Turn around for purchasing

[AmyDek]

we have been on the fence about buying into DVC for a while and finally feel it's right for us. We are planning a trip for early May- and if we rent or stay rack rates it's going to cost over $3500 for the room so it makes so much more sense to put that money towards the DVC and stay with points than it does to throw it away. And if we spend the $3500 on the trip we will have to wait a while to accumulate more money to consider buying into DVC again. However, it looks like we won't be able to do this time wise, right? The turn around for buying resale is weeks and weeks if understand correctly. And by that time svwn if all went as planned I'm sure there will be nothing available to book so close to the trip. And I might consider buying direct from Disney because although it costs more we are talking about throwing away $3500 anyway so we may as well just get in but the issue is the home resorts-- aluani just doesn't make sense, we want to have a home resort in wide. And as a growing family I never see us staying in a studio room, we will always need at least a one bedroom and Polynesian doesn't have that option so our "worst case scenario@ if we book 11 months out and then can't switch to another resort at the 7 month point won't even work for us. To add to that- I've been looking into renting points and so far there are no reservations for the resorts we are looking at for that week. We can be slightly flexible with dates within a few weeks but let's say I could buy a different resort from Disney direct would I be buying into DVC only to find I can't get a reservation and miss this opportunity to go??

Are there any avenues I'm missing here? Ways to buy into older resorts direct through Disney? Faster process for resale? I'm thinking we would start with a small amount of points, enough to borrow from the next year and go every other year to start and then add points on down the line. Any advice or do we just bite the bullet and shell out the money for this trip and revisit down the line?

 

[supersnoop]

You'll throw away $3,500 if you go with your buying. You'll throw away $8,000 or more if you buy direct. You might as well throw it away and wait longer.

That's said, other than the holiday weekend, May is not a high-demand time. And resales seem to be moving more quickly recently. You might still have time to purchase and still get a room.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You could also stay at a less expensive resort this time and do your due diligence on a resale contract.

I don't know that you'd be "throwing away" money on this stay. You would be exchanging money for a place to stay at current market rates.

 

[crisi]

If you are looking at resale, the ideal time to start looking is about a year and a half - a little more - before your next trip. That allows you to find a good contract, allows for some delays, maybe even a buyer who backs out, and sets you up for eleven month availability at home.

May is five months out - that will be tight. Say your first contract ends up with the buyer taking a week to decide he doesn't want to sell after all (happened with our first contract). Then the contract you choose, the seller is slow to get things returned. When they are returned, they haven't been notarized, so you start over again (happened with the contract we bought). There are a lot of things you can't control, and two or three months out is very last minute unless you aren't picky at all about where you stay and moving around.

 

[CMNJ]

It is actually only 4 months until "early" May so trying to buy in order to go then would be a big gamble. Resales in general typically seem to take 2.5 to 3 months from sending the contract to ROFR to having points loaded into your account. So assuming you found the perfect contract today had the contract excecuted and submitted for ROFR tomorrow you probably wouldn't have access to your points until at least late March. You could get lucky and have it close quicker but I wouldn't bank on that. Also you mentioned needing to borrow points to complete the stay since you would buy a smaller contract-unfortunately these days many contracts are being sold partially or fully stripped-so you need to carefully consider what points would be avail to you for a May 2015 stay. If you bought a contract with a Use Year of June or later it would need to have 2015 points still avail (or banked 2014 points) as you can only borrow 1 use year ahead and would be traveling in your 2015 use year.

 

[supersnoop]

My personal experience; I signed my first deposit check on a resale on 2/23/2014 and was able to secure reservations beginning on 6/7/2014. I will say that I felt very lucky to do so.

 

[mab2012]

And Rosales seem to be moving more quickly recently. You might still have time to purchase and still get a room.

That hasn't been my recent experience. It seems that Disney is moving quickly on ROFR and estopple requests, but for the most part the closing companies are sucking up that extra time. I am currently waiting for my membership number to arrive. By the time that happens, it will have been 3.5 months since my offer was accepted, and nearly 4 full months since I started seriously looking at listings. It took over 7 weeks for the closing company to prepare documents after ROFR was received. There were no extenuating circumstances, and that timeline seems to be fairly typical for those using the bigger closing companies (TT&M, ***). There have been a couple of individuals using smaller closing companies who have reported *very* fast turnarounds, but that seems more the exception than the rule.

If I were OP, I wouldn't count on being able to book for May if starting the process now. It's definitely possible, but the odds are not favourable. If OP does wish to go that route, I would recommend reading the "Come on Estopple" and "Closing Time" threads, and maybe PM a couple of the posters who have been blessed with fast transactions to find out what broker/closing company combination they used. That might improve closing time, at the cost of a much smaller pool of contracts to choose from.

 

[kniquy]

You could also stay at a less expensive resort this time and do your due diligence on a resale contract.

