Trying to decide direct vs resale for first contract

[moose81]

Hi All. I'm trying to convince my husband that we should buy a small DVC contract (maybe 100 pts). We like the deluxe monorail resorts, with Poly as our favorite although we will be trying GF this summer. We have 2 young kids and visit every 1-2 years on average, so I think it will be worth it for us.

I've been doing a ton of research but now that I'm reading about the January 2019 restrictions, I'm realizing that we really missed out by not thinking about this sooner. So I'm wondering if it makes more sense to buy direct for our first contract so we can book future DVC properties or else just save a bunch of money by sticking to the legacy resorts.

We can afford direct but I'm not psyched about CC, given the inventory issues that I've read about, and I'm also not keen on Riviera, with the restrictions if we want to sell it later.

So I think I'm almost sold on just buying resale but wondering what everyone else thinks for a first time buyer who can technically afford direct but doesn't like the options right now.

 

[WebmasterPete]

I've done the direct/resale route with my recent purchase. I bought into CC at 75 points, and have 2 resale contracts pending through The Timeshare Store (which were both recently waived thru the RofR process!!). I chose to do the small direct contract strictly for the 'perks' such as they are. The thing about those perks is that they can (and often do) change, so who knows. The perk most people seem to really value is the discount on annual passes. Since I have to keep a premier pass (both WDW and DL), that doesn't matter to me as there is no meaningful discount on DL AP's, just WDW. I do want the option to do the special events at the parks and the member cruises in the future, and that's why I chose the direct sale. If those things don't matter, then there is really no reason not to buy everything resale. The process obviously takes longer going resale (figure 6-8 weeks from the time you sign the contract until it closes), as opposed to buying directly where the points appear as soon as you sign. That's always a challenge to someone like me who feels that instant gratification takes to long

 

[Katie L]

I've done the direct/resale route with my recent purchase. I bought into CC at 75 points, and have 2 resale contracts pending through The Timeshare Store (which were both recently waived thru the RofR process!!). I chose to do the small direct contract strictly for the 'perks' such as they are. The thing about those perks is that they can (and often do) change, so who knows. The perk most people seem to really value is the discount on annual passes. Since I have to keep a premier pass (both WDW and DL), that doesn't matter to me as there is no meaningful discount on DL AP's, just WDW. I do want the option to do the special events at the parks and the member cruises in the future, and that's why I chose the direct sale. If those things don't matter, then there is really no reason not to buy everything resale. The process obviously takes longer going resale (figure 6-8 weeks from the time you sign the contract until it closes), as opposed to buying directly where the points appear as soon as you sign. That's always a challenge to someone like me who feels that instant gratification takes to long

Pete - just here to say it's fun to see you posting on the boards again. Love the show - but not sure about the lime green. Did you kill the lime green?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you want VGF or Poly, buy resale. VGF they aren't even maintaining a direct waitlist right now. For Poly in the 100+ point range, you save literally $50-80 PER POINT. Which is bananas.

 

[moose81]

I've done the direct/resale route with my recent purchase. I bought into CC at 75 points, and have 2 resale contracts pending through The Timeshare Store (which were both recently waived thru the RofR process!!). I chose to do the small direct contract strictly for the 'perks' such as they are. The thing about those perks is that they can (and often do) change, so who knows. The perk most people seem to really value is the discount on annual passes. Since I have to keep a premier pass (both WDW and DL), that doesn't matter to me as there is no meaningful discount on DL AP's, just WDW. I do want the option to do the special events at the parks and the member cruises in the future, and that's why I chose the direct sale. If those things don't matter, then there is really no reason not to buy everything resale. The process obviously takes longer going resale (figure 6-8 weeks from the time you sign the contract until it closes), as opposed to buying directly where the points appear as soon as you sign. That's always a challenge to someone like me who feels that instant gratification takes to long

Pete! Thank your for responding! Your recent DVC shows are what inspired me to really sit down and start doing the math on this.

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

I've done the direct/resale route with my recent purchase. I bought into CC at 75 points, and have 2 resale contracts pending through The Timeshare Store (which were both recently waived thru the RofR process!!). I chose to do the small direct contract strictly for the 'perks' such as they are. The thing about those perks is that they can (and often do) change, so who knows. The perk most people seem to really value is the discount on annual passes. Since I have to keep a premier pass (both WDW and DL), that doesn't matter to me as there is no meaningful discount on DL AP's, just WDW. I do want the option to do the special events at the parks and the member cruises in the future, and that's why I chose the direct sale. If those things don't matter, then there is really no reason not to buy everything resale. The process obviously takes longer going resale (figure 6-8 weeks from the time you sign the contract until it closes), as opposed to buying directly where the points appear as soon as you sign. That's always a challenge to someone like me who feels that instant gratification takes to long

I bought 250 points resale and then 25 points direct just for the perks (when 25 pts was still the minimum). As a Florida resident, I have many of the same perks/discounts as a Florida resident or as an AP. I think I got the most use out of the discount when we went to DL, but definitely did not justify the extra cost. But like Pete, I wanted to be a blue carded member. Not sure I would have done it at 75 points though.

