Several small or one big

[krazy4crusing]

First off thank you so much for being willing to help out us newbies to DVC. You are such a great resource and are very much appreciated.


We would like to purchase around 150 points-250 points resale. Is it better to purchase several small contracts or one larger one.

We like Saratoga Springs but we also like Boardwalk, wilderness lodge and beach club.

If we have several home resorts do we then have first dibs on making a reservation at each of those resorts?

If they all have the same UY then can we make a reservation at Beach club for example with all of our points one year and then do the same at the other resorts we own in subsequent years?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Annielkd22222]

Your points for a contract can be used for any resort 7 months out. If you like a specific resort, you could only use the points on that contract 11 months out. So if you have a 100 point contract at Beach club, you would only get to use those points for Beach club at 11 months out.....but you could borrow from the next year. If you know you will ALWAYS stay at one resort, that won't be very helpful.
If you ever plan to sell your contract later, it is easier to sell a smaller contract than a larger one.

 

[Annielkd22222]

Also, each of those places listed have different prices for their contract and different amount of years left for their contracts as well. I would shop around for the best deal.

 

[DizBub]

Unfortunately you cannot combine points from different home resorts until the 7 month mark.

SSR generally gives you the best bang for your buck with best resale price, lower dues and longer contract life. My advice would be to find a couple of smallish contracts there and take your chances at 7 months to try to stay at the other resorts. If you feel you won't be happy unless you stay at, say BCV or VWL I would advise you to buy there but the life of the contract is shorter at those resorts.

 

[LisaS]

If we have several home resorts do we then have first dibs on making a reservation at each of those resorts?

Just being an owner at, say, BCV does not entitle you to book there 11 months out. The booking priority is tied to the points. If you have enough BCV points in the correct UY to pay for the reservation, you can book BCV 11 months out. If you are out of BCV points, you cannot book there in the home resort booking window using points from other resorts.

For example, I do not own BCV but I could book BCV 11 months out by arranging for a BCV owner to transfer BCV points into my account. I could then use those transferred points to book BCV in the home booking window. The points have the booking priority.

 

[krazy4crusing]

Thank you all so much! I am glad that we have this forum to ask questions before buying. We will stick with one resort for now, now to make a final decision about which resort.

 

[disneynutz]

Thank you all so much! I am glad that we have this forum to ask questions before buying. We will stick with one resort for now, now to make a final decision about which resort.

Smaller contracts at the one resort will give you flexibility to sell part of your ownership should your needs change. You will also get a higher price for the smaller contract when you do sell it.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Smaller contracts at the one resort will give you flexibility to sell part of your ownership should your needs change. You will also get a higher price for the smaller contract when you do sell it.

Bill

And since buying resale they would most likely pay more upfront as well which would cancel out any higer price on a future sale. The flexibility can be nice if all the right contracts could be found on the market but would most likely come at a higher price.

 

[mikron]

Big harder to sell if you need to sell. 150 is a good size to use or sell and if you buy more then 1 you can combine to rent our use.

 

[crisi]

Small contracts (anything below 150) tend to go at a premium. For years, Disney had a 150 minimum for anyone buying new - so you only get the smaller contracts for add ons. There aren't as many of them out there, they move fast, and you'll pay more for them. A larger contract will be harder to sell - but 250 points isn't a larger contract - 500 points is.

 

[cpc430]

What if you had two contracts with two different use years.... Say 100 PTs at AKL with a Jan UY and 100 points at BLT with June UY. Once you hit the 11 month mark at BLT, can you use all 200 points because AKL is now at the 7 month mark?

 

[disneynutz]

What if you had two contracts with two different use years.... Say 100 PTs at AKL with a Jan UY and 100 points at BLT with June UY. Once you hit the 11 month mark at BLT, can you use all 200 points because AKL is now at the 7 month mark?

It's 11 or 7 months from the reservation check in date, not the UY date.

Bill

 

[chalee94]

What if you had two contracts with two different use years.... Say 100 PTs at AKL with a Jan UY and 100 points at BLT with June UY. Once you hit the 11 month mark at BLT, can you use all 200 points because AKL is now at the 7 month mark?

there are no circumstances where you can book resort A at 11 months out with resort B points. if you want to book BLT at 11 months out, you only have access to the pts from the BLT contract. your AKV contract pts are useless at BLT until 7 months from arrival (and vice versa for using BLT pts to book a club level villa at AKV.)

if one contract has a use year of feb and another contract has a UY of Oct, you will notice that you can book december in january with either UY (for their respective resorts) since january is always 11 months before december. UY has nothing at all to do with when you can call to book.

 

[drusba]

The reason to have smaller contracts (like 50 points rather than 150) is simply that they will be easier to sell later, and likely at a somewhat higher price than larger contracts, if you ever want to sell. They can also be transferred separately as gifts In the event you later want to give contracts to children (any one contract cannot be divided when transferred).

Particularly in resale, you have to determine whether the reason for getting smaller contracts outweighs what you can find for sale. Usually smaller contracts cost more per point than larger. And getting a better price now may be far more important than being able to sell at a better price years from now. Moreover, buying multiple contracts means getting multiple closings with multiple closing costs adding more dollars to your total costs. Also smaller contracts for the resort that you may want are often not available when you go shopping resale and when available they go quickly, meaning you may have to continuously watch the market to get one, and getting two or three at the same resort with same use year may take a very long time. That raises another point. Having the same use year for points is not necessary but it makes the contracts easier to deal with when making reservations and dealing with banking.

In other words, the answer to buying multiple small contracts or one in the 200 range resale is often to go ahead and buy the one with 200.

 

[cpc430]

It's 11 or 7 months from the reservation check in date, not the UY date.

Bill

Thank you!

 

[Dean]

What if you had two contracts with two different use years.... Say 100 PTs at AKL with a Jan UY and 100 points at BLT with June UY. Once you hit the 11 month mark at BLT, can you use all 200 points because AKL is now at the 7 month mark?

Plus you can't use the points together in this situation anyway since they would be separate master contracts. You'd either have to transfer points or make separate reservations and link them to use them for a single trip.

OP, I didn't answer originally due to being unavailable until it had been several days, however, since it's resurfaced, I'll add my thoughts. There is a significant cost to the multiple contract approach mentioned here. For 2 smaller vs one larger (say 2*100 vs one 200) you're looking at somewhere around $2500 difference give or take for multiple at a single resort. In addition you have a much smaller pool of contracts to pull from and the added risk of finding the right second contract to match up with the first and then hoping DVC combines them under one master contract, not guaranteed. If having multiple home resorts is that important, pay the money but just realize the real costs. Theoretically you'd get much of that difference back if you sold but there is no guarantee and it's essentially never reasonable to buy now with the intent of selling later on. IMO for a new member they should do enough investigation that they have a good feel for what they actually want/need else they should not buy yet. For those that decide to go the 2 contract method and at different resorts they should buy one then see how it goes and/or buy the more difficult and usually more expensive one first.

 

[DVC Dude]

We would like to purchase around 150 points-250 points resale. Is it better to purchase several small contracts or one larger one.

We like Saratoga Springs but we also like Boardwalk, wilderness lodge and beach club.

You really need to determine how many points you need for each vacation and if that is 150, then you need all your points at one location. If you want 250 for two trips, then you can break them up.

I would suggest one SSR at 150 if that is your target number
or
Two 125 contracts at SSR
or
One 125 SSR + One 125 BWV/BC/WL (take your pick)

I am NOT a huge fan of multiple 25-50 point contracts as it is easier to manage ONE contract (no one contract larger than 300 points though)