I thought DVC was for us, but...

[CoconutCookie]

DH and I have been looking in to DVC for awhile. We were so close to buying when we went to WDW last month, but something the guide said made me question our decision.

As we were going through the tour, he said he was impressed with how much research we did, and asked what website we visit. I told him I have been lurking on a few, but mostly the Dis. Ha, they know you all

Anyway on to the point that made me doubt ...
He was chatting away (it was obvious we wanted to buy so he was just being chatty and chummy more than trying to sell) and said we'd be amazed at how many people don't do their research, but how regarldess most love their decision. He followed with the comment that made me rethink: He said, "Would you believe some people even buy a vacation club before buying a home!" Umm, that would be us, lol. The tone in his voice and the way he said it really made it obvious that he thought doing so was a huge mistake.

DH and I looked at each other, smiled uncomfortably, and then at the conclusion of the tour we told the guide we needed to talk things over one last time. He seemed a bit surprised we didn't sign then, because we were so ready, knew exactly what we were looking for etc. Neither of us said we were those silly renters thinking about buying dvc before a home but we thought we should think about it a bit more.

Is it foolish to buy DVC without first owning a home?

I never thought it mattered, but now it is making me really doubtful because I keep second-guessing our decision when I think back to what the guide said about non-homeowners buying dvc.

Eh ... so I thought I would delurk and get some opinions

 

[grumpydad]

i would go by on fact only:

can you afford it ?

if you can while saving for a house, they go for it.
in the long run you'll be saving on vacations.

if you can't i'd say wait until you can

 

[global_mom]

Gosh....having not been there it is really hard to tell but I think that you may be reading too much into his comment. He might just have been trying to say that DVC is soooo great that some folks prefer to purchase DVC over other major purchases?

We own our own home and a vacation home but we would have bought DVC w/o having either of those if we had known about DVC 10 years ago. As long as finances are not an issue and the DVC purchase will not prevent you from buying your own home, if that is what you want, then I would still move ahead. On the other hand, if you have that little gut feeling that tells you that this is not the right time for DVC then I would wait. I wouldn't base your decision on the guide's comments, he was most likely just being chatty.

Good luck and I hope that you join us!

 

[salmoneous]

I would focus on a different question: If you don't have a house, should you be taking deluxe vacations?

For me, it depends upon why you don't have a house. If it's because you can't afford it and need to save up for a down payment, then, personally, I'd cut back on the vacations and save more. But there are a lot of other reasons people don't have a house - they don't want the responsibility, they plan to move soon, they are in school, etc. If it's something like that, then I'd take whatever vacation I could afford.

Once you've decided that you are going to take deluxe vacations anyway - and are going to take them at Disney, then DVC makes a ton of sense. Even if you don't have a house.

 

[mlayton14]

Dont feel bad .. you are thinking about all of the right things.

However, I would say that one size DOES NOT fit all. I for one think the housing market is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, so you may be better off waiting on a home purchase depending on where in the country you live.

With that being said .. something like DVC is surely a luxury purchase. If you are extremely confident that you will be spending money on a Disney vacation regularly regardless, then DVC is a smart buy in most cases.

DVC is, in essence, is a glorified discount program. The main purpose is to save money over time... nothing else is really compelling about it (as any cash guest can do just about anything a DVC member can do).

So ... you need to look at your personal situation and make a decision based on your lifestyle. If DVC will prevent you from being able to afford a house then you probably shouldnt do it. There is no rule in life however that you must first own a home before buying DVC. There is much data out there that illustrates that owning a home isnt the best return on your dollar (compared to stock market) anyway .. so hopefully you can do both - on your own schedule.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[eliza61]

Well first, do you guys want a house. My dh and I are "city folk", we hated the up keep and maintence that a house required. We hated the grass, the back yard, the entire thing. We couldn't sell fast enough. Is this some thing you guys want to do soon. We purchased our DVC because we knew we would not be giving up our disney vacations, short of a lobotomy so it was intended to save us money over the long run (it probably doesn't because now we go more often.)
Try to look at your life style, your dreams for the next few years and see where a dvc could fit in (or not, which ever the case may be)

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[jarestel]

If you're already spending, and expect to continue spending, fairly hefty sums on Disney vacations, then buying or not buying a DVC interest isn't likely to impact your own personal bottom line much either way. I would agree with previous posters that what is important to someone else has little bearing on your own priorities. So in typical jarestel fashion, I skirt the question entirely by saying you need to do what seems right for you.

Good luck!

 

[Mr Man]

I agree with PP who asked if you could afford it or not.

Buying a house is a separate from this.

At the company I work for, not one person in our Purchasing Dept (12 total) owns a house. They all rent/lease houses/apartments. They also all buy their cars at Carmax only (not sure why, maybe they hate to haggle because they have to do it all day at work ).

DVC is a big time luxury for us and yes, we are homeowners (got the property tax statement to prove it too-yikes!). I just wanted to say that not everyone HAS to be a homeowner. There are advantages to being a renter.

 

[Santa]

First off. WELCOME to the Dis CoconutCookie.

Second, I would take the remark as a positive thing. Because I think it is sooooo good. Besides, If he knew your financial background I highly doubt he would have said it.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Your guide was generalizing to say that if you are not able to buy a very basic older home in everyday fly over country, then DVC is not for you. You obviously appeared to be able to handle home ownership to your guide. The ability to purchase a home can be very different in various parts of the country however.

In Alabama you can buy your 1st home for less than $50k in the city and $30k in depressed rural areas. Mobile homes are even less. Anyone that can't do that [generally] either don't have steady employment, makes near minimum wage, or does have bad credit. The same $50k house in Alabama may actually be $300k+ in California. IMO, that's a big difference. I'm guessing that there are many more renters in areas with high property values.

