Lots of DVC ?'s

[slbruce]

I'm new to the whole dis board thing as well as DVC. I've been doing research trying to understand as much as possible about DVC. I'm leaning towards taking the plunge but my husband is extremely hesitant. So, I think I've come up with a compromise that will make us both comfortable but would like your input on if it is realistic. I'd also like to know what flaws you may see.

My husband's main concern has to do with the initial investment to buy into DVC as well as the yearly maintenance fee should our financial situation ever change. My plan is to buy resale (since I know Disney won't sell this small amount) 25-50 points. That way the initial cost is $2500-$5000 and maintenance fees would be $200 a year, if my research is correct. This would not be enough for us because we are a family of six. My thought was to buy points from other members have them transferred into my DVC which gives me more control and less risk than just buying them. This way we keep the initial cost low to ease his concerns. And if we see this is something that works well for our family then we can just purchase more points.

Now some questions I have about my plan:

Will DVC allow me to be an owner with so few points?

Is it difficult to find points to buy or transfer in this case? My family would probably need 200-300 pts per trip.

Does it matter if you have points for 2 different resorts?

If DVC is something that does not work for us, is it difficult to sell such small amount of points?

I'd really appreciate any advice or guidance you can give.

 

[vettechick99]

Interesting idea. My DH is very hesistant too, and we'd need at least 150-200 to get the vacations we want. That's just not in the cards at this point.

From what I know, you can buy very small point packages and be considered a full-fledged member with all the perks. I see on a dvc resale website that they have 25pt packages at HHI and 30 at OKW. There are several places to buy resale, so I'm sure your options are plenty.

I don't believe it is hard to transfer points as I see people asking for it often on the rent/trade board. But the specifics I'm not sure about.

You can have points from at least two resorts, but I don't know if that's the limit or you can have a few points from each resort on property. ??

I would think it'd be super easy to sell a smaller amount of points. People are always looking to add a little here and there. The larger packages seem to be a harder sell - but a helluva deal if you've got the jack. I see on a website that the prices are far lower the bigger the package (e.g. one sale at VB of 600 pts is $54/pt vs. VB of 100 is $80 ).

As you can see I don't know much. You're probably thanking me for responding.

GL convincing DH!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Your plan works as long as you plan on transfering all the extra needed points in from one person. You are only allowed one transfer IN OR OUT a year.

 

[Lynne M]

With your plan, your vacations will always be dependent upon finding one member who can transfer 200+ points into your account, in one shot. And you'll have to do that every year. That sounds very stressful to me.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Any points you transfer in will retain their home resort and their Use Year. With a small contract, you would hardly have anything for a home resort advantage. But you could bank one year, borrow the next and use the current year to get three times the points every three years.

One other thing to consider. DVC is not a way to save money. In fact, you will probably spend more money by owning. DVC discounts change all the time, so if you have your eye on any one special DVC discount, it could be gone in 2008. DVC is just a prepaid vacation package. With a family of 6, it would be difficult to actually plan a points vacation without know exactly how many points you actually have to work with. You would always need a two bedroom villa at a minimum. So check out how many points you would need for you standard length of stay at the resort you want to stay in at the time of year you want to go. It could change your mind very quickly.

DVC is not cheap. Right now, a five night stay during the cheapest time of the year in a two bedroom would be 110 points. So that means, you would have to transfer at least 60-85 (about $720-1020) points from another member. Since another member would have to be willing to use up their once a year transfer, you may or may not get those points.

 

[chalee94]

Now some questions I have about my plan:

Will DVC allow me to be an owner with so few points?

yes.

Is it difficult to find points to buy or transfer in this case? My family would probably need 200-300 pts per trip.

as already stated, you only get ONE transfer per year and the member who transfers points to you will be using up their SINGLE transfer per year.

that's probably your biggest risk. you'd also be paying considerably more per point than just buying outright.

Does it matter if you have points for 2 different resorts?

you can only use the points at the 7 month window if using pts from 2 resorts. this might be a huge limitation.

If DVC is something that does not work for us, is it difficult to sell such small amount of points?

selling small contracts is relatively quick and easy.

in your case though, you're probably better off looking for a large resale contract and accepting that you'll lose around 10-15% on transaction costs if you decide to resell.

 

[mikesmom]

Another couple of things you might want to consider:
1) while DVC will allow you to be a member with few points, they won't actually sell you a few points - you will have to go resale, and
2) the small point contracts usually go for a higher price per point as there are so many people looking for just a small add on, and
3) the small point contracts may be more subject to ROFR from Disney. There have been reports on this Board that Disney tends to snap up the small point contracts (unless the price is pretty high) because it is difficult/expensive/a pain for Disney to maintain small point contracts
4) you can't "mix" points until the 7 month window, so to use your transfer strategy you would have to find someone with the same home resort (and preferebly use year) as where you buy if you wanted to use your 11 month advantage - could get complicated

These don't have to be deal breakers, but you should be aware. As many of the former posters stated, your biggest challenge would be finding an owner with the right resort that would be willing to transfer in all the points you needed.

 

[crisi]

Back when you could transfer in and out easily, a lot of people used this strategy. I'd be interested in finding out from them how its working now with the transfer limitations - because I agree finding someone who wants to use their single transfer to give you just the points you need seems to be your biggest risk.

 

[Mtnman44]

Hmmmm. Let's see. Assuming you want to vacation every year, this means you will need to "buy" at least 250 points from a member every year. At $12 per point that is $3,000 per year. With your initial contract purchase, after only around 3 or 4 years you will be at about the purchase price of an average sized contract and around 7 years for a full 300 point contract. Sure you don't pay maint fees on the points you buy from others, but those costs are still there in the per point costs....In the long run, this strategy is much more costly that owning your own contract. And as mentioned, there is much less flexibility and you are dependant on others in order to plan your trips.

DVC is pre paid vacations. you buy future vacations now in today's dollars at today's prices. You save a lot of money, but only over the long term. I don't think it is wise to consider DVC by lookinig at it only one vacation at a time.