Question for long-time Resale Owners

[Capo]

I have a question for those of you who are resale owners and have owned for a good while:

How well have your contracts held their value? Have they declined? Gone Up? Stayed the same?

Obviously someone who buys from disney will not resale (most likely, id imagine) at what they bought it at it, but im mainly curious about those who bought resale.

While this is something we hope to last for decades, should it ever become too burdensome or simply not wanted, can we sale it without too great a fear of losing lots of money?

 

[chalee94]

How well have your contracts held their value? Have they declined? Gone Up? Stayed the same?

OKW has dropped about $10-12 since i bought a few years ago.

Obviously someone who buys from disney will not resale (most likely, id imagine) at what they bought it at it, but im mainly curious about those who bought resale.

depends on how long ago you bought. OKW direct from disney cost around $50 per pt 15 years ago. BWV cost $60-something per point i believe.

While this is something we hope to last for decades, should it ever become too burdensome or simply not wanted, can we sale it without too great a fear of losing lots of money?

there's a risk in anything. if gas gets ridiculous, demand for travel to wdw could collapse and the value of DVC would collapse along with it. as timeshares go, DVC is the safest bet out there.

 

[chalee94]

more info than you really wanted probably but here's the historical price per point, direct from DVC (presumably resales around the same time would have been less than this to be competitive):

Pre-Construction - $48 (230 pt. minimum)
Oct. 7, 1991 - OKW Opens $51
Dec. '91 - $51
Jan. '92 -$51 (230 pt. minimum)
Feb. '92 - $51
July-Aug. '92 - $54.50
11/1/92 - $56
May '93 - $56 (210 pt. minimum)
July '93 - $57.50
Jan. '94 - $57.50 (190 pt. minimum)
March '94 - Announce Newport, CA plans
April '94 - $59 Increase in June announced
6/15/94 - $60.50
Nov. '94 - $61.50
7/1/95 - $62.75 October '95 - Vero Opens
March '96 - HHI Opens
May '96 - $62.75
July '96 - BWV Opens
May '97 - $62.75 (150 pt. minimum)
May '98 - $62.75
Fall, 1998 - OKW Sells-out
1998 - Announce WLV
Jan. '99 - $65
Oct. '99 - $65 (notice of OKW selling out added buildings 62, 63, 64)
Mid-May 2000 - $67
June 2000 - $67
Nov. 2000 - WLV Opens (sales start Dec.)
Mid-Jan. 2001 - $72
March 2001 an increase to $75 announced for June
March? 2002 – Begin sales of BCV
June 2002 -- $80 per point
Dec 1, 2002 -- $84 per point (announced early Oct.)
Aug 4, 2003 -- $89 per point (SSR Sales begin with $10 discount = $79) with expiration in 2054.
May, 2004 -- SSR opens.
May, 2004 -- $95 per point @SSR, $89 at other DVC resorts.
June, 2005 -- $98 per point @SSR, $92 at other DVC resorts.
Jan (?), 2006 -- $101 per point @SSR, $95 at other DVC resorts (with some variances at OKW, VB and HH). Incentives are also available lowering the effective purchase price for 150 or more points.
Fall , 2006 --AKV announced.
February 1, 2007 - AKV sales begin for existing members. $101 ($8 incentive discount also available)
March, 2007 -- $104 per point. (160 point minimum) ($8 incentive discount available)
July, 2007 -- Early opening for AKV.

BLT started at $112 with a $5 incentive in mid-Sept 2008.

 

[jekjones1558]

We bought our original contract from Disney, one add-on from Disney and 5 add-ons by resale. If we were to sell today, after allowing for 10% commission to selling agent, we would would still make money on 5 of the contracts and break even or lose a little on 2 of them. Because most of our points are at BWV and the expiration is 2042, I expect that the price will drop at some point not too far down the road. I could sell now to lock in a good price but I did not buy DVC with that in mind. I bought because I love to stay at nice accommodations at WDW and have control over my own reservations. I would caution anyone about buying ANY timeshare unless your primary motivation is nice vacations.

 

[lacool]

I know my BWV points have appreciated since we bought in December 2002, but I'd be lying if I gave you exact amounts. I believe it was in the neighborhood of $65/point and BWV points are currently listed on Jaki Apetz website between $76 - $80 per point. I recognize this won't last as we approach 2042, but I'm still hanging on to my points. It's just comforting to know it hasn't gone the way of most timeshare investments....or most of my other investments for that matter!

 

[5forDiz]

DVC shouldn't be looked at as an investment. DVC is a good way to pre-pay accommodations portion of your vacation at WDW if you would typically be booking deluxe accommodations(or multiple rooms because of family size) & your travel habits are to vacation at WDW at least every other year.

 

[Ed T]

First purchase through Disney in 1994 was $ 57.00 a point. Resale purchase in 1996 was at $ 50 a point. These were at OKW since that was the only resort available back then. I'd say for us they have held up

 

[lacool]

I warned you that I'd probably lie to you.

I went through my old DisBoard posts and found that I paid $70 per point in 2002. It has still appreciated in value, just not as much as I had believed.

Still worth every penny!

 

[DenLo]

While this is something we hope to last for decades, should it ever become too burdensome or simply not wanted, can we sale it without too great a fear of losing lots of money?

While I am not really answering your questions, I do have a comment about your last sentence. DVC is not like buying a house (in other markets than current market). It is not an investment where you plan on selling it later and either get all of your money back or make money. DVC is a way to take Disney Vacations at nice hotels cheaper. The problem is that for the first 5 to 7 trips, you are just recovering your initial cost. After that initial recovery period you strike gold as you are staying at resorts where the rack rate cost is thousands of dollars per stay but you are only paying your MF!

