Get as good of rooms with resale ownership and other questions

[MommiePrincess]

Hi,
Thinking of purchasing resale as is it SOOOO much less than direct from Disney. We are DVC owners who bought direct Disney with all our contracts. I'm wondering if anyone has noticed that they receive rooms that are not quite the best views or locations when making reservations with resale contract points. I have read on the board that somehow it is noted in your membership number so DIsney knows who buys direct and not. I am concerned about getting less then par room views etc if purchasing resale.

Also, does anyone know if Disney DVC guides actually preview the resale contracts that DIsney is allowed to repurchase (and nixing us out of a deal). I am in contact with a widely known DVC guide and I'.m afraid he will squelch our resale purchase if he sees our family name on an asking price offer when he has been in discussions with us. He keeps telling me how horrible it is to go resale and that Disney will more then likely purchase the contract and put us three months behind things with no ownership.

How often does Disney actually pull the plug on our resale offers (regarding Aulani)?

Any other ways resales are treated less then equal in relation to Disney DVC purchase?
Thanks much!

 

[disneynutz]

The resort who deals with the rooms could care less where you bought from.

Guides don't review ROFR it's all about the money, based on several factors if buying a resale contract will make Disney the required money, they ROFR.

Guides are nothing more than sales people with no power and often know less than we do.

Bill

 

[MommiePrincess]

Thanks for your reply Bill!
I see you have lots of experience with this. So in your opinion, you feel that purchasing resale is the way to go? I'm not concerned about not being able to use points for other hotels, cruises etc. I just want to be assured that we can't be shorted of something for some obscure reason that Disney might implement (like we as resale purchasers get less desirable rooms). My guide seemed angry that i asked him why i shouldn't purchase resale. He said that
"they WILL buy out our Contract". He said you cant get something for nothing, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder - I was concerned he'd be looking for our name.......

 

[disneynutz]

Thanks for your reply Bill!
I see you have lots of experience with this. So in your opinion, you feel that purchasing resale is the way to go? I'm not concerned about not being able to use points for other hotels, cruises etc. I just want to be assured that we can't be shorted of something for some obscure reason that Disney might implement (like we as resale purchasers get less desirable rooms). My guide seemed angry that i asked him why i shouldn't purchase resale. He said that
"they WILL buy out our Contract". He said you cant get something for nothing, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder - I was concerned he'd be looking for our name.......

For Disney it's all about the money. Buying DVC for you it should also be about the money. Why pay full retail when you can buy at a discount?
We have purchased direct and resale depending on the circumstances at the time. My guide knows that he doesn't always get all of our business and he still calls me often.

Buy resale

Get a different guide.

Bill

 

[supersnoop]

Thanks for your reply Bill!
I see you have lots of experience with this. So in your opinion, you feel that purchasing resale is the way to go? I'm not concerned about not being able to use points for other hotels, cruises etc. I just want to be assured that we can't be shorted of something for some obscure reason that Disney might implement (like we as resale purchasers get less desirable rooms). My guide seemed angry that i asked him why i shouldn't purchase resale. He said that
"they WILL buy out our Contract". He said you cant get something for nothing, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder - I was concerned he'd be looking for our name.......

If you want a small (~50 point) contract at VGF or any contract at the Poly, you need to buy direct. If you want a really small (25 point) contract anywhere, you should consider direct. Otherwise, resale makes more sense.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have 1400 plus points over half bought on resale. I reserve all room online. No way that the system can differentiate how you got your points once you have a member number. Have never had a probkem getting the room I wanted when I wanted it.

 

[tjkraz]

Also, does anyone know if Disney DVC guides actually preview the resale contracts that DIsney is allowed to repurchase (and nixing us out of a deal). I am in contact with a widely known DVC guide and I'.m afraid he will squelch our resale purchase if he sees our family name on an asking price offer when he has been in discussions with us. He keeps telling me how horrible it is to go resale and that Disney will more then likely purchase the contract and put us three months behind things with no ownership.

There are people who are convinced that DVC exercised ROFR on their attempted resale purchase for this very reason. Whether that's true or just coincidence is for you to decide.

