Thinking 'bout buying DVC advice please!

[Bryantch]

My wife and I are thinking about buying into DVC and from the info I have gleamed from this forum and other sources we are not sure which resort to call "home".

Questions:

1. Are blocks of 50-75 points available and if so are they resales, or direct from Disney?

2. Are we correct thinking that purchasing say 150 pts OKW, 50-75 BWV, 50-75 BCV, and 50-75 WLV (Wilderness Lodge?) would allow us to stay at any of these resorts we wished and allow us to book any up to 11 mos in advance and to keep the maint fees as low as possible (main purchase at OKW lowest maint fees)

3. Do any of the forum members sell their points directly (for the 50-75point blocks) or do you all use a broker?

4. Why do some points have to be used by a certain date (i have seen this on this board) we thought they could be banked?

5. What are the pros and cons of buying from Disney directly versus resale other than price?

6. If we are not looking at this correctly, or if any of you have suggestions please reply.


thanks in advance

PS. what is the mechanism that allows points to be rented? I understand that if I own the points and rent them to someone to get a room at the resort that I call disney and make the reservation...my points...but if you are a member and so am i, how do i "rent" them to you as far as disney is concerned (i hope this question makes sense)

info@bryantcustomhomes.com

 

[drusba]

1. Are blocks of 50-75 points available and if so are they resales, or direct from Disney?

Only through resale and then seldom even on that front. Also, buying that few points resale can be an expensive endeavor because of closing costs which can run from $400 to $500 for the sale. Thse costs are generally fixed and are about the same whether you buy 1 or 1,000 points and thus the lower the number of points you buy the more closing costs affect the actual price per point. If you buy through Disney there is a 150 point minimum; Disney's price includes closing costs.

2. Are we correct thinking that purchasing say 150 pts OKW, 50-75 BWV, 50-75 BCV, and 50-75 WLV (Wilderness Lodge?) would allow us to stay at any of these resorts we wished and allow us to book any up to 11 mos in advance and to keep the maint fees as low as possible (main purchase at OKW lowest maint fees)

The 11 month window applies only to "home" resort points. Thus, you can use OKW points for OKW at 11 months out but you cannot use VWL points for OKW ar 11 months out. In the situation you describe you could only use the 150 points for OKW at 11 months out, the 75 BWV points for BWV only at 11 months out, etc. Mantra is to buy where you plan to stay most as it can often be difficult to reserve at some places at 7 months out many times of year (that has been particularly true for BWV).


3. Do any of the forum members sell their points directly (for the 50-75point blocks) or do you all use a broker?

Most likely place to find an owner selling directly is TUG, the Timeshare Users Group, tug2.net. Even so it is very difficult to find that kind of low point sale there or even through a broker.

4. Why do some points have to be used by a certain date (I have seen this on this board) we thought they could be banked?

Points are issued for a one year period. You get a use year like February (there are many other months) and then your points are issued annually every Feb 1 and must be used by Jan 31 of the next year unless banked. You can bank them into the next use year but then they must be used in that year and cannot be banked any further. Note, your use year has nothing to do with when you can go (which is any time of year) or when you can call to make ressies -- 11 months out at home resort, 7 at others.

5. What are the pros and cons of buying from Disney directly versus resale other than price?

If you want a new resort like BCV, you are essentially limited to Disney because there is no real resale market yet. Elsewhere for resorts that are already sold out like BWV, VWL, and OKW, you have to go resale because Disney is not selling them. One advantage of Disney is that it provides easy financing at rates that are generally lower than outside lenders who provide financing for timeshares; but that is not a great advantage. Disney's process is very easy; however, the resale process through an established broker is not much more difficult. Once you are a member regardless of how you purchased you are treated the same as every member.


6. If we are not looking at this correctly, or if any of you have suggestions please reply.

Buying only a low number of points is sometimes done but it does not get you any significant amount of time per year and thus you should consider getting at least Disney's minimum of 150. Also, I personally would stick to buying at just one resort for the intial purchase rather than trying to split between many.

As to your rent PS, typically what occurs is that the owner rents the vacation time that can be reserved for the points and makes the ressie in the name of the person renting. If that person renting is another member, you can also just transfer points to that member's account and then that member can make his own reservation; however, there are various restrictions on actual transfers of points and thus those renting often avoid that route.

 

[Disney Doll]

drusba pretty well covered it! I would only reiterate and emphasize the "buy where you want to stay" mantra.

Splitting your points like you are thinking of doing, doesn't really get you any significant benefit, and it is a nightmare from the standpoint of point accounting, ie-when to bank what points on what contract etc.

DH and I just bought a resale. We have a 200 point contract at OKW, and now a 230 point contract at OKW. Just keeping track of 2 contracts, with different use years (translating into different times of the year when banking is necessary), and which contract is being used for which stay and how many points are left and so on is difficult. I can't imagine having 75 points at BWV, 150 points at OKW, another 50 points at VWL.

DH and I first bought in 1997, when OKW and BWV were the only 2 available. We bought a 200 point contract. That served us very well with a little creative point use(the biggest thing being don't use points for a weekend stay.We'd stay in a hotel for the weekend, and then move to the DVC property for the Sunday through Thursday part of the trip) until this year when we were able to buy our second contract. Now we have plenty of points, and can be a little more flexible in terms of not having to move during a trip etc.

We bought OKW because when we looked at both OKW and BWV, we could be happy at either, OKW was a little cheaper at the time, the yearly dues were a little cheaper, and if we stayed nowhere else for the rest of our lives every time we went to WDW, we could be very happy at OKW.

Obviously, we have been able to stay in every DVC property without difficulty since then, and will be going for a long weekend in May to VWL, so it has been a very wonderful, flexible way to vacation.