DVC - What to do? Thoughts on buying in.

Buy resale. It doesn't make any sense to buy direct right now.

You can buy 100 points just to get your feet wet. If you stay in studios, off season, you can make that go pretty far.

DVC is very well managed. They have reserves and insurance so I wouldn't worry about huge MF increases. They are steady increases though every year.

Short Term SSR usually has availability if you don't mind staying there.

I can't say anything about exchange rates but the MFs on a hundred points or two is not significant enough to worry about exchange rate fluctuations.

You are not really locked in to taking all DVC vacations. You could bank your points or even rent them out at about 2x the MFs. If you have a ton of money, you don't need DVC and if you are staying at budget resorts, you don't need DVC. But if you love Disney and stay at decent resorts, and are going twice a year anyway, to me its a no-brainer. Just do it!

I say if you've been thinking about it this long, just do it!

Seriously though, I see what you're saying. Our dollar is terrible right now. But since you guys go about twice a year and stay in deluxe, it would save you money. We decided to buy because we plan on going every year and even considering we stayed at Value resorts, it would still save us money in the end ( it just takes way longer to break even than it would if we had stayed deluxe). Also, neither one of us has any desire to travel anywhere else except DL but we can use our points there.

It's defiantly harder to book last minute with DVC but not impossible especially during slower times. That was one of the things we really thought hard about was could we book 7-11 months in advance. Maintenance fees do go up but so do room rates and I like to tell myself BLT is in a hurricane free zone

Also, you seemed to really love Yacht Club and it's not DVC (yet lol). But you can always visit I guess
And if in say 10-15 years you decide DVC isn't what you want anymore you can always sell.

Hopefully you found that helpful

We thought long and hard about our purchase, we first did the tour 2 years before we finally were in the right place to buy in.

Although we are in UK not Canada, we do still have the same worries about the exchange rate, when the annual dues come in I stalk the market for a solid month and send the money over when it's at the best I think it's going to get.

I agree re resale, the price difference is crazy. We added in direct as we wanted the Grand Floridian, but we paid the same for those 125 points as we did for the 320 points we bought resale (we did get a good deal resale though).

The management fees are governed independently so they cannot rise at a rate above that which is set, I hope that sets your mind at rest on that side anyway.

As of now I have never stayed in anything but deluxe disney resorts, if that's what you like to stay in it seems a no brainer. I know you say you don't know where you will be in 20 years, you always have the option of selling again on the resale market - our AKL points we bought in August 2013 have already increased in value significantly.

If you can't go one year, you can easily rent the points out. I know you say you're worried about not trying new places, well we are going to the west coast this year for the first time ever, sure we are using some DVC points for disneyland but the rest of the time we are paying cash to stay in hotel rooms, we could have rented points out to pay for the hotel rooms but instead we used too many last year and using more at christmas this year

I was looking at DVC for next week, lots of resorts have partial availability but SSR has a full week. If you can be flexible where you want to stay you can easily book with short notice. Last year I booked BCV BWV and AKL with a months notice

Besides loving the resort itself, we bought BLT because MK is our favourite and where we spend the most time with Epcot in second. Walking to MK is amazing! Also, BLT has a higher price per point but the lowest annual dues so we figured it almost broke even with the less price per point resorts we were looking at ( which was AKL with the most expensive annual dues). Plus BLT's contract goes to 2060 while AKL is 2057, SSR 2054 and the others 2042.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Once we sort a couple of other things out, I do believe we're going to take the plunge. We'll let you know how it goes.

That wonderful news! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask, i love my DVC

Can't wait to hear what you decide to do.....or where you are buying

As far I know, we don't submit anything. It might be different if you decide to rent your points.

As someone who works in the financial industry I would suggest you contact either an accountant, or better yet, a tax specialist. In the last two years there has been a BIG push by both the CRA and the IRS to find people who hold US property but are Canadian citizens. It most certainly could have some tax implications, and you want to be SURE that you've filed properly. If this is something you're considering you should also consider having your taxes done professionally for the next few years to be sure that it's getting filed properly.

It's not a huge expense, but it could save you literally thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

I am Canadian and don't have to file anything for taxes. There is a statement in my owners documents pertaining to this.

We bought resale at SSR (mostly because it was the lowest price point with reasonable dues at the time). Here are my observations so far:

1. We were able to afford a larger contract at SSR, giving us more flexibility to book larger rooms if needed or accommodations that are point-intensive. Since you only get priority booking at one resort, consider how many points your budget can purchase at each location. Also consider that a more expensive purchase contract may be cheaper in the long run because the purchase is a one-time expense. The dues will recur annually.

2. We like SSR, so getting "stuck" there is ok. Choose a place where if you can't switch, you'll still be happy. I would have preferred VWL, but given the buy-in cost and the annual dues, we're happy with just being able to stay there when it's available. Another part of our strategy for SSR is that if we do get tired of doing Disney , it's one of the less "Disneyesque" resorts and being close to the edge of property, it's convenient to hop on I-4 and check out some of the other area attractions. Plus, the Disney flavor of DTD is right next door and it requires no park ticket.

