Very new to this, and wwyd for resale?

[lilsonicfan]

Hi all - just got back from Aulani. It was our first time renting points and now I've caught the DVC bug. Here is my WWYD, I hope you are not all sick of these. I am a chronic overplanner in some ways so I have tried to do a ton of research but it can all be a bit overwhelming.

Some details:

• We live in the Vancouver area. Getting to Orlando takes at least 8-10 hours of travel (very rare to have a direct flight), and with time change that's essentially a full day lost to travel
• Aulani is a 6 hour flight, non-stop
• We're a family of 5, we stayed in a 1 bedroom at Aulani and would generally prefer 1 bedrooms or higher, although we would consider studios that sleep 5
• We would likely take a Disney trip to Aulani/Oahu or WDW every other year
• Because of the distance we would likely stay for 8-10 nights at either location; seemingly I'd need to account for about 400 points or so, more at some locations and less at others
• I love DL, but would be priced out of VGC
• My oldest kid is almost 14, but given that we live in Vancouver, it's extremely unlikely he'll be on his own for quite some time. My youngest is 10.
• We have been to WDW a few times but have never stayed onsite - always at an airbnb or similar. We always have a rental car. I am not too fussed over staying in one particular place and would be okay at not snagging the "best" properties at the 7 month mark.
• Right now, travel would likely be in March for spring break, or July/Aug summer holidays. That may change as the kids age. We had Aug 2020 booked for WDW but then the pandemic hit. I realize that's the hottest time of the year in Orlando.
• It's unlikely we will travel during US thanksgiving or during Christmas week.

My thoughts/questions:

• I'm not super interested in buying direct, I don't think I'll have FOMO over the loss of benefits and would rather keep up front costs low
• It seems that SSR might be the way to go, for lower annual dues and lots of resale availability
• Or should I go with AUL to get the 11 month booking window if we might go there more often?
• What use year would you suggest; I was thinking Feb or Dec?
• Should I look for something in the 200 point range, or maybe two separate contracts in the 100 point range as it could be potentially easier to get rid of one?
• I would like to avoid the 2042 resorts as that seems a short time to make use of the contract

More detailed questions:

• What timeframe should I generally expect from offer to closing to ROFR - I have read the ROFR thread but that doesn't (I think) tell me when offer was first made
• Are there Canadian/international-specific issues to be aware of as a buyer?
• If you use an agent from, say, the DIS sponsor DVC Resale Market, would they only show listings that they market?
• If a listing for 100 points (e.g.) has 150 for this UY b/c the seller banked 50 from last UY, could I as a buyer rent out those banked points? I understand I cannot bank them again, although if I was in time, I could bank the 100 that they had for this UY, right?

Thank you to all here, the Disboards are such a great resource. And if the answer to my questions is "Please just keep reading and researching", I will accept that judgment

 

[Minniemoo15]

Hi from a fellow Canadian! It seems like you have thought this through and done lots of research. I think in your case, Saratoga Points make a lot of sense. We have had great luck at trading into lots of different resorts at the 7 month mark with a bit of flexibility and waitlisting.

A Feb or Dec use year would be a good choice for your travel patterns.

As a Canadian purchasing, there is nothing really to be aware of. There are only a couple provinces you can purchase direct from at home, but resale is not an issue and can be done from any province. There is a withholding tax if you ever go to sell. Our resale process took about 60 days from offer made to points in account. It may be quicker these days with ROFR being expedited. It certainly seems like a buyers market lately.

If purchasing resale I wouldn’t bother with two 100 point contracts, it’s more complicated than it is worth, IMO.

Search around the different resale sites to find a contract that interests you. Each site will only show their own listings.

I would suggest looking for a loaded contract with banked points. We took off a good chunk of our upfront costs by renting out the excess points.

Good luck !

 

[pangyal]

Another Canadian here! I would say that the most important thing would be to look at when you would likely be travelling; i.e., if you are wanting to use your points at Aulani and would be going during “golden week”, you really should be owning there. Aulani is a pretty good value for length of contract and price per point right now. SSR is great for lower dues and length of contract, but Aulani is a few years longer. If you would be doing West Coast more often, buying at WDW stops making as much sense.

