Not talked out of it yet...what about resale? About This Page:

[benjiboo25]

My other post asked folks to talk me out of DVC....This one is moving forward with the thinking process...

Resale makes me nervous. Not sure why. Just seems so much more legit direct through WDW. I worry about restrictions on the use of points. I worry about what else may come....But I am also all about saving money! I have often thought that we would buy our intitial contract through WDW and then do any point add-ons through resale (I have investigated this since I caught the disney-bug 3 years ago).

Looks like I can get OKW points for around $70/point through resale. (Even less if I opted for the lower expiration year which does not appeal to me). WDW has them at $100.

Other posts mentioned closing costs and other costs through resale as part of the equation. All else being equal, a $30 point difference seems to be a no-brainer. WDW has approved us for their "preferred" credit rate...although I failed to ask what that was since we were still in the "thinking" phase. I looked at the financing site link through DVC by resale and the rates are about 13.2 with 10% down. Seems very high.

The DVC by resale site also mentioned making offers that may be below the asking price. Does anyone have experience with this?

WDW said they could get me an April use year and we could stay at OKW for the trip we already have planned this August as they could get us booked before the paperwork goes through. With the resale process taking longer and not being as direct, would we still be able to use DVC for our summer trip?

Please provide feedback on these and any other things you think I should consider.

Thanks!

[lauriep]

I bought direct through Disney and have one add-on through resale and others through Disney. If you're using the points to stay at a DVC resort, there's absolutely no difference in the value that I have experience. My resale points are bundled together with the Disney ones to use and when I pay my dues. If you think you might want to use the points to cruise, do ABD, or stay outside of Disney you can only use Disney-purchased points. If you buy resale booking your stay in August at OKW will be based on availability at the time of booking, so no guarantees. My resale experience was very positive and went through really fast.

[shnewell]

I will share our resale experience with you and hopefully it will be helpful.

We bought 300 points at BCV in October 2009 on the resale market through the Timeshare Store. I think TSS and DVC By Resale are the two most well-known resale brokers. We were willing to use either, it was just luck of the draw that we found a contract of the right size at the right price at TSS first.

Keep in mind that when you purchase resale, Disney has a right of first refusal. If they think that the selling price is too low, they will purchase the contract themselves so they can put the points back into their inventory to sell. This happened to us on the first contract we tried to buy. When the second contract came around, we decided that we wanted to make an offer below the asking price, but still higher than the price of the first contract that Disney snatched out from under us. I talked with our broker about what prices he had seen recently for BCV that had passed ROFR. He gave me some good advice about what range we would likely want to be in to get approved without paying asking price. I appreciated this because, obviously, the higher the sale price, the greater his commission.

We ultimately made an offer a dollar or two per point under the asking price. The seller accepted and we passed ROFR with Disney. This all happened probably in late summer. Because our seller had a vacation planned (using their points) at the end of September, one of the conditions of the sale was that we could not close until after their vacation. We agreed to that since we had no plans to take a vacation right away, but we also wrote into the contract that the seller was required to bank any leftover points since the deadline to bank points was October 1 (we have a February use year). I tell you all this because we didn't know about the seller's planned vacation until we were already in discussions for the sale. Since you are wanting to take a vacation pretty quickly with your points, it's probably something worth asking about early in the process.

At the time we purchased, the economy was so bad that TSS's lenders had stopped lending altogether for DVC purchases. As a result, we financed through our regular bank. We got an interest rate around 12%, which our TSS broker told us was pretty typical at that time.

We purchased our points prior to the policy change on ability to use resale points for non-Disney exchanges, etc., so that wasn't something we had to consider. But if you really think that you will use your points for non-Disney vacations, then you probably do need to think long and hard about purchasing on the resale market. With that said, we have not experienced any treatment from Member Services that leads me to believe that we are in any way being penalized for having purchased via resale.

I'm sure others will have tons of advice about choosing your use year, adding on points (we haven't done it yet, but we're saving up for points at the Grand Californian!), figuring out whether the decision makes financial sense for you, etc. But I hope this is somewhat helpful as you consider your options.

[HiddenMickey]

I think the main thing to consider is if the use restrictions that resales have will make any difference to you. Will you ever want to use them for anything other than the DVC places or RCI exchanges? If using them for a cruise or something else appeals to you, then you'll have to really consider whether its worth losing those things. The other thing to consider is whether Disney is offering any incentives to buy through them, those incentives can be worth quite a bit sometimes. To me, a resale at a much lower price point is very attractive and really worth considering.

[fluffybunny]

We bought some additional points by resale before the restrictions. I would do it again even with the restrictions because we only use our points at DVC resorts. I don't see the point of spending additional money to purchase from DVC. The already got paid for the original contract and then they are getting paid again through the mark up over what they paid to get the points back.

