DVC - If I could do it again...

[markII]

what is advantage of 2 150 pt contracts instead of one 300 pt contract? Is it for peak season use for far-out booking? I will only go to FL off season, and have not joined DVC (yet).

 

[Beca]

what is advantage of 2 150 pt contracts instead of one 300 pt contract? Is it for peak season use for far-out booking? I will only go to FL off season, and have not joined DVC (yet).

Three advantages I can think of:

1) If you ever need to sell. Smaller contracts bring more $$$ and sell faster than larger ones.

2) If you have more than one kid, you could will a contract to each of them.

3) If you ever needed to sell, you could sell part of your points, and keep another part.

There really are NO disadvantages to multiple contracts, if they are under the same contract number (which they always are if you buy via DVC). MS sees them as one big pot to choose from. I currently have 5 individual contracts...but, they act as one.

 

[rie'smom]

what is advantage of 2 150 pt contracts instead of one 300 pt contract? Is it for peak season use for far-out booking? I will only go to FL off season, and have not joined DVC (yet).

I took the advice of some DVC veterans on the boards.They explained that if i should ever want to sell,it's much easier to sell the smaller contracts.

 

[Pluto 2]

i would of bought okw instead of bwv. when i first bought 6 + years ago i had a choice of okw,bwv,hh, or vero. i chose bwv. its a wonderful resort i have nothing against it. but in those 6 years i been to wdw 5 times i stayed once in bwv, once in vwl, once in bcv once in ssr and once in okw. so if i would of got okw instead of bwv i would of saved a lot in maint fees over the years. when i bought they told me all about the low maint fees at okw but the presentation was at bwv and it looked really nice which it is so i bought bwv.

 

[starbox]

If I had known how easy it is for current members to purchase small add-on contracts, I would have bought in at the minimum and added numerous 50-75 point contracts later. We "saved" room for one future add-on in our contract (anticipating that there would probably be either AKV or CRV in the near future) - but I did not understand how simple it is to add-on small contracts later.

The advantages to the smaller contacts would be that they tend to be very easy to sell if needs change in the future and they have retained more value (as in they sell at a higher price per point). It's also nice to have more than one home resort booking advantage - we tend to take numerous shorter trips (all of my DVC vacations have been between 36-70 points so far) - so even a small contract would be enough to get me a few nights each year at a resort of my choice.

 

[jimmytammy]

We would have bought a year sooner. The pts price were lower then and we would have got at least one trip extra under our belts. My advice is buy where you want to stay the most. You will want to take advantage of the 11 mos window at times when WDW is busy.

 

[vascubaguy]

I probably wouldn't have pushed to get the first small contract that I could find on the resale market. At the time I wanted a small contract at OKW because it was the "cheapest" contract to purchase at a place where points are the lowest. In hindsight I would have preferred to purchase those points at BWV so that I could have had the 11 month booking window. However, the OKW contract got me in the door, I added on at SSR, and now I'm actually selling the OKW contract and pretty much breaking even on that so it all worked out in the end.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

We would have joined sooner and we would have split our large first contract into two contracts. We purchased 375 points our first time and I wish we had done 200 and 175 for our contracts instead of one large contract.

Ditto.. Sooner and multiple small contracts instead of one large. If you want to sell some of your points you can't, you have to sell your entire contract.

 

[Cruelladeville]

I would have purchased sooner. We toured OKW in 1992, and I refused to buy at $50 per point, because I didn't think that prices to stay at the resorts would go up. what was I thinking???

 

[DISNEYDUET]

I wish we would have bought sooner and bought moe points. I am already looking at an add-on contract and we have only been members for 2 years!

 

[JodyTG]

I would have taken the tour 10 years ago, when I was a single mom. I would ahve found out that I could, in fact, afford it. I just walked past the kiosks, but always wondered about them. I thought that it was something for wealthy people. In hindsight (which we all know is 20/20) I honestly believe that I would have been able to MORE than afford it. It would have saved me TONS of money on our yearly WDW trips.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Same mantra! Would have bought in 1992 and more points! As it was, we started with 230 and added 150 the next year.

 

[chickie]

I would have bought when we were there on our honeymoon in '95, instead of waiting until 2001!!! I also would have purchased a resale at Old Key West resort if I'd known we could have. We stay there every time and have yet to stay at our home at VWL!
(we also would have bought more points!!!!!)

 

[tarpat1]

You can put me in the sooner/more line as well. We are constantly looking for small contracts and hope to add 100-150 points eventually.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

In our situation, I think we bought at the right time for our family. We bought when we had DD#1 and expecting DD#2 and knew future trips just HAD to be in-site.

I did a LOT of research here in the DIS and bought at the right resorts for us - BWV and OKW.

When we wanted more points - we added on at SSR - so now we have the right number of points.

IF we had to change anything, I wish we would have gotten a UY one earlier than December which is the UY for all our contracts. While December is fine, I did like our Thanksgiving week trips and will again some day and having the security of a UY of October or November (do they even have a Nov?) for last minute cancelations would really be nice.

 

[Slakk]

I am going to sound like a broken record but in 1998 I was intrigued about DVC but felt silly going over to a kiosk as I was sure DVC was not for me.

Dumb dumb dumb.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

Nothing.

I bought 150 points at the BWV after researching it for 18 months --- Just loved it there. Perfect location to Epcot and MGM and also has a great atmosphere.

I also tried the BCV (loved SAB, but didn't fall in love with the BCV as its too quiet for me) and VB (which I loved and would stay there again in a heartbeat). I'm so glad I tried other resorts before adding on because I decided to add on at the BWV for another 30 points.

Now I have 180 points and I am glad I'm at the BWV.

 

[VLee]

I would have only bought one resale, rather than two. I didn't really realize that you could waitlist for a soldout resort through DVC, so rushed to buy two resales at almost the same time. And ended up paying closing costs for two purchases (could have avoided closing costs on one if I had waitlisted through Disney.)

I bought different resorts from different timeshare companies. However, I bought the same use year and since they were bought within a couple of weeks of each other, Disney put them under the same master contract, which is an advantage now for the banking period.

 

[MommaX03]

More from the "would have bought sooner" camp.

Last year, I should not have canceled my first DVC contract within the 10 day period I would have received a year's worth of bonus points upfront, no closing costs, and paid $3 a point less than what I just paid through the recent DVC promo. (Cold feet). I also just paid closing costs of $200, and I did not get bonus points upfront.
But guess what, now I do not have to watch TV on mute in a values hotel while my kiddies sleep in the next bed, and no more sleeping in a double bed!

 

[corinnak]

I was going to say that I wish that I had found the time for the tour and schpiel on our first trip to WDW, but the fact is, had I done that I would not have gotten the F&F deal nor the great guide that we found through the lovely DISmember who refered us. So I really wouldn't change that at all! I do believe there is another referral program going on right now, so if you do buy, it might be in your best financial interest to quick make friends with another DVC owner.