Spreadsheet Warriors - how have you calculated the all in real cost?

[Chili327]

Quick question: How are you accounting for the $/pt? Are you dividing the initial price by the number of annual points? I ask because a direct contract has 50 years of usability versus a resale for Poly would 40 years left. So wouldn't it make sense to multiply the annual points by the number of years left to calculate the total points on the contract, then divide that by the total cost (price+accumulated dues)?

Just asking because my calculation was that buying direct is not significantly more than buying resale...perhaps a 10% premium compared to a relatively good deal on a resale contract. I've yet to buy DVC but I'm getting close.

Negative Ghost Rider... Contracts end when they end, all at the same time, regardless when you buy or if you buy direct or resale. Poly ends in 40 years regardless.

 

[Flash_Sloth]

As I was researching before buying into DVC, I created one heck of a spreadsheet and was analyzing so many things.

My analysis clearly showed that over the years, the cost of annual dues becomes the dominant overall cost.

Maybe I missed some of the posts in here, but besides expiration dates, an important thing to look at when comparing resorts is the points charts, and how many points it would cost during a season you're likely to visit in the studio/1br/2br/etc that you'd like to get. The older resorts typically have lower points/night and the newer resorts typically have higher points/night.

If you really want to stretch how far your $ goes, and are flexible to book at the 7 month mark, you may want to buy BLT or VGF and book stays at OKW. Buying BLT or VGF because they tend to hold their value on the resale market pretty well, and they have some of the lowest annual dues $/point. Booking OKW because the points/night are some of the lowest around.

But that is overanalyzing things purely from a numbers perspective. There are so many intangibles this doesn't capture at all. For example, if you're staying at BLT, you can walk to MK in less time than it takes the bus to make the loop at all the OKW bus stops. Similar for staying at RIV and riding the Skyliner to DHS or EPCOT. Or being able to watch the animals from AKL, etc. Lots of locations, theming, room configurations, transportation, etc, to consider at the various resorts.

 

[Chili327]

Someone should make an app or program that assigns a value for everything so we can just enter our specifics and it will tell us the best fit.

 

[Takeitforgranite]

As I was researching before buying into DVC, I created one heck of a spreadsheet and was analyzing so many things.

My analysis clearly showed that over the years, the cost of annual dues becomes the dominant overall cost.

Maybe I missed some of the posts in here, but besides expiration dates, an important thing to look at when comparing resorts is the points charts, and how many points it would cost during a season you're likely to visit in the studio/1br/2br/etc that you'd like to get. The older resorts typically have lower points/night and the newer resorts typically have higher points/night.

If you really want to stretch how far your $ goes, and are flexible to book at the 7 month mark, you may want to buy BLT or VGF and book stays at OKW. Buying BLT or VGF because they tend to hold their value on the resale market pretty well, and they have some of the lowest annual dues $/point. Booking OKW because the points/night are some of the lowest around.

But that is overanalyzing things purely from a numbers perspective. There are so many intangibles this doesn't capture at all. For example, if you're staying at BLT, you can walk to MK in less time than it takes the bus to make the loop at all the OKW bus stops. Similar for staying at RIV and riding the Skyliner to DHS or EPCOT. Or being able to watch the animals from AKL, etc. Lots of locations, theming, room configurations, transportation, etc, to consider at the various resorts.

Point charts are definitely a huge factor. If you stay on the top half of the point chart and minimize weekends, you can really make the most of points.

There's so many things about WDW the seem overcomplicated, including DVC. I think that's part of the appeal to me. I really enjoy feeling rewarded for putting in the effort to learn, plan, and strategize. Point charts are just one example.

Annual dues have always been the main reason that I would stop looking into DVC. It was only in the last year or so that I even knew resale was even a thing. It was enough to at least make me finally dive into the numbers. Dues are why I looked into the combo of buying excess points resale and renting/transferring the excess every year simply to help offset the cost of dues. That's the yellow line on my graph.

 

[Mouseforward]

If you really want to stretch how far your $ goes, and are flexible to book at the 7 month mark, you may want to buy BLT or VGF and book stays at OKW.

Buy AULs, and stay at HHI Sun-Fri in January , you may be miserable and cold but man what a value