How many points to start with?

[michelleiada]

We started with 250 and it is absolutely not enough. honestly I wonder if you ever have enough.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

really depends on how long and how many trips you want to take each year or every other year. I would start small and you can always add on. We are a family of 5 and have 160 at BLT. considering we can do studios until Dec this year our points are lasting us longer. once we have to do a 1 bed or 2 bed it will mean shorter stays every other year. also if you get a loaded contract it will stretch your points some. check out where you would want a home resort and start there. have fun searching and if you see a contract you want put in an offer.

 

[DVCanadian]

Buy enough for 1 week in a 1 bedroom at most resorts. 250-300 will set you up nicely.
Don't worry about the end date. 30-40 years is plenty, adding more items to think about doesn't help. It is distracting.

 

[Mbm1014]

We bought resale. I actually ended up with 2 smaller contracts. I signed up for emails from most of the resale brokers. A lot of times listing emails go out before they are listed on the website. I shortly found out that If I saw something I liked I better make an offer as soon as I got the email.

When you made your offers, did you offer the asking price per point?? or offer a dollar or more less, etc?? wondering how much to negotiate?? thanks SO much!

 

[msjprincess]

When you made your offers, did you offer the asking price per point?? or offer a dollar or more less, etc?? wondering how much to negotiate?? thanks SO much!

With the first I offered asking price but asked for the buyers to pay for the maintenance fees for the current year. The sellers agreed. With the second, I know offered less but I don't recall exactly how much. At that point they already had several offers. I was having a hard time finding a small contract with the UY I wanted so I made a full price offer.

 

[lovin'fl]

We started with 200 and had 505 at one time but recently sold 100 so now we have 405. We are a family of 5 and our inlaws also use our points so the 405 is pretty decent and gets about 2 weeks worth of stays each year. To start I would recommend 150-175...but I also recommend buying smaller contracts because they are easier to resell if you ever need to downsize. So maybe start with a 100 pointer.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

We knew definitively where we wanted to stay (BLT) and that we'd want at least 7 nights each stay annually. So we looked at points charts and got that size contract to start. First step is knowing how much you'd like to spend. Then figure how often you want to go, how many nights you'll want to stay and see what you can afford from there.

 

[lorenni]

If you know you want AKV, then look at the point charts and see how much it would cost to go for the length you want (long weekends, one week?). I would not base your estimate on the shoulder seasons, as then you'll find yourself short once your currently unborn children are in school. In most places, school is mandatory around age 6 and many states are getting serious about truancy. Unless you intend to home school, I can bet you won't actually be going to Disney in the fall. Maybe in the spring, but that's potentially high season for points if you go during school breaks.

Most importantly, don't buy more than you can afford to pay for in cash. My first contract was 160 points because that's what I was comfortable paying for in cash. Now that we've established how we like to use our points, I'm buying another 100 points. We want enough to get a one bedroom for a week every year, knowing that in another year we won't be able to pull our son out of school whenever we want. Or to borrow/bank and get a 2 bedroom every other year or so.

 

[JWigs]

So we recently bought into DVC as well and we have 1 child who's almost 3. We didn't think we'd be those parents who took their kids to disney so young but low and behold we are.

We live in Seattle and we took 4 trips in 2 yes - 2x each to DLR and WDW.

So it made sense for us to buy in as we know this is going to be something we want to keep going at least once a year.

When we did our math, it made sense to buy at both coasts since we live on the west coast but love WDW.

So we did 160 at BLT and 160 at GC. So far, the only downside is that we won't need 160 at GC since it's more of a weekend trip for us but WDW you kinda want more points as we stay longer and more to see. So for now, it's working out ok but the 11 mo home resort window might hurt us later if we want to use some GC for Florida.

Like others said, buy the amount you feel comfortable with as you can add on later but selling is harder unless you bought contracts that you can sell easy (ie 4 100 pts contracts vs. One 400 pt contract)