Talk to me about Pros and Cons of Resale/ How many points would we need.

[CastAStone]

Interesting I would of thought the monorail resorts would be the most. So it would be better to buy a contract somewhere else to get more points for the money, and then just move to AKL at 7 months?

The monorail resorts are among the more expensive to buy into, but the total of cost of ownership at the Polynesian for example is fairly low on a per point basis. On a per night basis, The monorail resorts, and particularly Polynesian and Grand Floridian cost significantly more points per night than most other resorts.

But on a total cost of ownership per point basis, Polynesian and Saratoga Springs are the cheapest over the life of the contract if you buy them resale. If you’re going to use your points mostly to stay at resorts you don’t own at, I would buy the cheapest resort you can. Here is an imperfect but decent enough analysis of that. The risk is that ease of booking at other resorts could change. With the glut of points caused by Covid closures, the next couple years will be harder than usual to switch resorts at seven months.

PS SSR expires 2054 and Poly 2066, so depending how old you are, you could get 12 more years out of the Poly.

 

[Mainahman]

The monorail resorts are among the more expensive to buy into, but the total of cost of ownership at the Polynesian for example is fairly low on a per point basis. On a per night basis, The monorail resorts, and particularly Polynesian and Grand Floridian cost significantly more points per night than most other resorts.

But on a total cost of ownership per point basis, Polynesian and Saratoga Springs are the cheapest over the life of the contract if you buy them resale. If you’re going to use your points mostly to stay at resorts you don’t own at, I would buy the cheapest resort you can. Here is an imperfect but decent enough analysis of that. The risk is that ease of booking at other resorts could change. With the glut of points caused by Covid closures, the next couple years will be harder than usual to switch resorts at seven months.

PS SSR expires 2054 and Poly 2066, so depending how old you are, you could get 12 more years out of the Poly.

I'm 33 and my wife is 39. If it went too deep, it's something we would will to our daughter.

 

[CastAStone]

PS @nickys is 1000% right about buying where at you at least wouldn’t mind staying. You never know exactly what is going to happen at seven months, So don’t buy somewhere that you’ll be disappointed if you’re stuck there frequently

 

[nickys]

I would be wary of buying at the Poly personally. The reason it’s cheaper on a per night basis is because it only have studios, and they are expensive studios albeit they have the two bathrooms.

Which leads onto another problem, say you bought 150 points at the Poly, you might then be able to book 6 days in August. But you then decide to switch to Kidani and wanted to take a friend; you’ll need more points to stay the same length of time at Kidani in a 1-bed.

So in practice you need to buy more points than you technically need at the Poly in order to easily switch over at 7 months. Plus if you can’t switch, you don’t then have enough points for a second studio at the Poly without cutting your stay down.

If you love AKL, buy at AKL. There is a lot to be said for knowing you have a room booked at 11 months out, than be waiting and hoping you can switch. The next couple of years may be a totally new ball game with availability everywhere. There are 4 months worth of extra points floating around in a system designed to be at 98% occupancy year round. So people will bank points.Some will go for bigger rooms, some will go more often. But any way you look at it it’ll be harder to book, so people will book their home resort at 11 months if they can.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

DVC will let you know what the deadline is for banking any unused points. If you fail to bank them by that date and don't use them then you lose them for that Use Year. My wife and I have a Use Year that starts February 1. If we don't bank our unused 2020 points by September, we'll lose any unused points.

One thing to keep in mind with borrowing points is that there is currently a limit in place that you can only borrow up to 50% of the following year's points. I would hope that the limit will disappear again once they get through the backlog of points caused by the pandemic, but there are no guarantees.

I could be wrong, but in addition to not being eligible for the DVC Moonlight Magic or any other discounts available to members who bought direct, buying resale would prevent you from booking a stay with points at Riviera. If that doesn't matter to you then resale is the way to go, but know that DVC has the right of first refusal and can swoop in and buy up the contract at the same price you agreed to so it could conceivably take a while to actually be able to complete a purchase via resale if they keep matching your offers.

Right now Disney is not buying many resale contracts at all. As long as it's not something abnormal, like 20 bucks below the price of most other resales you should be fine.

 

[Mainahman]

I would be wary of buying at the Poly personally. The reason it’s cheaper on a per night basis is because it only have studios, and they are expensive studios albeit they have the two bathrooms.

Which leads onto another problem, say you bought 150 points at the Poly, you might then be able to book 6 days in August. But you then decide to switch to Kidani and wanted to take a friend; you’ll need more points to stay the same length of time at Kidani in a 1-bed.

So in practice you need to buy more points than you technically need at the Poly in order to easily switch over at 7 months. Plus if you can’t switch, you don’t then have enough points for a second studio at the Poly without cutting your stay down.

