need to think long and hard about what your plans are for the next 10-15 years before you make any decisions.

In my situation we bought at AKV -- we factored in the length of the contract, what we could afford price per point and which we resort we could handle being stuck at. This is what led us to AKV -- we like WL, but the shorter contract was a drawback for us and our future plans.

You need to figure out what contract best fits your future plans.

 

[Disney73]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your responses. I think after reading I will wait it out for the right Saratoga contract. Waiting is the hardest part.

 

[bumbershoot]

Then I think of the projected increases of annual dues. What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year?

Dues are only allowed go up a certain percentage each year. That info should be in one of the sticky threads here. Project it out. See what could happen. I think there are threads discussing what *has* happened. See if you could withstand that.

While dues are a decent amount, you can have them taken monthly from your (US) bank account if that helps. It adds up over time but yearly it's like 3-4 nights at a moderate with no discount. (160 points at bay lake for my perspective's point of reference) And I would bet it's stayed even with hotel room rates rising.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We bought BWV partly for the lower amount of time left on the contract. We liked knowing that in about 25 years we wouldn't have to pay the maintenance fees anymore since the contract would expire. There were other reasons too but that helped make the decision of which resort to buy at.

 

[BillPA]

The dues increases are limited to 15% a year, not including the real estate tax portion. But, typically so far they have been 4% or less average increases. A few years they went up more, also a while back they actually went down.

 

[mustinjourney]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your responses. I think after reading I will wait it out for the right Saratoga contract. Waiting is the hardest part.

what would you consider the right contract to be?

I personally wouldn't wait forever trying to find the perfect contract. Time is money...especially if you have a potential trip coming up in the next 12 months.

Also -- don't forget that the prices are negotiable. When I was looking for contracts last year, I data dumped all the current listings for the resort using www.***************.com. I also created columns in my spreadsheet that showed how many points were loaded or borrowed for each contract, and then added or subtracted value (missing points reduced the value by $15 a point since that would be the cost to replace -- extra banked points were valued at $12 if I didn't have to pay any maintenance fees since that is what I could have gotten renting them out at David's). I then sorted the listings by best values per point and then did a secondary sort based on number of points.

After that -- I started making offers at the best values at the price per point I wanted for those contracts that had the appropriate range of points until I got an acceptance. Didn't take too long.

 

[Dean]

I can't decide whether to wait it out for the appropriate saratoga resale contract or possibly the wilderness. Love the wilderness but like the idea of cheaper dues and cost to purchase resale. Then I think of the projected increases of annual dues. What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year? Maybe it makes more sense to buy a contract that expires earlier because of this?

Any opinions?

I would wait, it shouldn't be that difficult to find something appropriate. One thing in your post made me worry. You said "What if they become more expensive than I can handle paying per year?" Thus I'd say if your cutting it that close you shouldn't buy anyway vs just looking at potential variables. IMO it's healthy to consider options and exit but not to plan for them as part of the purchase. Luxury items should be a splurge only that one could afford to throw the money away and not really miss it, that includes DVC but it also includes Disney vacations in general.

 

[Dtw002]

We recently bought bcv, mainly for the resort but also the shorter term. The upfront purchase is a drop in the bucket compared to the maintenance fees. While there is a resale market now, that might not always be the case. I didn't want to be stuck paying fees into my 70s and 80s.

 

[kniquy]

wouldn't have to pay the maintenance fees anymore since the contract would expire

I didn't want to be stuck paying fees into my 70s and 80s.

I don't quite get this thought process -no one is ever stuck with a contract- it is one thing if you bought a resort because it was truly what you wanted, but to buy with factoring in a way out as only option of the contract expiring doesn't make sense. You could possibly be stuck paying MF if you are at a point with 5 years left on the contract -- who will want to buy that contract at that point. Not too many people and not for much price per point.

What should be considered is if you no longer want/need the contract -- they way out is to sell via resale (when the contract has some life left) and actually make back a portion of the money you invested. I actually do think that most who are buying the 2042 expiration (BW, BC, WL, not so much OKW) are buying because they truly love the resort and the convenience of the parks.

 

[Dtw002]

Every other timeshare in the world people are stuck - you can't even give them away. Folks have said Marriott once had a strong resale market, which has now evaporated.

I didn't want to take the chance of still paying MF in my late years in life if there is no one there to sell it to. I think one of the best parts of DVC is that it ends - and you don't have to pay fees in perpetuity.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Exactly, just because DVC is selling well on the resale market now doesn't mean it always will. We own another time share that never expires so if we stop getting our value out of it we are basically stuck. Can't give that away.

 

[CarolMN]

Every other timeshare in the world people are stuck - you can't even give them away. Folks have said Marriott once had a strong resale market, which has now evaporated.

I didn't want to take the chance of still paying MF in my late years in life if there is no one there to sell it to. I think one of the best parts of DVC is that it ends - and you don't have to pay fees in perpetuity.

I agree with you. I also like the fact that the Disney timeshares have an end date. Perhaps there will be a robust resale market in the future, but there is no guarantee and like you, I do not want to be stuck paying for something we no longer use. Nor do I want to leave an obligation to our heirs. For that reason, we may end up liquidating our contracts before we need/want to do so. Hope there will still be a rental market at that time, though.

 

[kniquy]

Every other timeshare in the world people are stuck - you can't even give them away

I totally see your point on this. I guess DVC is just not the norm when it comes to the timeshare world. Hopefully for everyone's sake here it does remain strong or with a reasonable resale market. It seems with the increasing prices of direct contracts we should be safe for a number of years. Despite the resale restriction it is an amazing deal to buy resale.

The only way resale would flounder would be if DVD lowered direct buy in, started throwing in some real enticing direct buy perks or put more restrictions on resale contracts. Who knows what will happen in 10-15 years.

 

[Dtw002]

Those are all great points. It seems like the resale market is getting bigger and bigger - and the reason to buy direct lower and lower. I don't believe DVC will just let this go on forever and can see them continue to take further action to make resale less desirable - to the point where direct becomes viable again. I think they have the power to do so.