Sharing Timeshare with Family. Good idea or disaster?

[cdispoto]

My wife and I have one child and planning for another. My wife's sister and her husband have two kids.

Both families want to make a DVC purchase within the next five years.

Does it make sense to pool our resources and buy one big contract so that we can sometimes go separately or sometimes go as one big family?

Would this be a hard thing to manage? Does anyone have this kind of arrangement?

To shorten the question: good idea or disaster waiting to happen?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Keep it simple and each buy your own. Even if your generation continues to be agreeable on decisions it's difficult to predict about the next one. And, should either family get into financial distress then that entire contract would fall into the issue.

What you might agree to do is to buy at the same resort or else agree to 2 different resorts that you both like and still use them together in some agreeable way (easiest if you own at the same place with same dues though). But keep the ownership separate.

 

[smiths02]

Sounds like a disaster. Also sounds like you don't need to do it. Aren't there ways to transfer or borrow points for when you do want to vacation together (if you bought two separate, smaller contracts)?

 

[gdrj]

IMO there is no benefit to buying together (combining points to vacation together can be done without buying 1 contract or just book separately). There are plenty of pitfalls to buying together.

 

[kniquy]

This sounds like a recipe for disaster. Dealing with financial issue and family is never a good mix, no matter how well you all get along. If either of you were to get divorced then that could just involve everyone in the divorce because your DVC would be a marital property that would have to be dealt with. Also everyone's desired vacations may change in 10 years as the kids get older and it may work for one family but not the other. Then you have to decide on who is paying the maintenance fees -- what if one couple doesn't have the funds to do so because they spent too much on Christmas that year. I am sure the potential problems could go on and on. It could work out, but IMO not worth the risk.

You could each decide your desired travel habits and then figure out the number of points that you would need to suit your family - probably a studio or 1BR. Or if you still want to room with your SIL then a 2BR would accommodate everyone. Each of you could get your own contract at which ever resort that you want and then and just decide to use each others contracts every other year -- if that makes sense. Then you are only purchasing 1/2 the needed points because you could bank and borrow. You can also transfer in/out (i think only once per year) so you could still pool your points at 7 months to book a place together. There are options for making it work with the 2 families and still have your own individual interests so that if one family wants to back out at some point they are free to do so.

 

[bumbershoot]

Don't do it.

 

[sndral]

...
Both families want to make a DVC purchase within the next five years.

Does it make sense to pool our resources and buy one big contract so that we can sometimes go separately or sometimes go as one big family?

Would this be a hard thing to manage? Does anyone have this kind of arrangement?

A couple of questions:
With your 5 year time horizon do you know which home resort you would want to buy at? Do both couples want the same home resort? It's hard enough for a couple to agree on a 'home' it seems to me getting four people to agree on a home resort would be really hard.
Are you thinking of buying directly from Disney or will you be buying cheaper resale contract(s)? Unless you really want the resorts currently being sold direct (Aulani and Poly - probably VWL w/in the next year or 2) resale is a better option financially.
Will anyone need to finance to buy? If so then buying one big contract is a really bad idea, too much potential for problems down the road.

Unlike some timeshares where you get the same unit every year for the same week, in which case going in together for a vacation at the same time and place every year might make sense, Disney has a points system which makes for a lot more choices and creates the potential for a lot more disagreement.

Plus you can actually each own your own smaller contract and still pool your resources. One family can transfer points to the other and then make one reservation at the resort you choose, depending on availability. If you both own at the same resort, then you can transfer and reserve at 11 months to up your chances of getting the villa size/type you want. If you own different home resorts then you can use the points together at 7 months. Or you can do an every other year deal - one year you go to couple A's home resort, next year couple B's home resort - which adds variety.

Potential problems aside from the financial ones already addressed by PPs:
All 1 br, 2 br and grand villas have one very large master bedroom with a king size bed - which couple would get the master bedroom and which couple would be stuck in one of the regular bedrooms?
W/ one big contract what happens when one couple wants to splurge and borrow points for a stay at say VGF, whereas the other couple wants to spend fewer points and stay longer at say OKW?
What happens when the kids reach college age and one couple decides they need to sell whereas the other couple doesn't want to sell? One bigger contract will be harder to sell and command a lower price per point usually than 2 smaller contracts, plus with 2 smaller contracts the couple who doesn't want to sell doesn't have to.

 

[crisi]

IMO there is no benefit to buying together (combining points to vacation together can be done without buying 1 contract or just book separately). There are plenty of pitfalls to buying together.

The one possible exception is that if you need to buy a ton of points, large resales go for cheaper. So if each family were looking for 200-400 points, finding a 400 - 800 point contract might save $2-3 or more per point.

