Tell me the problems (if any) you have had buying resale and would you buy direct or resale for initial purchase?

[davidl81]

I’ve bought two resale contracts with no issues at all. The only down side is the amount of time it takes. From when you start looking till points are in your account is about four months. From when you have an offer accepted to when you have points is at best two but more likely three months. It’s not the end of the world, but direct will have your points within a few hours.
If you are going to finance (not going to go over pros/cons of it), direct offers better rates and much easier to set up than outside timeshare finance companies. While rates can be high (8.9%), outside finance rates are more in the 12% range

 

[Blizzyblizz]

Resale all the way. You save so much money compared to direct. Or put another way, you could spend the same money and get way more points (more nights at more hotels for years to come) compared to direct.

We've made 1 direct purchase and 13 resale purchases via two different brokers. The three main downsides of resale are (1) not getting the blue card perks (which ain't much these days), (2) not getting to stay in Rivieria and other future DVC resorts (easily remedied by trading points with someone), and (3) the process takes longer. None of those are close to significant enough to justify the smaller number of points you'd get for going direct.

Don't listen to the FUD about resale--all of our deals have gone very smoothly. I'd totally recommend DVC Resale Market. They have the biggest selection and make everything easy for both parties.

Good luck!

 

[RoseGold]

There are stories here and there about weird resales. That’s what the title company is for, they fix it. And to be fair, there are surprisingly few about issues. I bought multiple contracts with multiple brokers and multiple title companies and no issues.

I can think of situations to buy direct, but not many. And direct is always there later.

 

[Eviejim]

No issues with resale here, over 1000 points from 6 resale purchases for 2 different resorts (VGF, PVB), and we have been happy with all of them. I like knowing that we could sell anytime for roughly what we paid (less broker commissions), and get back out if we change our mind about where we want to vacation. That would not be the case if we had paid direct prices.

That said, as a resale buyer, we do not have access to Riviera. We don’t have any interest in staying at Riviera, so it’s ok, but that could be a drawback. We figure we can just rent out some of our points and pay cash to stay at Riviera if we ever want to do so.

Resale is a no-brainer in my opinion. In any case DVC far exceeds the alternative. We wish we had made the DVC leap a decade ago.

I have a question: I'm in the research stage of DVC and I see your comment about resale and not having access to Riviera. I thought it was IF you bought a resale Riviera contract that I could only stay at that resort but if I bought a resale contract at AKL, I could potentially be able to stay at at any of the other resorts pending availability. I'm trying to decide what I want my home resort to be. I feel like I would be crushed if I could never stay at Riviera but I would want the flexibility to possibly staying at other resorts.

 

[Stargazer65]

I thought it was IF you bought a resale Riviera contract that I could only stay at that resort but if I bought a resale contract at AKL, I could potentially be able to stay at at any of the other resorts pending availability. I'm trying to decide what I want my home resort to be. I feel like I would be crushed if I could never stay at Riviera but I would want the flexibility to possibly staying at other resorts.

If you buy resale at AKL you cannot use those points at RR. You can however use those points at all the other DVC resorts besides RR. The only way you can use resale to stay at RR is to buy resale at RR, and then you cannot use those points to stay at any other resorts at this time. I don't know what the future may hold.

 

[defrogger]

I also did both, one resale and one direct, i wanted the Blue card. Direct purchase is fast and easy. Resale went fine, just a slow 3 to 4 month process. I did have Disney RORF on me, so that added another month to the process. Definitly use a reputable broker like the one recomended on the site. My resale contract had 2020 points and was told they could be banked into 2021, but when the audit came up the 2020 points were from a transfer, so they would not be allowed to be banked, luckily there was still time to use the points. But when talking to the broker they gave me the option of backing out with no penalty becuase of the discrepency, i didnt but it was nice to have the option incase something funky comes up from the audit.

Not to make your decision harder, but have you thought about Rivera vs Animal Kingdom? If going Direct there pricing is very similar and you get more years from Rivera. I dont think the resale value will be that bad in 10 years with Rivera, in 20 years i think it will better then AK.
I mention this depending on your plans, if you arent shooting to get Value rooms at AK, then you dont need the Home Resort 11 month window there as allot of Studios and 1 bedrooms are availabe at 7 months there. So you could buy Rivera and stay at AK 95% of the time.
Dues are close enough to each other at Rivera and AK, just the point charts are really high at Rivera, but like i said, you can use them to stay at AK

I would not buy BRV with the 20 year experation unless you really love BRV. Granted i bought Boarlwalk with 20 years left, but i really wanted to stay at Boardwalk 80% of the time.

