Buying DVC while owning home or renting apt???

[ToddyLu]

DH and I are in our 40s, have been married over 15 years and own our home and financed DVCdirect from Disney. Our credit scores are awesome. I bought what I wanted when I wanted it and can pay the monthly payments. I understand why financing of DVC is crazy to some folks...I have 2 college degrees....but you don't know all the facts surrounding why someone would finance. No reason to flame me....just that I get tired of the opinion not to finance. I am glad folks have 25K to pay up front...those of us who don't finance. It doesn't mean we do not have IRAs, 401Ks, etc. We have very low credit card debt.


Have a hurricane rip through your house,taking every thing you work for to the curb...then losing your FIL 5 weeks later to cancer and help MIL build her house back.....perspective changes. Family vacations are prized and taken very seriously 'round here. Financing is not for everyone and neither is paying cash. We had flood insurance....now that was being financially responsible.

 

[Brandis]

Living in Switzerland and rent our appartment (as do most people in Switzerland...).

With my first 2 DVC bookings which I have at the moment we are "saving" about $8400. "Saving" as in we would have to pay this amount if we booked through CR as paying Non-DVC guests. But of course, when paying OOP we would never book that level of accomodation.

 

[maryloubsw]

DH and I are in our 40s, have been married over 15 years and own our home and financed DVCdirect from Disney. Our credit scores are awesome. I bought what I wanted when I wanted it and can pay the monthly payments. I understand why financing of DVC is crazy to some folks...I have 2 college degrees....but you don't know all the facts surrounding why someone would finance. No reason to flame me....just that I get tired of the opinion not to finance. I am glad folks have 25K to pay up front...those of us who don't finance. It doesn't mean we do not have IRAs, 401Ks, etc. We have very low credit card debt.


Have a hurricane rip through your house,taking every thing you work for to the curb...then losing your FIL 5 weeks later to cancer and help MIL build her house back.....perspective changes. Family vacations are prized and taken very seriously 'round here. Financing is not for everyone and neither is paying cash. We had flood insurance....now that was being financially responsible.

Yeah what she said. Plus you live in NY, I wouldthink a lot of people rent there? Regardless, we own our home but also have two small children and live in a small town where cost of living is not that high. We also financed DVC and will probably pay it off early, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't care if I pay more. As long as you have the money, either up front, or monthly to make the payments without spreading yourself too thin. DH and I HIGHLY prioritize vacation, we don't shop, buy expensive clothes, go out to eat every night, etc., we'd rather spend on vacations. It's your life, don't care what others will think

 

[Brandis]

BTW, I financed my DVC purchase through Disney as for some reason non-US members get automatic pre-approval of the financing but the APR is 1% more, so this was the easiest thing for me. As soon as I got home from our WDW vacation where I bought, I applied for local financing through my bank where APR is much lower and I then repaid the Disney loan at once.

 

[Crystal_27]

one thing the DVC "guy" said to us...in no uncertain terms he said most DVC owners use the equity on their house to buy DVC...ergo thats where DH got his argument from.

I have to disagree here. I think that most people finance DVC through Disney just because its easy and everyone is approved. I don't think that many people think outside the box when it comes to alternate ways to finance DVC and I'm surprised your Guide told you that given how much money Disney makes on interest.

As to your acutal question, we own our home but, like others have said, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. DVC either makes financial sense for your family or it doesn't. DVC has made financial sense for us since we started vacationing at Disney, but we didn't want to buy in because there wasn't a resort offered on the monorail. When there was, we ran the numbers (again - LOL) and jumped to buy in. Now, as we continue to plan vacations, we see how much we are really saving with DVC, and we see how DVC is allowing us to take vacations that would never have been possible before DVC. Either way, best of luck to you - buying into DVC is soooo much fun!

 

[jodifla]

DH and I are in our 40s, have been married over 15 years and own our home and financed DVCdirect from Disney. Our credit scores are awesome. I bought what I wanted when I wanted it and can pay the monthly payments. I understand why financing of DVC is crazy to some folks...I have 2 college degrees....but you don't know all the facts surrounding why someone would finance. No reason to flame me....just that I get tired of the opinion not to finance. I am glad folks have 25K to pay up front...those of us who don't finance. It doesn't mean we do not have IRAs, 401Ks, etc. We have very low credit card debt.


