Questions about buying DVC

[frkymcky]

I have been reading everyone's post lately but have not posted myself. I have wanted to buy DVC for a few years now and my husband is finally coming around, however when we were just about to agree he worked the numbers based on us financing and his comment was that it was alot of money. I tried to explaine the cost over the 5 years based on how much we would save on all our future trips but he wouldn't bite. Does anyone out there have any other points I maybe able to use to help prove my point.

FYI our vacation habits would be to travel to Disney World every other year, but would need a 2 bedroom so I believe the DVC is the way to go for us and we would be there for atleast 7 days. Thanks in advance for your help

 

[browniemtb]

It is expensive......but to explain or rationalize the purchase look at it this way. You are pre-paying for vacations years in advance. In simple terms take the total cost and divide it by the amount of years your resort has left. Based on comparing deluxe resorts to DVC the pay back is about 6 to 8 trips...so everything after is gravy. Compared to some morderates and value resorts, DVC is not a good deal. Don't forget to add maintenance fees into your equation.......I've looked at it trip by trip. I compared what it would cost me booking a 1 bedroom at my home resort through CRO vs DVC. Even using simple math it comes out less expensive DVC its just a big nut up front that can make you question the purchase.

 

[TwoGirlsandDisney]

I had some trouble convincing my dh as well. We financed our 200 points, and it does take a big chunk out of our budget with the loan payment and the dues, but in 5 years we will just have the annual dues and be enoying Disney like crazy. I forget what website had the rates for the rooms, but I showed my dh that, and compared that to what we would actually be paying with payments, and that seemed to help. I think for a May trip, and a 3 bedroom, at SSR it was $1350 a night. For us that is 5 months of payments just for a night. So it really does end up paying for itself in a few vacations. We finally bought in April, and it took a good 6 months to convince him. Now he is just as excited as I am. We are looking forward to a Disney Paris trip, the point value is really good.

Good luck!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

It is expensive......but to explain or rationalize the purchase look at it this way. You are pre-paying for vacations years in advance. In simple terms take the total cost and divide it by the amount of years your resort has left. Based on comparing deluxe resorts to DVC the pay back is about 6 to 8 trips...so everything after is gravy. Compared to some morderates and value resorts, DVC is not a good deal. Don't forget to add maintenance fees into your equation.......I've looked at it trip by trip. I compared what it would cost me booking a 1 bedroom at my home resort through CRO vs DVC. Even using simple math it comes out less expensive DVC its just a big nut up front that can make you question the purchase.

It's amazing how we all ignore the maintenance fees that never cease, isn't it?

Not that it changes the equation greatly but it does skew the recovery curves.

 

[cseca]

Here's the way I look at it:
Divide the principal cost of dvc (for ex: 15000 I'm using easy #s) by however many years you'll have it (for ex: 40 years): $15000/40 = $375
So you're paying $375/year for the vacation + MF.

Now MF goes up on avg 5%/year... could be more could be less.

after you add up your yearly MF+ $375 that's your dvc cost for the year.

Is it worth it? Now that depends on your current disney vacation habit.
You can definitely spend less than that by staying at Value resorts but the point of DVC is going on vacation to disney every year (or close to it) with style...

good luck convincing DH...!

 

[simmons_m]

Tough decision, i am the number cruncher in the family. we purchased a resale (soon to close), at a low point level, at the resort that we like best. It provides us the option to travel for 10 days, every 2 to three years, depending on room type and location.
The numbers worked out well enough that we will pay for our initial investment after 2 to 3 trips depending on room type and frequency, based on the Disney rack rate for the time of year that we like to travel. The toughest comparison, is considering the option of renting points for each trip, vs. buying points up front. It will take a lot longer to make up our investment if we were to go the rental route, but we decided the peace of mind of owning the points, owning the reservation, and control, were worth it to us.
Not sure if that helps, but if you send a PM to me, i would be happy to send you the spreadsheet that i put together to compare options.
Regards,
Mike

 

[bookwormde]

I would consider an incremental approach. You did not specify a particular resort, which can make a difference. Why not try a smaller resale (if you are not in a hurry and have a sense of humor) and cash purchase your weekends. You can do this with about 75-100 points depending on when you travel and which resort you want to stay at. If you buy OKW you can get them for about $6,000-$8,000 with closing costs. This assumes that you finance somewhere other than DVC. You can then add on from DVC in the future as you need.

bookwormde