why buy expensive dvc?

[mechmix]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

 

[Dean]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

IMO the only reason to buy VGF at the current prices would be to stay there almost all the time or if you simply had to have a stay there part of the time and was willing to pay a lot more for that option, likely more than OOP overall for the occasional stay. The same will be true for the poly. OTOH, SSR or any other resort will likely not get you in to VGF routinely. One has to decide between access and cost. OF course multiple contracts is an option for some situations that may give the best of both worlds for some.

 

[Dvcrani]

People buy where they want to stay most of the time. If you are ok with staying OKW ans SSR most of the time you can buy these resort as your home resort and try getting VGF at 7 month mark.

VGF is very small resort and when it gets sold completely, will be hard to get in at 7 month mark.

 

[Msmithmd]

The real question is not why a person would buy VGF direct, but rather why would one buy OKW or SSR (or for that manner any of the older properties) direct?

At least with the Grand Floridian, you stand a decent chance of recouping a good portion of your purchase price, if you sell ten years down the road. Not at all the case for either of the latter properties. Both of those contracts would be worth half of your purchase price on the day after you close via direct purchase.

 

[DebbieB]

If you are looking for OKW or SSR, you could probably find a better deal through a resale agent rather than direct from DVC.

One restriction if you don't buy from Disney - you use your points to make reservations in the Concierge Collection, the Disney Collection (non-DVC Disney resorts at Disneyland and Walt Disney World as well as the Disney Cruise Line), or the Adventurer Collection.

 

[chalee94]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

1) technical point: you cannot buy "resale" from disney. disney is the developer, so they are selling "direct" contracts.

"resale" is when you buy a contract from a current DVC owner.

2) i really would suggest that you are underestimating the value of the 11 month window.

 

[zavandor]

When are you planning to visit WDW and how much flexible are you with travel dates?
At 7 months it's possible to get a reservation at almost every resort, but only in some periods. For example I like September to vacation, because the parks are almost empty, MNSSHP are already on and DVC is easy to book.
If you intend to book during the first two weeks of December or during the marathon week end, you'll have to book at 11 months at your home resort, very few rooms are available at 7 months (not even OKW, which is easy to get into every other time of the year).
You should compare your travel habits with DVC occupancy trends to decide if buying a resort to stay in another is a good idea.

BTW: since its opening VGF has been very difficult to get into: people are paying a premium to own there so they are consistently using their points there. When the novelty will wear off, it COULD became easier to get into at 7 months, but it's hard to say.

 

[buzzrelly]

I believe also that the term of the contract for OKW ends in 2042, whereas my contract at BLT ends in 2060, as I am almost sure the GF would too. Someone else probably knows the exact dates…I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet today :

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

For my home resort, BLT, I usually have to book 11 months in advance to get the room category that I want. If you are more flexible on dates and room category, sure, buy a resort like SSR. If you are going on school breaks, and in summer, I like the comfort of knowing I am going to get exactly what I want, on the monorail

 

[drusba]

When you say resale, I assume you mean buying on the resale market and not from Disney. Disney still sells resorts like OKW but at a price that is significantly more than you can get in the resale market. If you are trying to buy one of those older resorts from Disney instead of on the resale market, then you are already making a major decison to pay a lot more than you need to.

One can buy at a lower cost resort and then use the seven month window to reserve elsewhere and for many that can work very well. However, based on current reservation patterns, you wil find limitations for what you can get elsewhere. For example, certain classes of rooms can be difficult to get year round at 7 months out: VGF studios, BLT standard view, BWV standard or Boardwalk view, AKV club level and value. Then any near park resorts -- BLT, VGF, BWV, BCV and VWL-- can be difficult to at times impossible during the last quarter of the year and through marathon weekend in Jan. And even AKV and OKW may have issues at times during the first two weeks of Dec, Christmas week, Thanksgiving, middle two weeks of Oct, and the weekend in Nov that includes or is just before Veterans Day.

The other issue you face with relying on the seven month window is the stress of following the seven month window. There are times when you can get near park resorts at 7 months out, but to get them you better be on line at 8 a.m. eastern exactly 7 months out from date of arrival because there is a high risk they will be gone before 9 a.m. when the phones open at Member Services to do phone reservations.

 

[crisi]

There are a few reasons to buy at a certain resort

1. Price. Some resorts are cheaper than others. Resale is cheaper than direct and within those categories resorts are cheaper and more expensive.

2. Dues. Some resorts have hefty dues - sometimes it makes more sense to spend a little more upfront because the dues (at VB or HHI) will eat up the savings.

3. Expiration data. Resorts have different expiration dates. For someone in their twenties now, this can make a big differents.

