buying a dvc via resale: assumptions and questions

[snoopy352]

Just started looking at this and am a fast learner but have some questions:

1.) So I can buy resale for @ $86 per point at BCV and if i buy 200 points, i'd be able to use those points at BCV up to 11 months out and use 200 points anywhere else subject to availability 7 months out?

2.) Can you finance if you go the resale route?

3.) When do the expire when buying resale? do you still get 30 years or so from when you buy or could you be buying one that expires in, say, 4 years? How does one know?

4.) can you make offers less than the asking prices?

 

[com_op_2000]

Just started looking at this and am a fast learner but have some questions:

1.) So I can buy resale for @ $86 per point at BCV and if i buy 200 points, i'd be able to use those points at BCV up to 11 months out and use 200 points anywhere else subject to availability 7 months out?

You are correct.

2.) Can you finance if you go the resale route?

Yes, you just have to come up with the financing yourself.

3.) When do the expire when buying resale? do you still get 30 years or so from when you buy or could you be buying one that expires in, say, 4 years? How does one know?

You are taking over the original contract. In the stickies at the top of the page you can find the information for each resort and their contract end dates. The earliest a DVC contract expires (OKW non-extended) is Jan 31, 2042.

 

[dmunsil]

So I can buy resale for @ $86 per point at BCV and if i buy 200 points, i'd be able to use those points at BCV up to 11 months out and use 200 points anywhere else subject to availability 7 months out?

Yes.

Can you finance if you go the resale route?

Yes, but the rates and terms are basically the same as a personal loan (i.e. a credit-card loan). If you are a member of a credit union (or have a low-interest credit card with a high limit) you can probably do better. If you have available equity you can use on your house you can clearly do much better, but obviously that comes with risks, in that you are in theory risking foreclosure on your house in order to buy a timeshare. It's unlikely to come to that in practice, but it's worth noting.

When do the expire when buying resale? do you still get 30 years or so from when you buy or could you be buying one that expires in, say, 4 years? How does one know?

Each resort has a single expiration date except Old Key West (OKW), which originally had a date of 2042 and has now been extended to 2057. Not all members bought the extension, so when you buy OKW you need to know which you're buying. But it's 29 years versus 44. There's no way to buy a contract that expires in less than 29 years currently.

 

[snoopy352]

Thank you. A couple other questions. Say I did a resale purchase for SS.

1.) At 7 months out, i try for all the others and can't get in. I keep trying for four more months and still can't get in. I have heard "I am guaranteed" to get in at my home resort. Does this mean I can call SS up to two months before a trip and know I will get my room? Or am I always at risk if i wait too long, even at my home resort? (Please use BCV too - not just SS - when answering this question.)

2.) What is the process for reserving a room? Do I actually call Disney and book the room with my points?
TIA

 

[dmunsil]

I have heard "I am guaranteed" to get in at my home resort. Does this mean I can call SS up to two months before a trip and know I will get my room?

No. In practice, something at some resort is generally available, but that is not guaranteed. Disney only sells 96% of the points representing all the room-nights they have available, so there's no way for every room to be sold out on average. However, at very high-demand times it can be impossible to get more than a couple nights in a row in a single room. That's a rarity that typically only occurs in the weeks around Christmas and New Years and a few other holidays.

The resort that usually has inventory available all the time is SSR, so if you don't book early enough you may have to settle for SSR. Of course, lots of people like SSR a lot, so it's not "settling" if you love it.

What most people do is make a booking at 11 months in advance at their home resort so they have something for sure, then at 7 months they see if they can move to another resort. As it gets closer and closer to the arrival date, it becomes harder to get what you want. For the really high-demand resorts, they can get completely booked solid by 5 or 6 months out. People do cancel on a regular basis and there is a waitlist, so you can go ahead and wait list a room at the resort you want, and it might get filled all the way up to 7 days before arrival.

For most resorts, most of the time, you can get whatever you want at 11 months at your home resort, except for a few room categories that have very few rooms, most notably Value and Club rooms at AKV.

At 7 months, you can get most room types at most resorts, but some of the most popular room types can be tough to get long contiguous bookings. Those include:

- Grand Villas anywhere but SSR
- Standard and Boardwalk view at BWV, especially Studios
- "Near hospitality house" rooms at OKW
- Standard view at BLT
- Value and Club rooms at AKV

In general, Studios and Grand Villas sell out first; Studios because they're efficient uses of points and Grand Villas because there aren't very many of them.

