Three children DVC purchase strategy?

[Jankam]

Hello! I appreciate this forum since I am very new to the idea of DVC. We have three children and are trying to strategize how to purchase DVC. We think that we will want between 100-150 points, so we are thinking about splitting that 50/50/50 at three resorts so that we can eventually gift those to our children.

Does this mean that we would home resorts at EACH of those three resorts, with the corresponding 11 month booking window?

Anything else to consider when buying at three different resorts?

THANKS!

 

[wilkeliza]

3 Different resorts and contracts could mean 3 different end of contract years, 3 different amounts of dues, 3 different use years because some resorts you can really only buy what they have and they may not have the same use years available.

 

[Brian Noble]

I would not plan a purchase based on what a likely inheritance might be. Your kids might not want (or have the means) to travel to WDW regularly. Plan instead to sell your ownership when you are done with it, and give them the proceeds. As my own children regularly remind me around birthdays and holidays: nothing says I love you like cold, hard cash.

 

[wilkeliza]

I would not plan a purchase based on what a likely inheritance might be. Your kids might not want (or have the means) to travel to WDW regularly. Plan instead to sell your ownership when you are done with it, and give them the proceeds. As my own children regularly remind me around birthdays and holidays: nothing says I love you like cold, hard cash.

Or don't plan to leave it behind at all. Her kids are still pretty young I would hold mom and dad are still around in 50 years which is as long as the contracts last. Some even expire in 30ish years now.

Edit just saw you aren't planning for a traditional inheritance but a gift later on. Is 150 points enough for how you travel and enough space for 5 growing kids? I'm apart of a couple with no kids and when we looked 150 was barely enough for how we prefer to travel. I can hardly imagine 50 being enough for your kids later on in life.

 

[mustinjourney]

Regarding home resort advantage, yes you would have home resort privileges at each resort. However, you'd only be able to use 50 points per year at each resort for the home advantage. You could theoretically bank and borrow on the contract too to get more points in one year. But you can not use your points from resort #3 to make a reservation at resort #1 until 7 months out.

 

[kniquy]

Most people do not purchase with intent to gift to the children. The issues with this thought process is the fact that when your children eventually inherit the contract there is a big consideration of yearly maintenance fees. Which in 20 years could be very expensive. If they inherit it they might not be able to afford it and they may have no interest in Disney. Honestly a 50 point contract is not going to get you very many days at WDW, so inheriting that size contract isn't going to much of a benefit to them.

What you should consider is getting a contract that suits your needs now and for the near distant future - planning 10-15 years out. After that your interest or your children's interest in WDW may change.

You need to look at points charts for your desired resort to to figure out the most expensive points time for the room you need. This will help determine the size contract you need to purchase.

With 3 kids (family of 5) there are some studios which may work currently, as the kids get older you will likely need more space. Some 1BR (I think BWV, BCV WL) only have sleeping arrangements (queen bed and sleeper sofa) for 4 and you need to bring bedding (inflatable mattress) for a 5th person. In those cases a 2BR might be necesary. So those will factor in to your decision of what resorts will suit your family. You could always start with a contract that works for studios now and then as the kids get older you could add on to your contract to afford a larger room.

 

[kniquy]

splitting that 50/50/50 at three resorts

This is just complicating your use of the contract and keep in mind that a 150 point contract will be less per point than spending a premium on 3-50 point contracts. And having different resorts will only lock you into being able to book at 7 months. Sometimes 11 months is necessary depending upon the time of year.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Hello! I appreciate this forum since I am very new to the idea of DVC. We have three children and are trying to strategize how to purchase DVC. We think that we will want between 100-150 points, so we are thinking about splitting that 50/50/50 at three resorts so that we can eventually gift those to our children.

Does this mean that we would home resorts at EACH of those three resorts, with the corresponding 11 month booking window?

Anything else to consider when buying at three different resorts?

THANKS!

I'd highly recommend just buying for your own use. If you end up gifting later on so be it but I wouldn't buy based on that idea as you could end up really struggling to actually enjoy DVC now. Now, if you were to buy 150 points direct at one resort and just split it up into 3 contracts that's something different but there's a decent expense both in $$$$'s and usage to buy 50 points at 3 different resorts. 50 points does not get a whole lot at many resorts, especially for a family of 5 so I'm not certain how you see using those contracts effectively?