Of course, when you go to resell the contract because suddenly there is a family spat that makes owning together difficult, it sells for much less as well.

But to save that small amount of money, you end up adding complicated logistic conversations every year about what everyone's plans are over the next three or four years. Someone suddenly wants to take the other side of the family in a Grand Villa and use up two years of points leaving the other family tripless for that period of time.

 

[ktmo]

I don't have any personal experience, but while I was stalking the comptroller's website for my deed to record, I noticed a lot of deeds with a lot of owners (more than just husband and wife). So, I have to assume that you aren't the first to think of this. Maybe it was parents and grown children, but I would have to imagine a similar set up.

 

[DisDadDVC]

Family + Timeshare? What could possibly go wrong....

 

[supersnoop]

Terrible idea. Divorce, death, or financial issues will reek havoc on your relationship.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

The key to happiness at DVC is that you need to play way ahead. If you can plan and be ready to make reservations at 11 months out, you will get the most out of your stay.

Now imagine trying to plan 11 months out over two families. Are you in the same school system with the same holidays? Are your kids in the same summer activities so they are free at the same time? Is anybody changing jobs and has no vacation for awhile?

I have found it is very difficult to coordinate with other family members even when I am offering them a free stay if they com along with us.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Also, what if some years one family wants to go and the other doesn't? Managing the banking and borrowing against two sets of needs can be a very contentious process.

 

[gharter]

I have no direct experience, but I would suggest each do your own thing. That gives everyone their own points to do what they chose. If everyone wants to go at the same time and place, great. If they want different times or hotels, you are still ok. Having planned several family vacations, it is not always a smooth adventure. Separate points does simplify it.
If a few years down the road, people aren't getting along as well, not a problem.

 

[MouseOfCards]

I would consider this similar to asking, "Would you be willing to go into business together?" Ideally, for some folks, this could work. Practically, probably too many pitfalls.

 

[pmaurer74]

don't do it. My mom has gone through a terrible situation with a shared timeshare when one of the owners died. Keep separate contracts.

 

[Pigletpal40]

We purchased a VWL in '03 ourselves and have done an extended family vacations in 2br every other October since '04. We purchase AP's and either use DVC points for a studio the following August or use AP hotel discounts. I agree with other posts, trying to coordinate more than one family is difficult. We would throw the dates we were booking out to in-laws and let them give us the yea or nay if they could go(they always did). This has worked well for us.

 

[jerseyduke]

Ask a different question: What is the possible benefit?
1. Bigger contract means potentially lower price per point.
That is is.

What if you, or they, hit financial trouble and want to sell, and the other one doesn't? (This list goes on and on...)

As for your big family vacation concept, you can transfer points between accounts once per year, and get exactly that, without the potential disasters associated with one joint contract.

Just each buy your own contract at the same resort, so you can take advantage of the 11 month booking window, on your combined trips. If you do different resorts, for your big family trip (combing points), you would be forced to use the 7 month window.

The bottom line is good idea or not (and I lean toward the not) there is no reason to do it.
You gain virtually nothing.

 

[bumbershoot]

My wife and I have one child and planning for another. My wife's sister and her husband have two kids.

I'm no expert on sisters (mine is 25 years younger than me and we have pretty much no relationship thanks to our shared father), but I have lots of friends with sisters, and communication between them isn't always awesome. So you'll be at the "mercy" of how wife and her sister are getting along and communicating. Then you've got you and the brother in law and how you interact with your wives and what you want. Then you've got the kids.

There are so many moving parts that unless you literally have the most blissful relationship in the universe, things might get sticky.

And while we get a 2 bedroom unit when inviting (at no cost) my cousin and aunt and cousin's family, if I were going with my brother and his wife, I would get us two 1 bedrooms. So if they got DVC it wouldn't make sense to share the points, because we would just get separate units.

If in such a situation as yours, I'd let each family unit buy their own points (after discussions about if home resorts should be the same, etc), then just plan vacations together, but without necessarily staying together.

 

[malba2366]

My wife and I have one child and planning for another. My wife's sister and her husband have two kids.

Both families want to make a DVC purchase within the next five years.

Does it make sense to pool our resources and buy one big contract so that we can sometimes go separately or sometimes go as one big family?

Would this be a hard thing to manage? Does anyone have this kind of arrangement?

To shorten the question: good idea or disaster waiting to happen?

Bad Idea!!! Jointly owning things like this with anyone is a recipe for issues down the road, and it will be a pain to keep track of who uses which points without seeming petty to each other. A better option would be for each family to buy a smaller contract (ie. if you were going to buy 400 points each family buy 200). You can then use borrowing/banking such that each family books a large suite every other year. Or each family could get a smaller room for themselves each year if you guys want to stay separately.