One-bedrooms are the last to sell out, because they cost twice as much as Studios but sleep the same number (except at BLT and AKV Kidani where they sleep 5). Two-bedrooms are in between One-bedrooms and Studios as far as speed to sell out.

What is the process for reserving a room? Do I actually call Disney and book the room with my points?

You can do that, or there is an online site where you can make reservations. Complex reservation changes need to be done on the phone. "Complex" means anything more complicated than canceling an entire existing booking and making a new one. For example, adding a day or subtracting a day or making a new reservation while keeping your old one held until the new one is confirmed is something you can't do online; you need to use the phone.

 

[chalee94]

Say I did a resale purchase for SS.

1.) At 7 months out, i try for all the others and can't get in. I keep trying for four more months and still can't get in. I have heard "I am guaranteed" to get in at my home resort. Does this mean I can call SS up to two months before a trip and know I will get my room? Or am I always at risk if i wait too long, even at my home resort?

you heard wrong.

there is a point at which every single SSR owner can book up every single SSR villa for the year. at that point, DVC is legally obligated to stop selling new SSR pts. that is all that is guaranteed - that DVC cannot oversell pts for a resort.

but let's say (for some reason) that every SSR owner decides that they will only go during December and not during the other 11 months. in that case, only the first SSR owners to book their Dec stay have a reservation. every other SSR owner would be left out in the cold.

SSR is large enough and there are enough other options for using pts that SSR often has availability on short notice...but nothing is guaranteed. BCV is basically the same - except it is a much smaller and more in-demand resort due to its location near epcot and so it books up much more quickly.

past the 7 month window, there is no advantage to owning a particular resort - you just have DVC pts like everyone else.

2.) What is the process for reserving a room? Do I actually call Disney and book the room with my points?

not the general disney number. you'd call DVC's member services (or else book online) to see what is available.

 

[RobDoc]

1.) At 7 months out, i try for all the others and can't get in. I keep trying for four more months and still can't get in. I have heard "I am guaranteed" to get in at my home resort. Does this mean I can call SS up to two months before a trip and know I will get my room? Or am I always at risk if i wait too long, even at my home resort? (Please use BCV too - not just SS - when answering this question.)

All DVC reservations are based on availability at the time you try to make a reservation. Except for the new GFV and Aulani, where purchasers have the option to buy a fixed week and you would be guaranteed that specific week every year, other resorts are entirely based on what villas are available at any given moment.

In the example you used here, it would be best to make a reservation 11 months (or at least more than 7 months) ahead at your home resort and then try to switch to another resort within 7 months based on availability.

The only way to "guarantee" a villa is by actually making a reservation or owning a fixed week.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you are purchasing a resale, you can offer the seller anything you like, just like purchasing a home. But the seller can counter your offer or accept your offer or just laugh in your face.

I read on the DIS on a thread somewhere that a potential owner was trying for a resale and offered less than the seller was asking. While coming back with a second offer to the sellers' counteroffer, the potential buyer was told it was already sold. To someone who offered more than they did and the seller was finished with the wheeling and dealing of the first offerer.

 

[chalee94]

3.) When do the expire when buying resale? do you still get 30 years or so from when you buy or could you be buying one that expires in, say, 4 years? How does one know?

doesn't matter if you buy resale or direct (except for OKW, which can be a little more complicated). here are the expiration dates:

DVC Resource Center

Disney's Old Key West Resort OKW Opened 10/1/1991 - Expires 1/31/2042 or 1/31/2057

Disneys Vero Beach Resort VB Opened 10/1/1995 - Expires 1/31/2042

Disneys Hilton Head Island Resort HH Opened 3/1/1996 - Expires 1/31/2042

Disneys BoardWalk Villas BWV Opened 7/1/1996 - Expires 1/31/2042

The Villas at Disneys Wilderness Lodge VWL Opened 11/15/2000 - Expires 1/31/2042

Disney's Beach Club Villas BCV Opened 7/1/2002 - Expires 1/31/2042

Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa SSR Opened 5/17/2004 - Expires 1/31/2054

Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas AKV Opened 7/2/2007 - Expires 1/31/2057

Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort BLT Opened 8/4/2009 Expires 1/31/2060

The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa GCV Opened 9/23/2009 Expires 1/31/2060

Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Ko Olina, Hawai`i ARS Opened August 29, 2011 Expires 1/31/2061

4.) can you make offers less than the asking prices?

during the great recession, this was a workable plan. these days, you have to pick your spots. some larger contract owners might have some room to negotiate pricing. smaller contracts (100 pts or less) will likely go quickly unless the price is completely unrealistic...

