Direct or resale

[leshunlenese]

a quick weekend, my mom and i went on the DVC presentation. we go every year sometimes twice or 3 times a year and we think this would be good for us because we will continue to go and after my son is old, i will still go. My mom said we can go in together which is good. I have a budget of 3000 that i can use for either a down-payment or i can use to purchase a small resale? I am thinking the resale with a small contract would be best for me because I hope to one day purchase a home. my parents own their home and i want to have that for my son. Grant that this could be 2, 5 or 10 years from now being a single parent but it is a plan. Do you think i should go in with my mom through Disney or just buy a small resale. Regardless of what we decide we will always be coming back on a yearly basis. I just thought because of that this may be a good option for us

[ELMC]

Originally Posted by leshunlenese

a quick weekend, my mom and i went on the DVC presentation. we go every year sometimes twice or 3 times a year and we think this would be good for us because we will continue to go and after my son is old, i will still go. My mom said we can go in together which is good. I have a budget of 3000 that i can use for either a down-payment or i can use to purchase a small resale? I am thinking the resale with a small contract would be best for me because I hope to one day purchase a home. my parents own their home and i want to have that for my son. Grant that this could be 2, 5 or 10 years from now being a single parent but it is a plan. Do you think i should go in with my mom through Disney or just buy a small resale. Regardless of what we decide we will always be coming back on a yearly basis. I just thought because of that this may be a good option for us

With all due respect, I don't think your choice is between direct or resale, I think your choice is between resale or nothing. In my opinion, direct is out of the question because you would have to finance, which essentially eradicates any potential financial benefit of DVC. Add in the fact that you are saving for a house, and that monthly payment is going to seriously impact your ability to get the house you want for your son. Speaking of which, I would suggest that you take that $3,000 and put it aside towards a down payment for a home. DVC is nice, but having a steady place to live is nicer. Good luck with your decision.

[zavandor]

In which resort do you stay usually?
DVC is a little more expensive than a Value, roughly as expensive as a Moderate and less expensive than a Deluxe.
So if you often visit WDW in a Value or offsite, DVC won't save you any money, but for a little more than you would spend you get a better accommodation in very nice resorts.
If you often visit in a Deluxe it can bring you some saving.

This is considering resale, buying direct it's hard to justify it financially. And certainly it doesn't if you finance.

Any calculation apart, I strongly agree with the PP, if I were in you I would put money aside for a home.
Good like with any decision.

[leshunlenese]

Thank you for that, we will go to disney every year regardless and we stay in all classes. I thought that going through DVC would be beneficial considering how much we go and that we are going to spend that money at disney regardless but if it is not going to help, there is no need for me to look into it.
I have a separate account for home savings and this amount saved has come purely from vacation savings and it will always go towards vacations not towards a home, which is why it is separate unless i necessarily have too. we value our vacations alot

[Missyrose]

Originally Posted by leshunlenese

I have a budget of 3000 that i can use for either a down-payment or i can use to purchase a small resale?

The problem you will run into is that smaller contracts go for higher prices than larger contracts. So for a 50-point contract would have to either be $60 per point with the seller paying closing and MFs or $50-$55 per point with you paying closing and MFs; neither scenario is particularly likely on a contract that small.

You might want to skip a trip this year and add to your savings so you have a larger amount to work with.

[leshunlenese]

Originally Posted by Missyrose

The problem you will run into is that smaller contracts go for higher prices than larger contracts. So for a 50-point contract would have to either be $60 per point with the seller paying closing and MFs or $50-$55 per point with you paying closing and MFs; neither scenario is particularly likely on a contract that small.

You might want to skip a trip this year and add to your savings so you have a larger amount to work with.

Thank you! I need to speak with my mom and see how much she has to put down maybe it is enough for a bigger resale but I think if not we shall wait. If only I was so not Disney obsessed I could stay away or so terrible broke I would have to stay away!

[joelp]

Another thing to consider is:

When you go to WDW, do you consistently take advantage of the various discounts and deals offered?

If so, buying into DVC may not save you as much as you think ...

And don't forget the annual DVC MFs ...

[kenspidey]

I think you should look at a minimum of a $5000 contract with about 60 points.

[leshunlenese]

Originally Posted by joelp

Another thing to consider is:

When you go to WDW, do you consistently take advantage of the various discounts and deals offered?

