Buying separate smaller contracts

[amymgould]

I've just started my research into purchasing DVC and have already learned a lot, however, I need more information about buying multiple smaller contracts, say 50 pts each at 3 different resorts.

1) What is the benefit to doing this?
2) If I have 3 home resorts, would I be able to make reservations 11 months out from all 3? (I'm guessing no, as then many people would do this...)
3) Does having 3 separate contracts make things more difficult or complicated?
4) Anything else I should know about multiple contracts?

TIA!

 

[disneynutz]

You need enough points at 11 months to book your reservation. You can not combine different resort points at 11 months, only at 7 months. We have 6 - 50 point BLT contracts. The benefit is when you sell, they sell fast and at a higher price. We sold 5 of our 50 point AKV contracts, longest time to sell was 2 days.

Bill

 

[kapicka]

Good questions. There are benefits to owning smaller contracts in that they are easier to resale and will often resale at a higher value per point. Also, you could sell off some of your points down the road and still have some to keep. That said, it will cost you more to buy them since the price per point will be higher and since you'll pay closing costs multiple times.

You can only book at 11 months out for the points from the resort you are booking. Not other points you own.

We own a couple of locations and it is a bit more complicated but for us it has worked out ok. If you have a couple of favorite resorts it might be worth considering because you can book 11 months out at each (but of course only with the points from that resort).

Be sure you also research banking and borrowing because you can move points forward or back to different years to combine and make a reservation at the 11-month mark.

 

[CMNJ]

1. 3 different home resorts so home resort advantage at 3 locations (which can be necessary for popular resorts/times-i.e. BWV/BCV for F&W)

2. Home resort advantage follows the points so no you can only use the 50 you own at each resort at the 7-11 month window (but can bank and borrow to access up to 150 points for a single booking if needed)

3. Possibly-if they are all the same UY and titled the same way you can use the points seemlessly at 7 months as they shouls all be under one DVC membership. If not you have to transfer points between the contracts (in order to. Invite the points) or use them separately for bookings. If you plan to use them to book exclusively during the home resort advantage time it won't matter as much about having separate UY as you wouldn't be trying to combine the points for a stay (though you do have to deal with different banking deadlines and such).

We own BWV and BLT different UY. We bought April BWV originally to cover spring and fall travel (possibly summer if needed when our son is older). When we were looking for BLT April is much harder to find. We wound up buying a Feb UY to cover any possible March trip (spring break/early Easter years) as we figured we would use BWV contract for our fall trips

 

[CarolMN]

Don't do it.

Unless you enjoy split stays or plan to use banking and borrowing to go every third year alternating resorts & are also OK losing a few points every year, having three contracts with different resorts will be a BIG PAIN when it comes to booking. You will end up using the 7 month window and taking your chances on availability.

If the contracts are all the same use year (and titled exactly / one membership), it will be relatively easy to combine the points when the 7 month window opens. If they are different use years/memberships, then you will have to transfer points between them or reserve nights separately from each contract & call MS to link them together. You may only transfer points into or out of a membership once per use year, but not both ways in the same use year).

If you are buying 3 resorts to use the 11 month window & want to avoid losing points or having to add nights at 7 months, it will probably mean taking 3 trips per year (or a split stay), one at each home resort. Depending on the resort and time of year and villa size, you may find adding nights at 7 months very difficult to virtually impossible due to limited availability.

FWIW, managing multiple home resorts/use years is not the easiest way to begin a DVC membership. My advice is to buy your favorite, get used to the ins and outs of the system, and then decide if you want to add on another home resort.

Good luck!

 

[amymgould]

Thank you all! Great information to help my research.

 

[Dean]

I've just started my research into purchasing DVC and have already learned a lot, however, I need more information about buying multiple smaller contracts, say 50 pts each at 3 different resorts.

1) What is the benefit to doing this?
2) If I have 3 home resorts, would I be able to make reservations 11 months out from all 3? (I'm guessing no, as then many people would do this...)
3) Does having 3 separate contracts make things more difficult or complicated?
4) Anything else I should know about multiple contracts?

TIA!

