How often do you have to go to make DVC worth it?

[gerrym51]

We bought in 1993 230 points at 56 dollars a point OKW 7 years of free park tickets.

I would say averaging going once every 18 months. we usually stay in the one bedroom at OKW but have used our points at BW,Beachclub,animal kingdom lodge,Wilderfness lodge,Grand Floridian.

this year we are getting a grand villa at OKW.

I agree you can go cheaper than DVC if you use the cheaper resorts-but the comfort of DVC accomodations cannot be beat.

 

[bigAWL]

Concerning the question about how long it takes to be "worth it" or "make sense" or "have value" or however you think of it... every family's story is different. Our purpose was not necessarily to save money. We find the value of DVC in the way it has changed our vacations: for a family of 6, 2BR suites with family rooms and kitchens are so much more relaxing than connecting hotel rooms. It also has encouraged us to go more often or for longer trips, without the extra worry of the cost of lodging.

Some people don't want to be locked into Disney vacations every year. But we live and work overseas, and when we return for a trip to the U.S., Disney is almost always something we want to do as part of a larger vacation (usually tacked on before a cruise). So DVC really made sense for us, and it had very little to do with saving money. We figured out how much we could afford and went with it.

This is the first year since we purchased in 2010 that we won't be making a Disney Parks trip, so we rented out some extra points through Dave's rental site. It was very easy, and took off any pressure to use up all our points. At least it pays for the dues.

Note that if you intend to use points at Grand Californian, you need to own there. ESPECIALLY if you are looking at going around Christmas. Its a very small resort, its the only place to use points at Disneyland or the West Coast, and its very difficult to book at the seven month window.

There are other availability issues you should research to make sure its a good deal for you, but that one sticks out from what you said you intend to do.

I'd say this is probably true in general (not always, but more often than not). We are mainly WDW people, but wanted the option of visiting Disneyland every once in a while. We purchased Grand Californian points so we would be sure to have 11-month priority when we did need it.

As for WDW, there are so many options, we felt that it didn't matter to us which one we stayed at. As it has worked out over the years, we have managed 7-month reservations at BLT, BCV, AKV, and SSR. We will keep trying for BWV, and will now start targeting VGF. But if we end up at SSR or AKV most trips, it doesn't worry us. We have not found a resort we don't like.

BLT is probably our favorite right now, but we always intended to stay at as many different resorts as possible. So the home resort option is not nearly as important to us in WDW as it is in Disneyland.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have over 1400 points at seven resorts. And we bought many on the secondary market, saving a lot of money. Yes the cost was high and the maintenance is about 9000 or 10000 a year. But we go to Disney at least twice a year plus aulani which we own and have been to twice. And we stay for a minimum of seven days up to 12 days at a time. Plus we give days away to our kids and friends. Over an 18 month period ending last spring, I figured thst we had used or give away 60 days in a variety Of resorts. That included 10 nights at aulani in a two bedroom ocean front, which is a minimum of 1000 a night. So, in our mind, it is worth it. We would never spend that kind of money if we were paying cash. Our adult kids love Disney and will use the points long after we are fine.

 

[barngro]

My only regret is not buying sooner! We literally spent 10's of thousands of dollars on rooms and suites before finally buying DVC 7 years ago. We have 545 points and I have never spent one of them outside of VGC. I have contracts at AK and SSR only because my guide in Calif. said we would get first crack at VGC. I should have done more research and waited to buy all my points there. We never seem to have any problem getting ressies there though having visited there at least 8 times. To me it has been totally worth it.

 

[holden]

Like you, OP, we struggled for a long time about whether or not buying DVC would be "worth it" to us. What sealed the deal for us was realizing that:

1. We can afford to buy resale without financing the purchase.
2. If we ever have buyer's remorse, we can sell our contract. If we did sell, we probably wouldn't lose too much $ when all is said and done, and we would have enjoyed several trips.

#2 was the real clincher. Now we are just waiting for our closing documents! We are very excited to become DVC members

 

[McCrae]

My only regret is not buying sooner! We literally spent 10's of thousands of dollars on rooms and suites before finally buying DVC 7 years ago. We have 545 points and I have never spent one of them outside of VGC. I have contracts at AK and SSR only because my guide in Calif. said we would get first crack at VGC. I should have done more research and waited to buy all my points there. We never seem to have any problem getting ressies there though having visited there at least 8 times. To me it has been totally worth it.

