Is now the right time for ME to join DVC?

[Gothemi]

I've been doing some research on the boards and various other places for a DVC purchase. I've been thinking about it for awhile, but got cold feet, missed the lower rates that were available last year, and now, my resort of the choice (PVB) is "sold out". I know that there is a chance to buy direct from Disney still, which is what my wife wants to do. She wants to have the option to take advantage of any perks and incidentals buying direct.

Our situation is this. We want to do a Mexican Disney Cruise next year. We live in California and visit DL often. Just completed our first trip to WDW in 10 years and the little one loved it! We want to go back to WDW again in a few years. I ended up renting DVC points on this trip and was amazed by the value in renting, but we want to be part of ownership.

As I said, we are interest in a cruise for 2019 and then maybe Aulani in 2020. Meanwhile, we will visit DL on occasion, but not as often as we used to (just getting too busy, crowded and we've done it so much). I just found out that you can sell your DVC points to Davids and convert those into cash for a DCL sailing. Plus, I can add cash if needed or if I don't want to sell all my points.

We just put solar on our home and are expecting money back in taxes next year. My plan was to use that money on the cruise ($3500 ish), but now I'm considering using the money as a down payment on a 100 pt DVC owner ship at the Poly (if I can secure directly through Disney).

Does that sound crazy? I just feel like that $3500 can go towards so much more in DVC for the years to come. I planned to use my first 100-200 points towards the cruise (via the selling for cash to David's) and then pay the rest I would need (about $1000) out of pocket.

Help me out here. I know resale is a better value, but the wife really wants the "perks" and I'm having a difficult time talking her out of it lol.

Please be kind. Thank you

 

[Lauren in NC]

The FAQs at the top of the board have great information in them. Make sure you're familiar with UY, banking/borrowing, annual dues, etc.

Which perks is she specifically interested in? Being able to use your points for cruises or hotel reservations is, as you've already discovered, a bad deal financially. All the perks (from AP discounts to member parties) are not guaranteed and could disappear at any time. While there are situations where buying direct is a good idea, I'd definitely price out the difference between buying direct and a resale contract. You may be surprised exactly how much you'd be paying for the supposed value of the perks.

While you can bank and borrow points up to 3 years of points, it works out best if you're taking a trip at least every two years. Keep in mind that besides the initial purchase price, there's also the yearly dues - do you want to lock yourself into a Disney vacation every two years?

Getting DVC reservations at DL can be difficult unless you own there, as there's not many rooms available. The big thing you're going to hear is "buy where you want to stay" - will you be happy staying at a PVB studio (since PVB only has studios and $$$ bungalows) with your family if you're locked out of switching to another resort at 7 months?

Can you plan your vacations 11 months in advance? Will your 100-200 points cover whatever amount of time you want to stay (check the resort's point charts to make sure)? You mentioned a little one - in the 3 years we've had our contract, our vacation patterns have had to change due to starting school and switching school districts, so just keep that in mind as well.

While we've rented out our points before, it does give me pause that you'd buy and then plan on immediately renting them. Renting, for us at least, covers our dues with a bit extra when we're unable to use those points, but I'm not sure how much of a good idea it is (financially) if you're planning on doing that on a regular basis. For instance, if you're planning on taking a cruise every other year, then rather than buying more points to begin with, I'd recalculate how many points you'd need for a vacation and focus on banking and borrowing instead.

 

[rg35]

The first bit of advice that people are going to say is that you shouldn't finance this kind of purchase.

You should also not buy with the expectation that a strong rental market will last forever and be able to subsidize your purchase. David's always claims they have a shortage of points, but since I don't rent my points I don't know how accurate those claims are. If the economy is down (and it's due for a correction eventually), the rental market may collapse as people have less money to spend on vacations.

There are no perks worth paying the direct premium price for either. You're not going to visit often enough to use the AP discount, which is the only perk of any real value. Any or all of the perks can go away at any time.

I don't really think it's the right purchase for you if you don't plan on using your points for stays at WDW every year or every other year and given the other factors you mention.

 

[zavandor]

I've looked into your numbers and I think they don't add up (sorry if I'm making any mistake)
Poly direct now costs $220 per point direct. There is a 100 points minimum for new buyers, so the outlay is $22,000 minimum. Nowhere near the $3500 that the cruise costs.

From another point of view: a $3500 cruise would cost from David 270 points. To have that many you need an outlay of about 60k. And you have to pay maintenance fees on those points, $1,674 at this year rate (due to increase next year). So you paid 60k to be able to pay $1674 for a $3,500 cruise.

DVC is best used to book DVC resorts.

 

[MrInfinity]

The $3500 would be a deposit, not pay for the $22k. Of course I agree with not financing $18.5k of a timeshare purchase. The first 100-200 points (say $1600-$3200 rental value) could indeed be used to pay for a cruise, while adding as stated $1000 additionally. The math there does kind of work out, but I don't see it being a good plan. Don't buy DVC unless you want DVC. Certainly don't buy intending to rent out the first 2 years of points to get cash to do something else. Just keep your cash for 2 years and buy your cruise or Disneyland trips. Then when you want to enjoy DVC, come back to the idea. Finance charges for 2 years will kill your rental profit. Think about the interest charge on that DVC loan! You're going to need the entire rental income just to cover your interest.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You do have to pay taxes on rental income, FWIW. The David's program doesn't create a tax situation, but renting and getting the cash to pay does.

You can also rent resale points for the same cost per point in fee. Only, they cost YOU $50pp less in capital outlay.

At the pace of intended visit, there is not value in direct purchase for you.

 

[Gothemi]

Thank you all for the input. This is exactly what I was looking for. Many points that I hadn't fully considered. I was getting all excited to jump in, but now I see I may need to hold off. I believe resale is a better value for my situation, but as mentioned I need to wait for the right value, UY and location to come up.

