Phasing into DVC through resales

[sweetdana]

I think buying small is perfect. A 50 point contract gets you 100$ of AP prices and say 3-4 nights. (With MF being say 250-350$ per year, and having ability to transfer in points, and discounted cash rooms through MS, you are still ahead. (Assuming you would by a AP anyway.)) I think 50 is prob better than 25, it would be tough to get even a trip in every 3 years with 25 and if you had to cancel or move it, there would be banked points involved and tougher.
I think 50 would give you a trip every other, assuming a studio and depending on when you went.

DH and I did same thing. WE LOVE IT, haven't added on yet. (Started with 160 points.) The orig intention was to add on. We have found transfers in 2010 and 2011 UY both at BC, at 9 and 10.25 a point. With the cost of BC points nearing 8.50-9$ with resale years left per yr cost( IE 80$ plus current MF). it is illogical to purchase more not knowing how much we will go when DD is older; with the cost for 1 yr so close to cost for keeping 30 yrs. Transfers are no risk of future MF and easy. Also require you to be a member which 25 points is fine.
My vote is do it, but consider 50 points.

 

[disneygirlmass]

Another option you could do if you opt to purchase the minimum 150 points is to sell back your points for the year. My husband and I purchase in September with a use year of March, so we didn't plan on using the entire 240 points we were buying. We kept about 50 and Disney purchased the rest other 190 back for that year, which ending up savings us over $2K. Just a thought.

 

[TiaMaria]

My personal advice is to rent points or pay cash at a couple of DVC resorts before buying, just to make sure it is what you hope it is.

Then, make sure you buy enough points to stay where you want, in the room-type you want, as often as you want. Within your own budget, of course.

It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to be buying a contract so small that you can't use it on anything, or are limited to staying in a studio every few years. Unless that is what you want? Shoot, if that is what you want, may as well stay in a regular hotel room at an on-site property.

Otherwise, I fear you will be frustrated and not feel that you got what you thought you were paying for. We see so many posters come on here that have bought in and didn't really understand what they were buying, or found out too late that they didn't plan accordingly, or just outright did not understand how to use their points and found out they had way too many or not nearly enough. Then they are mad at the rest of us for being the messengers of bad news. Or they try to reinvent the entire world of renting points just to suit them.

It sounds like you are doing the proper research, but don't "cheat" yourself by not getting the proper number of points for your family to do what you want to do. You may need to start a fund and save until you can get the amount you need at a later date.

So much information to digest, but asking these questions ahead of time is the right thing to do. Best of luck to you!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

We own 29 points at VWL. We have used them every couple of years with split stays with the balance either onsite of offsite. We own another timeshare week we basically got for free and only pay $400 in annual dues. We have talked about adding on at BLT, but so far we haven't needed to as we also like to take vacations to the beach (HH is where our other timeshare is) and Vail. A small contract has worked great for us and we can add on through Disney at any time. Yes, you pay a little more per pont, but $2500 is really easy to come up with and not hard to part with. 15k is a little scary. Do what is best for you and how you vacation. IMHO there is no right or wrong answer.

 

[rvashko]

You make a good point. I want to get in on DVC, and while I could part with the $15k, I don't really want to in today's economy. I also don't want to finance and take on any unnecessary debt.

But getting in at 25-50 pts? Yeah, I could handle that in cash and not feel like I punched a huge hole in our savings.

 

[joandegennaro]

We started with 100 points at OKW. This allowed us enough points for a studio (which is fine for us as soon we will be traveling without the kids (DD is almost 18 and DD is 13) We bought in with our as in DH and I place to go for a week plus in retirement. Studio accomodations with suit us just fine. How ever if your 1 or 2 bedroom kind of people consider what it would cost for your average length of stay at peak time. I found that this allowed for any point realocations and gave us the flexablity to travel anytime of year. If we had extra points by the banking deadline then that will just mean we can add a day or two onto the next years trip. If this is too much then consider buying half that amount.

Remember Direct from Disney is instant gratification as to your prefered UY/Resort but you might not be able to buy a smaller amount of points and you may have to wait if you are set on a so call sold out resort like BC or BW, and you will absolutly pay more. Resale might take a while for you to find the perfect contract then you will have to wait to see if Disney decides to let you have it or ROFR it. But it will save you alot of $$$$. You have to decide for yourself which is better for you.

 

[rvashko]

Oh, I think I'm pretty set on resale. I'm in no huge rush and don't need the instant gratification. I can just rent points until the time is right.

 

[joandegennaro]

Oh, I think I'm pretty set on resale. I'm in no huge rush and don't need the instant gratification. I can just rent points until the time is right.

If your content to rent points for now then I would suggest you try as many different resorts as possible to give you a real idea of when you'd like to call home. For us we visited many of the DVC resorts while staying at CBR. Many just didn't make us feel like we would want to stay there year after year. Not a big AKL fan, while nice to visit once or maybe for dinner not where I would want to relax on holiday. Everyone has their own preference and if you have the time to find out what yours is before you buy I think you will be very happy with your decision. We had the chance to stay at OKW last March and that was what helped push DH over the edge and join my way of thinking that DVC was for us.