3. We bought right before the Disney Springs expansion was announced (what luck!), so we could actually sell our points for a profit. If you have an inkling about something new that might be opening close to the resort that you choose, you may find that you points will become more "valuable"

4. If you think that you might use the option to borrow points, consider choosing a home resort that requires fewer points to book. In our case, SSR requires more points than OKW on average. I actually slightly prefer OKW, but we didn't buy there because the dues is much higher. Let's say that I want to book a week that I know will be crowded. I either have to take a chance and wait until month 7 to book OKW or I can book SSR at month 11 and then switch at month 7. Let's say that I need 62 points to book SSR and 50 points to book OKW for the same time period. If I borrow points from next year's contract to book SSR at 11 months, those points cannot be returned to their original use year. When I make the switch to OKW at month 7, I'll have 12 random point in my account. I could use them to add an extra day to my reservation if it's available, but there's a good chance that I could end up losing those points. Some of the resorts with the lowest "points per night" rooms that you can use to hold your spot on the calendar are AKV, BWV, and OKW. The bad news is that they have some of the highest per point rates for dues.

5. SSR and to a lesser extent OKW seem to be available for short term booking most of the time--as long as you steer clear of race weekends.

6. Between the pre-paid rooms and the AP discounts, DVC has made it so cheap for us to go to WDW that we have some serious sticker shock when we try to do anything else. (Even Disneyland next month--I paid over $500 for tickets for 3 days . I could have bought a WDW AP for that!) We really want to do a Disney Cruise, but I can't bring myself to commit to that payment when our last trip on our AP last year literally cost us 11 days worth of food--and even that was offset by our TiW card and Disney Visa rewards. So yes, you might find yourself going to WDW more frequently because it actually becomes cheaper than going to the local beach for a week. One more stat--I priced out our 35 park days in 5 trips last ear and retail, it would have cost us over $20,000. We did it for just over $8000 including all prorate point cost, all dues paid, all food, airfare, tickets, etc. Did I need to go 5 times in one year? Of course not, but for the cost of a little over two trips retail, we went 5 times. It's hard for me to put a value on how awesome that was. Like you said, the only thing that could mess you up on those calculations is the exchange rate.

7. Having the opportunity to share the Disney love with friends & family by taking them along is an amazing benefit and one that we completely discounted before we had the opportunity to do it. I had reservations before we bought in, just like you do. It's always nerve-wracking to make such a big commitment, but we've had experiences this past year that we would not have had without the magic of DVC. I have year to talk to someone who regrets their decision. As far as I can tell, the resale boards are mostly people who are selling out of financial necessity or selling one property in the hopes of buying a different property.

Ken you can always rent a small car rather then using Disney transportation and yes, when I have looked, most people do use all points available before they put their contract up for sale.

Even if they don't use the points- if they rent them out, they get more than the premium they would get for selling a loaded contract. So it makes sense for the seller to sell a stripped contract.

Yes- you have to crunch the numbers. Sometimes a loaded contract is a better deal than a stripped one, sometimes not.

Also keep in mind, as a general rule, the smaller the contract the higher the price per point. You get a discount for quantity.

Something else to consider: on very small contracts you are sometimes better off buying direct, because based on timing, DVC may give you the prior years points. Also no closing costs and immediate access to the points.

I understand your concerns due to the Canadian / U.S. currency exchange rate. Of all the things you listed, that would be my primary doubt.
We've been a member for 13 years. Without a doubt the annual increase for the maintenance fees are beginning to hurt. But membership also makes Disney the cheapest vacation we can take with the accomodations paid and all the discounts available to members. We do utilize the flexibility built into our membership by using RCI locations every other year to do something "non-Disney". HOWEVER....we are more than a little spoiled. At Disney, there's always something to do for everyone. At other resorts, the selection of entertainment can be quite limited, so unless you ski or want to lay by the pool all day it can get boring.
Perhaps an alternate solution for you would be an annual pass. Annual passholders get the same discounts as DVC and there is usually a discount offer for accomodations at least 2 times a year (although they are in "off season").

Oh thanks! That hurts, that really hurts. changing to the Poly and we're not going to be there! Yeah, sure , fine , be that way! And no, I have looked and figured and tried every way and we CAN NOT GET THERE IN APRIL!!!!!!!!!

Unless I would hit the lottery!

It's not the price, it's try to get off work. That's my midnight shift week and nobody is going to work that again. That's the same shift I just used for vacation. In January. I'm sure you will love the Poly. Those rooms are the biggest on property for studios.

Go over to the Tikiman's web site and look at the different buildings. When you check in at the resort you will know what to expect then.

Here is a new video on the DVC studios.

Nice studios! Wonder if I will ever score one at 7 months?

Hi Ken, I didn't want to say anything when you were so excited about the prospect of buying DVC and I totally get that it works for some people, especially US citizens but I personally cannot see any benefit in it for us. No free dining, no 14 day pass for the price of 7 (UK offers) maintenance fees every year whether you go or not - that are more than we pay to stay in a moderate resort. No stress about this 11 month or 7 month window and swapping resorts. We wanted to stay in OKW for 15 nights. We just booked it and paid. Still cheaper than the cost of DVC unless we did that for about 12 years to break even. What happens if your life changes or the world or economy changes - yes you can rent your points out but I would find that stressy. Now don't get me wrong, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would buy enough DVC points to live at the Poly for the rest of my life, but if you don't have a ton of spare cash, I would think carefully.