DVC reviews every attempted resale purchase individually. There is often little rhyme or reason to their buy-backs. In fact, I'm quite sure there are many instances where DVC purchased a less-attractive contract while letting better ones slide through.

Contracts which have a lot of banked points or where the seller is paying current year dues tend to attract more of their attention.

Bottom line is you have nothing to lose. If the price difference is as significant as most resale purchases, getting hit with ROFR shouldn't discourage you. Even if Disney does target you personally, they won't keep buying back contract-after-contract indefinitely.

 

[Minniesgal]

There are people who are convinced that DVC exercised ROFR on their attempted resale purchase for this very reason. Whether that's true or just coincidence is for you to decide.

DVC reviews every attempted resale purchase individually. There is often little rhyme or reason to their buy-backs. In fact, I'm quite sure there are many instances where DVC purchased a less-attractive contract while letting better ones slide through.

Contracts which have a lot of banked points or where the seller is paying current year dues tend to attract more of their attention.

Bottom line is you have nothing to lose. If the price difference is as significant as most resale purchases, getting hit with ROFR shouldn't discourage you. Even if Disney does target you personally, they won't keep buying back contract-after-contract indefinitely.

In 2013 we asked our guide to put us on a wait list for VGC points. About 2 days later I saw the perfect contract resale and put in an offer. I was convinced it would get ROFR but I kept my waitlist anyway as I really wanted the points. We got the resale contract same resort same UY that I was waiting from from Disney. As my resale closed my guide called me to tell me he would have points soon but that he had seen I had bought some resale and asked if I still wanted them. Au cancelled the waitlist and he was great with me. I have bought direct again from him twice and he has never treated me any differently.

In my opinion if the right contract is out there for you resale the savings are too great to pass them by out of fear of something that may never happen in the future. I hate to see DVC try and manage a room allocation system that priorities the better rooms for direct purchasers. I can't see this happening.

When it comes to booking a DVC resorts A point is a point is a point.

 

[sndral]

Thanks for your reply Bill!
... My guide seemed angry that i asked him why i shouldn't purchase resale. He said that
"they WILL buy out our Contract". He said you cant get something for nothing, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder - I was concerned he'd be looking for our name.......

IMO, life is too short to be harassed, patronized or demeaned by a salesman for a timeshare. Your guide probably was angry - because unless you buy direct at inflated prices he doesn't make his commission. I'd call DVC and ask to be assigned to another guide and ask that my current guide be prohibited from contacting me in the future if a guide became angry at me.
Of course, I've only bought once and that was resale and have never spoken to a guide. If I have a guide s/he missed the boat when VGF opened, as I would probably have bought direct there if they'd called me

 

[CMNJ]

We have 1400 plus points over half bought on resale. I reserve all room online. No way that the system can differentiate how you got your points once you have a member number. Have never had a probkem getting the room I wanted when I wanted it.

DVC definitely knows if the points are resale/direct (otherwise wouldn't be able to exclude resale owners from cruises, disney collection, etc) but that doesn't affect ability to book avail DVC rooms.
OP also agree with previous posters that the room scheduler at the resort decides who gets which rooms based on both requests and when rooms are turned over and I highly doubt they know or care which way you bought your points.
As for them ROFRing your contract back because you were talking to a guide I find that highly unlikely-we were on the waiting list for BWV then found a contract resale for exactly what we waitlisted and Disney didn't take it back. Also if I am not mistaken Disney is still actively selling Aulani so unless the contract is way out of the norm for price or some other ROFR red flag I would think they wouldn't want to take on more points at this time.
Also your guide is lying about time frame-unless you have a delayed closing (ie seller has a vaca booked and listing says cannot close until xx/xx/xx) disney ROFR is typically delivered in 30 days-the whole process may take 3 months (disney seems to be delaying resales a little more than usual recently) but you'd know about a month after submitting contract to disney for ROFR (and possibly sooner) if you were going to "have something to show for it"

 

[LisaS]

I remember my guide telling me that Disney buys back every contract via ROFR so buying resale was a waste of time. I had spent 6 months reading posts here prior to deciding to buy into DVC and had studied the ROFR thread here so I knew that was completely false. It's just something that some of the guides will say to try to dissuade you from purchasing on the resale market. I ended up buying resale. Disney did not exercise ROFR and they were taking a lot of contracts back then.

