Did you buy on impulse or planned

[keaster]

I guess impulse. We had been to Disney World only once before in 2007 (stayed off site). We did a couple Disney cruises after that where we had attended the DVC meetings but didn't look any further into it. Then on a cruise in 2011 we decided to pull the trigger, sight unseen, and bought AKL. No rhyme or reason, we thought hey we have the cash now why not lol?

 

[bwvBound]

I'm not talking about whether you thought threw it vs. buying immediately after a tour of DVC. More from the financial perspective. Did you get a big bonus and decide, okay we're gonna do it... or was it something you saved up for a long time over years?

Our first two purchases (150-points, 25-points) were deliberate and planned even if the 1st contract suffered a late decision regarding home resort. The 3rd contract (160-points at same resort/UY as the earlier purchases) was a complete impulse purchase! The add-on monster surprised us at DL!

 

[sanibel93]

Bought in after some planning and investigating resale. Went on a tour to see what Disney had to say and then came home and brought resale. Have since bought a few small contracts direct because could not find them resale and got tired of waiting.

 

[RebelHawk]

We had rented points third party for over a decade and on one of our trips some friends of ours posed the question "I wonder if you would be ahead or behind if you had bought 10 years ago". That night I got back to the room and threw together a quick spreadsheet with some soft numbers. Presented it to my wife the next morning and the decision was made that we needed to buy. I was in the DVC BWV office that afternoon and we signed on the dotted line shortly after we returned home.

 

[jarestel]

We were staying at PVR in 2001 when I struck up a conversation with a DVC rep in the DVC kiosk there. We took the tour, visited VWL (BRV) to check out the resort they were selling, went home and thought about it for a couple of months, eventually deciding to buy. As the money came out of our entertainment budget, we were fine with the possibility of getting stuck with a "pig in a poke" (whatever that is) and willing to chalk up the experience to live and learn if it didn't work out.

 

[Donna M]

Our friends became some of the original members and loved it. They let us stay a couple times and we had a great time, but thought it was expensive. In 2004 I received an inheritance. After paying off the house and cars we dove in, didn't need to finance. We didn't know anything about the resale market or this website. We bought 300 points direct then an addition 200 direct a few years later. It has been great for us. Bought for about $89 a point and stay everywhere.

 

[DenLo]

Definitely not an impulse for DH and I as we started talking and reading everything we could, talking to a coworker than owned DVC and reading forums about it in 1995 and purchased in 2009.

 

[skippytx]

Definitely put a lot of thought and planning into it. Rented DVC points first to make sure we liked BLT and the experience, educated ourselves about everything DVC and bought into afterwards.

 

[pineapplepalms]

We definitely planned the purchase and wished we had bought earlier. Had been going to WDW regularly for several years, mostly staying in deluxe resorts and paying discounted runDisney rates, but never knew about DVC. Our first trip with our 1 year old in 2017, we stayed at the Contemporary and got a Poly print in our room with an offer to do a DVC tour and get a $100 gift card. We actually signed up for it and then backed out because I was wary of the word "timeshare" and wanted to do more research before doing anything. Spent the next 7 months or so researching online (mostly here), and decided it made sense for us and we wanted to buy.

During that time, CCV was selling and we received a promo offer in the mail to get a discounted stay in a CCV 1BR along with TOTWL and Epcot Lounge passes if we went to a presentation. Since we had a stay booked during the promo period already, we just switched part of the stay over to CCV and decided we would buy direct at CCV if we loved it after staying there. This stay was in December and the holiday decorations were amazing. We absolutely loved CCV and bought in when we met with the guide. At that point I had already done lots of research on resale and planned to buy contracts at other home resorts afterwards to match our UY. Over the last year, we've added on resale a few times and now also own at SSR, BWV, and VGF.

We have stock that accrues through work which we need to diversify anyway, so we sold some of it whenever we decided to buy a contract and paid cash. We don't think of DVC as an investment, but we plan to spend money annually on vacations anyway and with DVC we get to stay in larger, more comfortable accommodations on property at a fraction of the cash price. We plan to hold onto our contracts for a long time!

 

[linzjane88]

I've wanted DVC since I was a younger teenager and could see the VGF from the ferry. I was very aware there was a much cooler on site version of WDW that I wanted to be privy to since we always did rental houses. First time I looked was around 2010 maybe, when the economy was in the tank and resale points were dirt cheap. I tried explaining the setup to my DH who was against it (you spend how much, and it disappears in 50 years!?) but we weren't in a position to buy so I didn't push it.
4 years later or so I started looking again more seriously. At that point we had great jobs and were going to WDW 2-3 times a year. I found an excellent spreadsheet online(any large purchase requires a spreadsheet for me ) and was able to convince myself it would give me higher quality vacations for the same or less I was already spending. It's a luxury purchase and not an investment but it still had to make sense to me. I still wanted my DH on board though so I basically became a DVC guide He finally told me "I don't care what you buy just please stop showing me this spreadsheet." .

