Made the move to Florida - How will DVC change?

[ILoveMyDVC]

Only short trips. 1-2 nights
No need to hit all attractions.
No need for locker.
Many want to sell all your points
As you mentioned , may have no need for Disney . You are already 'home'.
You will be pleasingly surprised on that first winter day...NO SNOW.
You will be shocked about how we Floridians handle hurricane's. It has been 50+ years since Tampa was been hit but
now that YOU live here, we will get one. LOL
Traffic will drive you crazy. It may take you 2.5-3 hours to get to ORL from Tampa.

Boston traffic; I will survive.
Sorry about the impending hurricane. R.I. was due, too.
I already hardly go to the parks. I just go to OKW to escape the world. I've stayed for the entire month of July once. I think you may be right...

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

We lived in the Tampa Bay area for a long time and recently relocated about 45 minutes north of WDW. As others have stated the drive from Tampa to Orlando in I-4 is brutal - our worst was a 5 hour trip with 3 of those hours moving just a few feet at a time. Our DVC visits are 3-5 nights and rarely include a Friday or Saturday. We’ll stay in a studio for 3 nights, any longer will be a 1 bedroom. We’ve never needed an owner’s locker. We have 2 small containers, one for kitchen/coffee supplies and another for food and snacks. Always having a car makes it easy to make a Publix run if necessary.

I-4 has been getting worse every year. I think Disney pays people to drive around there, 535 and 536 just to keep you onsite.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Why would you take a loss on those points? We sold 200 AK points last year and doubled our money (almost exactly). We purchased those resale in 2012, so exactly 10 years later they doubled in value (we are all direct now, as we added to our VGF with those funds). Just curious which points would be a loss (if that's not too personal...if it is, I understand) as I have generally seen DVC to be a good investment that appreciates over time.

Several reasons.
1. They are titled in both our names and he wants them sold.
2. With 1600 points, the dues and the ones financed are killing me with the addition of paying ALL the bills plus rent.
3. Contracts of 520 points don't move that well. People like to buy <200, many at 100. I don't have the finances to sit on a $1,100+ payment (loan and dues) every month especially when he is willing to incur half the loss. In 6 months, I will be "even".
4. When I bought that contract is was loaded. Closed in June and used 520 points expiring August 1st., to stay for the month of July in a 2 bed.
5. My freedom and sanity is worth the 5K loss (he has the other 5K). The savings is just over 50% of my rent.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Oh, shoot. I feel for you That's a lot. Hoping it goes as smoothly as possible for you.

Thank you and I didn't tell half of it...the mods would kick me to community. But I will tell you I am doing all of this in the middle of a horribly botched common surgery that was done in Montana. The ER doc n AZ and my long time doctor of 34 years in R.I. were horrified.

 

[lovin'fl]

We are DVC (since 2006). We lived up north and kept adding points in order to get enough for a good 6 week stay in Jan-Feb (to snow bird ish). We were up to 650 points when covid hit. We had several canceled trips (DVC as well as cruises including our 25th anniversary Hawaii cruise plus Aulani stay). The hubs began working from home. So after a while we realized we needed a vacation home somewhere warm. Where we could go anytime since we owned it, so no cancelation. And where we could drive.

We looked at HHI (we owned DVC there and I loved it there) and FL, beach areas. Realizing we could not comfortably afford any beach areas plus having concerns about hurricanes, we began looking around Disney.

Around Jan 2021 we started trying to buy a townhome in the Four Corners area (south west a little of WDW). It was a hot market and took some work and time (many failed offers) to finally get a place. But we closed in April 2021. We set up with a prop management Co to rent out the times we wouldn't use it. It was not a hot rental time and actually got peanuts to rent out but it helped pay the bills.

We had a 4 BR/3.5 Ba townhome in a resort community with nice amenities. We planned to stay 3 times a year for about 4-6 weeks each time. We'd drive down (@15 hours drive time) and bring doggo and the DH would work from there now that he was permanently WFH. It was about 30 mins drive to WDW.

