Buying Loaded Contracts

[CanadaDisney05]

I'm contemplating a couple of different options. Our next vacation will not be until Dec 2020.

1) Purchase a 125 point contract with zero 2019 points
2) Purchase a 175 - 200 point contract, with full (or double) 2019 points with the intention of renting out the first year's points to effectively bring the purchase price down.

Browsing quickly, it looks like you can find some good deals where the net price for both options would be similar. Obviously option 2 will cost more over the long run in maintenance fees, but it also offers a lot more points. This would really make the difference between staying in studios vs one/two bedrooms units.


I'm sure many of you have done this. It sounds nice in theory. Would like to hear stories of how it worked out in practice.

 

[CarolynFH]

I'm contemplating a couple of different options. Our next vacation will not be until Dec 2020.

1) Purchase a 125 point contract with zero 2019 points
2) Purchase a 175 - 200 point contract, with full (or double) 2019 points with the intention of renting out the first year's points to effectively bring the purchase price down.

Browsing quickly, it looks like you can find some good deals where the net price for both options would be similar. Obviously option 2 will cost more over the long run in maintenance fees, but it also offers a lot more points. This would really make the difference between staying in studios vs one/two bedrooms units.


I'm sure many of you have done this. It sounds nice in theory. Would like to hear stories of how it worked out in practice.

I haven’t done it - we bought direct way back in the golden age when DVC members didn’t get any perks and there were no distinctions between direct & resale buyers, but we did get to reserve the accommodations we thought we were buying/prepaying for. And the number of points we bought was determined by our family’s needs. We have two kids who couldn’t share a bed, and we needed more space — and bathrooms! So we bought enough points for a two bedroom during the time we expected to be traveling during the future that was foreseeable at the time. Now it’s mostly just DH and me, so we can get smaller units and stay longer (or stay in villas that cost more than our home resort). Or bank and borrow for a GV and bring the kids & grandkids.

That’s my long winded way of saying that I recommend you buy more points — give yourself the flexibility to stay in larger units or for longer periods of time as your needs change over the years.

 

[SG131]

100% go with more points, not having enough points is a common issue (and my current issue)

 

[aoconnor]

Generally stripped contracts are a bad deal when you work the numbers. Assuming you didn't need the current years' points anyways, a loaded contract will have at least 2 years worth of points and possibly even 3 if you time it right (for example, if you bought a Dec UY that had banked 2017 points, full 2018 points and 2019 points).

You could rent out the 2 years of points for $29, and if it's fully loaded with 3 years even more (those would be expiring relatively soon so wouldn't get full value, but maybe $7-10)

It's unlikely the fully loaded contract would be priced $29-39 higher than a stripped one. You'll get a better deal buying loaded and renting out the points.

 

[skippytx]

I agree with aoconnor above, stripped contracts tend to be a bad deal when you look at the numbers. You rarely see a stripped contract go for 15 a point less than one with current year points. Dues come into play a bit as well. I don't like buying things I'm not able to use immediately if I want to. Some folks here have no problems grabbing a contract with no points on it for 2 years for a good deal. It would drive me nuts though.

 

[chitwndan]

I would definitely go with the larger contract.

 

[thelionqueen]

I was in the same situation and actually looked for a stripped contract due to not needing them for a year. Yes it would be nice, but I'd much prefer less due at closing than trying to make up what I need to spend at closing. For those that have an extra $1500-2000 to put into this purchase, it would make sense, but I don't. That is just my .02.

 

[katandmouse]

Well, I can’t speak for buying a larger contract. But we ended up spending a little more per point on our contract than I intended, but it was fully loaded and like you our next family trip isn’t until 2020. I planned on renting the banked points to offset some of the purchase price... except we’re using those points for a fall 2019 weekend trip instead! I mean, we were planning that trip anyway, but it was supposed to be on my sister’s AP discount. So instead of her treating me, I’m treating her with my DVC points. I’m super psyched for it and glad to use our points sooner, but that’s just to say - it’s really easy to find ways to use (and change vacation habits) with extra points!

 

[AaronEuth]

I'm contemplating a couple of different options. Our next vacation will not be until Dec 2020.

1) Purchase a 125 point contract with zero 2019 points
2) Purchase a 175 - 200 point contract, with full (or double) 2019 points with the intention of renting out the first year's points to effectively bring the purchase price down.

Browsing quickly, it looks like you can find some good deals where the net price for both options would be similar. Obviously option 2 will cost more over the long run in maintenance fees, but it also offers a lot more points. This would really make the difference between staying in studios vs one/two bedrooms units.


I'm sure many of you have done this. It sounds nice in theory. Would like to hear stories of how it worked out in practice.

In regards to Loaded vs Stripped and renting out the points, you could always make an account with a rental broker and see what locations are in high demand to renters. If your resort has dozens of requests to rent your points at a premium rate, then you can count on renting the points easy. If its Sarataga springs, odds are you will be making a rental at 7 months for less money.

Buying more points, and counting on renting them long term could backfire if the economy changes. Right now, there is more demand for rented points than there are owners to rent. If less people can afford to vacation, not only will there be less demand, but odds are there will also be more owners trying to rent points.