 

[CarolynFH]

I concur with PPs that 50 points at each of 3 resorts won't be very useful. I'd suggest choosing the resort you want as a home resort first, then look at point charts to determine how many points you'd need for the size unit, length of stay and season you'd usually want. Once you know how many points you want to buy, if dividing it into 3 contracts seems reasonable (taking into account higher cost per point and higher closing costs) then you might do that. But the first and most important thing to do is determine how many points you need in order to enjoy using them without complications of juggling different use years and/or different home resorts.

 

[Dean]

Hello! I appreciate this forum since I am very new to the idea of DVC. We have three children and are trying to strategize how to purchase DVC. We think that we will want between 100-150 points, so we are thinking about splitting that 50/50/50 at three resorts so that we can eventually gift those to our children.

Does this mean that we would home resorts at EACH of those three resorts, with the corresponding 11 month booking window?

Anything else to consider when buying at three different resorts?

THANKS!

Not to pile on but I wouldn't buy 3 different resorts of 50 each, there's probably no situation where I'd think that a good choice other than a very experienced members who had a specific plan. And then I wouldn't do it unless they could be combined into one master meaning all titled the same and all the same UY. IMO that would likely mean buying all 3 retail which would drive up costs considerably. There are 2 reasons to have smaller contracts, as an exit or downsizing strategy and for end of life planning. IMO either reason or both combined would not make your possible plan as reasonable.

I think too much structuring for end of life planning is a mistake and this would be over the top with very little chance of being helpful then anyway. The cost of doing so would add likely $2500 to total even if the same resort and even more at higher end resorts even if one could find reasonable contracts resale. I'd do one and see how it goes given the numbers you're talking.

The other issue is the number of points you're looking at. I'm not sure your visit plans but a week in a 1 BR is going to be in the range of 250 points a year for every year, a studio is not going to be reasonable going forward for 3 kids, are you looking at every other year? Once you get to every 3rd year, owning liking isn't worth the risks involved for most situations.

 

[JimMIA]

IMHO, this is one of those "Can't see the forest because of all the darn trees" situations.

The KEY questions here are:

1. Should you buy DVC at all?
2. Should you buy direct or resale?
3. How many total points will you need? For this one, remember that you have some flexibility with banking/borrowing, so you may not need as many points as you might think.
4. Which resorts?

For the question of ownership, you might want to consider putting everything in the same account -- in a trust. That's how we do many of our assets, but such a strategy should fit into an overall financial/succession plan that makes sense.

I would not do it for a small timeshare holding alone. You'd need to really research that, but it might be a more flexible and beneficial alternative than titling three timeshare contracts jointly with the kids (which I actually don't think you can even do).

 

[suebeelin]

I concur with everyone-- no need to purchase 3 contracts for 3 kids.... even if you are not around when the contract expires, you may want to sell it in 20 years anyway, when the kids get older and are no longer interested in Disney. The good thing is that DVC currently has a healthy resale market making it perfectly reasonable to sell in 20 years, after you've had many years with your kids at Disney.

Also, there's that little bug called "addonitis" where you feel compelled to buy more points, go more often, or stay at larger villas. That happened to us-- we had 200 points at Boardwalk, but then bought an additional 200 points at BLT a few years later bc we are inviting friends and family, or staying 2 weeks at a time.

In other words, you may start wanting to borrow points, invited friends or family, or go more often than you initially anticipated. The initial 150 points may not seem enough in a few years.

Remember, 3 contracts also means 3 separate closing fees. Direct from Disney isn't as expensive, but if it's resale, it's a decent chuck of change.

Good luck!

 

[jlovesee]

I guess I am going to be on the opposite side of the argument as I have four (actually six contracts), home resorts, three of them are 50 points, the last resort is 63 points. There is no "theoretically could bank and borrow and get 150" that's exactly how I use them. Then I have home resort priority with 150 (or at WLV with 63 189). I've been told this is weird, odd, strange, and yes it's not you\r normal DVC owner plan. It ended up this way because we bought each small contract with cash instead of having a loan. However for marathon weekend, a time you need 11 month window I have stayed at BLT, WLV, POly, and OKW hospitality house (I have stayed so far mostly 1 bedrooms for 5-7 days, we stayed at a POLY studio for 8 nights, this was with those "dinky" 50 point contracts). If I had one home resort I would be stuck at that one resort every year for marathon weekend, and I like to switch things up. With less being available at 7 months, and home resort becoming so important you have to decide whether you are ok with staying at one resort all the time (with possibilities of staying at one of the larger resorts at 7 months, such as AKV or SSR) or whether you want to have the opportunity of multiple home resorts. You have to do what is right for YOU I think is the most important question.

