Questions About Small Contract Resale Purchase

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Hmmm. That raises a question for me: let's say you have 75 points, and 11 months out you book a vacation at your home resort. But you really want to stay at another resort, so when that one opens up you book there, canceling your original reservation. Will that work, even though you don't have enough points for both at the same time? Thanks.

Yes, that will work because MS just cancels one ressie and THEN reserves a new vacation and does that only IF you come through on the waitlist. It could be a bit of a problem if MS comes up with days in the middle of the vacation. Do you take a Tuesday night at your favorite resort if you are still staying Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday somewhere else? You end up only taking the waitlist only on the front or back and then try to add on to it piecmeal.

Here's another scenario: you have scheduled a 2 bedroom Boardwalk view during F&W in October and have to change it to a 1 bedroom in September. Alas, that is a whole new reservation that you have not wait listed for. MS won't just drop the studio. You are put on a wait list at the back of the line. Now, are you going to get anything in the Epcot area on short notice. Probably not. Christmas would be even worse because you probably couldn't get anything on property within a couple of months notice.

Here's another scenairo. We bought in January '06 and planned to stay at BWV in October '06 with my sisters and their kids. (The kids had a week off from school in October of '05.) The trip was about 129 points, so we reserved 100 '06 points and 29 '07 points. The school schedule came out in June and alas - no Fall break. We borrowed 29 points from '07 that couldn't go back to '07.

So this is what we did: we took the short trip to Savannah (Hilton Head) that we always dreamed of on the 29 points stuck in '06, banked our original 100 '06 points, used our 71 remaining '07 points, and borrowed 29 '08 points for our 200 point family trip. That left us with 71 points in '08 that we are using this January for a long weekend without extended family. Its actually a little messier than that because my other sister decided to go and we rented 70 more points, but that is the jist of it.

I had wanted to go to Savannah, so it wasn't a big deal, but the original borrowing of 29 points for a trip we didn't make made something pretty straight forward look really messy.

I think I accidentally talked a friend out of DVC because I explained all that. Her eyes glazed over for some reason.

We learned our lesson the hard way, no harm was done, but now understand the very small drawback of our lovely small contract. You really have to MANAGE your points well.

 

[carlbarry]

Well, they say that the closing cost is 300 something, but then in the contract, if you want the title search, etc, it is really $450, then also a $197 'adminstrative fee', none of which the seller would help with. This is for 25 points. But again, I see it as worth it to get in the door and will probably buy from DVC for all other add ons.

Wow, $450 for a title search on such a small property really seems excessive; you can get a house title search up here for that. So what you're saying is, the cost is actually almost $950 on a points purchase of around $1,800! I question the necessity of the title search, since I would assume Disney is passing a valid title, and if the seller didn't have a valid title, that would have come out in the ROFR process.

 

[nunzia]

Wow, $450 for a title search on such a small property really seems excessive; you can get a house title search up here for that. So what you're saying is, the cost is actually almost $950 on a points purchase of around $1,800! I question the necessity of the title search, since I would assume Disney is passing a valid title, and if the seller didn't have a valid title, that would have come out in the ROFR process.

No..the total cost to GMAC is 647.00 (450 closing costs + 197 admin fee), plus the cost for the points is 1,950 (78 a point). My total cost for 25 at OKW is 2,597.00, which is a very high 103.88 per point ( I believe the resale from Disney is 96 a point? So, yes, I'm paying premium..but again.. I feel I only have to do this once, then all other add ons can be through Disney and have no closing costs. I don't think I need any more than 100 total points ...for now anyway...so I really didn't want to get the 160 I's need to start with Disney off the bat.

 

[nunzia]

PS.. I had asked around here about if I needed to pay the added amount for title search and such, and there was mixed opinions so I just went with the safety net..

 

[carlbarry]

Oh, so the closing cost was about $300, or $450 including the title search? And then add the admin fee of $197. That comes to almost a third of the cost of the points. Quite outrageous!

 

[nunzia]

Oh, so the closing cost was about $300, or $450 including the title search? And then add the admin fee of $197. That comes to almost a third of the cost of the points. Quite outrageous!

