Thinking of buying ?'s

[LibertyBelle]

Hubby and I are thinking of Buying when they start selling the Beach Club Villas. The Yacht and Beach Club is ny favorite resort and I am so excited they are putting DVC there. My question is what (if anything) would you have done differently if you could do it over again...How many points should we invest as first time buyers (will the minimum work for a while or should we justgo all out and buy what we can afford?) etc. Thanks in advance

 

[Chuck S]

At first I would look at your normal vacation habits. What size of room would you like in what season for how many days, then add 10% as a buffer. If you find that isn't enough, you can always add on or look for a reasonable resale.

 

[Basser]

We bought 250 points at Old Key West. We found this to be perfect for us, we go to WDW once a year and stay in a one bedroom villa for 9 days. If we wish to stay longer then we use a studio villa. The only thing we might have done differantly is buy more points.

:

 

[Granny]

LibertyBelle....

You are doing exactly the right thing with DVC....buying at your favorite resort. You love the theming and location and you know you can't go wrong with BCV as your home.

What would I have done differently? Well, I would have bought in 1992 and received 7 years of free park admissions.

As far as number of point...the advice Chuck S gave is very sound as far as looking at your vacation patterns, size of room that you'll need, etc.

Since BCV is just beginning its sales, my recommendation would be (if you really can't figure out how many points you need) to purchase somewhere near the minimum before the anticipated price increase in June. You will have the entire selling period of BCV to add on additional points, in increments as low as 25 points, with no closing costs. You will be able to secure the same use year until they nearly sell out.

That's the advantage of buying near the beginning of a new DVC resort opening.

 

[kda]

My advice is that once you decide what size accomodations you need, NEVER stay in anything larger. We bought 170 points, planning to stay in a studio anytime except school vacations and summer. Why would 2 people need anything larger --- frivolous! So, we decided to splurge in a 1 BR on our inaugural trip. We discovered that luxury is having space (AND the W/D and jacuzzi, and maybe the kitchen). Suddenly, we only have points for 5 1/2 nights of the week. I'm sure we'll be able to adjust our thinking, but the thought of a studio just doesn't sound as nice. And, yes, we had planned to buya few more points, but our use year is sold out.

 

[Terry S]

kda... just curious, can you buy a different use year?

LibertyBelle..... One poster suggested buying the minimum before the price increase. I looked at it a different way. I know we want to go twice a year for around 8 days and stay in a 2 bedroom. So I figure I better buy a whole bunch of points BEFORE the price increase (I am hoping for around 600, but I have been thinking about this for a long time and have been going to Disney twice a year for awhile and know that I will continue to do this). I think the best advice is to determine how often you will want to go, what type of accomadations you would want to stay in and go to the point calculator (use Wilderness Lodge Villas to estimate BCV) to figure out how many you will need and purchase that amount.

 

[kda]

I found out from another guide, who was the one to break the bad news to me of the December use year sell out, that DVC doesn't allow a small purchase of other use years at the same resort because it would be "too confusing". We're only looking for 50 pts (would LOVE more, but do have other bills), so we can't do it. We can buy a new contract, which is the required 150 pts. Wish we'd understood this earlier. We thought that as long as there were points left at VWL, we could buy them.

 

[chris1gill]

In hindsight, I would have made a couple of changes... First, I would have purchased 2 years earlier when we started looking... but instead we still kept paying cash to stay in the villa's...

When we purchased, we purchased 150 points with the intention of never using points on the weekend... And, going in the off season....

Of course times have changed.. after our first visit, we realized we would always stay the weekend on points, cash is too expensive!! And, we don't like to change rooms!! So, we knew we had to add in 100 points for the weekend that fell in between our 2 off-season weeks.... Well, another year has gone by, and we realize we need more points to either upgrade to a 2 bedroom at times, or more points since at times we are crossing over seasons....

We are at 250, we "could" stay here & just make due, but we would prefer to add on 50-100 more points, unfortunately BW is sold out now...

How this all relates to you, you are facing a significant price increase in a couple of months & you are also facing the resort selling out in 18 months or so... Try to figure what you think you will use & go with that... Sometimes people will break that up into two contracts, personally that's what I would do. If at some point you found you had too many points, you could just sell off one of the contracts...

That's what I'd do if I were you!

 

[Dean]

First, I would discourage buying EXACTLY the number of points needed. Some have sat down and worked out the unit size, seasons, etc and then bought EXACTLY that number. That is a dangerous situation to be in. I'd pad that number by at least around 10%.

As for buying a different use year, I know I've seen somewhere, if your use year is sold out you can buy a different use year. Just push them on it if necessary.

 

[LibertyBelle]

Thank you so much for everyones replies, we went on the tour today at Boardwalk and I think we decided we are going to buy We are probably going to start with 200 points and buy at Hilton Head, we are Florida (Orlando) residence so the need to have an 11 month window at a Disney property resort is really not necessary for us... I am so excited and have already begun to plan the first trip Can't wait to join all of you in the DVC family

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

You will love HHI, we added on there and just got back from HH today. 98pts for a 2-BR for 6 nights. It was fantastic. I am so glad we added on there. It is almost imposible to buy the exact number of points you think you will need. We have added on 3 times since buying VWL last year. We now have 200 at VWL, 150 at HHI and plan to add 200 at BCV. We originally planned on 150 at VWL and 150 at BCV. Funny how your plans change once you start talking in the language of points. Good Luck.