Planning on buying..why not a resale???

[pkitty]

I'am curious about something...Why purchase your DVC points directly from the DVC when you can purchase them (resales)through the TIMESHARE STORE for less??? I don't quite understand and I need some clarification before I send out that cheque for the 200 points I'am about to purchase at the Beach club....I missed the presentation...I was at Magic Kingdom (my bad)..and my husband forgot to ask. What do you do if you go to book in for your vacation dates and you resort is already booked...do you just book another...are you given preference at your home resort?? You guys are the experts so I ready for all the info you've got!!! What if I want to add points...do I always have to add on at my home resort??? Is that the sell out that everyone keeps referring to??? I was at the DVC on friday just to look at the units before we left for home and they told me a sell-out was predicted for May...I'am hearing conflicting things!!!! Clarification please!!!!

 

[Richyams]

Recently, Disney has been aggresively buying resales with their 'Right Of First Refusal" This has effectively pushed the resale price to $70 and higher. Still a savings, just less worth the extra hassle of a resale.

Even if you are paying cash and don't need financing of any sort, a resale is going to take longer. It has to be approved by Disney, the seller may back out, while these are minor concerns, they are enough of a hassle to make a resale have to be less than from Disney.

With MB and bad math, people often think the price from Disney is $74 with no closing costs VS a resale at $72....not enough of a difference to make resale worthwhile.

Still, an OKW 250 point resale, with 100 banked points at $72 is worthwhile when compared to BCV with most of its first allotment gone at $74 (plus prorated dues, plus you can't sell back 250, plus you don't get OKW) is a better deal than BCV from Disney.

 

[DVCGirl49]

Hi PKitty, welcome!

To answer a few of your questions, yes you can buy a contract thru Disney or resalse like those offered thru the Timeshare Store. Buying thru Disney has the advantage of prearranged financing thru DVC if you want to instead of comming up with all the $ up front or trying to find yourself a loan on your own. The good side of buying a resale is indeed the lower price per point, however DVC has on all contracts what you may have seen talked around here as "ROFR" - that is right of first refusal. So if they arent satisfied with the terms of your resale agreement (the price per point is too low, etc) they can refuse to let you buy it under those terms and buy it out from under you on the same terms. So some people aren't too thrilled with the idea of placing a bid on a contract, having the seller accept, starting the process and just to find out 30 days later that Disney bought your contract and you can't have it afterall. Aslo buying thru DVC they take care of all the closing costs and such, buying resale you are responsible for all those costs unless otherwise stated in the terms of your resale agreement. Therefore the price per point could start creeping even more closer to what DVC is asking or thru them. Personally I bought thru DVC, I liked that I could finiance it without trouble and knowing that 30 days down the road I wasn't going to find out that "sorry Disney bought it back".

As for your other questions....
"What do you do if you go to book in for your vacation dates and you resort is already booked...do you just book another...are you given preference at your home resort?? "
Your home resort is the one at which you are purchasing your contract. You are given a 11 month booking window in which to make reservations at your home resort. (11 months ahead of your proposed check out date) All of the other DVC resorts (the 'non-home' resorts) you will be able to book at 7 months from your planned check out date. Therefore you have a 4 month "home advantage" where only people who own at your home resort can book, and at 7 months out everyone else can book. If you go to book and your dates are not available at your home resort and it is more than 7 months before your planned check out date you can ask to be put on a waiting list for those dates at your home resort. If it is 7 months or less before your check out date you can try to make a reservation at one of the other DVC resorts for those dates and if you are going to be happy with trying a new resort then good you are all set. But if you really have your heart on going to your home resort you can see about making reservations at your second choice and putting your name on the waitlist for your home resort (or whatever one you did want). Then at least you do have a reservation and if the waitlist doesn't turn up anything you still have a place to stay. And hey, you may like the one you thought was your "second choice" etc afterall! We couldn't get in to VWL for last Dec so we booked OKW and didn't think we were going to like it at all....it turned out to be one of our favorites!

What if I want to add points...do I always have to add on at my home resort??? Is that the sell out that everyone keeps referring to???
If you want to add points, no they do not need to be a your home resort, they can be at any of the others, they just need to be the same use year as your original contract. If you want to buy points with a different use year I believe you would need to buy a whole contract, not just an add on. Contracts thru DVC start as low as 150 points, once you have a contract you can buy add ons for a little points as you need (ex 25 points, etc). So if you were to buy 200 BCV points and later decide to buy an add on of 50 points at lets say SSR, you would then have home advantage at BCV and SSR -- it is a little more complicated than that, but I think that's the simplest way of explaining it. As for the sell out everyone is talking about, that is when DVC has sold out all the points it had to be sold at a particular resort and the only way to get points after that there would be to buy a resale or get on a waiting list for that resort and hope that thru ROFR someones contract gets bought out and that the points become for sale again...that is once your name gets high enough on the list..I've heard of some pretty long wait times for those asking for points at sold out resorts.

So that's my two cents, a long two cents at that! If anyone else has anything to add or correct, please do. I think that I got to all your questions. I'm sure that you will find that there are a lot more questions to be asked, and the people on these boards have been a great help to me in learning the ins and outs of DVC!

Good luck!

Brandi

 

[JOC]

"Buy where you want to stay the most" is one of the best pieces of advice from other DVC owners. That being said, if you want to stay at VWL, BWV or OKW the most, then resale is the only way to go. We just bought a 150-point BWV resale last month for $70 per point. Add in the $400 closing cost and it bumps the price per point up to $73 but that's still less than BCV with Magical Beginnings, plus our contract came with 2002 banked points and all points for 2003 use year. Good Luck!

 

[rtkane]

We're actually in the process of buying at VWL direct through Disney for Feb use year. Not sure if they still have availability, but a week ago there was 5000 points for Feb (no other months available and we purchased 270 of them). If there's a particular resort that you're looking for and want to purchase direct (vs. resale), call your guide and ask him to check if there are any points available. With MB, there wasn't much of a difference:

270 x $74 (after MB) = $19,980
270 x $70 (resale) + $600 (closing) = $19,500

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I read somewhere you couldn't get Magical Beginnings at VWL?? Only BCV and Vero Beach?? Anyone Know?

 

[rtkane]

We better be able to get MB at VWL! My guide confirmed it on the phone (actually, it was told to me by two separate guides when my assigned one had the day off and I needed to ask a few questions). I guess I'll find out for sure when my package arrives this week, but I'm not worried--we went through the calculations and he did take off the MB dollars and it came out to the price I was expecting.

I have heard in other threads on this board that you might not get MB from other resorts if you're doing an add-on. Not sure about that though.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Somewhere on this board I read that you cannot get MB on sold out resorts? So I would guess VWL really was never "sold out"? I hope for your sake you are right, that would be a big difference. I do know with add-ons you can get MB only if you buy more that 100 points.

 

[Dean]

If you can't reserve the time you want you can try for other resorts but it's possible to not be able to get anything that works for you. You could then bank your points if they are bankable and use them next year. Otherwise, you would simply lose them if you can't use them. You cannot bump someone who already has a reservation even if it is your home resort.