board newbie...questions

[boardwalkbride729]

Hi everyone. I am new on the boards. I was married at Disney world last year and when visiting for our honeymoon this year, my husband and I took a DVC tour. We loved the tour and have been thinking about purchasing. I just have a few questions..I'm sure they are silly questions or already answered somewhere on the boards, I just haven't stumbled across them yet.

what are the main advantages/disadvantages to buying resale?

I've noticed from reading on here, that a lot of people have multiple contracts. Is it a good idea to buy contracts at multiple resorts or to just buy one bigger contract at one resort?

can you have a mixture of contracts- some being resale and some being bought directly from disney?

I also feel like I had read somewhere that if you were going to buy a DVC membership it is better to be able to pay it in full..is this true?

any other advice that comes to mind that anyone has for a dvc newbie considering buying would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

 

[disneynutz]

I suggest that you spend a few days reading the threads here in the purchase section of the DIS.

what are the main advantages/disadvantages to buying resale? Cost Savings

I've noticed from reading on here, that a lot of people have multiple contracts. Is it a good idea to buy contracts at multiple resorts or to just buy one bigger contract at one resort? Buy where you love to stay, keep the contracts at 100 points or less for a fast sale latter

can you have a mixture of contracts- some being resale and some being bought directly from disney? Yes

I also feel like I had read somewhere that if you were going to buy a DVC membership it is better to be able to pay it in full..is this true? It's better to never finance anything in life

Bill

 

[boardwalkbride729]

thank you for the quick reply!

 

[chalee94]

what are the main advantages/disadvantages to buying resale?

main disadvantage is that resale is slower.

you also lose a few options by buying resale (trading DVC pts for disney cruises, hotels or tours) that are too expensive to be called a real benefit.

(resales can still trade out for other timeshares, although that is also usually not a great deal financially.)

I've noticed from reading on here, that a lot of people have multiple contracts. Is it a good idea to buy contracts at multiple resorts or to just buy one bigger contract at one resort?

smaller contracts are easier to sell later - they sell more quickly, for more per pt and give you the option of selling part of your ownership rather than everything (also easier to will to separate people, if that becomes an issue.)

smaller contracts do cost more up front however, so it's a trade-off. i would just buy what you need at this point unless it's worth extra to you to have the smaller contracts.

keep in mind that if you buy one 50 pt VGF contract and five 50 pt SSR contracts and want to book VGF at the 11 month window, you can only use the pts from the VGF contract. it's like you don't even own the SSR pts until the 7 month window. (the same is true in reverse for trying to book SSR or THV with VGF pts at 11 months out.)

can you have a mixture of contracts- some being resale and some being bought directly from disney?

sure. but when you go to sell, you will be selling all of the contracts at resale prices, regardless of how you bought them.

I also feel like I had read somewhere that if you were going to buy a DVC membership it is better to be able to pay it in full..is this true?

you need a home and you need a car. financing a luxury item is generally a poor move. financing DVC at direct rates (10%-15%) is pretty expensive, and putting your home on the line with a home equity loan to pay for a timeshare is similarly problematic.

which is not to say that financing hasn't worked out for some people anyway, but the DVC owners who lost their jobs in the "great recession" and found DVC to be an albatross aren't still around to tell you how badly it can work out...

 

[chitwndan]

Hi everyone. I am new on the boards. I was married at Disney world last year and when visiting for our honeymoon this year, my husband and I took a DVC tour. We loved the tour and have been thinking about purchasing. I just have a few questions..I'm sure they are silly questions or already answered somewhere on the boards, I just haven't stumbled across them yet.

what are the main advantages/disadvantages to buying resale?

I've noticed from reading on here, that a lot of people have multiple contracts. Is it a good idea to buy contracts at multiple resorts or to just buy one bigger contract at one resort?

can you have a mixture of contracts- some being resale and some being bought directly from disney?

I also feel like I had read somewhere that if you were going to buy a DVC membership it is better to be able to pay it in full..is this true?

any other advice that comes to mind that anyone has for a dvc newbie considering buying would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

1. Huge cost savings in most cases.

2. It depends on how many points you are going to buy and how you will use them. Most people have multiple contracts so they will have the 11 month booking windows at multiple resorts so they can get in to the place they want when they want. I just bought my 1st contract of 160 points so it would have cost me a lot more to buy at 3 locations as the smaller contracts sell at a significant premium, and it would be difficult to manage. If I add on later, I will likely buy at another resort for more options and different pros and cons to my current resort.

