DVC experts- Financial questions

[puffkin]

We are still weighing our options and trying to decide if we want to buy into DVC. My fiance doesn't want to make any decisions though until we actually see the resort. We will be in WDW for our honeymoon in July, so we plan on doing one of the open houses. I have the following questions:

1. I have read about DVC offering some incentives such as $750 and buying back the 2004 points back if you sign right there (or within 2-3 days). Is this still applicable?

2. If we would decide to purchase right away if there were some good incentives, how do we work things out financially? For instance, we would have to come home and go through our finances to see exactly what we could put down and what we would need to finance. Can I just put a little down and then finance the rest through Disney?

3. When we get home, if we find a Home Equity Loan with a better rate or decide we can afford to put more down, can we pay off the Disney Loan without any penalty?

4. What type of information would we need to take with us if we were considering signing the contract down there?

I am sure that we will have a lot more questions, but this should do it for now. The main issue is we are considering buying in using the money we receive for our wedding, but we won't know how much this is until we get back from our honeymoon. Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[jmminarik]

1) There's no telling what incentives will be offered in July, but the magical beginning (points 'buy back') is a possibility. This can be applied toward your downpayment I believe.

2) Disney financing is a fairly painless process and you can use a credit card for a down payment. The interest rate (11% or so) is considered high by many but not out of line for timeshare loans. The interest on this -may- be tax deductable as it is a real estate 'investment'.

3) There is no pre-payment penalty on Disney loans.

4) Social Security Number, Photo ID is about all I remember.


Have you considered resales?

-Joe

 

[tjkraz]

jmminarik's answers are all correct, but I'll just add a little bit regarding the commitment that DVC expects. When they ask you to commit within a particular timeframe in order to secure a "deal", all you need to do is give a VERBAL commitment and a deposit of as little as $500.

DVC will prepare all of the formal paperwork and send it to your home. Those documents will outline any additional downpayment that must be sent along with the paperwork, as well as the financing terms.

At this point you can still back-out and get your $500 back.

Once you get the formal paperwork, there are a lot of documents to sign. Some must be notarized. DVC will include a postage-paid return envelope. You stick the docs in the Fed Ex envelope along with a check for the rest of the down payment, and you're done.

But, according to timeshare laws, even after you have signed the agreements, you still have an additional 14 days to back-out and receive a FULL refund.

My advice would be that if you are only given a few days to commit in order to secure a particular discount, go ahead and do it. You'll have about a week before you get the paperwork in the mail. Then they ask you to return it within 1-2 weeks, but there really is no fixed timeframe. And, even after you drop that paperwork in the mail, you still have another 2 weeks to back-out if necessary.

Good luck. It was one of the toughest decisions we ever made, expecially buying SSR sight-unseen, but after seeing the resort first-hand we couldn't be happier.