Hard time deciding how many points we truly need.

[Girlstar30]

I would buy for MB but I wouldn’t buy just to rent.

Dont you come out ahead even if you buy just to rent until you need it for like a year? Curious cuz im in the same boat as her

 

[Girlstar30]

I would buy for MB but I wouldn’t buy just to rent.

Or would it make sense to take the mb this year and not go until next year instead of borrowing and going this year?

 

[VGCgroupie]

Dont you come out ahead even if you buy just to rent until you need it for like a year? Curious cuz im in the same boat as her

Renting comes with its own set of problems. Taxes. Buying to specifically rent right way could be a problem with DVC. Since we dont know what they look at, could they potentially look at a brand new contract and see bam 3 rentals right away and flag that? Possibly. Nobody knows for certain.
Lastly, why buy something now thats so expensive when it's not needed? The MB check comes to you without tax implications and its fully within the rules of DVC.

Buying with assumption of renting is just not something I personally think should be done.

 

[Girlstar30]

Renting comes with its own set of problems. Taxes. Buying to specifically rent right way could be a problem with DVC. Since we dont know what they look at, could they potentially look at a brand new contract and see bam 3 rentals right away and flag that? Possibly. Nobody knows for certain.
Lastly, why buy something now thats so expensive when it's not needed? The MB check comes to you without tax implications and its fully within the rules of DVC.

Buying with assumption of renting is just not something I personally think should be done.

Do you think that most people that do mb, borrow and go on a trip anyways, I am curious if id be the only one

 

[Brian Noble]

The biggest problem with buying to rent is that the ROI is not very good---and that is especially true for a developer purchase.

Take RIV for example. If you buy 200 and stack all available discounts, you can get it down to around $205/pt (it's a little more than that, but we'll be generous). Suppose you hit paydirt and get $21 for them, minus the $9.50 in Dues nets 11.50. And that sounds great, except that it is less than a 6% return, and it is a lot of work. Of course, it's less work if you use a broker, but now you are getting a payout of maybe $17, and that $7.50 net is an ROI of about 3.65%. You can match that in one year in a money market fund, with no work and essentially no risk.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Do you think that most people that do mb, borrow and go on a trip anyways, I am curious if id be the only one

I did MB and I did not end up borrowing any points.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I did MB and I did not end up borrowing any points.

Also I would add its important to time your direct purchase with MB correctly so you get the most for your money, all the more reason to wait and not buy right away if you don't need it right away. Buy right before your UY switches over.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Renting comes with its own set of problems. Taxes. Buying to specifically rent right way could be a problem with DVC. Since we dont know what they look at, could they potentially look at a brand new contract and see bam 3 rentals right away and flag that? Possibly. Nobody knows for certain.
Lastly, why buy something now thats so expensive when it's not needed? The MB check comes to you without tax implications and its fully within the rules of DVC.

Buying with assumption of renting is just not something I personally think should be done.

I’ve purchased loaded resale contracts and rented out the banked points plus current year points that I wouldn’t use to help offset the cost of purchase.

I also didn’t get to finance the resale purchase at 0% for 6m.

With direct, the cost of points will likely be higher in the future whereas with resale at least you have the chance the price could be the same or less.

Of course, I’ve also gone in with the plan of renting out the bonus points and ended up just using them for an extra trip or a YOLO room…. so….

 

[VGCgroupie]

I’ve purchased loaded resale contracts and rented out the banked points plus current year points that I wouldn’t use to help offset the cost of purchase.

I also didn’t get to finance the resale purchase at 0% for 6m.

With direct, the cost of points will likely be higher in the future whereas with resale at least you have the chance the price could be the same or less.

Of course, I’ve also gone in with the plan of renting out the bonus points and ended up just using them for an extra trip or a YOLO room…. so….

A current member who uses points as you do I can see no big deal buying contract and boom renting. I was more speaking on first time members, sometimes it's hard to remember whose scenario I am responding to since there are various threads and commenters.

 

[TinkAgainU]

To confuse the issue further. Are you certain you Never want to stay in the Disneyland Hotel? Their duos might be okay when you are older and want to go as a couple, and talk of the New Park next to DLH in 10 years might make that a nice option. I'm not thrilled with the extra taxes and Resale restrictions, but tossing it out as a thought. VGC is just very limited in number of rooms... if only getting 30-50 points Direct might makes sense for the flexibility.

 

[Sandisw]

A current member who uses points as you do I can see no big deal buying contract and boom renting. I was more speaking on first time members, sometimes it's hard to remember whose scenario I am responding to since there are various threads and commenters.

I honestly don't see DVC looking at this situation, even for a first time buyer, as an issue at all. It is not about renting....we can do that...it is about renting to a degree that DVC concludes you own for something other than vacation purposes.

Renting a handful of reservations isn't going to trigger a review...especially since there is no way for DVC to know whether the reservations are for family and friends

 

[ClaraOswald]

The biggest problem with buying to rent is that the ROI is not very good---and that is especially true for a developer purchase.

