Maintenance Fees on direct from Disney Contract

[dsnydaddy]

I know that when buying a resale contract, part of the purchase is the maintenance fees for the current year. (who pays them is a matter of negotiation)

But, when buying direct from Disney are the first years maintenance fees added to the purchase price? Or do they comp those?

 

[wdrl]

Maintenance fees are prorated for current year as of the purchase date. If you buy today, there about 143 days left in the year, so you will pay 143/365, or about 39%, of the maintenance fees for 2015. It is usually billed after closing.

 

[dsnydaddy]

And Disney is now charging closing costs right. I seem to remember that previously they did not.

 

[erionm]

And Disney is now charging closing costs right.

Yes, on all direct purchases.

I seem to remember that previously they did not.

I know that for quite a while they didn't charge closing costs on add-ons, but that is no longer the case. Not sure what they did in the early days of the program.

 

[dsnydaddy]

Thank you!

 

[JWG]

All correct, they do charge closing costs (started right around 2011 when they changed the resale rules) and will prorate the dues.
Our first add-on was direct because the savings in closing costs made the difference in price negligible. Now that the closing costs are paid no matter what, it further tips the scales to resale.

 

[pirate33]

So does this mean if one purchased direct in late December 2015, then one would get all the 2015 points and pay only a tiny fraction of MFs?

 

[JWG]

If you purchase a December use year direct from Disney? Yes.
Think of maintenance fees as tied more to the annual operation of the resort for the year vs. specifically tied to your use year.
MF area always due in February of that year unless paid on a monthly withdrawal (EFT) directly to Disney.

And, if you purchase on the last day of 2015 (ok, not likely given it's New Year's Eve), you may not pay any fees in 2015 (or one day's worth).

 

[Dean]

I know that when buying a resale contract, part of the purchase is the maintenance fees for the current year. (who pays them is a matter of negotiation)

But, when buying direct from Disney are the first years maintenance fees added to the purchase price? Or do they comp those?

To address the fee issue further. DVC starts the maint fees from the date you sign the contract, the UY you get points or the date you get points, which ever is later. That brings into discussion 2 issues. One is that even if you would have bought the same points earlier, you may pay less points on them. This is a sales benefit, and not one to expect in other situations including resale. The other issue highlights the FACT that the general default for most resale companies of "you get the points you pay the dues" is simply incorrect and results in overpaying the dues on most resale contracts. In the Dec UY example above when one pays their dues in Jan of say calendar year 2016 you're paying 11 months of the points attributed to the previous UY points (2015 in this example) and only 1 month of the 2016 points. Say one bought a resale contract now with 2015 points in tact but no current points, one would be overpaying by 11/12 of the yearly dues as calculated for June, 2016. This is simply how the MF are calculated and cannot be attributed to a sales benefit alone. I don't think we're going to change how the resale companies do this since they would be correct on almost every other timeshare I know of so one simply must consider it as part of the cost of a resale just like the higher closing costs and any points not available.

 

[luvdisneyland]

And Disney is now charging closing costs right. I seem to remember that previously they did not.

That is correct. They used to charge a very small closing cost, but now to make up revenue they charge a rather large closing fee

 

[chalee94]

So does this mean if one purchased direct in late December 2015, then one would get all the 2015 points and pay only a tiny fraction of MFs?

annual dues are based on calendar year, not use year.

so if you buy a Dec UY contract on Nov 30, 2015 direct from disney, you would get all 2014 UY pts (as you would still be in your 2014 UY) without paying any 2014 annual dues...or most of the 2015 annual dues.

and you would also be allowed to bank those pts despite being well past the banking window.

and in spite of all that, i still don't consider buying direct from disney to be worth it...