Buying points

[KGD]

So, I am VERY new at this and have been reading a TON on this forum and talking to guide and DVC resaler. I have a few questions that may best be answered by members.
My husband and 3 young children (all 4 or under) are looking to buy between 200-300 points. We would love to have VWL as our home property as we love the resort. We are concerned that after our now almost 2 yr old twins turn 3, we will not be allowed to stay in a 1br villa. Anyone have any insight into this? They do not have the sleeper chair as of yet,which accomodates the 5th person.
Other questions are.........should we buy 1 contract at VWL for 250-300 points? Or split it with another property like AKV, BLT, BWV or BCV? Is it easy to transfer points from one to the other? Also, should those contracts have the same UY.
Also, if we buy resale prior to Mar 20th, I am being told by resaler that it is exactly the same benefits/perks that we would get with buying direct now. And if we do buy resale, would we then need to buy direct for add ons after Mar 20th so we have the same benefits/perks say, if we wanted to take a cruise?
Thanks so much for any responses!

 

[walkdmc]

I've typed, in red, my responses.

So, I am VERY new at this and have been reading a TON on this forum and talking to guide and DVC resaler. I have a few questions that may best be answered by members.
My husband and 3 young children (all 4 or under) are looking to buy between 200-300 points. We would love to have VWL as our home property as we love the resort. We are concerned that after our now almost 2 yr old twins turn 3, we will not be allowed to stay in a 1br villa. Anyone have any insight into this? They do not have the sleeper chair as of yet,which accomodates the 5th person.
Other questions are.........should we buy 1 contract at VWL for 250-300 points? Or split it with another property like AKV, BLT, BWV or BCV? If you will need all your 250-300 points for VWL, I would recommend buying all points there. I would try to buy smaller contracts since they are easier to sell, if necessary. Is it easy to transfer points from one to the other? Also, should those contracts have the same UY. Having the same UY makes things easier to manage. Most would recommend keeping same use year.
Also, if we buy resale prior to Mar 20th, I am being told by resaler that it is exactly the same benefits/perks that we would get with buying direct now. That's what the DVC member website states. The resaler is correct And if we do buy resale, would we then need to buy direct for add ons after Mar 20th so we have the same benefits/perks say, if we wanted to take a cruise?You can always buy directly from Disney and ad contracts to your DVC membership.
Thanks so much for any responses!

 

[JimMIA]

Other questions are.........should we buy 1 contract at VWL for 250-300 points?

If you are buying resale, I would buy whatever contract meets your needs. Although there is one benefit to having multiple smaller contracts (easier to sell down the road), there are also some downsides...especially if they don't all have the same UY. With every reservation, you are going to have to figure out which contract to take points from, which is a hassle and something that can cause mistakes (we had two contracts for six years and had 2-3 mixups which took time and effort to fix). You're also going to have multiple contracts to manage banking and borrowing on.

In addition, DVC has legitimate administrative expenses (billing dues and monthly payments, accounting for the payments, etc) with every contract, regardless of size. They could, at some point, add a base charge to our dues on every contract like many other timeshares do. If they added a base charge of $50 and you had three small contracts, you'd be paying $150 each year instead of just $50.

And finally, there may not be much resale value anyway a few years from now, because Disney has virtually stopped ROFRing resales and the prices have dropped accordingly.

Or split it with another property like AKV, BLT, BWV or BCV?

I would NOT split points between resorts (we had that situation for six years) unless there was some specific reason why you wanted to own points at more than one resort.

For example, you love VWL, which is a VERY small resort. In order to book there during popular times, you will need your 11-month booking window. Unless you want to add ownership at another resort to get the booking window there also, I would stick to one resort. You CANNOT combine points from different resorts in the 11-month window...only at 7 months.

 

[vicki_c]

I have not heard one way or another on whether VWL will be getting the sleeper chairs. As it currently stands (so subject to change at any time!), DVC Member Services has been allowing 5 to be booked in a 1 BR when staying on points. You will have to bring your own bed (Aero bed suggested) and bedding for the extra person. Again, that could change - it's nothing guaranteed, just something they have been allowing.

 

[ToddyLu]

You have asked very good questions.

You can only transfer in or out of the account once each year--so you have to make it count. Also be sure you get a good UY for you family when you begin to travel when the children get school age. You may need to cancel a reservation sometime and your UY can affect how much time you have to use those points from a different reservation. There is a sticky on understanding UY. You can also purchase an inexpensive DVC guide from Pass porter--and just download it to your computer. It is written by 2 ladies and very easy to understand. There is also good ingo at DVCNews.com. Definitely purchase VWL points if that is where you love. A good split of your contract would be 3-100 point contracts--one for each child. I would imagine this would possibly come with a closing account for each contract.

Once you purchase an amount like 300---you cannot split it up and are stuck with a large contract more difficult to sell. DH and I do not have children so we own 210 points at AKV.

 

[ToddyLu]

You guys sound young and the kids are young--so much can change during the ownership of your points. My DH and I will never sell--we know this. If you are Disney addicts then you will be OK owning a larger contract--in that case I wouldn't worry about it. I have a mental image of you being very comfy in a one br having the kitchen and laundry with three under the age of 4.....

 

[goin3d]

Just wanted to add aside from anything to do with selling your contracts down the road we found it useful to split our initial point purchase into multiple contracts of 100 points each for estate planning purposes (bought direct so didn't have to try to find 3 with the same UY). Should something unforeseen happen I wanted to be able to "will" the contracts to separate children.

Sounds like you have a resort you love staying at, so not sure how much benefit there would be to splitting them up?