Take RIV for example. If you buy 200 and stack all available discounts, you can get it down to around $205/pt (it's a little more than that, but we'll be generous). Suppose you hit paydirt and get $21 for them, minus the $9.50 in Dues nets 11.50. And that sounds great, except that it is less than a 6% return, and it is a lot of work. Of course, it's less work if you use a broker, but now you are getting a payout of maybe $17, and that $7.50 net is an ROI of about 3.65%. You can match that in one year in a money market fund, with no work and essentially no risk.

Well, for us, I think the main reason we might purchase a year earlier than needed would be so that the trips we take on our existing points during that time frame, we'd have member benefits like discounts and lounge access. We don't look at everything from a purely financial point of view. (If we did, we likely would NEVER purchase DVC.)

For example, our current travel plans....
VGC - June 2026 - 6 nights - 1 bedroom
BRV - January 2027 - 7 nights - 1 bedroom
VGC - June 2027 - 6 nights - 1 bedroom
BRV - January 2028 - 7 nights - 1 bedroom

We have a lot of banked points currently that we will be using for those trips so we don't technically need anymore points west coast points until a June 2028 trip. Well, we'd want the points by July 2027 in order to book at 11 months.

If we choose to buy direct at that time, we wouldn't have any member benefits until after 3 over above trips were taken.

Of course, none of these trips are written in stone, by any means. There's always a chance we could take less trips. But not much of a chance of taking more trips as the cost of park tickets and other travel expenses are nuts.

To confuse the issue further. Are you certain you Never want to stay in the Disneyland Hotel? Their duos might be okay when you are older and want to go as a couple, and talk of the New Park next to DLH in 10 years might make that a nice option. I'm not thrilled with the extra taxes and Resale restrictions, but tossing it out as a thought. VGC is just very limited in number of rooms... if only getting 30-50 points Direct might makes sense for the flexibility.

I think at the beginning of the thread, I was focusing more on getting more resale at VGC. Currently, I'm on the fence between more VGC resale or getting some direct VDH and alternating where we stay. (Really leaning toward VDH now.) But no, we would likely never be traveling as a couple as we will never be empty nesters. And honestly, I don't think I'd enjoy a duo even if we were.

 

[Chili327]

I’ve been catching up on this thread for about 3 days now (I love this kind of thread), so I may be replying to some pretty old stuff. lol

I hadn't really thought about using direct at WDW eventually. Definitely something to consider as well. I'll be really curious to see what we think of VDH when we walk over there this December!

If you don’t NEED more points for a VGC stay I’d definitely keep it in mind to buy points that are usable at WDW.

So then once every 5-years you end up in a 2 bedroom?

I forget why I quoted this, but it’s probably just to say… this is the way.

Have you compared the point charts for the two resorts? They are SO different and have different seasons, so it is worth looking at them very closely.

This is very good advice right now, but maybe not so important down the road, but now is all we can go on.

I still feel like the cheaper upfront cost of VDH is probably a wash when you add up TOT costs.

As for expiration...our ages will be
2060 - 79, 81
2074 - 93, 95

Scary.

I’ll be 90 & 104… yes scary indeed. lol
I think as long as you’re getting 25-30 years it makes no difference, except possibly in resale if selling late in the contract life.

Well, tonight, my husband said he wouldn't mind going to WDW every winter with maybe just a one off year here or there with a DLR winter trip. He's missing WDW right now in this long gap. And also, he prefers our flight to Florida (non-stop) over the one with a layover to CA. (We don't do road trips in winter months.)

So I guess now I'll need to take some time to run some point scenarios with doing a WDW trip most winters. This actually would mean possibly less Disneyland than originally planned then. At least until 2032 and beyond.

I completely feel this. I love DLR, but WDW is hard to stay away from for a whole year!!

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Since there's really no real way to know what we'll do eventually. It would just be a bummer to end up with too little points...or too many.

You’re ALWAYS going to have one or the other. You can’t possibly always have the exact right amount of points for every trip.

We aren't exactly sure when we will buy. I suppose if the unicorn VGC popped up sometime in 2026, we may consider it, if we could financially swing it with the home projects we have coming up.

Otherwise, who knows....still could do 2026. Or 2027. I don't suspect we'd want to wait too much longer than that but I guess we'll see.

Look at it like this… you can buy 150x48 points now for $235/pp or you can buy 150x46 points later for $235/pp or more.
Point being, waiting doesn’t save you any money.

Go Go Go…Merry Christmas Time! But buy when it’s an advantage to your UY. (Getting prior year points). That would be in January for all the UY’s. (otherwise up to a month before your UY year in 2026).

Don’t cookie cut the contract to 150. Be fun like: get 155. The 1st Walt Disney Park, opening in 1955!