In general, if you can't pay $400/month on a 30 year note, you probably shouldn't purchase a $16,000 vacation club, pay $640/yr in maintenance fees, and then spend another $800 for park tickets and either have $500 for 2 plane tickets or have dependable transportation to drive from various parts of the country.

From a creditors standpoint, DVC is not a necessity. In a financial bind, people will eat and keep a roof over their head before pre-paying for vacations. We will make the payment on our house before paying dues for our DVC or paying for park tickets on a nice family vacation. That makes DVC a poor choice for someone with great financial instability.

Only you know if you will be able to make your payments, pay maintenance fees, and then be able to afford to travel to WDW.

Putting on my flame suit.

 

[smt7]

We are renters, not home-owners, and we love owning DVC. Of course, we live in San Francisco where buying a home is not exactly easy. I would say, don't buy DVC if it will be a financial stretch or impact other financial goals, whatever they may be. One nice thing about DVC, compared to other timeshares, is it tends to keep its value, because Disney uses its ROFR to sustain the resale price.

good luck! and BTW, i love the word "delurk".

 

[pcparamedics01]

I think he was insinuating that DVC is sooo great people buy them before they purchase their first homes! Not that that is a bad thing at all. If you can
afford it and it works for your family even if the comment was as such, don't worry what people think. It is what you think that counts. Remember you are the one that is paying for it not anyone else. It is a major decision but to us it was considered an extra car payment only twice as many years if you take it for the full ten years!

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

I think that you may be reading too much into his comment. He might just have been trying to say that DVC is soooo great that some folks prefer to purchase DVC over other major purchases?

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[starbox]

It all depends.

We waited to buy a home first - we knew that we wanted to buy a home in the next year or two. We also knew we'd be financing, and I would never have wanted to be in a situation where I was tied into five, seven, or ten years of monthly payments before I knew how much I'd be paying for a mortgage, property tax, insurance, etc. I also would not have done it prior to having kids - again, because I knew I wanted to have kids in the relatively near future and wanted maximum economic flexability to tailor my work schedule around children. Knowing that I had those two huge unknown expenses looming in the next 1-5 years made me hesitant to accumulate any debt that was not absolutely essential.

OTOH If I'd have had an extra 15,000 laying around to pay cash for DVC and did not want to buy a home or expect to have any problem saving for a downpayment on a traditional mortgage, I doubt that buying DVC first would have given me any pause.

IMHO - disposable cash something to spend however - and pre-paid discounted vacations are a great thing to do with extra money. Going into debt is something different - and, for me, going into debt for vacations is not something I'd do unless I was 100% sure I was not going to want/need that extra $$$$$$ each month for a house or children.

 

[disneydenisel]

I know some people who sell their homes so that they can rent. Sometimes owning a home means that the home owns you...large mortgage payments, property taxes, etc. What tax benefits you might gain are offset by the huge monthly cost of a home.

So I can see that *not* owning a home is a fine place to be if you can afford the rent and vacations.

I also don't consider buying a timeshare a luxury purchase, necessarily. I consider vacations an investment in quality family time, and also great therapy, so buying a timeshare for me is a frugal thing to do because I do save a lot of money on our vacations, and I am guaranteed my annual therapy .

My advice ($.02) is if you are comfortable with the purchase and not making an uninformed/hasty decision, then it is totally fine to buy a timeshare without owning a home. I wish I would have known about DVC when it was first offered...I would have bought points right away.

The nice thing about DVC or any timeshare, really, is that you can buy at any time. So if the timing isn't quite right, no worries! You can buy it any other day.

 

[keishashadow]

one other point to think about -

if you are going to finance your DVC and plan on purchasing a residence in the meantime; it would be considered a debt and count towards your overall debt to income ratio when qualifying for a loan

good luck in your decision

 

[Disney-Kim]

one other point to think about -

if you are going to finance your DVC and plan on purchasing a residence in the meantime; it would be considered a debt and count towards your overall debt to income ratio when qualifying for a loan

good luck in your decision

but.....DVC doesn't report on your credit report....so......

 

[drag n' fly]

All I have to say is CoconutCookie is talking with a bunch of smart cookies. You all give really good common sense sound advice! For those of us who are just entering the buying phase of DVC this kind of information really helps!

 

[JenSop]

Honestly, we don't own a home or plan to anytime soon. Although our situation is different. We'll eventually be saving up to build an in-law suite in my parents' house for them to move into and we'll take over the main part of the house. So I'm not even thinking about saving up for a house. Besides, anything we'd want would be SUPER expensive in our part of the country, whereas we can live in our current 3 BR house for really low rent since we rent from a good family friend.

We're also buying in now, because we want to take a big trip BEFORE having kids. I realize that once we have a child, vacations to Disney will be very different. I wanted to have the DVC experience child-free.

Seriously, if this is what you want, do it. We know we'll be taking regular WDW vacations for the rest of our lives, and one value resort visit was enough for me. We bought in as non-homeowners and honestly I never even would have thought of that. Heck, DVC after incentives cost us just a little over $15,000; where a nice 3BR house in our area would easily cost $250,000. How is that even a comparison?

I'd say if you researched it and knew that's what you wanted, don't all of a sudden second guess.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

WOW... as much as I would like to say buy DVC... I must say buy some real property first. Mary Beth and I bought our first home (condo) at age 19 and it was the basis of our future....

We sold that condo and bought a townhouse, then we sold that townhouse and bought a single family home... then we sold that and built the home we now live in, and it will be a big part of our retirement.

Real property trumps vacation property. Yikes!! we bought into DVC after we had been married 23 years....