If you love AKL, buy at AKL. There is a lot to be said for knowing you have a room booked at 11 months out, than be waiting and hoping you can switch. The next couple of years may be a totally new ball game with availability everywhere. There are 4 months worth of extra points floating around in a system designed to be at 98% occupancy year round. So people will bank points.Some will go for bigger rooms, some will go more often. But any way you look at it it’ll be harder to book, so people will book their home resort at 11 months if they can.

We have never stayed at the Poly, i feel like i need to someday, but only if i can go broke one year and get one of the villas out front on the water staring down MK. However when we go back to the resort, i rather be way from it all, if that makes sense. I like coming back and forgetting where i am to relax. Grab a pool bar cocktail, float in the pool, hit my room and relax. POP gave me some of that, but its getting a bit too "busy" for my tastes lately. Im after something a bit slower and less packed when im at the resort. Ill see how we like AKL next month ( 25 days today) and go from there, but from all my research it seems to be where we would be happy. Were drivers, so we can easily drive to the parks, my car is there already so distance to the parks doesn't bother me.

 

[Mainahman]

Right now Disney is not buying many resale contracts at all. As long as it's not something abnormal, like 20 bucks below the price of most other resales you should be fine.

How does the resale work? obviously you work with a realtor or whatever they call a Timeshare resale company, do they help you secure financing etc? We have good credit, im just not sure how that all works.

 

[RememberWhen]

How does the resale work? obviously you work with a realtor or whatever they call a Timeshare resale company, do they help you secure financing etc? We have good credit, im just not sure how that all works.

You should google DVC resale. You’ll find a few places. They probably do offer financing.
I would say that if you’re looking for a resale at AKL, probably somewhere in the 200 points range would let you do a 1 bedroom or studio most of the year for a week. They’re listed for $105-$115/point on the site I check. Usually the smaller contracts are more expensive per point. You’ll also need to calculate in the dues.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

How does the resale work? obviously you work with a realtor or whatever they call a Timeshare resale company, do they help you secure financing etc? We have good credit, im just not sure how that all works.

I will be honest, if you need to can't pay outright for the contract, and need to finance, then don't buy into DVC. Just my opinion, but the main benefit to buying DVC is you are sort of locking in your vacation room costs, having to pay monthly financial fees on top of that takes away from that benefit.

 

[Mainahman]

You should google DVC resale. You’ll find a few places. They probably do offer financing.
I would say that if you’re looking for a resale at AKL, probably somewhere in the 200 points range would let you do a 1 bedroom or studio most of the year for a week. They’re listed for $105-$115/point on the site I check. Usually the smaller contracts are more expensive per point. You’ll also need to calculate in the dues.

I just started to actually, and was looking at 220-240 contracts to make sure we were good. i Rather have more, and have to bank a few here or there, or upgrade a room than not have enough for our yearly trip.

 

[Mainahman]

I will be honest, if you need to can't pay outright for the contract, and need to finance, then don't buy into DVC. Just my opinion, but the main benefit to buying DVC is you are sort of locking in your vacation room costs, having to pay monthly financial fees on top of that takes away from that benefit.

I saw it on the new buy ins so i figured id ask. I mean i dont have 20K laying around at the moment. I wasnt sure if i would need to go to my bank for a personal loan, vs having it all done for us through a company. Its something that could easily be paid off over a couple years for sure, but not something i could pay out of pocket tomorrow.

 

[CastAStone]

I saw it on the new buy ins so i figured id ask. I mean i dont have 20K laying around at the moment. I wasnt sure if i would need to go to my bank for a personal loan, vs having it all done for us through a company. Its something that could easily be paid off over a couple years for sure, but not something i could pay out of pocket tomorrow.

Financing DVC can be done 2 ways.

The easy way is to secure financing via the companies that officially do DVC financing like Monera. They charge 10% interest typically for good credit. This turns the math upsidedown in 12-18 months; you'd virtually always be better off paying cash for rooms than financing through a financing company.

If you can pay your loan off that fast a better option is take out an unsecured personal loan through like a SoFi or someone similar, which can get you an interest rate around 5-7%, or a home equity loan or line of credit against your primary residence, which can be very low depending on your bank and equity ratio, or to be creative in getting it onto a credit card with 0% interest for 18 months, like Citi's Diamond Preferred. You will almost certainly need to pay some fees up to get the balance onto the card since you can't charge a resale purchase directly (direct purchases from Disney can be charged), and you'll have to Google search how to do it, it takes some effort.

If you can pay it off in 2 years, I might suggest start saving what you'd be paying now; prices are likely to fall over the next 6-8 months and you'll not only get a better deal but you'll also finance less of it and thus pay less interest.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Yes, buying direct there are payment options, no idea if they have them for resale. Honestly, see how your trip goes, I think resale prices are going to plummet in the next few months. I only bought in because I did happen to have some extra cash one year so I pulled the trigger.

 

[Mainahman]

Financing DVC can be done 2 ways.