We financed our 225 points through Light Stream for 36 months at 5.99% and paid off a few months early. My only regret is not buying earlier and not getting more points.

 

[Darklord77]

I have to admit it was impulse. I'm pretty good with numbers so I quickly worked them out while we were there. It made sense seeing that my kids were really young at the time and my wife loves Disney. I would have made the same decision even if I had time to plan. Should have purchased sooner.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I'm not talking about whether you thought threw it vs. buying immediately after a tour of DVC. More from the financial perspective. Did you get a big bonus and decide, okay we're gonna do it... or was it something you saved up for a long time over years?

I'm just a saver in general so that I can buy things I want when I decide I want them. ie - I guess more along the lines of your bonus scenario because we had the funds vs saving specifically for DVC.

Deciding on DVC itself was investigation and not an impulse purchase.

 

[TinkFan74]

It was an impulse buy for sure! On a 2011 Disneyland trip I entered the park not knowing what DVC was, by 2pm I was the owner of 200 SS points. At that time the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar and they were offering a bonus of an extra years worth of points, so I got a good deal. It is nice to know that I could sell them now for more than what I paid, but I plan on using them until I die or the points expire.

 

[luvmychaos]

Bit of both. We had gone in 2009, after doubting we’d like WDW, and fell in love(after I mocked frequent visitors for years #karma). We researched it after the 2nd trip, which was the following year and preceded to go every 2 years after. We always talked about after we got home but it wasn’t until we heard the Poly was almost sold out, so we jumped(within an hour of hearing). We had savings so it wasn’t necessarily something we saved up for. Our kids were quickly aging out of “child” and we thought our last trip would be our last since we figured the cost would become to great. It just felt like the right time.

 

[quandrea]

It was an impulse buy for sure! On a 2011 Disneyland trip I entered the park not knowing what DVC was, by 2pm I was the owner of 200 SS points. At that time the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar and they were offering a bonus of an extra years worth of points, so I got a good deal. It is nice to know that I could sell them now for more than what I paid, but I plan on using them until I die or the points expire.

Forgot about those developer points! That was a great deal!

 

[kydisneyfans]

It was a planned impulse buy.
We had rented points to stay at Kidani, my wife was in love with it. We took the tour and knew resale existed so we did not buy.
We then rented points again 6 months later at Kidani, I was on a resale mail list and a 160 point contract came across at $72 a point. I counter offered $70 and it was accepted within minutes. While staying at Kidani on rented points, we were able to buy resale.

There was some holding of our breaths as Disney was buying back contracts in the upper 60s at the time, that's why we did the $70 offer. It went through. It was also a loaded contract with points expiring Nov 30(we closed Oct 23). I booked what I could, put the reservations on various resale sites, and made back $2300 of the $10000 we paid within the first month. That's the only time we've not used the points.

Our regret now is that we don't have more points.

 

[kniquy]

I was receiving my last hefty payment from a divorce and I was also going to be turning 40 in a few months -- so i decided I wanted to put those funds towards vacations for my family. I did research for a few months on DVC and put some thought into narrowing down resorts to purchase resale. So not totally impulse, but I also didn't spend years contemplating the purchase.

I don't know how people go to WDW, decide to take the DVC tour/talk and end up signing on purchasing. It seems like too big of an investment to make a decision in just a matter of a couple hours. I'm sure there are many people out there that do just this, but that also might be why so many of them end up in foreclosure.

 

[LSchrow]

We stayed in moderates, then deluxes with CM discount. It didn't take long until we stayed at the BW, & we were hooked. I spent hours & days, looking at the value, playing with spreadsheets, etc. First bought in 1999, financed & paid off in under a year, then added on twice within a few years - all using savings. We used the inheritance my parents left me for our 2, more recent, resales.

 

[cmwade77]

I'm not talking about whether you thought threw it vs. buying immediately after a tour of DVC. More from the financial perspective. Did you get a big bonus and decide, okay we're gonna do it... or was it something you saved up for a long time over years?

We had considered it for a long time and then they finally offered enough incentives that we could no longer say no.

 

[quandrea]

We bought sight unseen, so that may have been a bit impulsive. However, it was a reasoned purchase. We ran the numbers. The Canadian dollar was above par. It made sense. We’ve since purchased resale very low. No regrets.