Have a hurricane rip through your house,taking every thing you work for to the curb...then losing your FIL 5 weeks later to cancer and help MIL build her house back.....perspective changes. Family vacations are prized and taken very seriously 'round here. Financing is not for everyone and neither is paying cash. We had flood insurance....now that was being financially responsible.

Yeah this! We bought 14 years ago, financed and paid it off back when it was about half of what it's going for now.

I'm SO GLAD we bought when we did, instead of all the overthinking-handwringing that I see going on so often in threads. We were DINKS and I had it planned to pay it off by the time we had kids...worked out just right.

IF you go often to WDW, and have moved beyond the Days Inn/Pop Century style of vacationing. then DVC is a great thing to have.

We only bought 150 points, so we didn't feel overloaded. And we just put the money that we were ALREADY spending at WDW toward paying off DVC.

14 years in, we are still enjoying our DVC vacations, we only have our dues. AND we have an asset to sell should the need (God forbid) arise.

 

[TifffanyD]

my husband and I have debated this for 3 years, while deciding on whether or not it was a wise choice to buy DVC. We travel yearly to WDW and love it, but we do not own a home and acc. to him, it isnt the wisest choice.

Do the majority of DVC members own their own homes or rent apartments?

thanks for your feedback,

Hi there,

We own DVC and rent an apartment.

We bought in to DVC 2 years ago when we were planning our wedding/honeymoon. We knew we wanted to go to Disney and stay deluxe for our honeymoon - probably 10 days - so room would have been $3-4k. We decided to do an inexpensive wedding and invest in DVC - which we could use on our honeymoon and future trips. We bought 100 points resale for $8400 and paid cash.

I wouldn't have done it if we had to finance it. Currently, we are saving for a home in about 3-4 years. I'd like to put a big chunk down on it before we buy - as I don't want our quality of life to decrease.

At the time we had 2 car payments and DH had a loan. We are now down to 1 car payment, no loans, and quite a bit in savings for the house fund. I don't think it was a bad idea at all since we live in FL now and use it for weekend and other short trips!

 

[Redwolf8812]

Rent/own, there's not much difference these days. In New Jersey, our property taxes are so high, it NEVER feels like you own your home. And, really, if you stop paying your property taxes, the town will take your home, even if there's no mortgage, so who really "owns" their home anyway?

Do what's best for your family and what makes you happy.

 

[tinkerbell of winter]

When I bought my first contract I was renting, I went on to buy a house and had that when I did my add on for animal kingdom lodge. I don't think it matters either way whether you own the home you live in or not. Payments are payments whether they go for rent or a mortgage. Personally, I wouldn't mind going back to the renter lifestyle, then someone comes and fixes things that break.........I miss that and should really look into condo living! Perhaps that's the plan when my daughter heads to college

I think it makes sense if you go to Disney a lot, regardless of whether you rent or own your home

 

[donaldndaisy]

We rent an apartment. DH and I are entering a PA program. Plus, our ds is starting a military prep academy (6th grade), next school year. We decided to buy because 1) we will not always live in FL 2) just because we are in school, doesn't mean our family shouldn't have a nice vacation- at least for holidays 3) we saved the money for it and it will not be a financial burden to own a dvc, while we're in school- in fact, it will make our vacations more affordable.

 

[JimmyJam838]

Think of all the arguments your friends and family have likely thrown at you about getting a mortgage. Rent is "throwing away money"...that's a common one, right? To me, I see their point, but in our lives, all the people who have said that (save one couple) have actually LOST their homes that they "owned", or came within days of losing it, so I'm not so sure that having a mortgage means you "own" anything...

If you look here in Vegas, according to the statistics, 2/3 of the people who own homes are upside down on their mortgage. Luckily, we aren't as upside down as most since a lot of them bought during the bubble where home prices went outrageous. A $150,000 home today, was selling for upwards of 300,000. I wouldn't worry about whether you own a home or not weighing on your decision.

 

[conandrob240]

I understand the connection. When you rent, you are essentially throwing money away every month that you could be putting towards owning your own home. For some people in some circumstances, this makes sense. But my guess would be that most people don't own a home because they don't have enough $ for a down payment. If that is the case, why would you spend the $ you have been saving on DVC instead of investing in your primary home? Don't look at statistics like the Vegas example- the opposite will be true for you if you buy now. People who are upside down on their mortages bought at the peak. We are at a bottom (maybe not the very bottom but pretty close)- you would be buying low and investing $ in a very safe place because you can amost bet the real estate market (while it may briefly dip a little more) is at a very low pint. You would almost certainly be buying an increasing in value investment.