One last thing, we have no kids, so the largest unit we have booked is 1 bedroom, with 3 kids you may be wanting a 2 bedroom, and you would need more than 50 points for any significant length of stay. Something to think about. Funny thing is if I had followed all the adviceI was given when I considered DVC way back in 2004 I would have never become a DVC member , its one of the best decisions I have made.

edited: I read the post about concern over use year/dues. All my contracts are the same use year (September), I would NEVER buy different use years because then you end up with multiple member IDs. Don't do that. As far as dues... I guess I've never thought about it, in the end its one $ amount, I have them automatically deducted monthly I don't even think about it. One advantage though is that my dues arn't too bad, because two of my resorts are high dues (WLV and POLY), and two are low dues (OKW AND BLT) so it averages out.

Jennifer

 

[bumbershoot]

Jennifer, the *family of 5* issue is the biggest issue I see people talking about. 50points isn't going to get them far even if they are willing to borrow and bank each time, when they need to accommodate the family.

And turning 50 into 150 may work for you but it's not something everyone wants to do, so it's totally worth thinking about ahead of time.

And the biggest reason she's thinking of doing this is for estate planning, not because she wants to use cash one at a time. And that can be a mistake. Unless she knows what her kids' lives will be like decades down the road it could be a difficult inheritance.

We could have taken over my FIL's cool campground timeshare; he bought it with the "third generation" option so it could have even gone to our son, but when FIL died it was two months before dues were due and we simply could not come up with the cash at that time. He had no life insurance or anything but debt (MIL had to get the two year old RV fixed so she could take it to the bank that held the loan to surrender it because she could not afford the payments and she hated the RV) so there was nothing to help us keep this timeshare that he had felt was so important to pass down. It was so painful, because we really wanted to keep that timeshare!!!

Not that the OP's estate will be as messed up as FIL's, but her kids might be in a career lull at the time it's relevant, with no money to pay, and maybe they won't want to use any of the money they inherit to pay the dues. It's just not worth what could be a hassle for the OP for decades, to gamble on the kids' careers and interests lining up perfectly.

 

[Jankam]

Thank you ALL! This is SOOOO helpful and much appreciated!!

 

[crisi]

I will just pile on here.

When we bought, my kids were two and three. They are now seventeen and eighteen. We own at BWV.

BWV will expire when I'm in my 70s. People in my family tend to last that long, so there is little chance I'll leave it to my kids to start with.

My son, the eighteen year old, I see as having no interest in owning as an adult. Even if I were to leave him a contract, it would simply be a burden for him. He'd rather have the executor sell it and have the money than have to deal with it himself.

My daughter is much more interested in Disney - but at seventeen - she's interested in a lot of things. Who knows if she'll even live in the U.S. or be able to afford Disney - and even if she does both, she might want to spend her vacations somewhere else. She loves New York City. She loves London (she's. There is a world out there and at seventeen, she wants to grab it.

I feel rather strongly not to set up my kids to live their lives on my expectations - even something as innocuous as "you'll want to go to Disney forever" can be a burden - if your kid thinks they are disappointing you by preferring to go skiing or to the beach or hiking or visiting Europe or......

Also, before buying points at multiple resorts - make sure you understand the logistics of banking and borrowing. Its sort of "advanced DVC" - and while it isn't impossibly difficult, it isn't mindlessly easy either - and with timeshare ownership YOU will be responsible for knowing how to do it - Disney isn't going to step in and refund points if you didn't understand something.

 

[Deb & Bill]

With three different resorts, you cannot combine points from two resorts until seven months out. It is getting more difficult at many times of the year to book a resort at seven months out. Using the banking, borrowing, using method of coimbining three years worth of points leaves you in a situation where you could lose the banked points or borrowed points (or both) if you had to cancel and rebook your stay. You cannot "unborrow" and you cannot bank points two years in a row.