[MichaelF]

If you are using your points to stay at Disney resorts then resale is the way to go. If you are buying points to use for the other collections (which is not the best use of points) then you should look at buying direct. We only visit the Disney resorts and would not consider buying direct due to the prices they charge. We had a very good experience buying a resale contract. If you use a reputable agent such as The Timeshare Store or DVC by Resale you will not have a problem. Financing is a personal decision but if it were me I still would not purchase DVC if I had to finance it. Save up and buy it when you can afford it.
If you are looking at OKW they do offer contracts with the original expiration and with the extension. You can get good prices on the original expiration dates. We did the extension with ours because we thought we would use it forever. We have used DVC a lot and got our moneys worth but now that our kids are older the interest of going to WDW is fading. If I knew this at the time I would not have purchased the extension.

[tjkraz]

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts on the topic so I'll warn in advance that this may not sound terribly cohesive.

For the vast majority of people, I think it's inevitable that interest in the Disney theme parks will wane over time. Not that you'll necessarily want to stop going altogether, but after a few years (or decades) of visiting 2 or 3 times a year, I doubt the interest level will be quite as high.

One of the challenges we face is dealing with vacation time. Not just our school-age kids but my wife who gets 3 weeks off per year. Back in 2003 when we first purchased, we would have gladly spent all 3 weeks per year at WDW. Now we're at a place where one week at Disney is more common, along with other trips elsewhere.

For that reason, it's hard to totally dismiss the value of using points outside of the DVC resorts. As a long-time owner, it's comforting to know that I could someday use points for a Disney Cruise or Disneyland Paris if we find that preferable to our umpteenth visit to WDW. No those destinations aren't the greatest value but I'm really not in a place where I feel compelled to get the greatest value from every single point anymore. The points have long since paid for themselves so we just do whatever brings us the greatest satisfaction.

I guess my point is that there IS some value in these non-DVC options so buyers should at least take that into consideration. Whether that flexibility is worth the disparity in price is for each buyer to decide.

Fortunately for me, I already own 300 points which can be used for Disney Cruises et al. If we were to add more points, it would almost certainly be via resale. If we decide to book non-DVC locations, we would draw from our direct points and save the resale points for DVC resort stays.

For any current or prospective members who plan to acquire several hundred points, a similar approach may be prudent. Purchase some points direct to maintain greatest flexibility and others resale for the cost savings.

I tend to think we haven't seen the last of restrictions being placed upon resale purchases. It's impossible to predict when that may happen and what sort of limitations would be imposed. But I'm glad my bets are hedged via the 300 direct points.

Just some food for thought...

[HollyH]

We purchased direct from Disney after considering resale for precisely the reason Tim points out. As much as we (well, okay, I) love WDW, I don't want to spend every single vacation there for the next 40+ years. However, I will want to vacation at WDW at least every couple of years. When it came right down to it, the savings on resale points weren't enough for us to give up some of the "value" of the points. For example, say I want to go to DLR (and I do!) and I have trouble getting into VGC. As a direct purchaser, I am able to book the Disneyland Hotel on points (thru the Disney Collection). The restrictions on resale points wouldn't allow me to do that. We also recently fell in love with cruising on DCL. I'm glad that I am able to use points for a cruise if I choose. Just remember that this is a long term purchase. How you vacation now is likely not how you will vacation 10, 15, or 20 years from now.

[mel1223]

I totlly understand your being nervous about buying resale. I am that way as well. I don't buy used anything for that matter. Too many unknowns I suppose. That said, this past Oct. we purchased 210 pts. at OKW with a Dec. use year. Like you, we were very skeptical. After many hours of research and reading DVC forums it just seemed like re-sale made to most sense to us. We also are very value conscience. To use points on a Disney Cruise just didn't offer that value. The RCI exchanges offered enough options for us outside of Disney to make the decision to buy, We did make an offer for $2 lower that the asking price and it was accepted. That ended up paying our closing cost. The whole process took about 6 weeks. We used the Timeshare Store. Very smooth transaction. I would suggest going to a local bank and see what kind of financing you could get as that 13.2% seems high.

[benjiboo25]

Originally Posted by mel1223

I totlly understand your being nervous about buying resale. I am that way as well. I don't buy used anything for that matter. Too many unknowns I suppose. That said, this past Oct. we purchased 210 pts. at OKW with a Dec. use year. Like you, we were very skeptical. After many hours of research and reading DVC forums it just seemed like re-sale made to most sense to us. We also are very value conscience. To use points on a Disney Cruise just didn't offer that value. The RCI exchanges offered enough options for us outside of Disney to make the decision to buy, We did make an offer for $2 lower that the asking price and it was accepted. That ended up paying our closing cost. The whole process took about 6 weeks. We used the Timeshare Store. Very smooth transaction. I would suggest going to a local bank and see what kind of financing you could get as that 13.2% seems high.

Thanks for the feedback. We have decided to wait about 2 years (in order to be "responsible" with our finances). We will be looking into this question again in the future. Thanks!