Need some advice on first time purchase

[coach2]

My wife and I are tossing it around if we should buy or not. We are thinking about purchasing the lowest tier(100 points). I would like to hear the pros and cons from those of you who purchased. How many years am i locked in for.

 

[timandjanl]

My wife and I are tossing it around if we should buy or not. We are thinking about purchasing the lowest tier(100 points). I would like to hear the pros and cons from those of you who purchased. How many years am i locked in for.

That depends on where you choose to make your home resort. Several of the properties' contracts end in 2042. SSR is 2054. AK 2057 and BLT 2060. VGF is longer than that. Why don't you do some research regarding resale? You could buy more than 100 points for the same or less money than buying direct through Disney. That is what we just did. Got 100 more points than we planned and spent $5k less than we budgeted.

 

[Deb & Bill]

My wife and I are tossing it around if we should buy or not. We are thinking about purchasing the lowest tier(100 points). I would like to hear the pros and cons from those of you who purchased. How many years am i locked in for.

What are you planning on using the points for? Length of stay? Time of year? Number of people? Those can all make a difference.

 

[disneynutz]

Start reading, your questions are asked a couple of times per week.

Smart of you to investigate before you buy, Disney isn't cheap but depending on your circumstances, DVC might save you some money, or it could cause you to spend more.

Bill

 

[DVCcurious]

Pros: the resorts and rooms are very nice; if you'd go to WDW and stay at Deluxes if DVC didn't exist then you will save money buying a DVC contract; you can rent your points to make some money/recoup your buy in cost

Cons: the up front cost is a lot of money; you are "locked in" to paying the dues until you decide to sell or 2042-2060 depending on the resort you buy into


I also had a lot of questions about DVC before I bought in. I probably spent 6 months researching different websites before deciding to take the plunge.

There's a ton of information on this site and most of it is good. Many members here are polite and want to help you, but some will judge you "unworthy of DVC". When I asked a question regarding Use Year and Resort point differences a few people on here tried to turn my thread into "you are not ready for DVC because you have only been to WDW twice in your life". So beware of arrogant posters and just try to ignore them. All I can say is you know yourself and nobody on here knows jack squat about you (even though some people think they are experts on your vacation habits).

If you are planning on going to WDW every other year and you want to stay in Deluxe accommodations DVC will save you money in the long run. The break even varies based on cost per point you paid, type of room you're staying in, etc but in general I think it's safe to say you will break even by 10 years from now.

So spend some time reading the site. Go to Youtube and check out the rooms and resorts. Think about if you really want to commit to WDW for the next 10+ years. If the answer is Yes then DVC is probably a good decision for you.

 

[Kidanifan08]

My wife and I are tossing it around if we should buy or not. We are thinking about purchasing the lowest tier(100 points). I would like to hear the pros and cons from those of you who purchased. How many years am i locked in for.

That depends on where you choose to make your home resort. Several of the properties' contracts end in 2042. SSR is 2054. AK 2057 and BLT 2060. VGF is longer than that. Why don't you do some research regarding resale? You could buy more than 100 points for the same or less money than buying direct through Disney. That is what we just did. Got 100 more points than we planned and spent $5k less than we budgeted.

The other thing to keep in mind with resale is that there is no "lowest tier" buy-in. If you just want to get your feet wet, you can find 25-100 point contracts on the resale market. As a resale buyer, the drawback to the small contracts is that they command a higher price, they tend to sell within a day of listing (so you have to be ready to pounce!), and the closing costs are higher per point that with a larger contract.

On another thread that you started you asked about what happens to the points if you skip a year. Some DVC owners actually buy with the idea of skipping year in mind. With a 50 point contract, you could take a 150 point trip by using banked, current and borrowed points all at once. Now, you would be using 3 years of points, so you would have infrequent visits that way, but some DVC'ers don't go multiple times a year, or even every year. You still would have your MF's due in January each of those 3 years, but currently that is only about $5/pt, so for a 50 pt contract, about $250.

As far as being locked in, it does depend on the home resort you buy into, as timandjani indicated. But, if you want to get out, you can turn around and sell your contract on the resale market. As I said, the small contracts are a hot commodity, so if you bought a small contract, you generally would have no trouble unloading it. Of course, with reselling using a broker, you will pay a 10% commission and some other small fees.

Good luck learning more about purchasing DVC!

 

[coach2]

Can someone give me some insight as to the fees associated with a 100 point contract. And on average how much do they increase each year.

Thanks

 

[markallers]

Annual dues for a 100 pt contract are $400-$600 but it is dependent on the resort you choose. They increase around 5% per year, but this also varies significantly across resorts.

 

[Kidanifan08]

Can someone give me some insight as to the fees associated with a 100 point contract. And on average how much do they increase each year.

Thanks

Check out the DVC Resource Center sticky. It lists all of the dues for each resort from opening of the resort through 2013 in post #2.