There are those that hype smaller contracts. IMO it's almost always not worth it but with exceptions. Smaller contracts tend to be significantly more expensive than larger ones, $10 per point and above is frequently what you'll find. Occasionally you might find a single owner sell multiples and get a reduced closing and a better pp price. IMO it's a poor choice to pay more just to have them able to split up later or as a legacy issue. The multiple home resorts is more variable but often not a good choice to go so small. Having multiple home resorts can be good for some but not for others. I certainly wouldn't start out that way, too many variables and too much cost. Not to mention finding the second and third contract that matches up in your example is very difficult. You could only use each 50 (and bank/borrow) at 11 months out at a given resort, you can't use all 150 for a single home resort if they are titled to different home resorts. You could do every 2-3 years or you could do split stays with this plan rotating resorts. But since you're dealing with mostly banked/borrowed points, any hiccup in having to change or cancel dates could easily cost you another roughly $10-15 a point. As a rule I would educate yourself enough to make sure DVC is a good fit and you figure out the best SINGLE home resort and UY. I'd figure out how many points you might then need and look at a cushion of usually 10-20% because of variables to given trips, reallocation risk and to give flexibility. When targeting studios, lower seasons and specialty views, I'd go for the 20% cushion, sometimes even more. For example using BLT, BWV, or VGF standard (or AKV value) and looking at studios in choice/adventure, I'd want at least 20%, likely more. One needs a certain amount of DVC, Timeshare and on property experience to make a good choice. Often this means at least one private rental before proceeding. I'd also suggest considering a 25 point add on retail to have qualified options later and do that planning up front to incorporate that into the overall plan.

Let's say for sake of discussion you judged DVC to be a good fit, could pay cash, felt the 150 points in your example a good number and narrowed it down to 2 home resorts. Let's further assume those 2 resorts were BLT & AKV. In that case I'd buy BLT first, maybe at least 100 points and give the system a try since it'll likely be easier to add AKV later than BLT later. Realistically many often find they wish they'd have bought more points so I'd probably go for 120-150 BLT points and add 50 AKV later plus maybe 25 AKV retail or I'd just do BLT and add BLT retail and plan to get into AKV routinely otherwise at 7 months out. There are lots of variables depending on specific situations and plans but this should help you to do some critical thinking on the options.

 

[amymgould]

There are those that hype smaller contracts. IMO it's almost always not worth it but with exceptions. Smaller contracts tend to be significantly more expensive than larger ones, $10 per point and above is frequently what you'll find. Occasionally you might find a single owner sell multiples and get a reduced closing and a better pp price. IMO it's a poor choice to pay more just to have them able to split up later or as a legacy issue. The multiple home resorts is more variable but often not a good choice to go so small. Having multiple home resorts can be good for some but not for others. I certainly wouldn't start out that way, too many variables and too much cost. Not to mention finding the second and third contract that matches up in your example is very difficult. You could only use each 50 (and bank/borrow) at 11 months out at a given resort, you can't use all 150 for a single home resort if they are titled to different home resorts. You could do every 2-3 years or you could do split stays with this plan rotating resorts. But since you're dealing with mostly banked/borrowed points, any hiccup in having to change or cancel dates could easily cost you another roughly $10-15 a point. As a rule I would educate yourself enough to make sure DVC is a good fit and you figure out the best SINGLE home resort and UY. I'd figure out how many points you might then need and look at a cushion of usually 10-20% because of variables to given trips, reallocation risk and to give flexibility. When targeting studios, lower seasons and specialty views, I'd go for the 20% cushion, sometimes even more. For example using BLT, BWV, or VGF standard (or AKV value) and looking at studios in choice/adventure, I'd want at least 20%, likely more. One needs a certain amount of DVC, Timeshare and on property experience to make a good choice. Often this means at least one private rental before proceeding. I'd also suggest considering a 25 point add on retail to have qualified options later and do that planning up front to incorporate that into the overall plan.

Let's say for sake of discussion you judged DVC to be a good fit, could pay cash, felt the 150 points in your example a good number and narrowed it down to 2 home resorts. Let's further assume those 2 resorts were BLT & AKV. In that case I'd buy BLT first, maybe at least 100 points and give the system a try since it'll likely be easier to add AKV later than BLT later. Realistically many often find they wish they'd have bought more points so I'd probably go for 120-150 BLT points and add 50 AKV later plus maybe 25 AKV retail or I'd just do BLT and add BLT retail and plan to get into AKV routinely otherwise at 7 months out. There are lots of variables depending on specific situations and plans but this should help you to do some critical thinking on the options.

Thank you for your detailed response! Lots to think about! At this point we are leaning toward NOT doing multiple contracts. I just really wanted to get all information just in case it might be something we are interested. One thing we may do is buy more points down the road.

 

[Popouri DVC]

Many people here end up buying more points "down the road."

It's called "addonitis."