Pete, I just watched yesterday's show. I love the new show BTW, but I was surprised that importance of the Use year was somewhat disregarded by the resale guy (sorry I can't remember his name). I'm fairly new myself (bought in 12/2016), but it's my understanding that having different use years is a PITA. Yes, you can transfer the points, but you are limited to one transfer (in or out) per use year. When I went to buy my add on points direct, my DVC guide wanted to make sure I got the same use year and he explained to me how important it is if I ever want to combine the points.

 

[moose81]

If you want VGF or Poly, buy resale. VGF they aren't even maintaining a direct waitlist right now. For Poly in the 100+ point range, you save literally $50-80 PER POINT. Which is bananas.

I didn't even realize you could buy Poly direct anymore. Wow that difference is crazy! Ok, definitely not going to buy Poly direct. I was more looking at Poly or BLT resale vs CC direct, which isn't as big of a difference although definitely still something.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I didn't even realize you could buy Poly direct anymore. Wow that difference is crazy! Ok, definitely not going to buy Poly direct. I was more looking at Poly or BLT resale vs CC direct, which isn't as big of a difference although definitely still something.

If you want to stay at BLT, VGF or Poly, I do not recommend buying CCV.

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

Hi All. I'm trying to convince my husband that we should buy a small DVC contract (maybe 100 pts). We like the deluxe monorail resorts, with Poly as our favorite although we will be trying GF this summer. We have 2 young kids and visit every 1-2 years on average, so I think it will be worth it for us.

I've been doing a ton of research but now that I'm reading about the January 2019 restrictions, I'm realizing that we really missed out by not thinking about this sooner. So I'm wondering if it makes more sense to buy direct for our first contract so we can book future DVC properties or else just save a bunch of money by sticking to the legacy resorts.

We can afford direct but I'm not psyched about CC, given the inventory issues that I've read about, and I'm also not keen on Riviera, with the restrictions if we want to sell it later.

So I think I'm almost sold on just buying resale but wondering what everyone else thinks for a first time buyer who can technically afford direct but doesn't like the options right now.

If you think your family would be happy in a studio at the Poly, I say go for the Poly resale. We typically do a 1 bedroom in early December for a week, but I was able to piece together 9 nights at the Poly last year and we loved it. We have a 3 year old and I think the Poly studios are the only studios we would do for that extended period of time (we do studios for shorter trips). The 2 bathrooms are great in the mornings and we didn't feel too cramped as long as we were organized. The convenience of the Poly was amazing. I may try and waitlist our stay this year just to see. We are considering adding on some direct points at the Poly so we can stay there every other year and not have to worry about trying to get lucky with the waitlist or piecing together a stay.

 

[moose81]

If you think your family would be happy in a studio at the Poly, I say go for the Poly resale. We typically do a 1 bedroom in early December for a week, but I was able to piece together 9 nights at the Poly last year and we loved it. We have a 3 year old and I think the Poly studios are the only studios we would do for that extended period of time (we do studios for shorter trips). The 2 bathrooms are great in the mornings and we didn't feel too cramped as long as we were organized. The convenience of the Poly was amazing. I may try and waitlist our stay this year just to see. We are considering adding on some direct points at the Poly so we can stay there every other year and not have to worry about trying to get lucky with the waitlist or piecing together a stay.

9 nights sounds amazing! We typically do 5 nights. I think if the Poly had anything in between the studios and bungalows, it would be a no-brainer for me right now. We have only ever stayed in a standard room though so I think the studios will work out ok for us.

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

9 nights sounds amazing! We typically do 5 nights. I think if the Poly had anything in between the studios and bungalows, it would be a no-brainer for me right now. We have only ever stayed in a standard room though so I think the studios will work out ok for us.

Also think about how your family grows? Do you plan on having more kids etc? Traveling to Disney with teenagers? Would you be comfortable in a Poly studio? They are a nice size, but they can get tight.

For us, we chose to go the economical route. We purchased at SSR fully knowing that we may HAVE to stay there at some point. We do book 11 months out for December and then try to switch at 7 months. We have been lucky our first 2 trips and we will see May 1st where we end up. But if we end up at SSR, we are fine with it. We haven't even stayed there yet. We were going to in April, but our waitlist for BWV Standard Studio came through which was shocking.