I think this sounds like a great idea. The time frame for my AKV contract was 9/5 offer accepted and we closed 11/23 and had points and online account up by 12/15 - all in all just over 3 months. It sounds like your time frame of your trip will not work with closing on a contract and having anything available to book. If you haven't done so already you could take some time to do the DVC tour. I believe that they will show you any resort that you like and not just Poly. Take this time to research, learn your options and the ins/outs of DVC. Maybe figure out your top resort option and then tour that resort. There is so much to learn about DVC. I have been reading so much over the past 8 months and everyday i still come across something new I didn't know.

 

[AmyDek]

Thanks everyone- I've decided buying resale under these circumstances isn't a risk worth taking!

 

[summabreeze85]

Just sent you a pm would love to chat. Also fyi on turnaround time you can never bank of things going fast. I agreed and signed paperwork for a boardwalk deal dec 5. On dec 11 got an email because seller had still not returned signed docs. Finally went to rofr on the 16th, passed on the 30th. Have a set closing date of feb 22, which I'm hoping it happens sooner because I have points coming that will expire april 1st. Probably will have to have a fire sale on the points and there will be extremely limited availability.

 

[Mom to 2 Girls]

I think this sounds like a great idea. The time frame for my AKV contract was 9/5 offer accepted and we closed 11/23 and had points and online account up by 12/15 - all in all just over 3 months. It sounds like your time frame of your trip will not work with closing on a contract and having anything available to book. If you haven't done so already you could take some time to do the DVC tour. I believe that they will show you any resort that you like and not just Poly. Take this time to research, learn your options and the ins/outs of DVC. Maybe figure out your top resort option and then tour that resort. There is so much to learn about DVC. I have been reading so much over the past 8 months and everyday i still come across something new I didn't know.

I agree that is a great idea. I did purchase direct through DVC so I don't know if this applies to resale or not - or maybe it's only to add-on points, I remember seeing recently that if I added on points I would get a trip of equal points to either Hawaii or Saratoga Springs in WDW. This might be a consideration for you.... Book a less expensive trip this time, do the tour while there (to get the perks of doing the tour) and purchase through DVC direct (to also get the bonus vacation) - this might offset any money "thrown away" or it maybe a close wash. Just a thought.

 

[SuperRob]

DVC is also offering their "Last Minute Magic" where they tell you what inventory they have on 60-days notice. They're billing it as a feature, when really they're trying to get unused rooms filled. Still, good option if your closing runs long, you can still get a room.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC is also offering their "Last Minute Magic" where they tell you what inventory they have on 60-days notice. They're billing it as a feature, when really they're trying to get unused rooms filled. Still, good option if your closing runs long, you can still get a room.

We always had the ability to book last minute if they didn't give the rooms away to CRO. Now if the rooms were discounted, that would be a different animal.

Bill

 

[AulaniNutz]

DVC is also offering their "Last Minute Magic" where they tell you what inventory they have on 60-days notice. They're billing it as a feature, when really they're trying to get unused rooms filled. Still, good option if your closing runs long, you can still get a room.

So I found the site,

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacations/last-minute-magic-getaways/
(Under Plan Vacations on DVC site.. Never clicked there...)

But how's this any different than just using availability tool? Just preformatted for you? It's not like you book four nights, get a fifth free... Now that would be Magic...

 

[Mom to 2 Girls]

Yes, their last minute tool seems more of a last minute push to sell out without offering an incentive. Same rates as the availability tool.

 

[supersnoop]

So I found the site,

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacations/last-minute-magic-getaways/
(Under Plan Vacations on DVC site.. Never clicked there...)

But how's this any different than just using availability tool? Just preformatted for you? It's not like you book four nights, get a fifth free... Now that would be Magic...

I think they're trying to show rooms with multiple consecutive days available. I say "trying" because I don't see any listed with only a single day, but there are a few with consecutive and non-consecutive dates showing. I'm guessing that's a bug or shortcoming in their algorithm. Using the availability tool can be frustrating when you're just looking for any three days together anywhere.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Updated weekly? That's not really going to help a whole lot.

 

[disneynutz]

I wish that DVC would fix the basics like the website and waitlists and not keep adding things that are only beneficial to a limited number of members or look good to prospective buyers who don't fully understand what they are looking at or being told.

Bill

 

[ercrbc]

We had a reservation planned 11mo out for HHI in early June 2years ago. My DD broke her arm 29 days before our trip, it was early May. I called to see if there was availability anywhere at WDW (the beach with a cast on was not going to be as magical) and SSR had a whole week available. It was a great trip, we love the pools at SSR and the walk to DTD is so convenient. Don't count out OKW or SSR if you are worried they will be the only ones left. Pts are low, rooms are spacious and they are generally easy to book even a few months out in slower seasons (May is one of those times). Good luck with your planning!!