3. Yes, though again rarely does it make sense to purchase directly.

4. I'm one who financed, and had a debate here about the pros and cons. I am very happy with my decision to finance based on my specific situation. It's not something I would recommend for everyone. In general it's always better not to be paying someone else interest, and the interest rates out there for timeshares are not good. There is an argument to be made for certain types of financing which I will not go into here, but most people go with the philosophy if you can't afford to pay cash, then you can't afford it.

5. Do your research. Buy where you love or where you'd be happy to stay if you can't get into where you'd love to stay. You may wish to consider renting from a broker at a few locations 1st if you don't know where you'd love.

 

[skier_pete]

Most have been answered, but I'll add my 2 cents.

what are the main advantages/disadvantages to buying resale?

any other advice that comes to mind that anyone has for a dvc newbie considering buying would be greatly appreciated.

I have put together these basic points that to me any buyer should ask themselves before buying resale. I think they capture the advantages/disadvantages of ownership in general.

You should only buy DVC if the following apply:
1) You like Disney enough to go at least once a year to maybe every other year.
2) You vastly prefer staying on property AND staying at moderates or deluxes and you have the money to do so.
3) You can regularly schedule your vacations at a minimum of seven months in advance and preferably 11 months in advance. (Last minute and DVC don't go great together unless it's 1 or 2 nights.)
4) You would be 100% satisfied with staying at the resort at which you own points, because sometimes that's all you will be able to get with that long in advanced booking.
5) You don't mind not having maid service in your room. (This is sort of a hidden piece, but it's odd to be staying in such a nice resort and not get the high quality service.)
6) You don't do it to trade points outside the DVC family of resorts. Doing this costs more than buying direct, it’s a bad idea.
7) Once you spend the initial money, you better understand that you continue to have to pay maintenance fees, and these fees will continually rise. DVC will never be paid off.
8) The biggest thing to me - you have to foresee that you will want to continue stays at Disney World (on property moderate/deluxe) for at LEAST the next 10 years or more. The advantage to owning DVC is not today. When buying resale, the advantage is out about 10-12 years. (It's closer to 20 years if you buy DVC new from Disney.)

If only a few of these items apply to you, it might be wiser to RENT DVC points.

The advantage of resale is a BIG to HUGE upfront savings. The disadvantage to resale is the process takes a little longer, and you can't use your points for things that are not smart to spend your points on anyways (DCL for instance)

I've noticed from reading on here, that a lot of people have multiple contracts. Is it a good idea to buy contracts at multiple resorts or to just buy one bigger contract at one resort?

Well, what no-one has mentioned is that you can use banking and borrowing of smaller contracts to book at these home resorts every three years. For example, if I own 200 pts at BLT only, I only have a home advantage there. If I had 100 pts at BLT and 100 pts at Boardwalk, I could bank and stay one year and BLT and the next year at Boardwalk, booking both a my "home" window. Home resorts are easier to guarantee because you can book them 11-months out. However, smaller contracts (<100 pts or less) tend to cost more per contract, so there is that to consider. It also becomes more complicated to have multiple contracts, especially if they have different Use Years. I would not recommend someone new to this going for multiple contracts.

Truthfully, I think the reason MOST people have multiple contracts is that they bought one, and then liked it so much that they bought another. People that had one contract and then didn't like it and sold it aren't hanging out on here.

can you have a mixture of contracts- some being resale and some being bought directly from disney?

Yes, but the direct buy contract points would be the only ones with direct-buy "perks". (Again realizing that the perks are pretty worthless.)

I also feel like I had read somewhere that if you were going to buy a DVC membership it is better to be able to pay it in full..is this true?

As others have said, it's the concept of paying interest on a luxury purchase. I for one DID buy our DVC using a Home Equity line of credit. I realize I am paying interest on the loan, and factored that into my decision. The rate is low (<4% plus a tax rite-off brings it down to under 3%) which is why I am OK with it. I plan on paying it off in 4-5 years, so the adder to my cost is less than $2000. To me, the saving I get from owning DVC override that added cost versus saving money for the next 4-5 years to buy in 2019.

Some here have been critical of that choice. I say just be aware of it. If you choose to finance through one of the lenders at the resale companies, or through Disney, you'll typically get a rate of 10-15%, and over a 10-year loan will pay about 50-75% MORE for an already expensive luxury purchase. So what people are really saying is "be smart about it".