That is corect and yes..outrageous..but again..I am only doing this to pay, so to speak, to get my foot in the door. After this one I will buy from Disney. I look at it all as a initiation fee


PS..my contract is a ROFR Fingers crossed!

 

[nunzia]

PS again.. I do believe this is a minimum charge, so, to be fair to GMAC, I'm sure it's a hassle handling these small accounts and you could probably get a much larger contract for the same fees, which would bring your per point cost down.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Just ask the seller to pay all closing and in GMAC's case, the GMAC fee. I don't know why everyone assumes you must pay the closing costs and fees. Everything is negotiable.

 

[kapeman]

We haven't even closed yet and I'm thinking about BWV or BCV.

Anyway, I am beginning to question the popularly held belief that buying add-ons from DVC is always cheaper than resale.

Say you want 100 points from BWV, you can usually find resale contracts around $88/pt ($8800) plus closing of say $475.

That puts the resale total at $9275.

Buying directly through DVC puts the cost at $9600 for a difference of $325.

Not a huge difference and this comparison fails with smaller point contracts, but there are some scenarios where add-ons through DVC are not always the best bet.

Just some food for thought.


P. S. Closing in 15 days!!!

P. P. S. : Man, where's that smiley doing the cabbage patch?

 

[dizplanner]

Just ask the seller to pay all closing and in GMAC's case, the GMAC fee. I don't know why everyone assumes you must pay the closing costs and fees. Everything is negotiable.

While everything is negotiable, if I was the seller, due to the popularity of small contracts, I would just say "Next!". In other words, most sellers will not go for paying the fees - why should they when they can sell to someone else who will pay the fees?

As to whether it is better to do add ons at Disney vs resales, it really depends - how many points are you buying vs the closing costs? Is the resell contract intact (i.e. right now that means does it have all of its 2007 points? I did some review of the four main resellers and only about 20% of the contracts out there are intact and only a few have banked points in addition). If the contract is intact, does the seller want all 2007 dues? (Disney prorates based on the calendar - not much difference at the start of the year, significant toward the end of the year - this is a fact I did not understand when I bought my resell, although I still came out good - saved about $10/point, but I bought 3 years ago.)

BCV, AKV and maybe SSR make more sense to buy from Disney because the per point costs are not discounted enough.

VWL and BWV and maybe SSR can be worth going resell if you find a decent contract.

OKW, VB, HH are cheap enough that resell is probably always the best bet unless the contract is completely stripped.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

While everything is negotiable, if I was the seller, due to the popularity of small contracts, I would just say "Next!". In other words, most sellers will not go for paying the fees - why should they when they can sell to someone else who will pay the fees?

Well others have, and I am one who bought from one. My seller paid all fees, my contract was not stripped, and I even got the previous years points banked!! So your theory holds no water. Today's economy is very shaky, and DVC is not on the top of most people's purchase list. Seller's should be thankful they sell any contracts, and should be willing to negotiate. Your thinking is "old school".....take a look at the housing market.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I tried to buy a small contract for about 6 months. I kept missing out by just a hair. (Once I missed a contract by 5 MINUTES) I didn't negotiate on my contract.. ... it was only a matter of a $200 and I wanted to get my foot in the door. Epcot resorts are a great location and get snapped up quickly. While it takes longer to go resale, my guy at the TTS was great. Good luck!

 

[carlbarry]

Hear Hear! The housing market stinks, foreclosures are at a record high. A DVC membership is not a necessity. It should be a buyer's market!

 

[nunzia]

Just ask the seller to pay all closing and in GMAC's case, the GMAC fee. I don't know why everyone assumes you must pay the closing costs and fees. Everything is negotiable.

I tried that as well and the seller would not budge. Again, I guess I can't blame them as I'm sure the costs associated with selling so few points took a big hunk out of what they'd get.
But yes..I tried to negotiate on closing costs and admin fees..but I did not try to lower the cost per point as I was afraid it would get stuck in ROFR.

 

[nunzia]

Another PS...about buying from Disney vs resale..I certainly see how resale could be cheaper, but I think another bonus to buying from Disney is getting the same UY..maybe not a big deal, but it seems like having the same UY would help make things less confusing.