I can understand why a guide might get annoyed if he has invested time talking to a prospect only to have them ask about buying resale instead of direct. DVC guides cannot negotiate on price so there is not much they can do to compete with resale other than to use scare tactics. From the guide's perspective, the fact that you knew about resale meant he had most likely lost the sale and had just wasted a lot of time and will have nothing to show for it.

Re: room assignments, I have had some great rooms and some not so great rooms when using my resale points. The same is true when using the points I purchased directly from Disney. I think the room assigner's job is hard enough without asking them to factor in whether direct or resale points were used to book the room so I seriously doubt it's a consideration. If it were, the guides would be using it as a sales tactic.

 

[disneynutz]

Often our reservations may be comprised of direct and resale points or direct or resale and with almost 100 reservations, I can tell you that the type of points used are not a consideration to the room assigner. Our room requests are met about 60% of the time.

Bill

 

[MommiePrincess]

Thanks so much for the replies and interesting conversations!! Keep them coming.
FYI the resale advertised price per points at Aulani are between 100-110 per point (More closer to 100-105, then 110) DVC is selling for 165 per point with a developer credit (not sure if they offer that to everyone) which takes it to about 150-158 a point. That is a huge difference as we are looking at 400-600 points!! My guide has no idea the number of points we are looking at. We did stay in the DVC villas about 8 months ago and paid cash to Aulani for it, the guide said he would ensure we had a great view. Nope.....he didn't follow through. We had an "OK" ocean view (which we paid for in full) at best. Also said he could have his driver pick us up, which I said no thanks. Also said he would send coloring books, pens, t shirts, and goodie bags for my 4 kids...didn't do that either. I'm not mad about that...but it didn't help my desire to spend full price through DVC to purchase points. But for him to say smuggly (not mad, but smug) that "DVC WILL purchase the resale contract when it
comes though", makes me very nervous. That almost seems unethical if is not normal practice.

 

[LisaS]

To help put your mind at ease re: ROFR, take a look at the data provided by folks here on the DIS.

ROFR thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/ro...lease-read-1st-post-for-instructions.3364441/

 

[ziravan]

Thanks so much for the replies and interesting conversations!! Keep them coming.
FYI the resale advertised price per points at Aulani are between 100-110 per point (More closer to 100-105, then 110) DVC is selling for 165 per point with a developer credit (not sure if they offer that to everyone) which takes it to about 150-158 a point. That is a huge difference as we are looking at 400-600 points!! My guide has no idea the number of points we are looking at. We did stay in the DVC villas about 8 months ago and paid cash to Aulani for it, the guide said he would ensure we had a great view. Nope.....he didn't follow through. We had an "OK" ocean view (which we paid for in full) at best. Also said he could have his driver pick us up, which I said no thanks. Also said he would send coloring books, pens, t shirts, and goodie bags for my 4 kids...didn't do that either. I'm not mad about that...but it didn't help my desire to spend full price through DVC to purchase points. But for him to say smuggly (not mad, but smug) that "DVC WILL purchase the resale contract when it
comes though", makes me very nervous. That almost seems unethical if is not normal practice.

Whether you buy direct or resale, do not buy a single 4-600 point contract! That will be almost impossible to resale if your life circumstances change. Buy several 100 point contracts.

 

[SarahInMN]

We bought BCV resale and are very glad we did: previous posters have talked about price advantage, I won't rehash that, but there are other options beyond cost. First, disney said it would be "months" before they could find us BCV points and kept steering us to BLT and AKV. Which drove us nuts and we were convinced they would hold on selling us BCV waiting for us to buy BLT or AKV. Second, we were able to find the contact we wanted not that someone else wanted to sell us. Third, even with ROFR, it was fast: we started looking, found a contact within a week, placed a bid, and went to ROFR about 10 days after we started looking. ROFR took (i think 4 weeks) and about 2 weeks after that we had a member number and booked our first stay.

