"Knowing what you know now" what would you do?

[sm0387liz]

We own BCV and SSR... we have stayed at each one once... we have never needed to waitlist (for the moths we go) and never had any problems not getting what we were looking for... maybe we have to do a preferred view instead of standard view or vice versa, but no other issues. We prefer BWV and stay there all the time. Maybe we have just been blessed with good timing, but our "home resort" has never been an issue.

 

[okw30]

we own at old key west, just bought another resale at okw, and we never have stayed and probably never will. you can't beat the price and i think the MF ARE cheaper than bwv and bcv. depending on your age, the extra yeaRS are an advantage at ssr. GOOD LUCK

 

[DizKarAzy]

Hello!
I am actually one of those lurkers who are still researching and havent bought into the dvc yet. I DEFINITELY will be a member by the time this year ends. This was brought up earlier but never really answered.
Being a first time buyer through disney, can you purchase multiple small contracts at different places? Or do you need to buy 160 points all together and then add on?
So far I am planning on purchasing 160 points at SSR. But maybe I can convince DH to do 200 points and get 100 at SSR and 100 at BCV. This way we can get an additional 11 month window? We checked out SSR when we were there in Feb and we really liked it and we like the additional time on the contract. But we stayed at the BCV and really liked it there too.
Anyone know if this would be possible? Thanks!

You know, I think the problem is that there are just TOO many beautiful DVC resorts to choose from!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Hello!
I am actually one of those lurkers who are still researching and havent bought into the dvc yet. I DEFINITELY will be a member by the time this year ends. This was brought up earlier but never really answered.
Being a first time buyer through disney, can you purchase multiple small contracts at different places? Or do you need to buy 160 points all together and then add on?
So far I am planning on purchasing 160 points at SSR. But maybe I can convince DH to do 200 points and get 100 at SSR and 100 at BCV. This way we can get an additional 11 month window? We checked out SSR when we were there in Feb and we really liked it and we like the additional time on the contract. But we stayed at the BCV and really liked it there too.
Anyone know if this would be possible? Thanks!

You know, I think the problem is that there are just TOO many beautiful DVC resorts to choose from!

You have to have one master contract. Right now that is 160 points for your initial master. After that, you can add on any increment of points you want over 25. That is the minimum add-on contract. If you want to finance an add-on, the minimum is 50.

 

[BigBahamaDada]

You have to have one master contract. Right now that is 160 points for your initial master. After that, you can add on any increment of points you want over 25. That is the minimum add-on contract. If you want to finance an add-on, the minimum is 50.

Agreed. After lurking for a while ourselves, my family decided that 260 points was about the right amount for our current and forseeable future needs. Rather than have a single 260 point contract, I wanted to own at three resorts, for the booking advantage and resale flexibility purposes.

I contacted DVC and told them I wanted to buy 261 points, but in the form of 3 87 point contracts at three different resorts. I could never get a reply to an email on the topic and on the occasions I called I was told they weren't interested. The best they could do was 160 contract at one resort and two 50s at other resorts. I told them that while I understood their desire to set an ownership floor, I found this requirement silly, since I could just purchase a small contract on the resale market and ultimately get what I was proposing, so why not sell it to me directly? They couldn't (or wouldn't) do it. So be it.

We just passed ROFR on a 50 VWL contract. When it closes I'll add 35 points to it this year and purchase my other 2 contracts over the next two years, so as to stagger my "middle" year for bank/borrow/use purposes. Long story short, if you want to go the small contract route on an initial purchase, don't waste your breath trying to convince Disney to do it.

 

[DizKarAzy]

BigBahamaDada and DianeSchlicht, thanks for your replies.
I have another question. I understand that the more resorts you own, the more 11 month advantages you have, but I dont completely understand the idea of a 25 or 50 point contract. I would want a one bedroom, so say for example, I need about 200 points a vacation. If I have 50 points somewhere, wouldnt I only have a max of 150 to book at that specific resort at the 11 months? So I could maybe book a studio at 11 months, but then at the 7 months, I have to take the chance of rebooking a 1 bedroom anyway by borrowing more points from my other resort? Am I missing something here w/ the small contract thing? I feel like I must be because so many people talk about their 50 point contracts.. I hope my question isnt too confusing..
Thanks!

