How do I begin!!!

[Cleopatra77]

I would love some personal guidelines for a first timer also

 

[UberClaire]

1. Figure out which resort you want to make your home base.

2. Look at the point chart for that resort. Figure out how often you want to go, at what time of year, and in what kind of room. That will determine the number of points that you need.

3. Decide between buying direct or buying resale.

 

[intamin]

First off I'd recommend doing some of your own research before coming on here or else you'll just get a whole bunch of information thrown at you.

If you just go onto youtube and type in DVC 101, DVC Fan put out a few videos that goes into the bare minimum basics you should learn about first.

I personally also recommend videos from Magic In the Music, I feel like I learned quite a lot of information from her videos when I was trying to get my bearings on how to make sense of everything.

If you have any specific questions after you've watched those videos feel free to come back and post here. A lot of the decisions are based on personal preference.

1. Which resort would you like to have most of your visits to?
2. When are you most likely to vacation?
3. Are you even a good candidate for DVC, AKA are you able to book your vacations at 11 months or 7 months out as availability is pretty poor within the last 3 months before a reservation?
4. How much are you looking to spend? AKA direct vs resale and are the perks (typically 10% off food/merch in certain locations, lounges, events, AP discounts) important to you to be able to book newer resorts and do you care about restrictions?
5. How long do you want the contract to last? AKA different resorts have DVC contracts that expire in different years

Just a few questions to start off with but you don't even have to look at those yet, watch the youtube videos first and get back to us with any questions you have.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

1. Figure out which resort you want to make your home base.

2. Look at the point chart for that resort. Figure out how often you want to go, at what time of year, and in what kind of room. That will determine the number of points that you need.

3. Decide between buying direct or buying resale.

I’d add to this: Decide what type of room you need. If you need studios, home resort priority matters. If you like 1 bedrooms, then home resort priority doesn’t matter as much and purchasing at a cheaper resort like SSR for sleep around points might make more sense.

 

[stwaldman]

I would love some personal guidelines for a first timer also

Not sure where you are in your journey, but do research on the product and see how your desire (or hypothetical desire) for the product fits in. TheDVC show's first year of programming was very "new buyer" centric and was educational from that perspective. The board sponsor and other resale marketplaces have their own sponcon related to first time buyers that obviously will push you towards buying, but are still helpful. Start to hone in on why you want this, what you want out of it, and get more specific from there. When you think you're ready to start shopping, find content and research that is more specific to the current buying process (current pricing, state of resorts, fan preferences, etc.).

 

[RoseGold]

You watch some videos or listen to some podcasts or read, read, read. Then you come back with your specific question(s), and you do it again.

This is a complicated product.

 

[tom1944]

You watch some videos or listen to some podcasts or read, read, read. Then you come back with your specific question(s), and you do it again.

This is a complicated product.

And once you think you have enough information to make an informed decision someone posts something you did not consider and you reevaluate

 

[Straulin]

After your purchase, the things you didn’t think about continue to pop up. We bought our first contract last June and I am still learning. Most importantly, addonitis is real.

Addonitis: The need for more DVC points no matter how many you already have.

As others have said watch you tube videos and read articles to learn enough to be able to know what questions to ask. DVC 101 is a great place to start.

Be sure get a basic understanding of the following:
- Use Year
- banking points
- borrowing points
- holding points
- direct vs resale benefits
- resale restrictions for newer resorts (currently only Riviera but more are coming soon).
- point charts
- booking windows
- contract expiration dates
- annual dues