We're a big fan of purchasing smaller contracts... for a few reasons... but mostly for the ability to have 11mo booking at multiple resorts.
We toured (on our own, not through DVC) most of the Disney World DVC resorts prior to purchasing. We took a couple of afternoons of a trip and went to each resort, walked around and had dinner. We eliminated a few just by doing that (and eliminated one before we even arrived). Our favorite by far was OKW so we bought our first contract and put the rest on a short list for when we were ready to add-on. We spent the next few trips doing some split stays to get a better read on the resorts that ended up on our short list. BLT, BCV, BWV, were our choices, in that order. Nothing really excited us until we stayed at BWV... Location, two booking categories, location, great food options, and location.