 

[Bruin_mouse]

One other thing to consider in case you decide to do both: it's much easier to line up use years when you buy resale first, then direct.

 

[Rush]

Hi All. I'm trying to convince my husband that we should buy a small DVC contract (maybe 100 pts). We like the deluxe monorail resorts, with Poly as our favorite although we will be trying GF this summer. We have 2 young kids and visit every 1-2 years on average, so I think it will be worth it for us.

I've been doing a ton of research but now that I'm reading about the January 2019 restrictions, I'm realizing that we really missed out by not thinking about this sooner. So I'm wondering if it makes more sense to buy direct for our first contract so we can book future DVC properties or else just save a bunch of money by sticking to the legacy resorts.

We can afford direct but I'm not psyched about CC, given the inventory issues that I've read about, and I'm also not keen on Riviera, with the restrictions if we want to sell it later.

So I think I'm almost sold on just buying resale but wondering what everyone else thinks for a first time buyer who can technically afford direct but doesn't like the options right now.

I think the others have covered it, but you can buy direct at properties that aren’t actively for sale, and some may require to be waitlisted for the number of points you want. I’ll only add or reiterate a couple of points to what the others have said based on what we recently did.

We were kind of in the same dilemma, except we weren’t directly tied to one property over the other, we wanted the best deal, but also liked the idea of at least some of the benefits of direct buy points. We have stayed at SSR and really enjoyed our stay there. It was our first Disney stay, and they upgraded us to the 2 BR suite without even asking. I assume they did because they had the room, knowing it was our first trip they wanted to “set the hook”, and it worked beautifully. So it worked out well for us that SSR is one of the better deals considering we liked it so much. Our intention was to buy resale now for the majority of points we wanted, and later purchase direct, mostly for the ability to purchase the Gold pass. I feel that alone will cover the cost of direct buy premium in roughly 3-4 years.

We changed our plan after talking with Jerry Sydow about a specific resale contract. He informed us we could probably get direct SSR points for $160pp and ask them to make the same UY for the resale we were interested in. Disney confirmed they could sell us 75 points at SSR for $160 with the same UY. The real kicker for us that changed the plan to buy direct first, we told them we were booked at the BC in April for 8 nights. They suggested they could possibly convert our stay over to use our new points, all 75 from ‘19 and borrow most from ‘20 to cover it. So instead of paying $6200, we are using points for that trip. I immediately called Jerry back and we made an accepted offer on 175 more resale points at SSR. Being able to use the points immediately vs. a resale taking 6 weeks to close was a real benefit to us in this case, and will allow us to upgrade our tickets to a Gold pass for a fall trip should we pass ROFR on the resale.

If immediate use doesn’t matter, and if the benefits don’t matter, especially the right to buy Park AP, I can’t see much benefit to direct vs. resale, unless you absolutely want to be able to book the new resorts going forward.

 

[Rush]

Btw Pete, I blame you personally! Much of our decisions were aided by the DVC shows. Great information and extremely helpful. Just by chance Jerry Sydow was our broker and he has been fantastic. He spent as much time as we needed on a Sunday morning to answer every question my wife and I had. Within 2 hours of initial contact with him we had a direct contract and an accepted resale offer, submitted to Disney 2 days later. Can’t say enough good things about Jerry!

The only thing at this point that could mess it up is the drunken monkey!

 

[moose81]

I think the others have covered it, but you can buy direct at properties that aren’t actively for sale, and some may require to be waitlisted for the number of points you want. I’ll only add or reiterate a couple of points to what the others have said based on what we recently did.

We were kind of in the same dilemma, except we weren’t directly tied to one property over the other, we wanted the best deal, but also liked the idea of at least some of the benefits of direct buy points. We have stayed at SSR and really enjoyed our stay there. It was our first Disney stay, and they upgraded us to the 2 BR suite without even asking. I assume they did because they had the room, knowing it was our first trip they wanted to “set the hook”, and it worked beautifully. So it worked out well for us that SSR is one of the better deals considering we liked it so much. Our intention was to buy resale now for the majority of points we wanted, and later purchase direct, mostly for the ability to purchase the Gold pass. I feel that alone will cover the cost of direct buy premium in roughly 3-4 years.