All that being said, I purchased a loaded BLT contract and successfully rented the 2018 and 2019 points within 10 minutes of points being in my account, which effectively lowered my purchase price by $20 per point. That includes paying the 2019 dues.

 

[Jack_Sparrow_NJ]

There is s big difference between 125 and 200. If it were me I would:

Buy where I wanted to stay
Buy the number of points I needed to stay at the time of year I planned on staying plus about 10% or so extra for point chart increases etc.
And finally pick a use year that works for me.

Then go through the various contracts available. If you don’t want to use the points until 2020 you are in no rush to find the “perfect” contract to make an offer on.

If it’s loaded that’s great. Yes, you could rent the points or how about banking them?

I would not rush to buy a loaded contract just to pay more and rent the points for short term, one time gain.

 

[skippytx]

Buying more points, and counting on renting them long term could backfire if the economy changes. Right now, there is more demand for rented points than there are owners to rent. If less people can afford to vacation, not only will there be less demand, but odds are there will also be more owners trying to rent points.

There was a 500 point BLT contract a while ago that came up, and it was really tempting to think about buying it, and then using 280 of the points and renting the other 220 every year which would 100% cover the dues for the entire contract. The possibility of the rental market drying up, tying up that much capital in a time share, and my risk aversion killed that idea though.

 

[ray3127]

I'm contemplating a couple of different options. Our next vacation will not be until Dec 2020.

1) Purchase a 125 point contract with zero 2019 points
2) Purchase a 175 - 200 point contract, with full (or double) 2019 points with the intention of renting out the first year's points to effectively bring the purchase price down.

Browsing quickly, it looks like you can find some good deals where the net price for both options would be similar. Obviously option 2 will cost more over the long run in maintenance fees, but it also offers a lot more points. This would really make the difference between staying in studios vs one/two bedrooms units.


I'm sure many of you have done this. It sounds nice in theory. Would like to hear stories of how it worked out in practice.

We went with larger contracts that were nearly "fully loaded". As others have mentioned, there is more value in these contracts than stripped ones (through my experience/observations). I also feel that when I pay for something, it's nice to be able to use it right away.

We planned to rent out excess points a couple times, and did once. They were BLT points, and they rented within a day through a major broker. Super easy. That did help with the cost, and is a completely rational way to look at it. ESPECIALLY those banked points, which are 100% profit, as the MFs were already paid on them.

But I kinda wish we hadn't rented them, because with our APs we are finding lots of creative ways to get to WDW... and that's also why I said we only rented the points out once; by the time the second contract rolled around, we didn't actually try renting them. They'd been used/allocated already for us.

So we overbought with the intent of renting the excess (at least in the first year), but didn't completely follow through on that. And I'm 100% fine with it. We are going to WDW more than I would ever imagined, and it is amazing. So just beware that can happen; only you know if it can turn into a happy accident (like it was for us), or a burden.

 

[Bing Showei]

2) Purchase a 175 - 200 point contract, with full (or double) 2019 points with the intention of renting out the first year's points to effectively bring the purchase price down.

I know you don’t believe it (yet), but buying in does change your travel habits. If you buy that bigger contract, do it knowing you could afford to use those “extra points” for yourself.

Disney timeshare owners are like goldfish. Put us in a bigger contract and suddenly our needs grow to need exactly that.

 

[Minniemoo15]

We just went with a super loaded PVB contract @ 148 per point (pretty average price point). Once we sold everything that we weren’t going to use, it brought it down to $123 per point. I’ve never seen a Poly contract for anywhere near that price.

So buying a loaded contract definitely saved us money. It was a bit of extra time renting out those points, but totally worth it. I ended up renting most of them on FB (was planning on renting through a rental agency) and got even more $$ back than I anticipated.

I see you’re Canadian too. The bonus is I got paid in American $$ for all of those points. I plan on leaving that $$ in USD to pay for future dues, tickets, etc.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Buy loaded points. As an example, early this year we purchased an additional 250 OKW (2042) points. It was a deal (one owner) of a 100 point and 150 point contract. It had 500 banked points and 250 (19) points and 250 (20) points. When I saw the listing, I immediately called and negotiated a deal for $98 per point cash with 250 "free" points and 250 "half price" points. We were able to rent about 300 points right off (four families benefited) which offset our purchase by about $4000 (not counting income tax) and we are using the remaining 2018 and most of the 2019 points for two weeks this fall in a one BR and eight nights for our son and his wife in a studio. It was a win-win-win for us as we got the UY and additional points we needed. Additionally, we can peel off one contract or the other if we want, but regardless, it will be easier to sell as 100 and 150 points respectively. I had just sold two VBR contracts (also bought from one buyer) for a sizeable profit as they fit in the "smaller" category. It takes patience and stalking the major sites for deals AND being ready to jump the minute you see something. Formula: Total cost with fees and dues - minus rental income - equals net - divided by number of points - equals cost to purchase. If I factor in the points we are using for our trips it lowers the net by about $3000 (400 points at $7.50 +/- pp "cost" vs "rental" at $13.50 pp or $5400). You can do this on a piece of paper in two minutes! Sorry to be so long winded, but this works every time (for us) and DH can't find fault LOL!