VGC is one of our favourites... Such a fantastic resort....

If you come to WDW you will probably like AKV at Kidani and VGF...

 

[bigAWL]

I used to hear that DVC was the only timeshare investment that actually had a history of appreciating in value. So you could actually make money off of it when you wanted to sell. Alas, I think a slow economy put an end to that, and now it's very difficult to sell for close to what you paid. Maybe with all the new resorts being added at WDW (AKV, BLT, VGF, Poly), the huge supply of rooms has also contributed to falling price points.

However, VGC does appear to be the only home resort where resale prices continue to go up. On that coast, they are the only DVC option, so the short supply of rooms seems to prop resale prices up.

With incentives in 2010, we bought VGC for $90 per point. The latest listings I've seen are running in the $135 to $140 range.

So if we sold today at those prices, it would pay for everything we've spent so far on purchase, financing, and dues, and still give us a little left over. And we would have gotten those 6 great stays for free. Not a bad value, actually.

 

[nabi]

Depends on when the purchase occurred and the number of points.We have 5 other WDW DVC resorts that increased 20-30 dollars pp in just a year, purchased resale.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We hit our ROI in 5 years which included one cruise with points.


OP you stated you just spent $5k on one trip.. It you would have bought a 160 point contact at any of the resorts you mention, other than BLT, the $5k you just spent is about 1/3 the cost of a 160 point contract. So that would give you an idea about how many cash trips you would take that would equal the full cost of a 160 point contract or reaching your ROI.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I used to hear that DVC was the only timeshare investment that actually had a history of appreciating in value. So you could actually make money off of it when you wanted to sell. Alas, I think a slow economy put an end to that, and now it's very difficult to sell for close to what you paid. Maybe with all the new resorts being added at WDW (AKV, BLT, VGF, Poly), the huge supply of rooms has also contributed to falling price points.

However, VGC does appear to be the only home resort where resale prices continue to go up. On that coast, they are the only DVC option, so the short supply of rooms seems to prop resale prices up.

With incentives in 2010, we bought VGC for $90 per point. The latest listings I've seen are running in the $135 to $140 range.

So if we sold today at those prices, it would pay for everything we've spent so far on purchase, financing, and dues, and still give us a little left over. And we would have gotten those 6 great stays for free. Not a bad value, actually.

It hard to sell for a profit when you have to pass Disney ROFR and most times if its a popular contact Disney has folks on the waiting list for those resorts they are no longer sell new memberships too, Disney will not allow the for profit sale. Disney wants to buy the contract and resell it to those on the wait list.

 

[chalee94]

It hard to sell for a profit when you have to pass Disney ROFR and most times if its a popular contact Disney has folks on the waiting list for those resorts they are no longer sell new memberships too, Disney will not allow the for profit sale. Disney wants to buy the contract and resell it to those on the wait list.

i don't think you understand how this works. a higher sale price on a resale means higher profit (or less of a loss) on the contract for the seller and it also makes the contract harder to ROFR for disney (they prefer to buy cheaply to make more profit when they resell it).

 

[Msmithmd]

It hard to sell for a profit when you have to pass Disney ROFR and most times if its a popular contact Disney has folks on the waiting list for those resorts they are no longer sell new memberships too, Disney will not allow the for profit sale. Disney wants to buy the contract and resell it to those on the wait list.

I would disagree with this statement. While the exact mechanism behind the ROFR process is opaque, it is certainly true that Disney is more likely to exercise ROFR on deals that are at a low price, than deals that are relatively expensive per point. Therefore a "for profit" sale is actually more likely to pass ROFR than a "bargain basement" sale price.

From a seller's perspective it doesn't really matter- they just need to price their contract at a level that will get a purchaser to bite; then either the purchaser or DVC is going to be paying them. So your contention that they "won't allow the sale" simply isn't accurate. The seller gets paid for the contract via the exact same terms, no matter which party actually receives it.

ROFR is a relatively small amount of the total contracts that exchange hands in the resale market. Disney gets back plenty of points through default/foreclosure. I know there are contributors to this board who track the total number of points that exchanged hands resale on a monthly basis versus those that were taken back in ROFR- but the main point is that even when wait lists are long, DVC still lets plenty contracts sell on the private market.