We changed our plan after talking with Jerry Sydow about a specific resale contract. He informed us we could probably get direct SSR points for $160pp and ask them to make the same UY for the resale we were interested in. Disney confirmed they could sell us 75 points at SSR for $160 with the same UY. The real kicker for us that changed the plan to buy direct first, we told them we were booked at the BC in April for 8 nights. They suggested they could possibly convert our stay over to use our new points, all 75 from ‘19 and borrow most from ‘20 to cover it. So instead of paying $6200, we are using points for that trip. I immediately called Jerry back and we made an accepted offer on 175 more resale points at SSR. Being able to use the points immediately vs. a resale taking 6 weeks to close was a real benefit to us in this case, and will allow us to upgrade our tickets to a Gold pass for a fall trip should we pass ROFR on the resale.

If immediate use doesn’t matter, and if the benefits don’t matter, especially the right to buy Park AP, I can’t see much benefit to direct vs. resale, unless you absolutely want to be able to book the new resorts going forward.

Thanks for sharing, this is interesting. We have an upcoming trip to GF in August (non-DVC) that I was just planning to keep. Wondering if I should look into doing something like this.

Unfortunately we are not FL residents though and have no need of an annual pass anyway at the rate that we go, so in that sense it's less of an obvious choice for us.

 

[moose81]

Also think about how your family grows? Do you plan on having more kids etc? Traveling to Disney with teenagers? Would you be comfortable in a Poly studio? They are a nice size, but they can get tight.

For us, we chose to go the economical route. We purchased at SSR fully knowing that we may HAVE to stay there at some point. We do book 11 months out for December and then try to switch at 7 months. We have been lucky our first 2 trips and we will see May 1st where we end up. But if we end up at SSR, we are fine with it. We haven't even stayed there yet. We were going to in April, but our waitlist for BWV Standard Studio came through which was shocking.

Good points. (No more kids planned knock on wood but traveling with teens is something to think about)

SSR is another strong contender for us (and possibly I will have an easier time convincing my husband with the lower initial cost). Glad to hear you have had good trips so far!

 

[strine56]

My wife and I have been WorldMark timeshare owners for almost 24 years. We purchased our timeshare for about 7,200 dollars for about a 5 to 7 day stay. Depending on room size and the time of season. We get 6000 credits every year. We can save our credits for the following year and we can also borrow up to 6000 credits from the following year. It cost us about 10,000 credits to get a 2 bedroom at a DVC during peak high season. We pay about 672.70 dollars per year in maintenance fees. We paid our timeshare off back in 1995. You are not going to believe what I am about to say. We joined RCI and paid a fee of 99 dollars per year. The exchange fee is about 189 dollars. We know we have to get on the wait list 2 years in advance to get a chance at a DVC Resort. We did that twice with no problem. We were able to get the Animal Kingdom Kidani 2 bedroom with a Savanna View around Easter! We also got Saratoga Springs around Easter by getting on the wait list 2 years in advance. Out of curiosity I checked the cost via the Disneyworld website for non timeshare owners. The cost for a 1 week stay at Animal Kingdom was just short of 10,000 dollars! We saved about 9000 dollars! Wow! We are so happy we purchased our WorldMark timeshare! We do have to be patient. We did that by getting on the wait list 2 years in advance. It is well worth the wait!

 

[Rush]

Thanks for sharing, this is interesting. We have an upcoming trip to GF in August (non-DVC) that I was just planning to keep. Wondering if I should look into doing something like this.

Unfortunately we are not FL residents though and have no need of an annual pass anyway at the rate that we go, so in that sense it's less of an obvious choice for us.

There is no chance the Beach Club had 8 consecutive nights in a studio 45 days out. I have no doubt they made it happen knowing the closing of our deal hinged on it. I can’t say if they have hold back rooms, will put us in a cash room, or upgrade us to what they had available, but they did it. If you have a trip planned you have nothing to lose from calling and asking what they can do for you.

As for the Gold pass, we don’t live in Florida either, but we are close enough we were wanting to start going 2 times per year, and DVC will allow us to afford that. Being able to get that pass was important to us for significant additional savings. If that’s not the case for you, than yeah I’d agree, passes aren’t much value to you.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Thanks for sharing, this is interesting. We have an upcoming trip to GF in August (non-DVC) that I was just planning to keep. Wondering if I should look into doing something like this.

Unfortunately we are not FL residents though and have no need of an annual pass anyway at the rate that we go, so in that sense it's less of an obvious choice for us.

There is no chance the unit is available. It is worth noting that IF they have VGF or Poly points direct right now, the pricing is $245 per point for VGF, and $235 per point for Poly. If you're not looking at using the AP discount, Poly for 100 points runs $150-160 in resale (75-85 per point savings) and VGF runs $160-165ish in resale (80-85 per point savings).

The economics of the monorail resorts are a bit different than buying Saratoga. And much like CCV, I wouldn't recommend buying Saratoga wanting VGF (or possibly Poly, depending on season).