In the end no matter what you do, it will be worth it, Im still new to DVC but its great

 

[Lorana]

I have a question: I'm in the research stage of DVC and I see your comment about resale and not having access to Riviera. I thought it was IF you bought a resale Riviera contract that I could only stay at that resort but if I bought a resale contract at AKL, I could potentially be able to stay at at any of the other resorts pending availability. I'm trying to decide what I want my home resort to be. I feel like I would be crushed if I could never stay at Riviera but I would want the flexibility to possibly staying at other resorts.

If you buy resale at AKL you cannot use those points at RR. You can however use those points at all the other DVC resorts besides RR. The only way you can use resale to stay at RR is to buy resale at RR, and then you cannot use those points to stay at any other resorts at this time. I don't know what the future may hold.

Just to be super clear, resale contracts purchased now can ONLY be used at “the original 14 DVC resorts.” While Riviera is the only one affected by this restriction right now, DLT (Disneyland Tower) will also fall under this restriction, as will any future resort. If not being able to stay at Riviera, DLT and any new resorts DVC might build is a deal-breaker for you, you will want to purchase direct (or at least have some direct points to purchase). You could always rent out your points and rent points to use at the newer resorts, but it’s up to you as to whether that hassle is worth it for you.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Just to be super clear, resale contracts purchased now can ONLY be used at “the original 14 DVC resorts.” While Riviera is the only one affected by this restriction right now, DLT (Disneyland Tower) will also fall under this restriction, as will any future resort. If not being able to stay at Riviera, DLT and any new resorts DVC might build is a deal-breaker for you, you will want to purchase direct (or at least have some direct points to purchase). You could always rent out your points and rent points to use at the newer resorts, but it’s up to you as to whether that hassle is worth it for you.

And to add a little more to that, as we've seen a new resort that has been announce and started can get cancelled (Reflections). It's happened in the past too. Now we're getting an addition onto VGF which resale will be able to book. (as it should be IMO - Riviera shouldn't have been allowed to be added with such a difference in trading compared to the original 14. It violated the POS agreements)

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

I was able to buy 186 points at VGF resale for about $140 per point. I had no real problems, but I had a lot of anxiety due to poor communication by the broker. I was worried about passing ROFR and had not heard anything for almost 2 months, I finally called, and was told “oh yes, you passed ROFR about 3 weeks ago, and your closing is due to happen this week.“ So all was well, but I had a lot of unnecessary worry.

 

[Eviejim]

Just to be super clear, resale contracts purchased now can ONLY be used at “the original 14 DVC resorts.” While Riviera is the only one affected by this restriction right now, DLT (Disneyland Tower) will also fall under this restriction, as will any future resort. If not being able to stay at Riviera, DLT and any new resorts DVC might build is a deal-breaker for you, you will want to purchase direct (or at least have some direct points to purchase). You could always rent out your points and rent points to use at the newer resorts, but it’s up to you as to whether that hassle is worth it for you.

Thanks! So is that why you have some many home resorts? lol I really want to buy resale but I hate that restriction on Riv and any other new ones in the future. I already know I'm gonna need about 400 points total for my family size AND I have four kids so I could always buy 4- 100 point contracts at 4 different resorts (which I have 4 that I'm trying to decide between for home resort) and then live happily ever after.

 

[gregskellington]

Thanks! So is that why you have some many home resorts? lol I really want to buy resale but I hate that restriction on Riv and any other new ones in the future. I already know I'm gonna need about 400 points total for my family size AND I have four kids so I could always buy 4- 100 point contracts at 4 different resorts (which I have 4 that I'm trying to decide between for home resort) and then live happily ever after.

If your family needs 400 points because you need multiple studios, a 2BV, or a GV, having 4 100 point contracts is probably a really bad move. Your 11 month window would be pretty useless and then you're left holding the bag at 7 months with the potential to not find the rooms you need.

 

[Eviejim]

If your family needs 400 points because you need multiple studios, a 2BV, or a GV, having 4 100 point contracts is probably a really bad move. Your 11 month window would be pretty useless and then you're left holding the bag at 7 months with the potential to not find the rooms you need.

ahhhhhh ok, I think I understand what you are saying but if I had those 4 different 100 pt contracts and say magically all the same use year, wouldn't I be able to combine those points to use at one of those home resorts? Does that make sense?

 

[gregskellington]

No, you can't combine like that. If you have an April use year and 4 100 point contracts at CCV, PVB, BLT, and BCV, you could use the 100 CCV points at CCV 11 months out, but you wouldn't be able to book with your other 300 points at CCV at that point. You'd need to wait until your 7 month opened up.

If you have 4 100 point contracts with an April use year all at CCV, then at 11 months you could use all 400 points at CCV.