One would think, "why doesn't DVC just take back every contract offered at $80 and re-sell it at $130?" The answer is that they would rather take back contracts for just the legal costs of foreclosure on the members who don't bother to sell in the secondary market; or sell points on new resorts that they just built at a per-point cost of $40-50 and are selling north of $150. It's just good business.

Now, if and when they stop building new DVC units, this could change. For now they're not at all aggressive about the secondary market, other than making the process take too long, to try to push more buyers toward direct sales.

Of course, DVC does exercise ROFR, at times seemingly randomly. But most often, a resale contract that isn't a rock bottom deal gets through.

 

[PacoDF]

I guess what Shelly means is that because of ROFR is really hard to get a cheap contract and so you can't make a profit when/if you sell.

 

[skier_pete]

I would also argue while the idea that you might be able to sell your points for more than you paid, this should NEVER factor into your reason to purchase. You should purchase because you think it is a worthwhile investment versus staying at the resorts as you are planning to.

 

[bigAWL]

I would also argue while the idea that you might be able to sell your points for more than you paid, this should NEVER factor into your reason to purchase. You should purchase because you think it is a worthwhile investment versus staying at the resorts as you are planning to.

Sound advice. I would always assume the sale value will go down over time... and really, it should, since each year that goes by reduces the number of years left in the membership.

 

[chalee94]

I guess what Shelly means is that because of ROFR is really hard to get a cheap contract and so you can't make a profit when/if you sell.

alternatively, some people do believe that DVC will institute more restrictions that might cause resale value to plummet - and therefore making ROFR cheaper.

but yeah, if disney ROFRs a high-priced contract, the seller still gets the profit (they just get paid by disney instead of an individual).

 

[nd43]

How many trips would I have to take before coming out "ahead"?

If you ever get to the point where you spend 2 weeks per year at Disney, we found that second week becomes the real bargain.

The reason is you can then buy an AP vs. a 7 day ticket (with DVC the price is not much different) and you can get the TIW card vs. DDP.

For us, the first trip more then pays for the TIW card and the second trip is pure food savings. The AP dramatically lowers the park ticket cost on the second trip (almost no additional cost over our prior 7 day ticket).

So when you consider the total cost of vacation (park tickets, food, lodging, travel), the second week at Disney created a lot more savings for us over the first week.

Of course, we travel twice a year anyway. If you only travel once a year, the second vacation, no matter the cost, is only more expense!

The second week was such a bargain for us compared to our normal Disney vacation costs (and other vacation options) we are seriously considering making it the norm. It is cheaper for us to spend a second week at Disney then travel to other deluxe beach locations with far less to do on cash since joining DVC.

 

[HokieGCC]

If you ever get to the point where you spend 2 weeks per year at Disney, we found that second week becomes the real bargain.

I agree with this. The Annual Pass with DVC and renewal discount ends up saving quite a bit (on a per day basis). I realize that perk is not guaranteed forever but every time we use it we save cold hard cash.

 

[judydvc]

I would also argue while the idea that you might be able to sell your points for more than you paid, this should NEVER factor into your reason to purchase. You should purchase because you think it is a worthwhile investment versus staying at the resorts as you are planning to.

You should never buy a timeshare thinking it's a good investment. I recently bought a house & when going over my assets the loan officer said a timeshare isn't considered an investment. Right now I'm selling my large DVC contract for over $11000! That's more than I initially paid though I did pay a lot in yearly fees over 16 years. But I bought it for the great vacations we had-- nothing else.

 

[JoeA]

You should never buy a timeshare thinking it's a good investment. I recently bought a house & when going over my assets the loan officer said a timeshare isn't considered an investment. Right now I'm selling my large DVC contract for over $11000! That's more than I initially paid though I did pay a lot in yearly fees over 16 years. But I bought it for the great vacations we had-- nothing else.

Have to agree with this. You can't look at this like an investment in money but as an investment in future vacations and enjoyment. We did the math every way but when it came down to it we thought it would "force" us into vacation mode, spending time with family and friends, etc. so we stopped the analysis and pulled the trigger...and haven't looked back.

And that has been true five years later. We've gotten a 3 bedroom and studio at AKL and hosted about 12 family members, taken our MIL's on various trips, given rooms away to family and friends, and generally enjoyed the heck out of our "forced" vacations.

If we paid cash for these trips it probably would have been about the same outlay, but honestly - I doubt if we ever would have done the things we have done if it weren't for DVC.