From a purely financial stand point....

[crisi]

MikeBW,

If you sell those points resale today, they will be worth between $60 and $65. Plus you will pay a commission, the one I'm buying has a commission of 12% So your points at top dollar are worth $57 each. Ignoring the money saved on vacations, and looking at is as simply cash in, cash out, you are currently losing money on your $62 a point purchase, a breaking even on your $57 a point purchase. Better than I'm doing with Lucent stock, but not by any means a good return.

 

[Jon99]

My position... She (we) bought a house about 6 months ago, we both work and we are hoping that once children arrive daycare will be minimal ( our mothers are very willing to watch them and then my wife teaches so she has summers off)...

We have thought this through pretty well, I put 16% into my 401K, we put another few thousand into a Roth IRA and she will recieve her teachers pension when she retires so we would not be doing this instead of retirement planning..

And to us, going on nice vacations is the one area we would like to spoil ourselves and the DVC seems like a nice tool for this goal... I just want to look back 20 years from now and say "Yes, we made the right choice"...

 

[MikeBW]

crisi,

Where did you get that $60-$65 per point? Someone on ebay was selling for $100 per point. My points are all at BWV which is sold out. I bet (if I was in the market) that I could get higher than $65/pt.
p.s. I also own Lucent - it's at $4.85

 

[TheWho]

Jon99,
You sound like you have things under control (financially). I'm in the same position as you but a couple steps later (I have two kids, one in daycare & one in kindergarten, wife's also a teacher). We do the rat race for 10 months a year and we decided we deserve a summer vacation at the BEST family resort in the world utilizing the BEST accomodations. The answer of course was DVC.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Tinkrbell]

MikeBW-Just check out the Time Share Store.

Most resales average for about $62/pt. It really depends on how many banked, borrowed or used points you have for resale. Minus the commision, Minus annual dues that the seller pays (why should a buyer pay dues for part of a year they can't or didn't even use?) and possibly closing costs, you could end up with a LOT less than $62/pt


As for $100/pt on ebay, I don't know what their thinking???? Not even Disney has them for that price.

 

[crisi]

MikeBW,

I'm in the process of buying a BWV resale at $63 a point - and spent a little time watching the resale market. I didn't get the best deal - but did get what appears to be close to the going rate. The resale had been on the market a few weeks, and I paid the asking price - so at $63 a point the owner wasn't swamped with offers.

Check out the resale web sites for a good idea of what points are listing for....and remember that buyers usually offer a buck or two off the posted price (and often expect to get it).

Sometimes eBay is an amazing place

(And hey, I didn't own eToys).

Jon, you sound like you are doing darn well and have thought ahead. Good luck on your purchase.

 

[MikeBW]

Before this gets out of hand (like 5 people in a 1BR), my point was the price/pt has appreciated. When I bought in 1999, the retail price from Disney was $65 and it is going up to $80 on June 1.

 

[Caskbill]

Sometimes 'investment' return is more than just the current dollar value of the holdings, be it a stock, or a DVC point.

Even if my investment dollar wise was exactly what I paid for it, I would consider the 'value' received from DVC stays worth something.

If I pay $650 in dues and receive accommodations that would have cost me $3000 otherwise, then I look at the difference of $2350 sort of as a dividend.

If I paid $15000 for a stock last year, and it didn't go up a penny all year, but paid an annual dividend of $2350, I would be extremely pleased.

So owning $15,000 of DVC points is similar to owning $15,000 of say a Mutual Fund which paid a $2350 stock divident, then added $650 of my own money, and made a $3000 ressie at a DVC resort.

Exact same effect. It's all how you look at it. Now consider that I get that same 'dividend' every year.

Of course you can play all you want with the numbers and 'value' received, but I think the point is valid.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by MikeBW
Before this gets out of hand (like 5 people in a 1BR), my point was the price/pt has appreciated. When I bought in 1999, the retail price from Disney was $65 and it is going up to $80 on June 1.

The retail cost of buying DVC has increased (call it inflaction) and the resale value has increased but to a lessor degree and will start to decline eventuall. If one bought 2 years ago at say $65 pp (total including closing) and sold today at $60 pp (less the sales commisions), that's not bad. Assuming normal usage, one would lose only about $2500 on a 200 point contract and, as noted, the usage is definitely worth something.

 

[dianeschlicht]

You have gotten very good information on this thread. You sound like DVC would be a great plan for you. We purchased in '97 about 6 years later than we wanted to. Our only regret is that we didn't do it sooner. We thought we had to pay in full though, 'cuz DH didn't want another payment. We have LOVED our DVC and know we will continue to love it for another 42 years.