 

[Eviejim]

No, you can't combine like that. If you have an April use year and 4 100 point contracts at CCV, PVB, BLT, and BCV, you could use the 100 CCV points at CCV 11 months out, but you wouldn't be able to book with your other 300 points at CCV at that point. You'd need to wait until your 7 month opened up.

If you have 4 100 point contracts with an April use year all at CCV, then at 11 months you could use all 400 points at CCV.

Thank you so much!! That was very helpful. I understand now.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

ahhhhhh ok, I think I understand what you are saying but if I had those 4 different 100 pt contracts and say magically all the same use year, wouldn't I be able to combine those points to use at one of those home resorts? Does that make sense?

You can only combine points from different resorts at 7 months. Assuming you would plan on visiting every eyar what you can do during the home resort booking window is use banking and borrowing although with 4 resorts you'd have to do some 7 month booking at least 1 year or split stays. To simplify though you might want to make it something like 4 contracts at 2 resorts or start out with less than 400 points and see how that works and then decide where you wanted more points.

 

[Lorana]

Thanks! So is that why you have some many home resorts? lol I really want to buy resale but I hate that restriction on Riv and any other new ones in the future. I already know I'm gonna need about 400 points total for my family size AND I have four kids so I could always buy 4- 100 point contracts at 4 different resorts (which I have 4 that I'm trying to decide between for home resort) and then live happily ever after.

I do have a mix of Direct and Resale, because I do want to be able to book new resorts (I'm still desperately hoping they revive Reflections), but also because I want to be able to book member only trips that require direct points to book should I choose to do them.

As for number of resorts, it's partly because there are a number of resorts we truly love (CCV/BRV, AKV, VGC, PVB, HHI) or want for convenience (RIV) or want for SAP (SSR, but also we do love the THV). AND I'm a planner, and I want that 11 month priority to ensure I can get the vacation I want when I'm making my plans. I originally thought I'd be content to wait until the 7 month mark to book different resorts or upgrade to larger accommodations, and quickly found that that period leading up to the 7 month mark is too stressful for me, waiting to see if the room I want will be available -- and then stalking for months when it's not, LOL.

I place high value on that priority window, AND the ability to "mix up" our vacations to stay other places in that 11 month window, and we don't mind split stays (especially 2-3 nights in a studio at one place when first arriving, and then switching to 1BR/2BRs for the remainder of the stay after). Our small # of points at RIV and PVB were more intended for short studio stays. With banking and borrowing, you can rotate between resorts rather easily, though, if you wanted to buy four different homes resorts.

 

[Lorana]

Oh! Also, I forgot to add that part of our strategy, too, was picking resorts that would allow us to focus on specific parks: BRV/CCV/PVB for MK, RIV for Epcot/HS, and AKV for AK. So when we do split stays, we focus on the parks closest to the resorts we're staying at to minimize travel time.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We bought resale in January of 2020. There were no issues. Zero. It took 6 weeks from the time we put the offer in until the points were deposited into our account. The best part? We saved, literally, $20,000 on a 200 point BCV contract. I know timelines can vary, but the money saved doesn’t.

To us, the benefits of buying direct simply didn’t outweigh the large amount of money saved. As previously stated, if I really want to stay at Riviera (or any future resort) I will rent/trade to stay there. But there is also no guarantee that there will be more future resorts, or that any new resorts will be someplace where we want to stay. We already know that Reflections was cancelled after they broke ground on the project, so how does anyone KNOW that Disney is planning on building a bunch of new resorts? What if they build more extensions to current resorts that resale owners still have access to, like they did at VGF? There is only speculation.

Anything can happen, but the only thing we KNOW is that resale saves a ton of money on your purchase and gets you access to 14 gorgeous resorts. Everyone has to decide what works for them and what they want, as well as what they are willing to pay for those things.

 

[wilkydelts]

@DVCSunDevil I agree with everything you said. There is one thing to keep in mind for all us resale folks we only have access to 14 amazing resorts for 21 more years. When the 2042 resorts fall off and get sold as new contracts I am guessing resale folks wont have access. As a Saratoga SAP owner I know things will change for the last 12 years of my contract and my choices will look much different.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

@DVCSunDevil I agree with everything you said. There is one thing to keep in mind for all us resale folks we only have access to 14 amazing resorts for 21 more years. When the 2042 resorts fall off and get sold as new contracts I am guessing resale folks wont have access. As a Saratoga SAP owner I know things will change for the last 12 years of my contract and my choices will look much different.

I guess I'm just getting old but "access to 14 amazing resort for 21 more years" made me laugh. That's well worth resale savings. In 2 decades who knows what Disney parks will even look like. If you focus on the 2042 resorts until then you still have 9 amazing resorts to explore for years after that. Most places I go I realize that I tend to stay at the same hotel anyway if it's available.