We've always been happy with our rooms (although lets be honest the views at BCV are more or less the same - pool, grounds, forest), we have not noticed any different in how we have even treated since we bought VGF direct (i.e. better once we bought direct vs before), and have been happy with our purchases.

That said we are pretty low maintenance DVC members- we book generally at 10-11 months out, rarely call member services, and have no interest in trading out. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that I successfully booked a stay at VGC: I got us a studio at the 7 month mark for 5 nights in May 2015 (I was prepared to spend points for 1 br but got the studio). I never thought we'd be able to successfully book California without a home advantage but we did it.

We will likely add on VGC in the near future and will purchase on the resale market, no doubt about it.

 

[suebeelin]

Don't buy a 400-600pt contract!! It will be much harder to resell! Get 2/3 contracts (150-250pts/contract) same use year ....

 

[nalajms]

Whether you buy direct or resale, do not buy a single 4-600 point contract! That will be almost impossible to resale if your life circumstances change. Buy several 100 point contracts.

It's not impossible. You pay lower per point for big contracts. You'll sell at lower per point. You pay higher for smaller contracts, and you'll sell at higher.

The important thing to consider is if you decide later on that you only need half the points. It's harder to downsize if you have a large contract. You'd have to sell it all then rebuy. I wouldn't go as far as buying several 100pt contracts, but perhaps 160-200pt ones.

 

[Dean]

Thanks for your reply Bill!
I see you have lots of experience with this. So in your opinion, you feel that purchasing resale is the way to go? I'm not concerned about not being able to use points for other hotels, cruises etc. I just want to be assured that we can't be shorted of something for some obscure reason that Disney might implement (like we as resale purchasers get less desirable rooms). My guide seemed angry that i asked him why i shouldn't purchase resale. He said that
"they WILL buy out our Contract". He said you cant get something for nothing, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder - I was concerned he'd be looking for our name.......

Resale is the way to go for most situations. The ONLY exceptions are when the dollar difference is small (small package or small price difference) and in some cases, when you can't buy the option resale (Poly for example). You lose NOTHING of value when you do so and once you're a member, you're treated the same for usage options when used at DVC. Now it's possible that in the future DVD/DVC will change options in such a way that resale buyers of non qualified points will actually be truly affected. One needs to go in understanding that. I don't feel it affects the decision in any way IF DVC makes sense otherwise but just to be prepared. Just like people need to think through scenarios including job changes, family issues/illness, job losses, divorce, children don't want it, even if the parks close and a host of other such possibilities. I'm confident in saying that Disney doesn't look for your name to be vindictive and take it with that in mind though they could in the future and it's unlikely the guide would even know until the ROFR decision had even been made.

Whether you buy direct or resale, do not buy a single 4-600 point contract! That will be almost impossible to resale if your life circumstances change. Buy several 100 point contracts.

I would agree that buying very large contracts creates some potential issues IF one decides to sell later. However, I'd suggest that issue is often overstated and that the added cost of the "insurance" to ensure very small contracts is almost never worth it once you get under 150 per and often not at 150 or above. IF one has the options, certainly take it, but don't pay as much as $10 a point or more simply for that insurance. Sometimes one can find smaller contracts that are part of a larger package, buy the entire package and get a reduced rate on the closing and the lower price that would come with a larger contract. Certainly if one buys a VERY large contract at a lower demand options, it'll be an issue. 1000 pt contracts at VB, HH, OKW, AKV or SSR would certainly create long term risk that is avoidable, far less so for VGF and the like. The other thing that large contracts often do is remove the opportunity to have multiple home resorts at a reasonable price and usage situation. And while it's nice to have options, IMO one should never go into a DVC purchase with the plan to sell later. For most situations I'd start to break up the contracts once you can have multiple ones that are in the 200-270 range.

 

[chalee94]

But for him to say smuggly (not mad, but smug) that "DVC WILL purchase the resale contract when it comes though", makes me very nervous. That almost seems unethical if is not normal practice.

timeshare salespeople? unethical?

i'm afraid you are up to speed with the situation now...

DVC "guides" are not "guides" - they are just salespeople who make money if you buy from them and don't make anything if you save money by purchasing resale.