Now, if your reasons fo rnot owning are different than not having enough down payment, then DVC might make sense.

 

[Mattsmommy]

my husband and I have debated this for 3 years, while deciding on whether or not it was a wise choice to buy DVC. We travel yearly to WDW and love it, but we do not own a home and acc. to him, it isnt the wisest choice.

Do the majority of DVC members own their own homes or rent apartments?

thanks for your feedback,

Hi! We rent and we bought into DVC 2 years ago. We live in Brooklyn.

 

[pickles]

just consider, you have thought about this for 3 years and have taken trips every year..imagine how much you would have saved if you had bought 3 years ago when you first thought about it?

 

[Sammie]

Never buy DVC thinking you are doing it to save lots of money, it won't happen. If you are staying in values or even moderates or even deluxe resorts on a discount, DVC is going to cost more than that.

DVC will save you money if you are going to rent from Disney a two bedroom villa and pay cash.

Also consider the long term affect of dues for 50 years and your age and do you really want to go to Disney for that long.

Our dues are now costing us more than a week at a deluxe resort and we no longer need a two bedroom.

This is a long term committment so think it through. It works for many but for many it seems wonderful at first but that wears off quickly.

I know 10 couples that bought within the last 2 years, that are now greatly regretting it.

 

[pickles]

How can they regret it? why not just sell it?
my first contract I bought, used and then sold..I broke even for what I bought and sold it for(resale both ways)
so essentially the few trips I took with it, were free except for MF fees.
maybe resale sales are sluggish, but a fair price and i suspect they can sell it reasonably quick. No reason for regret

 

[sissy_42]

Never buy DVC thinking you are doing it to save lots of money, it won't happen. If you are staying in values or even moderates or even deluxe resorts on a discount, DVC is going to cost more than that.

DVC will save you money if you are going to rent from Disney a two bedroom villa and pay cash.

Also consider the long term affect of dues for 50 years and your age and do you really want to go to Disney for that long.

Our dues are now costing us more than a week at a deluxe resort and we no longer need a two bedroom.

This is a long term committment so think it through. It works for many but for many it seems wonderful at first but that wears off quickly.

I know 10 couples that bought within the last 2 years, that are now greatly regretting it.

My yearly dues are about equal to a week in a value. A week and a half IF I get 40% off. I'm sure I have far less points than you, but seeing as I can get at least two weeks a year out of DVC, I KNOW it is saving me money and with much better accommodations than a value!

 

[Sammie]

How can they regret it? why not just sell it?
my first contract I bought, used and then sold..I broke even for what I bought and sold it for(resale both ways)
so essentially the few trips I took with it, were free except for MF fees.
maybe resale sales are sluggish, but a fair price and i suspect they can sell it reasonably quick. No reason for regret

They regret it for many reasons, some financial and other reasons. They will lose money if they sell now.

 

[Sammie]

My yearly dues are about equal to a week in a value. A week and a half IF I get 40% off. I'm sure I have far less points than you, but seeing as I can get at least two weeks a year out of DVC, I KNOW it is saving me money and with much better accommodations than a value!

Is that staying in a studio? If so many need and want two beds, which only OKW provides.

I am just saying that DVC will save some people money, for others not. Not everyone can vacation in the low points times, especially those with children who will not or can't take their kids out of school.

 

[sissy_42]

Is that staying in a studio? If so many need and want two beds, which only OKW provides.

I am just saying that DVC will save some people money, for others not. Not everyone can't vacation in the low points times, especially those with children who will not or can't take their kids out of school.

Yes I meant staying in studios for me. I under stand that many people have kids and need more room than that. I also know DVC is not for everyone, I was replying to your first post.

Never buy DVC thinking you are doing it to save lots of money, it won't happen. If you are staying in values or even moderates or even deluxe resorts on a discount, DVC is going to cost more than that.

I don't necessarily think I will be saving money. I think I will be having better vacations at about the same price. I could not afford to stay in a deluxe for more than a night or two in any season.