4. Potential resale value - if you are going to own for ten years and sell, a soon to expire OKW contract is unlikely to be worth as much as a BLT contract with 35 years left.

5. Booking window - as has been discussed, some resorts and some room categories are much harder to book a seven months than you'd hope. If you aren't the type of person to be flexible, then buying the resort you really want and booking eleven months out are part of the deal.

6. Finally, where your heart is. For a lot of people there is a sentimental and emotional component to Disney and DVC. They honeymooned at Wilderness Lodge and owning there has a certain emotional value. They ALWAYS stayed at the Contemporary as a kid.... whatever it is, for those people its a factor.

 

[chalee94]

I believe also that the term of the contract for OKW ends in 2042, whereas my contract at BLT ends in 2060, as I am almost sure the GF would too. Someone else probably knows the exact dates…I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet today :

the DVC Resource Center thread is very useful for comparing resorts, including dues history, expiration dates (OKW direct contracts end in 2057 while OKW resales can end in either 2042 or 2057 - VGF actually ends in 2064), relative size of the resorts and square footage of the villas.

 

[wdrl]

Another variable that comes into play when booking DVC villas is length of stay. When the seven month window opens, you'll have much better success booking a shorter stay, such as 1 or 2 nights, than if you try to book a longer stay, such as 7 or 10 consecutive nights. For example, today the seven month window has opened for stays beginning June 12, 2015. According to the resort availability tool, a VGF Lake View studio is currently available for June 12 and 13, 2015. However, that accommodation is not available for June 14, 15, or 16.

If you are willing to have very short stays, or are willing to have a patchwork of reservations that require moving from one villa to the next, then you'll have some success getting what you want. But if you desire longer stays in one villa, then your odds of getting exactly what you want at the seven month window start to go downhill.

 

[jimim]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

I wouldn't buy gfv either but I also wanted a place that the contract didn't expire soon vs say animal kingdom lodge

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[electricsoup]

We're buying DVC at VGF right now, and our reasoning (because we did look at getting cheaper points) is as follows:

-We always want to stay at VGF. We always stayed GF, so it keeps us in the vacation we want to be at guaranteed.
-Resale at VGF will always be high due to its location
-50 years vs. less at other locations

 

[davale4]

We're buying DVC at VGF right now, and our reasoning (because we did look at getting cheaper points) is as follows:

-We always want to stay at VGF. We always stayed GF, so it keeps us in the vacation we want to be at guaranteed.
-Resale at VGF will always be high due to its location
-50 years vs. less at other locations

This is also the reason we bought VGF and also just did an add-on. We have always stayed GF RCP every year since my DD was very small. We do not wish to stay anywhere else but GF. Resale is high still and to find uy we wanted might take too long. Others might think is not a wise choice but we are very happy with our decision.

 

[MsTessP]

I read somewhere - can't remember where - that the average DVC family owns their membership for less than 10 years. That certainly makes sense when you look at the thousands (and thousands!) of contracts which have been put on the resale market.

If I were still in my 20s (anyone know how to make that happen!?), then I would be certainly tempted to buy a newer resort. However, if I preferred one of the older resorts, then I would hopefully realize that I could buy resale for a much lesser cost today, get many years of enjoyment out of it, then in 2042 (if I still wished to do so), I could either pick up one of the now older resorts for a very low resale price or look at several other options which Disney will, I'm sure, have at that time.

 

[supersnoop]

I read somewhere - can't remember where - that the average DVC family owns their membership for less than 10 years. That certainly makes sense when you look at the thousands (and thousands!) of contracts which have been put on the resale market.

If I were still in my 20s (anyone know how to make that happen!?), then I would be certainly tempted to buy a newer resort. However, if I preferred one of the older resorts, then I would hopefully realize that I could buy resale for a much lesser cost today, get many years of enjoyment out of it, then in 2042 (if I still wished to do so), I could either pick up one of the now older resorts for a very low resale price or look at several other options which Disney will, I'm sure, have at that time.

The average life of a home mortgage is about 4 years, with average home ownership length around 8. So, DVC seems to have a longer ownership span than an actual house.

 

[Minniesgal]

I'm looking to buy a resale DVC from disney. I'm on the waiting list for old key west and saratoga. why would i pay for grand floridian if i can use my cheaper purchased points from say old key west at the grand floridian. i understand the 11 month vs the 7 month booking advantage but what other advantage is there?

Because it isn't easy to stay at the Grand Floridian on any other points it is often booked out by owners. We bought where we want to stay.

 

[McCrae]

You should also consider what would you do if your circumstances change.

As an alternative to selling your contract you may think about renting your points.

Some resorts are easier to rent and can be rented out for more than others.

Currently this would easily cover existing dues and generate a profit.