We figure if we keep our contract for 20 - 25 years and then sell it at half what we purchased it, then we got a bargain. None of the resorts have reached the 20 year mark, but OKW is getting close and those contracts are selling at a higher rate than what they were purchased.

Try not to worry and have fun.

 

[Capo]

Thanks all for the information, it's appreciated.

Just to clarify as well, I am not viewing this as an investment. Rather, my question stems from the possibility of us NEEDING to get rid of it down the road should something unfortunate occur.

My concern wasn't to make money, but rather, to make sure that I wasn't "stuck" in it.

 

[disneynutz]

We own a lot of points purchased resale and direct. As of today their value is down $7000. I expect them to recover a bit, but with so many members renting and selling their points below market, it will take a while before things improve.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

<snip>It is not an investment where you plan on selling it later and either get all of your money back or make money. <snip>

<snip>We figure if we keep our contract for 20 - 25 years and then sell it at half what we purchased it, then we got a bargain. <snip>

Sorry but that just tickles me.

 

[Disneypubgal]

I consider myself one of he luckiest DVC owners, I purchased while I was a Disney Cast member and was able to buy at a nice discount back in 1997... however that discount comes with strings... can only sell my points back to Disney... but for us (just like some of the other posts) we bought not for investment but rather to enjoy nice accomodations at basically the cost of MF... we have at least 1 big trip per year and 2-3 smaller ones with our 360 pts... and we now take vacations every year.... between that and using our Disney visa rewards pts for annual passes and souvenirs... Disney is a really inexpensive and nice vacation for us!

 

[dis-happy]

Thanks all for the information, it's appreciated.

Just to clarify as well, I am not viewing this as an investment. Rather, my question stems from the possibility of us NEEDING to get rid of it down the road should something unfortunate occur.

My concern wasn't to make money, but rather, to make sure that I wasn't "stuck" in it.

Choose wisely. We purchased resale in 2004 and both sets of contracts have appreciated a bit (for awhile it was more than "a bit"). We purchased at BCV and BWV. Both are smaller resorts that people try to get in to at 7 months. BCV has the great pool area, plus both are within walking distance to 2 parks. I also like the fact that BWV has the standard points rooms...those are a complete bargain for stays at a wonderful resort hotel. Also, keep in mind that smaller contracts (under 100 pts) tend to sell quicker and for a higher price per point than larger ones. There is also the point of diminishing returns....eventually, as the contract end comes closer, the value of the older contracts will drop (unless DVC proceeds as they did with OKW, allowing you to add on to the contract length).

 

[msabol01]

I wouldn't worry as much about your losses from selling, but rather look at the value/ benefit you had during your membership time. I think there was a thread floating around where someone did a DVC cost analysis and determined DVC's value proposition kicked in around year 3 compared to staying in Disney Resorts as a Cash playing customer.

If you don't feel ownership (regardless how long) isn't worth any potential ROI, DVC may not be a good choice.

 

[buzz5985]

Thanks all for the information, it's appreciated.

Just to clarify as well, I am not viewing this as an investment. Rather, my question stems from the possibility of us NEEDING to get rid of it down the road should something unfortunate occur.

My concern wasn't to make money, but rather, to make sure that I wasn't "stuck" in it.

I understand exactly what your saying. With that - I purchased 150 HHI points in 2003 - $62/point, sellar paid closing costs and MF. In 2004 I added on through DVC 100 BWV points, I paid $84/point.

So the HHI points have held thier own, BWV lost a little value, vey little. But - if you had looked at prices last September/October - the prices were about $10/point higher than now.

Janis

 

[renda460]

We bought 160 points resale at WL back in 2003 for $68 a point. I talked with the Timeshare store a couple days ago about how much they were selling for now and it is $74-$78. So the value has gone up for us, but we would pay 10% commission if we sold so we would probably barely break even - although we got 6 great years of use out of it.

Note - we are only looking into selling to switch over to BLT. We would never give up DVC altogether as we love it.

 

[rlduvall]

Apparently, we bought a 50 point contract from HH in October of 2006 at the peak of the resale market for HH. Paid $76. per point and it has gone down in price significantly since then. Story of my life.

 

[Sandisw]

I think that due to ROFR, right now, DVC timeshares hold some value for longer than other ones.

However, no one knows for sure what Disney will do in the future and if they stop exercising that, prices will drop as there will be nothing to prevent them from doing so.

When I bought in, I figured what my typical room costs would be at the CR (we we stayed) with a 30% discount (assuming that you can always get deals). That is what I used as my base to figure out the "break even point". Once I get there, 8 - 9 years, my feeling is that anything that my DVC is worth is a bonus.

So, even if in 10 years, I sold and got nothing, I would still be in no worse shape then I would have been had I continued to pay cash using a 30% discount.

Basically, I don't think someone should take into consideration the resale value when purchasing. If you know that you need 10 years to break even, but find yourself having to sell in less than that and are worried about recouping some of your costs, then it may not be the right product to buy.

Good luck!

 

[saintstickets]

There are so many factors to consider when trying to determine if DVC ownership has retained it value for you....how much you paid initially being the primary factor. Would you go as often if you did not have DVC? Based on the number of points we are looking to purchase and the number of times we plan on visiting each year, I calculate our initial investment will pay for itself in 5-7 years. After that, we are saving the difference between cash rates and maintenance fees (about $3,000 per year for us). When those savings are considered, one probably will still come out ahead even if the price per point when sold has not appreciably increased over time. But then again, how can you put a price on memories?