DVC Points:Disney vs Resale

[pokesfan22]

What are the pros and cons in buying points through Disney and buying through resale?

 

[minniekissedme]

Buying from Disney is instant gratification. You are immediately in the system, there may be incentives at the time of purchase (extra developer points, gift card) that make it extra special to purchase at that time. You must purchase the minimum 160 points.

Buying resale allows you to purchase for less money in all of the resorts as opposed to what Disney currently has to offer. The process can take 8-9 weeks before you see your points. Disney has the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) and can purchase the contract that you purchased which puts you back to square one. There are no minimum contracts to purchase. It can be very "stressful" as you await each step of the process.

If you don't need your points right away and don't want to purchase the 160 minimum, I would encourage you to consider resale. On the OPS page there is a good thread to monitor...Anyone Make it thru ROFR, and on the Mousellaneous page there is the Waiting for ROFR Support group thread. Both very insightful for resale purchase.

That's it in a nutshell...there certainly is more to learn. Keep asking questions and you'll get all of your anwsers.

 

[chalee94]

stolen from DVCMike:

Initial Purchase from DVC

• You can get the exact number of points that you want (although you must buy a minimum of 160)
• Faster than resale (you will be in the system and have your points and be able to make reservations much faster than resale)
• No worries about the purchase if Disney executes ROFR, since that only applies to resale purchases
• More expensive cost per point than the resale market
• You can finance through DVC, and Disney doesn’t report the loan to credit reporting agencies
• You can pay with a Rewards credit card and get points/cash back
• The full set of points you buy will be available immediately, versus a resale contract which may be “stripped” of points.
• If you don’t want the resorts they are currently selling (AKV/SSR), you may have to do some firm talking to a guide to convince them you really want an older resort.

Initial Purchase via Resale

• You may not get the exact number of points you want
• You can purchase less than 160 points for your initial buy-in to DVC (Disney won’t let you buy less than 160 points).
• It will take much longer to get into the DVC system and have your points (resales typically take 6-8 weeks)
• Disney may exercise ROFR and you may lose the resale and have to start all over (When buying resale, one of the potential pitfalls to try to avoid is making an offer that will cause Disney to exercise it’s Right of First Refusal)
• Resale is typically less expensive then buying from DVC
• You can’t finance through DVC, although most resale brokers will recommend a finance company
• A resale contract may be “stripped” of points where the user has used many of the current year’s points, and may have borrowed some or all of next year’s points. Just be aware of “stripped” contracts on the resale market.
• Easier to pickup large point packages at any of the older DVC resorts.

 

[pokesfan22]

I currently have 200 points, so I am not worried about having to buy 160. If I bought resale how is the maintance fee caculated? Do I have to pay it from the original contract or is it updated?

 

[minniekissedme]

If you purchase the same resort you'd now have MF on 200 + "x" for the new contract.
If you buy a different resort you pay MF on your 200 at resortA and MF on the new contract at resortB.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Although DVC Mike's list is correct that the price per point is higher buying direct, it is possible that the total cost for the points you get the right to use will actuallly be less. The reason is that DVC never sells a contract which has been "stripped" of current years points, but many sold at re-sale are stripped.

In addition, if you buy from DVC before the start of your UY, you will get an extra year's points, but pay no more in purchase price and little or nothing more in MF. So, when we bought our Aug UY in April in 2005, we got 2004 and 2005 points. We paid MF for 2/3 of the year, from April thru Dec.

As a result, if you can find a "fully loaded" resale contract, the lower price per point will save you money. However, if all you can find are 'stripped" resale contracts, you should do the math to see if the price per point is low enough to make up for the loss of one (or more) years worth of points.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[Laxmom]

The loaded contracts are out there if you are willing to look and be patient. I found our loaded contract on my 3rd phone call....on day 1 of my search.

 

[minniekissedme]

Although DVC Mike's list is correct that the price per point is higher buying direct, it is possible that the total cost for the points you get the right to use will actuallly be less. The reason is that DVC never sells a contract which has been "stripped" of current years points, but many sold at re-sale are stripped.

In addition, if you buy from DVC before the start of your UY, you will get an extra year's points, but pay no more in purchase price and little or nothing more in MF. So, when we bought our Aug UY in April in 2005, we got 2004 and 2005 points. We paid MF for 2/3 of the year, from April thru Dec.

As a result, if you can find a "fully loaded" resale contract, the lower price per point will save you money. However, if all you can find are 'stripped" resale contracts, you should do the math to see if the price per point is low enough to make up for the loss of one (or more) years worth of points.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

This makes it sound like you can't find any contracts of value in the resale market. First, there currently are well over 200 resales available on TTS alone. Add GMAC and DVCbyresale and now you're easily over 300. You surely will find a contract of value.
There are a number of "stripped" contracts and just as many current or loaded contracts. My resale purchase was for a large number of points with both '07 and '08. It was the first and only contract we offered on and were successful.
The major downside to resale IMO is the length of time it takes. If you have the time and patience to wait it out, resale to me is a no brainer. If you need your fix now, then Disney is your best option.

 

[FLYNZ4]

One advantage of adding on through Disney is that you can get your points issued in smaller contracts. For example... if you want to buy 150 points... you could get three 50 point... or six 25 point contracts and the cost to you is the same. This could make it very easy to sell if you ever want/need to.

/Jim

 

[SuzanneSLO]

This makes it sound like you can't find any contracts of value in the resale market.

It's not that you can't find them, its just that new owners may not realize that they need to look for a loaded contract if they really want to save money by buying resale (or reduce the offering price to account for the missing points). Most of the contracts listed on this board's sponsor are not loaded and many are stripped.

This may be because the best contracts are never listed. I understand that some brokers have a list and call interested customers when a good contract is offered for sale.

Again, for a potentail new owner, they just need to understand that you cannot just buy DVC resale and be assured that you are getting a better deal than buying from the developer. This, of course, is a stark contrast from almost all other timeshares. With DVC, you need to run the numbers. -- Suzanne