If so, buying into DVC may not save you as much as you think ...

And don't forget the annual DVC MFs ...

that is the thing that keeping me away. Even though i have a vacation budget i do not think it would be enough to cover the monthly dues and stuff. I AM leaning towards just doing our trips as normal and the money used for those monthly payments can go towards my other savings.

[Kidanifan08]

I am in the "save the money for your house" camp. But . . . I agree with Missy . . . you need to try to skip a couple of those trips for the next two years, so you can set that extra $$ aside to use for DVC. It's difficult to do when the kids are as young as yours, since you can travel any time of the year, but it would be the responsible thing to do if owning DVC is important to you. Who knows . . . with that kind of restraint, you may find yourself with a pretty nice down payment for your first home!

I also agree with some of the others that $3000 isn't going to get you much -- certainly not 3 trips a year (unless you routinely do one night stays during the off season exclusively). $3000 will get you, at best, about 60 points. Those 60 points will cost you about $330/yr in maintenance fees in 2013 dollars (they go up every year). Take a look at the points charts -- 60 points does not go very far, even if you are able to get into an AKV-value studio during the low seasons (which you can only generally get if you own at AKV, which then will then only get you about 45 points for your $3000).

Also, you should know that DVC really works best for people who can plan far in advance. If you generally wait until 2-3 months before you want to go, owning DVC may be quite frustrating.

Remember -- DVC will be there until at least 2061 (BLT exp date), and probably longer. We didn't join until we were in our early 40's, homeowners, and solidly secure in our careers. The resale prices are dropping steadily. If DVC is not financially feasible for you now, there will be many more years for you to reach that goal of DVC ownership, and probably for a lot less than even now.

Good luck with your decision.

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by leshunlenese

Thank you for that, we will go to disney every year regardless and we stay in all classes. I thought that going through DVC would be beneficial considering how much we go and that we are going to spend that money at disney regardless but if it is not going to help, there is no need for me to look into it.
I have a separate account for home savings and this amount saved has come purely from vacation savings and it will always go towards vacations not towards a home, which is why it is separate unless i necessarily have too. we value our vacations alot

This is where we were when we bought DVC--although we already own our own home. We too had a separate vacation budget that was used for our yearly trips to Disney--I work a 2nd job to fund it. When we decided to buy, we compared what we were currently paying for our cash trips to Disney to stay at the CR to owning DVC. We figured if we could buy for no more than we were spending and end up in a bigger room then it would be worth it. We originally were going to finance as well so and to add that to the figures. Yes, we realized that it added to the cost but we were not going to give up Disney trips as vacations as a family were and are a huge priority for us. We realized that even if we got a 30% discount year for cash stays, it would take about 10 years to break even. We decided it was worth the risk and bought. We ended up redoing a few things, so did not need to finance but would not have hesitated because for us, whether we continued to pay high cash prices to Disney or paid finance charges, didn't matter--the vacation budget was to fund vacation costs.

Now, I know that my stance my not sit well with all but I also feel that everyone needs to evaluate your own situation and make decisions based on that.

Good luck!!

[deerislemaine]

We have purchased two resales contracts, and we have found it easy and much cheaper than buying from Disney. We took a tour in Anaheim this last summer and asked them to show us how buying direct would be even close to the same price. They couldn't because it's not. We saved more than 50% with both purchases, and we haven't found any different in how we are treated once the contracts come through.

I would not recommend buying resale or direct if you are going to borrow at a high interest rate-- the savings from DVC is eaten up with the interest.

My suggestion is to buy resale with whatever you can afford and then buy again with the same use year. Another option is to rent points and make sure that it's right for you.

Good luck and we hope that you enjoy DVC as much as we do!

[pixiechaser]

Bought 4years ago . Look at the week you would go and see how many points you would need. Keep in mind you can pay partial cash. Little insider tip. Even for cruise. Going on our first cruise with 2/3 cash. Dvc made it more affordable. Good luck!

[pixiechaser]

Bought 4years ago. Look at the points charts for the week you would go and see how many points you would need. Keep in mind you can pay partial cash. Little insider tip. Even for cruise. Going on our first cruise with 2/3 cash. Dvc made it more affordable. Good luck!