 

[snoopy352]

Thanks for the excellent, thorough responses. Three follow-up questions:

1.) If I own at a place that expires in 2060, I can rent from any place, right? Even the ones that expired in 2042?

2.) What happens if the buyer of the timeshare passes away after three years? Does his/her family get it until the expiration date?

3.) If I own points, and disney runs a free dining plan promo during when i am visiting, do i get the free DP?

TIA again!

 

[chalee94]

1.) If I own at a place that expires in 2060, I can rent from any place, right? Even the ones that expired in 2042?

not sure what you mean here. if you own at ANY DVC resort, you can attempt to trade into ANY OTHER DVC resort at 7 months out, subject to availability (and i have had mixed results on whether waitlists ever come through).

if you own at BLT and want to book BCV in the year 2043, that might work out or it might not...too many variables...

2.) What happens if the buyer of the timeshare passes away after three years? Does his/her family get it until the expiration date?

right. and they would be responsible for the annual dues going forward. (if it still has an unpaid loan, that could be complicated.)

3.) If I own points, and disney runs a free dining plan promo during when i am visiting, do i get the free DP?

nope. not ever.

to get the "free" dining plan requires you to give up a discounted hotel rate and pay full price for the hotel room - meaning "free" dining is a good value for some but it's not really free. if you want to rent your pts to someone else and use that cash to book a hotel room at rack rate, then you would be eligible for "free" dining.

DVC points stays are discounted. presumably that's why you are willing to pay thousands up front. but that means no free dining.

no other discounts either - so if disney runs a 30-40% off promo for cash guests, the point rates for DVC are still fixed.

life is full of trade-offs.

 

[CarolMN]

Thanks for the excellent, thorough responses. Three follow-up questions:

1.) If I own at a place that expires in 2060, I can rent from any place, right? Even the ones that expired in 2042?

Yes, you may use your points for a reservation at any DVC resort (subject to availability and the 11/7 month booking rules) until that resort (if not extended) is no longer a DVC resort. For some of the resorts, that is currently 2042.

2.) What happens if the buyer of the timeshare passes away after three years? Does his/her family get it until the expiration date?

Depends on how you titled it when purchased. If it is in your name only, then the remaining years are passed via Will / Trust / etc. or your estate.

3.) If I own points, and disney runs a free dining plan promo during when i am visiting, do i get the free DP?

No. Free dining is a discount promotion offered by Disney for cash reservations only. None of those promotions apply to reservations made through Member Services.

TIA again!

You're welcome.

 

[jerseyduke]

The deed is a "rite of survival" meaning if there are two owners listed on it, and one passes, the other owner becomes the sole owner (and is responsible for maintenance fees).

Otherwise, if it is one owner, you might want to update that person's will.

As far as booking, you probably always want to book at your home resort at 11 months. Then change if possible at the 7 month mark.

Realize that if you do do that, and you "borrow" points from the next use year, those points are now in the current use year, and there is no way to get them back into their original use year, which has implications if you cancel your ressie altogether.

 

[CarolMN]

The deed is a "rite of survival" meaning if there are two owners listed on it, and one passes, the other owner becomes the sole owner (and is responsible for maintenance fees).

Otherwise, if it is one owner, you might want to update that person's will.

There are several ways to title/hold a deed - Joint with Right of Survivorship is just one and Florida laws may be different than one's state of residency.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each way to hold title. Best to consult an attorney to determine which is best for you.

 

[jerseyduke]

There are several ways to title/hold a deed - Joint with Right of Survivorship is just one and Florida laws may be different than one's state of residency.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each way to hold title. Best to consult an attorney to determine which is best for you.

Good point, and it may well vary from state to state.