Best of luck! We bought in 2015 and have never regretted a second of it…in fact, we have added on probably far more times than we should !

 

[intamin]

I honestly can't say much regarding the timeshare rules purchasing from Canada but it seems the previous poster covered that.

An Aulani contract would be nice to own just to be able to book standard rooms; however, the dues are significantly higher unless you purchase a subsidized contract which has the lowest dues of any DVC resort. The Aulani contract does last 8 years longer than SSR but the dues being a beach resort will continue to rise more and more. Some people will also strongly advise against buying Aulani because it does follow Hawai'i timeshare laws as opposed to Florida.

SSR's advantages are cheap buy in price like Aulani but also cheap dues. The downside is you give up any benefit of home resort since SSR is always open at 7 months and also lasts 8 years less.

Use year whether it's February or December doesn't really matter as much since all of your trips seem to occur between March and late summer. Even if you're booking for August, a December use year should be okay because if you happened to cancel in July for a late August trip, those points would go into holding anyways if within 30 days. If further out then you'd still be able to bank them before the 8/1 deadline. I'd maybe barely give a slight advantage to having a Feb UY so that way it would give you a couple months extra to use those points in holding if that did happen.

I would just buy the 200 points under one contract. 200 in 1 contract isn't a huge contract, I'd consider it mid-sized, in my mind 250+ is a large contract but it's all subjective.

Anyways, best of luck choosing!

 

[kilik64]

If you can find a sub AUL contract that would work, that's what I would jump all over.

1 beds are typically the last thing to go at WDW resorts, so there is a high probability that even with an AUL contract, if you are mainly going with 1 bedrooms that you'll find something other than SSR or OKW available at 7 months. DEFINITELY in the summer months (actually low season for DVC, mainly cause ya know HOTTTT) but even spring break I'd think you'd find something, even better chance if you wouldn't mind doing split stays (ie if staying 8 days you do say 4 days at one resort then move and do 4 more days at another resort, can be easier to find shorter stays vs long chunk sometimes).

So yea, AUL sub is the unicorn I'd try and find. Otherwise SSR might be your best option, but im not sure what availability is like at AUL for 1 beds and if it would be hard to get what you want there using SSR at 7 months.

 

[RoseGold]

Before you do any of this, I would talk to your local estate attorney about what happens to this when you die. This is complicated even just out of state, and there are posts here about people hiring FL attorneys to complete FL probate, which complicates the in-state stuff as well.

This could be even more complicated from abroad. There are other ways to buy DVC, like trusts or companies, that might make more sense. This is a lot for a week in a hotel room every other year, especially when you can just rent points or pay cash.

For every other year, I'm not sure I'd say most should buy mathematically. Add in the international complication, and maybe even less convincing.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Before you do any of this, I would talk to your local estate attorney about what happens to this when you die. This is complicated even just out of state, and there are posts here about people hiring FL attorneys to complete FL probate, which complicates the in-state stuff as well.

This could be even more complicated from abroad. There are other ways to buy DVC, like trusts or companies, that might make more sense. This is a lot for a week in a hotel room every other year, especially when you can just rent points or pay cash.

For every other year, I'm not sure I'd say most should buy mathematically. Add in the international complication, and maybe even less convincing.

Thanks for this insight. I had never seen the advice re: probate, which is interesting. I had considered that I would leave it to the kids but provide them with the funds for maintenance fees till end of contract.

And thanks also re: the thoughts on pricing. The trouble is that renting points isn't particularly cheap, especially if you go the David's type of route. Cash is even worse, it was $1,200 per night at Aulani for the 1BR.

 

[starry_solo]

Find a subsidized AUL contract since that's where you plan to visit the most.

If you go the SSR route, as long as you're ok with island or ocean view (not standard) at AUL, then it should be ok. Standard view is the quickest to go, even for 1 br, due to lower points cost.