Love it!!!
Makes me want to buy 55 VDH.
I have 39 AKV and 161 BLT to get 200.

But IF you want 160 points anyways then it costs you nothing more to find a FW that has around that point number….

Doesn’t it cost 10% more?

With direct, the cost of points will likely be higher in the future whereas with resale at least you have the chance the price could be the same or less.

For less points (total)

Of course, I’ve also gone in with the plan of renting out the bonus points and ended up just using them for an extra trip or a YOLO room…. so….

Again… This is the way.



@ClaraOswald i thought I had quoted one of your posts with all the scenarios you ran to check on points and costs etc, but I wanted to ask what kind of program do you use to compare, or do you just copy and paste into a word doc like me?

 

[tx911]

Love it!!!
Makes me want to buy 55 VDH.

Buy 1955 at VDH and 1971 at Poly!

 

[ClaraOswald]

I’ve been catching up on this thread for about 3 days now (I love this kind of thread), so I may be replying to some pretty old stuff. lol

Thanks for taking the time to read all of my rambling thoughts!

If you don’t NEED more points for a VGC stay I’d definitely keep it in mind to buy points that are usable at WDW.

Well, if we wanted to stay at VGC every single Disneyland trip then we would need more (to stay in a 1-bedroom.) But if we alternate with VDH, then we wouldn't.

Of course, after 2042, if we needed to use those VDH points to go to WDW....then we'd be back in the same boat. But that's a future me problem, I guess. I'm thinking in 2042, we'll have to decide how often we will want to do each park and then go from there to see if we want to purchase more points somewhere.

I forget why I quoted this, but it’s probably just to say… this is the way.



This is very good advice right now, but maybe not so important down the road, but now is all we can go on.



I’ll be 90 & 104… yes scary indeed. lol
I think as long as you’re getting 25-30 years it makes no difference, except possibly in resale if selling late in the contract life.

Yeah, since we couldn't pass our contract down to our son, we will definitely be selling things once we're too old to go enough to rationalize the cost. But I'm "only" 44 so I would hope I'll have at least 25 years. Of course, none of us know what the future holds, especially healthwise. But I like to try to stay positive. Even with my RA, I think I would still enjoy the parks if I needed a scooter or walker. Disneyland would be easier with that than WDW though.

I completely feel this. I love DLR, but WDW is hard to stay away from for a whole year!!

I've had such big gaps between trips before (2008-2010-2012-2024) so I really didn't think much of skipping a year. But I'm missing it a lot right now. More than I expected.

You’re ALWAYS going to have one or the other. You can’t possibly always have the exact right amount of points for every trip.

That's so true. I suppose I should try not to focus on that aspect.

Look at it like this… you can buy 150x48 points now for $235/pp or you can buy 150x46 points later for $235/pp or more.
Point being, waiting doesn’t save you any money.


Love it!!!
Makes me want to buy 55 VDH.
I have 39 AKV and 161 BLT to get 200.



Doesn’t it cost 10% more?



For less points (total)



Again… This is the way.



@ClaraOswald i thought I had quoted one of your posts with all the scenarios you ran to check on points and costs etc, but I wanted to ask what kind of program do you use to compare, or do you just copy and paste into a word doc like me?

I'm actually slightly more "old school" and just write things down. Well, these days I write them on my Kindle Scribe...so it's a little more high tech than pencil and paper. But barely. Ha!

 

[AstroBlasters]

I’ve been catching up on this thread for about 3 days now w(I love this kind of thread), so I may be replying to


You’re ALWAYS going to have one or the other. You can’t possibly always have the exact right amount of points for every trip.



Look at it like this… you can buy 150x48 points now for $235/pp or you can buy 150x46 points later for $235/pp or more.
Point being, waiting doesn’t save you any money.


Love it!!!
Makes me want to buy 55 VDH.
I have 39 AKV and 161 BLT to get 200.



Doesn’t it cost 10% more?



For less points (total)



Again… This is the way.

If someone is going to buy 160 points anyways then it does not cost any more to buy those 160 points in a fixed week.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Yeah, since we couldn't pass our contract down to our son, we will definitely be selling things once we're too old to go enough to rationalize the cost. But I'm "only" 44 so I would hope I'll have at least 25 years. Of course, none of us know what the future holds, especially healthwise. But I like to try to stay positive. Even with my RA, I think I would still enjoy the parks if I needed a scooter or walker. Disneyland would be easier with that than WDW though.

I’m sure you’ve thought about this but worth mentioning VDH has 14 more years than VGC and that’s worth something even with it being restricted providing you are keeping it for a long time.

Also come 2042 since you mention 2042 if you are still going to the the parks VDH will get you more places to stay than a resale VGC will and your home resort in WDW will also have expired so being able to choose those newer restricted resorts will be hugely beneficial.

If you were comparing VDH to resale basically anywhere else maybe VDH doesn’t make sense for you financially but you are comparing it to the most expensive DVC resort on any coast.