 

[BigBahamaDada]

I dont completely understand the idea of a 25 or 50 point contract. I would want a one bedroom, so say for example, I need about 200 points a vacation. If I have 50 points somewhere, wouldnt I only have a max of 150 to book at that specific resort at the 11 months? So I could maybe book a studio at 11 months, but then at the 7 months, I have to take the chance of rebooking a 1 bedroom anyway by borrowing more points from my other resort? Am I missing something here w/ the small contract thing? I feel like I must be because so many people talk about their 50 point contracts.. I hope my question isnt too confusing..
Thanks!

To be clear, I'm not saying I only want to have 50 points each resort. As I said, have decided that 255 points per year is about the right number of points for us. So, we could either just buy a single 255 point contract at one resort. Or we could buy several smaller contracts that, when combined, total 260 points per year. In our case, we are buying 85 points at VWL to start. Will add 85 points at AKV and a yet to be determined third resort. (And, in reality we will really be owning six contracts: a 50 and a 35 at each of the three resorts). Then by using banking, borrowing and using, we will effectively have 255 points per year at each resort every three years, on a rotating basis.

The strategy appeals to me on several levels: (1) you get the home booking advantage. Both my wife and I are planners and have good control over our work schedules, so the 11 month window has value to us. By doing it this way, you get the home booking advantage a three different resorts. (2) Enhanced flexibility for adjusting ownership levels as circumstances change. Right now we think 255 per year is what we need, but things change. By holding several small contracts, if I want to downsize, I can sell some but not all of my points. (Versus having to sell the entire contract and repurchase a smaller one, if all points were held in a single contract). Plus, as many have mentioned the resale time of small contracts is much faster than large ones. (3) One way to structure the can spread out the costs of acquisition over three years. As you only have 255 points available for use in the "middle" year of each contract, you need to stagger when the middle year for each resort falls. One way of doing this is to buy a resort each year, for three years.

There are also things about the approach that have risks & costs. First, it obviously takes more planning than a single contract. (But, I would submit, this is something easily solved with a decent spreadsheet.) Second, during the year of the initial purchase you have to bank your points, delaying you first trip until your second year of ownership. A downside that I'm sure would not appeal to many. (But you can get around this by buying a re-sale contract that has banked points.) Third, there will certainly be more transaction costs on acquisition & resale by selling 6 contracts versus one. (But I think those are a small price to pay for the aforementioned benefits. It also seems to me that the real potential for costs overruns in DVC is owning more points than you need or can use. Thus, the attractiveness of being able to make incremental adjustments in ownershiip levels buy buying/selling small contracts). Fourth, using the bank/borrow/use exposes you to a greater risk of losing points if you cancel a trip at the last minute. Make sure you have your head around how these rules work. A risk to be sure, but again, we are planners and very much in control of our own work schedules; we don't cancel anything at the last minute so its a de minimus concern to us.

So think about how many points you would need per year for the vacation you want. If that is 200, than three 67 point contracts at three different resorts would get you there. Food for thought.

 

[dianeschlicht]

BigBahamaDada and DianeSchlicht, thanks for your replies.
I have another question. I understand that the more resorts you own, the more 11 month advantages you have, but I dont completely understand the idea of a 25 or 50 point contract. I would want a one bedroom, so say for example, I need about 200 points a vacation. If I have 50 points somewhere, wouldnt I only have a max of 150 to book at that specific resort at the 11 months? So I could maybe book a studio at 11 months, but then at the 7 months, I have to take the chance of rebooking a 1 bedroom anyway by borrowing more points from my other resort? Am I missing something here w/ the small contract thing? I feel like I must be because so many people talk about their 50 point contracts.. I hope my question isnt too confusing..
Thanks!

For that reason, you need to figure out how many points work best for you using the type of accommodations and length of time you are likely to want to stay. You then divide that number by 3, and that is the number of points you would buy if you are wanting to use it every third year. Or,of course, divide by two if you are buying to use every other year.

We did this when adding on at AKV, and added on 69 points. In reality we needed 204 every 3rd year, so we added on 69 to get within that number.

 

[Glendamax]

I just got finished reading the whole thread. This was very helpful and deserves a bump! Thank you DISers!

 

[dgaston]

When we added on 100 AKL points we split it into 2 50 point contracts. As we are older, I think about our kids using the points, and the later expiration date.