The easy way is to secure financing via the companies that officially do DVC financing like Monera. They charge 10% interest typically for good credit. This turns the math upsidedown in 12-18 months; you'd virtually always be better off paying cash for rooms than financing through a financing company.

If you can pay your loan off that fast a better option is take out an unsecured personal loan through like a SoFi or someone similar, which can get you an interest rate around 5-7%, or a home equity loan or line of credit against your primary residence, which can be very low depending on your bank and equity ratio, or to be creative in getting it onto a credit card with 0% interest for 18 months, like Citi's Diamond Preferred. You will almost certainly need to pay some fees up to get the balance onto the card since you can't charge a resale purchase directly (direct purchases from Disney can be charged), and you'll have to Google search how to do it, it takes some effort.

If you can pay it off in 2 years, I might suggest start saving what you'd be paying now; prices are likely to fall over the next 6-8 months and you'll not only get a better deal but you'll also finance less of it and thus pay less interest.

Never thought of a home equity loan.. thats a pretty good idea actually!

 

[Mainahman]

Yes, buying direct there are payment options, no idea if they have them for resale. Honestly, see how your trip goes, I think resale prices are going to plummet in the next few months. I only bought in because I did happen to have some extra cash one year so I pulled the trigger.

Yea thats the plan. If she falls in love, and says " why havent we dont this sooner" then ill start watching the market and researching costs etc. I like the idea of always knowing where home is, and then just worrying about tickets. We also get discounts on tickets only through work, so i wonder if that would also help where we would no longer book a package.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Yea thats the plan. If she falls in love, and says " why havent we dont this sooner" then ill start watching the market and researching costs etc. I like the idea of always knowing where home is, and then just worrying about tickets. We also get discounts on tickets only through work, so i wonder if that would also help where we would no longer book a package.

If the funds are there this is the perfect year to buy. Some say get more points than you need, like I said 160 has been a good amount for us, we like to do one year of theme parks and next year national parks.

 

[harryk]

I've been a DVC member (Boulder Ridge) for 19 years now and each year other than the first 2 have wait-listed for the Boardwalk DVC, and only was successful 6 times. So don't count on 7 month changes - they are not always successful.

 

[Mainahman]

If the funds are there this is the perfect year to buy. Some say get more points than you need, like I said 160 has been a good amount for us, we like to do one year of theme parks and next year national parks.

We will see where we are after next months trip. The fact that theres a kitchen and a washer and dryer for me is a huge plus.

 

[aliceismad]

I would recommend running the numbers to see the full costs and when your break-even point would be, and including what you would do with that money otherwise. This is the best advice I've gotten since I started considering a DVC purchase. If you google, there are excel spreadsheets out there that you can download and tweak to your specifications. When I ran scenarios for us a few months ago, we would break even in 8-13 years, depending on the resort we were considering based on the number of points we wanted, recent resale costs for similar contracts, and compared with the type of hotel room we would normally stay in. This was based on paying cash for the upfront costs. Of course, if I looked at investing the upfront costs rather than purchasing DVC, that changes the financial benefits. YMMV.

I know it's a sentimental buy, or at least it would be for me. I know some people have made money on their purchase, but I'm looking at it more as pre-purchasing a portion of future vacations vs. anticipating a possible profit. I would never consider a timeshare purchase an investment. Personally I would never take out a loan against my primary home to finance something like DVC, but I understand it works for many people. I just personally feel like even though my job is currently stable, the economy is too volatile.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

I would recommend running the numbers to see the full costs and when your break-even point would be, and including what you would do with that money otherwise. This is the best advice I've gotten since I started considering a DVC purchase. If you google, there are excel spreadsheets out there that you can download and tweak to your specifications. When I ran scenarios for us a few months ago, we would break even in 8-13 years, depending on the resort we were considering based on the number of points we wanted, recent resale costs for similar contracts, and compared with the type of hotel room we would normally stay in. This was based on paying cash for the upfront costs. Of course, if I looked at investing the upfront costs rather than purchasing DVC, that changes the financial benefits. YMMV.

I know it's a sentimental buy, or at least it would be for me. I know some people have made money on their purchase, but I'm looking at it more as pre-purchasing a portion of future vacations vs. anticipating a possible profit. I would never consider a timeshare purchase an investment. Personally I would never take out a loan against my primary home to finance something like DVC, but I understand it works for many people. I just personally feel like even though my job is currently stable, the economy is too volatile.

No one should buy DVC as an investment. Ever. It isn’t. It is only paying for a future resort room, at a reduced cost compared to paying for a cash room. As years go on and Disney raises prices for a room, our DVC dues cost don’t go up near as much, so we save even more every year.

Yes, people like us that bought in many, many years ago could sell for a profit, but it’s not something we’d ever do. Despite what some around here think, we still see excellent value for our Disney trips.