After this visit to WDW, I feel like we will have more trips in the future, but I can't see going every year...maybe every other year. So not many people are financing the cost of their DVC? I understand the finance rate to be around 10-12%, is that correct?

 

[JETSDAD]

I'd also recommend resale. I don't know what UY you'd be looking for but if you're really wanting to rent out some points to either help pay for a cruise, or for the points, be on the lookout for a loaded contract. There was a Poly contract on the Fidelity email today at $145PP that was fully loaded 400/200/200.

 

[Gothemi]

I think resale is the way to go. But my luck, I will buy resale and then DVC will offer free APs or something for direct members... Fidelity is another DVC resale company? Are they better than the DVCResale folks?

 

[JETSDAD]

I think resale is the way to go. But my luck, I will buy resale and then DVC will offer free APs or something for direct members... Fidelity is another DVC resale company? Are they better than the DVCResale folks?

They'll never offer free AP's...people went crazy for the Platinum+ at the Gold price (we did too) so no need to go free. The difference between resale and direct for Poly is quite large so it's much harder to make the discounts worthwhile.

ETA, yes, Fidelity is another resale company. If you Google DVC resale you will find a bunch of companies....watch a variety of them and get on email lists where possible.

 

[bwvBound]

They'll never offer free AP's...people went crazy for the Platinum+ at the Gold price (we did too) so no need to go free.

DVD (the Developer side of the house) has offered APs as a direct sale incentive from time to time. Not unheard of (gladly). We still have one saved away from our 2007 add-on.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

DVD (the Developer side of the house) has offered APs as a direct sale incentive from time to time. Not unheard of (gladly). We still have one saved away from our 2007 add-on.

Yeah, but it is unlikely to happen at this point. Too costly, and there's that little Galaxy's Edge thing.

 

[Gothemi]

My neighbor often talks about how great the Moonlite parties are, yet she's never gone. I think that is what my wife is wanting to buy direct for. But my understanding is that you have to be staying on property (DVC or standard hotel) to take part of the afterhours DVC party. Correct?

Hey, if I can buy a DVC polo shirt or some DVC merch as a resale purchase member, I will be happy lol. Not sure why, but I really like the DVC logo merch.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You can buy DVC logo stuff without a membership card at all.

 

[zavandor]

I've been to one of those parties and it was nice but not something worth to pay direct prices for. Disney sells after hours parties (very similar to the DVC parties) at the MK for about $100. How many of those can you buy with what you would save resale? And you can pick the date you prefer, and you don't have to stress out to book one.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC is a discounted deluxe hotel room, nothing more. Perks, promotions, events for direct buyers are used to attract additional buyers and a portion of inflated prices that they pay are used to fund the promotions and events. These can and do change as management changes and sales change. There business is selling timeshares and they are paid by owners to run the DVC. While owning can save you money on your deluxe room, you will be spending more on your Disney vacations. Using points for your stay doesn't feel the same as spending cash and as a result, owners tend to increase their Disney vacations. For Disney it's all about the numbers and profit for buyers it should be about the numbers also. Information and learning all about the DVC prior to buying levels the playing field, a informed buyer will be a happy buyer. If you make a mistake or decide latter that DVC isn't for you, you can always sell, just look at the number of resale contracts that are constantly available.

Bill

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

For you, rental is the way to go. You can enjoy the discounted prices at deluxe resorts without making a large commitment, and without paying annual maintenance fees.

 

[Matty B13]

Also, trying to get into a Moonlight Magic Event is very difficult.

First you have to have a reservation during the day that the event is held, then you have to get online at 8am and try to snag a few tickets is also very difficult and frustrating and doesn't guarantee you ticket for the event. Disney's servers get overwhelmed at this time and most of the time you can't log-on to even enter your membership information. And with every other resort that is added to DVC this will only become more difficult and is pretty much a lottery at this point.

 

[Gothemi]

Thank you all for the advice. It's great! I appreciate the candor and honesty in helping me make a decision. I still want to own, but I can wait it out until things are right and I'll go resale.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

My own basis for considering if DVC should even be considered for purchase is if you visit either every year or every other year, want to stay onsite and want to stay in the Deluxe accommodations. Some people work value out of it even with visits every 3rd year but at prices now it's tying up a lot of funds for some possible savings every 3 years. If one wants to do a cruise now and then renting the points out to pay cash is ok but I could never recommend buying DVC and doing that as a planned regular use of the points - again, it's tying up a lot of money and has too many variables that you can't count on going forward.

My neighbor often talks about how great the Moonlite parties are, yet she's never gone. I think that is what my wife is wanting to buy direct for. But my understanding is that you have to be staying on property (DVC or standard hotel) to take part of the afterhours DVC party. Correct?

Hey, if I can buy a DVC polo shirt or some DVC merch as a resale purchase member, I will be happy lol. Not sure why, but I really like the DVC logo merch.

You mentioned free AP's to all direct buyers - and my crystal ball very definitely tells me that won't happen.

The Moonlight Magic events are nice things but the issues are that they are not available every week of the year so you have to have a trip planned to occur during one of them. And then you have to cross your fingers and toes and hope to be able to book them starting this past year. They also are new and were started under a different DVC head. It's difficult to say if they will even continue going forward. With the issues in booking I for one would not be surprised if DVC eliminated them or began placing greater restrictions on attendance of them. Without being able to count on them in some way I'd not recommend considering them as a reason to purchase. Instead I'd take the possible $50-$60 difference between PVB direct and resale and buy tickets to one of the after hour events or parties that are now being offered more and more by the parks. They may not be "free" but they will actually cost less than buying PVB direct.

I also agree with no financing - it immediately eats into savings your hoping to get with DVC.