Resale or Disney

[bsbrady]

I have been wanting to purchase a DVC for some time now. On our last trip we did the DVC tour. I have done a lot of research about this. I just wanted to know what are the differences between buying thru Disney or buying a resale.


The resales are very tempting. Why spend $112 per point when I can spend $70 or $75 per point.

 

[GrumpyBa*D]

If it were me It would depend on where I wanted to purchase. BLT I would buy from DIsney better incentives and quicker closing, AK would probably be a toss up. Any of the older resorts I would buy resale. Takes longer for closing and the chance that Disney exercises their ROFR, but $ are much lower

 

[Buckeye Fan]

As the PP said, I'd buy BLT through Dis and compare the numbers for AKV. With incentives, AKV through Dis may be the better deal. For all other resorts, I'd personally purchase resale.

As for differences, a member is a member to Disney. My BIL/SIL purchased through Dis, and we purchased resale. I see absolutely no differences whatsoever.

The pros of buying through Dis:
* immediate access to your points
* less stress (no ROFR)
* someone to coach you through the best UY for you (if you get a good guide)
* previous year's points (depending on the UY)
* incentives
* ability to finance through Dis (pretty high interest rate)
* can buy exact number of points you want

The pros of buying through resale:
* MUCH cheaper (in many cases)
* can purchase less than 100 points
* can negotiate all costs (price per point, maintenance fees, closing costs, broker fee - only GMAC has a fee of $195)

 

[Crystal_27]

I would also add to the previous items mentioned that if you buy through Disney, you'll have access to your points a few days after signing your paperwork (or immediately if you buy while at Disney) instead of waiting the 30-60 days through resale.

When DH and I decided we were serious about DVC, we really researched this issue and found that, while there is a significant savings by buying resale, since the convenience of the monorail is very important to us and we knew that we would want to stay at BLT for 90% of our trips, we just opted to buy through Disney. For us, it just wasn't worth the hassle of worrying about trying to book at the 7 month window with all other non-BLT owners. However, the great thing about DVC is that there are a lot of options out there - - you just have to find the one that best fits your situation.

 

[DVC Mike]

Initial Purchase from DVC

• You can get the exact number of points that you want (although you must buy a minimum of 160)
• Faster than resale (you will be in the system and have your points and be able to make reservations much faster than resale)
• No worries about the purchase if Disney executes ROFR, since that only applies to resale purchases
• More expensive cost per point than the resale market, although be sure to take into consideration any incentives that DVC is offering
• You can easily finance through DVC, and Disney doesn’t report the loan to credit reporting agencies; also, the interest on the loan will be tax-deductable (in most cases) since it’s a mortgage
• You can pay with a Rewards credit card and get points/cash back
• The full set of points you buy will be available immediately, versus a resale contract which may be “stripped” of points.
• If you don’t want the resorts they are actively selling, you may have to do some firm talking to a guide to convince them you really want an older resort.

Initial Purchase via Resale

• You may not get the exact number of points you want
• You can purchase less than 160 points for your initial buy-in to DVC (Disney won’t let you buy less than 160 points).
• It will take much longer to get into the DVC system and have your points (resales typically take 6-8 weeks)
• Disney may exercise ROFR and you may loose the resale and have to start all over (When buying resale, one of the potential pitfalls to try to avoid is making an offer that will cause Disney to exercise it’s Right of First Refusal)
• Resale is typically less expensive then buying from DVC
• You can’t finance through DVC, although most resale brokers will recommend a finance company; also, the interest on the loan will not be tax deductible
• A resale contract may be “stripped” of points where the user has used many of the current year’s points, and may have borrowed some or all of next year’s points. Just be aware of “stripped” contracts on the resale market.
• Easier to pickup large point packages at any of the older DVC resorts.

 

[Sandisw]

As many have said, it really depends on the resort you want and how important it is to your travel as to where you stay. I think it also depends on whether or not you book your vacations far enough in advance to take advantage of the home resort booking window.

I have done both. Bought resale at VWL (2nd choice resort), small contract, so that I could be a member, knowing full well that I want to stay at BLT. But, doing it this way, I would be able to buy BLT points for less than the new member minimum of 160.

But, once I began researching how I was going to book my vacations, I realized that I just want to be able to KNOW that I can stay at BLT (view is not important) so I can walk to/from MK, our favorite park.

So, I am selling VWL to end up having all my points at BLT. I will be able to book my entire trip there at 11 months (instead of having to book some at one resort and some at the other) and then at 7 months, if we want to try other resorts, we can switch if there is availability. But, if something happened and we could not trade out, we know we would be happy.

Even now, I look at some of the SSR resale contracts and think about whether it would be worth going that route to save money, but I always come back to will I be happy and the answer is always no.

If you have no really strong preference for resort stays and see yourself as someone who could be happy at different places, then I do think that resale, even though it can take longer, is the most economical way to go.

However, buying direct is much faster and getting financing is pretty simple. Disney does not report it so it doesn't show up on your credit report.

You can also pay Disney using a CC (most brokers don't take them). We have a Disney Visa and were able to pay the entire BLT contract with it. We not only got all the reward dollars but we also got 6 months, 0% interest to pay it all off.

Good luck!!!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

If your not in a hurry and you don't want BLT, I'd definitely recommend going resale. There are many contracts out there with full points, MF's paid and they are still going for far less than what Disney will charge you-even with closing fees factored in (and weighing it all against disney's incentives). We did an add on through resale and it saved us tons. We weren't in a hurry to have the points available to us, so the time for closing wasn't too big of a deal. Our ROFR was VERY short-3 days to be exact. Estoppel was the long part-nearly 5 weeks, then another 2 before we were in the system. Still worth it. Having to lay out less $ per point meant we could afford to add more points than we had originally anticipated.

 

[bangzoom6877]

DH and I did a lot of research before buying a DVC membership. We were very firm on having BWV as our home resort. It is perfect for us. We also book our vacations well in advance (a year) so the 11-month mark fit into our planning style. We were not in any rush to buy (we are not going back to WDW until July 2010) and we knew we wanted a 150-point BWV contract. Through all the research, we discovered that there were many resales of 150-point BWV contracts. Perfect.

We decided to go with the resale because it saved us $4,000 compared to what it would have cost directly through Disney, and there were no incentives offered for BWV contracts through Disney. We had the time to wait for ROFR and to try again if necessary. We passed ROFR and the whole process from the time we told **** and Jaki (DVC resale agents) what we wanted (including Use Year) until we closed was less than 6 weeks! $4,000 was a lot of money to save and we had a wonderful experience purchasing a resale!

I would have only bought through Disney directly at the time if I wanted AKV back then (don't know what the incentives are for AKV now) or BLT when it first came out. Those had incentives but BWV did not. We also did not need immediate access to the points so this helped in making the decision to buy a resale. Now we are proud DVC members at BWV and we get all the DVC mail that everyone gets! And boy...do I love getting that mail!!

Good luck with your decision!