Here are a few reasons we decided to buy instead of continuing to rent:
1. The first time we rented points, I believe we paid $7 a point. Now they rent for $10 a point. I am sure that will eventually go up as well.
2. We had a trip planned for January of this year on rented points when 2 days before the trip my father in law had a major accident (he is still in the hospital 2 months later so it was pretty serious). We had to cancel the trip. Thankfully we bought
trip insurance and have received a full refund. However, it dawned on us when I called the person that we rented from that he was able to reuse/re-rent those points. He rebooked the trip for us and we just got back last week. The point is, I paid him for two trips. If I had owned
DVC at the time, I would not have had to pay a couple thousand out of my pocket twice! Not that I plan on cancelling, but with my parents and my husbands parents in their 70's and 2 young kids, it could happen again.
3. I agree with the post that asked if you would rather "rent" a house or "own" it. We felt the same way.
4. By owning, we are in control of our trips. We like to plan for the future and DVC is allowing us to do that. We can customize our trip however we want but when you rent, you have to take what you can get. You can't plan now for a 2003 trip when you rent points because you don't know how much the points will sell for or if enough will be available for what you are planning.
Everyone we ever rented from was wonderful. We never had any problems and the process was very easy. However, I am thrilled that we own now. I have two trips already booked and just can't wait to plan more.
Hope this helps. Sorry to ramble!
Lisa