 

[Dean]

Thank you for your detailed response! Lots to think about! At this point we are leaning toward NOT doing multiple contracts. I just really wanted to get all information just in case it might be something we are interested. One thing we may do is buy more points down the road.

Get educated so you can make the best decision possible up front. It appears to me that often those who add on later either do so out of emotions or because they don't make the best choices up front. Good luck.

 

[disneynutz]

We bought most of our small contracts direct back when DVD was giving deals and they didn't charge to closing. The few small resale contracts that we bought just happened to be available so we snagged them. We never pay full resale closing costs and when selling we pay a discounted commission fee.

Bill

 

[schoen]

My family is in the process of buying some smaller contracts, but for the purposes of estate planning. Our initial purchase was one great big contract, but those can't be split up. Buying smaller contracts now so we can evenly distribute them.

 

[Lucky Wall-E]

How does the purchase process change if at all when buying direct if you split the purchase into 2 contracts? I am looking at purchasing GFV and am going to use credit cards. If I split the contracts will I be putting down 2 different deposits, one for each contract? Or is the sale still done as 1 big sale and they add a document fee if you split into 2? I will be talking to a guide later today, but I wanted to have my credit cards in order when I go to make the purchase.

 

[Sandisw]

How does the purchase process change if at all when buying direct if you split the purchase into 2 contracts? I am looking at purchasing GFV and am going to use credit cards. If I split the contracts will I be putting down 2 different deposits, one for each contract? Or is the sale still done as 1 big sale and they add a document fee if you split into 2? I will be talking to a guide later today, but I wanted to have my credit cards in order when I go to make the purchase.

You pay based on it being two contracts.

 

[perchy]

I've just started my research into purchasing DVC and have already learned a lot, however, I need more information about buying multiple smaller contracts, say 50 pts each at 3 different resorts.

1) What is the benefit to doing this?
2) If I have 3 home resorts, would I be able to make reservations 11 months out from all 3? (I'm guessing no, as then many people would do this...)
3) Does having 3 separate contracts make things more difficult or complicated?
4) Anything else I should know about multiple contracts?

TIA!

I have multiple small contracts.

I can, if I wanted to, make three reservations at the 11 month window across 3 resorts with home resort points. It would mean I’d be doing a split stay.

At 7 months, I can try to modify my reservations to either stay in one or two of the three resorts.

My stays aren’t consistently the same year after year, so I like having options at both 11 and 7 months.

 

[CarolMN]

I have multiple small contracts.

I can, if I wanted to, make three reservations at the 11 month window across 3 resorts with home resort points. It would mean I’d be doing a split stay.

At 7 months, I can try to modify my reservations to either stay in one or two of the three resorts.

My stays aren’t consistently the same year after year, so I like having options at both 11 and 7 months.

This can work if you are OK with split stays, but depending on the time of year and desired villa size, availability at 7 months is far from guaranteed, especially in the current environment. IMO, it's a strategy for the experienced only. See my post (#5) above:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/buying-separate-smaller-contracts.3599710/#post-57492646
@amymgould, I don't recommend multiple small contracts (with different home resorts or use years) to those new to DVC and my advice from 5 years ago to a prospective member is still the same: Don't do it!

 

[perchy]

This can work if you are OK with split stays, but depending on the time of year and desired villa size, availability at 7 months is far from guaranteed, especially in the current environment. IMO, it's a strategy for the experienced only. See my post (#5) above:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/buying-separate-smaller-contracts.3599710/#post-57492646
@amymgould, I don't recommend multiple small contracts (with different home resorts or use years) to those new to DVC and my advice from 5 years ago to a prospective member is still the same: Don't do it!

See… I am a new member…. All my use years are the same. But I maintain my small contract strategy works for me.

I am flexible and roll with it. I don’t have my heart set on a specific room type. I bought where I want to stay….which is any number of different places.

Buy where you want to stay, book at 11 months and never be disappointed.

 

[Slakk]

I always do small contracts. I bought VGF and I split 175 points in 50 50 75. DVC doesn't care (unless I think your original). I sold AKV to pay for my points and my 50 point contracts sold in hours. I would never do a contract bigger than 100.

 

[Sandisw]

I always do small contracts. I bought VGF and I split 175 points in 50 50 75. DVC doesn't care (unless I think your original). I sold AKV to pay for my points and my 50 point contracts sold in hours. I would never do a contract bigger than 100.

New owners must buy at least one contract that is 150 and then if buying more, can split smaller. For current owners, they will split as low as the minimum into whatever you want, assuming you are not buying a new UY. Then you can't split...it must be 150 as well.