So, long story about to get longer. We sold off some of our points. No need to use as many. We went from 650 down to 275 and added another 26 (long story) for 301 we have now. We use them to stay 1-2 nights and do festivals at Epcot and get drinks there and DS and not have to drive. We also use them for when our adult kids visit. The 301 is probably more than needed but since I book a night or 2 last minute I can grab the high point rooms and not bat an eye. We like to grab up any nights at AKV club level that we can find.

THEN....after 1 year with the townhome and renting for peanuts to folks who mucked up our place, we began discussing not renting it anymore and just keeping it to use for us only. But the neighborhood was a resort intent and the HOA liked it rented out (they got a resort fee from renters and not from owners). And being surrounded by renters was a bit irksome at times. It was a tad bit of a party resort and the town was not very, um, classy (party vibe and not our kind of partying). Plus the drive to WDW could be a pain in traffic. Could be 26 mins but could also be 40 to the same place. And our good friends were closer to Disney in Celebration.

So we decided to sell. Could get a good profit. But also decided to sell the big home up north, also for a nice profit. And then own/live full time in FL.

I had a handyman come to the townhome to do some work and mentioned we were about to list it...that night his friends made and emailed a signed offer. Bam, sold. Easy. Our northern home also didn't hit the market and sold immediately. Closed on both in April 2022.

We looked in Celebration and around there and settled on a 55+ new home community. We were just 49 but if we bought a new build we could get in under a 20% rule (20% can be 45-55). We will be there 1 year in July.

We also keep an apartment up north where all our family (parents, siblings and 2 of our 3 kids) live. One of our DDs lives in the apartment too and we share rent and such. She is a teacher and rent now is way too high for her to manage a place on her own financially so it works out for all of us. We have a room for when we visit. Now we flipped the 3 times a year for 4-6 weeks up north and the rest in FL. We are up north now....missing our FL sooooo much.

But the DVC....we use it the same....booking last minute trips for 1-2 nights to not drink and drive. Plus to kennel old doggo and have a nice break from him (he will be 17 and has been super high maintenance for a good 3 years now...exhausting like a perpetual newborn but at age 50ish). And our 20something kiddos can stay (got them a treehouse for Sept). I and though 300 points may be a bit much for now, I figure we will use them with grand babies down the line. So that's a nice number to keep.

 

[RoseGold]

I guess it all depends. We bought AKV Kidani resale in 2012 for 65 and sold those in 2022 for 125. So we nearly doubled. AKV Kidani is even higher now (130/135), so no drop at all there -- maybe it's property dependent. We were happy with that and used it towards adding on another 250 VGF.

Right, that was a decade ago, while DVC skyrocketed the whole time. The odds of that repeating are not great, unless inflation runs away, which isn't exactly what I'm hoping for.

 

[RoseGold]

Several reasons.
1. They are titled in both our names and he wants them sold.

You can retitle them. There are a lot of posts on how to do this. You don't have to sell them to change the title. You could buy him out.

If you are getting divorced, zero chance I want to own in both names. It's a TERRIBLE idea. Random example:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/k...-but-ex-is-now-filing-for-bankruptcy.3894488/

 

[PalmettoPath]

Right, that was a decade ago, while DVC skyrocketed the whole time. The odds of that repeating are not great, unless inflation runs away, which isn't exactly what I'm hoping for.

We'll know 10 years from now. Generally, like the market, value *should* increase over time.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

You can retitle them. There are a lot of posts on how to do this. You don't have to sell them to change the title. You could buy him out.

If you are getting divorced, zero chance I want to own in both names. It's a TERRIBLE idea. Random example:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/k...-but-ex-is-now-filing-for-bankruptcy.3894488/

Definitely don't plan to use them together. Even if I changed my mind about the sale, I would pull his name off the deed. He would be the first to sign it.