I'm new here, and I really want to buy into DVC. Is there any advantage to using Disney, or problem with using resale? I understand that Disney has special offers...so they must be taken into account, but even then the resale price is lower (at least that's what I saw on one resale site). I'm looking at either AKV or SSR since I want the longest possible time. I really, really like AKV and want to stay there over SSR, however SSR is much less expensive. Is AKV really hard to get if you are 7 months away? I would probably want one of the bigger rooms there since Florida is far away and I'd like to take friends or relatives with us. However, we probably wouldn't go there every year...we also want to do a cruise and we always do trips to Disneyland in CA since it is closer. I'd love to stay at the new villas there, but I'm guessing that I'd have to buy points there since it would be so popular.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :)

Initial Purchase from DVC
o You can get the exact number of points that you want (although you must buy a minimum of 160)
o Faster than resale (you will be in the system and have your points and be able to make reservations much faster than resale)
o No worries about the purchase if Disney executes ROFR, since that only applies to resale purchases
o More expensive cost per point than the resale market
o You can easily finance through DVC, and Disney doesn’t report the loan to credit reporting agencies; also, the interest on the loan will be tax-deductable (in most cases) since it’s a mortgage
o You can pay with a Rewards credit card and get points/cash back
o The full set of points you buy will be available immediately, versus a resale contract which may be “stripped” of points.
o If you don’t want the resorts they are currently selling (AKV), you may have to do some firm talking to a guide to convince them you really want an older resort.

Initial Purchase via Resale
o You may not get the exact number of points you want
o You can purchase less than 160 points for your initial buy-in to DVC (Disney won’t let you buy less than 160 points).
o It will take much longer to get into the DVC system and have your points (resales typically take 6-8 weeks)
o Disney may exercise ROFR and you may loose the resale and have to start all over (When buying resale, one of the potential pitfalls to try to avoid is making an offer that will cause Disney to exercise it’s Right of First Refusal)
o Resale is typically less expensive then buying from DVC
o You can’t finance through DVC, although most resale brokers will recommend a finance company; also, the interest on the loan will not be tax deductible
o A resale contract may be “stripped” of points where the user has used many of the current year’s points, and may have borrowed some or all of next year’s points. Just be aware of “stripped” contracts on the resale market.
o Easier to pickup large point packages at any of the older DVC resorts.

To address your question about availability, at a non-home resort, I have found it easy to get a studio, but larger units will be harder to reserve, at the 7 month mark. SSR is our home resort, and my strategy has been to reserve a one bedroom (for longer stays for my family of four), or two bedroom (to have other guests) at our home resort, where I can reserve earlier. I've had no problems at all reserving what I need at the 11 month mark. For shorter stays, or to add on a weekend (after a Sunday-Thursday stay at SSR), I have good luck reserving a studio at one of the other, hotel-based villas. In June, we stayed at the Beach Club villas for two, weekend nights, in a studio, to enjoy the fantastic pool and proximity to Epcot. We went on a 4 night Disney cruise (paid cash), then stayed for three nights at the AKL villas, again in a studio. I had always enjoyed the restaurants at AK, and it was really nice to stay there, although the DVC amenities are not open yet. An important (and what will be obvious) thing to keep in mind is, while you can use points to go on a cruise, or for other non-DVC resort stays, you get a lot more for your points, by using them at DVC villas. Had I used points for the cruise, I would have had to bank and borrow to the extent that we would not have been able to do a DVC villa stay, for, probably two years. In our case, the cruise was for a special occasion, so we opted to pay cash.

One thing that I will say about buying through Disney is that if you get a special offer that includes extra "developer" points, while they can require some finesse to using them, it really paid off for us. In short, we got all the previous years points, plus developer points. When we combined them, we were able to get a nice stay at a Grand Villa at AKV. The equivalent monetary value of that trip outweighed the savings if we would have bought through resale. (Man, that was some trip and one AWESOME room!)

In short, like was mentioned above, there are some pros and cons to either option. Sometimes bottom line (financial) costs are not the only things to consider.

Thanks for all of the info! I've been running through the numbers and with the current promotion, if we by AKV it is cheaper to go with all of the promotions rather than resale.

This promotion seems to be really good, but my DH wonders if there will be another great promotion next year, and the next year, etc. Is this deal just as good as past deals? and can I assume that if I wait another year I can get something comparable to the extra 160 developer points, the $8 off each point and the $500 gift card? or is this a better than usual deal to try and make up for lack of recent sales due to the economic slump?

thx,
bug

First off, and with a little humor, don't be fooled - Disney is not hurting when it comes to DVC sales. They are still selling rather well. Resale prices have dropped a few dollars per point, but then again, that may be because sellers need the cash rather than reflecting the true market. Its kinda like how my house is "worth" X dollars but if I were to try to sell it now, I would only be able to get Z dollars.

Here is my take on waiting vs buying now... We bought last August. Since then, I have read reports about what people got for different incentives. To be honest, it did not appear to be consistent. Some people got this. Some people got that. Some people got this and that. In some cases, potential buyers has to bring up certain incentives in order to get them. So, in essence, incentives vary and have varied so over the past year. They will most likely continue to vary but how they will vary is anyones guess. The most consistent incentive, though, is $ off per point. That has not changed much. Sometimes the number of developer points offered has varied, though.

The other thing to consider is that the price per point does go up over time. So waiting may actually cause you to spend more per point. I know that if we would have bought into the DVC when we first started looking into it about five years ago, the base price before incentives would have been around $3000 less, if I recall correctly.

Not only do we not regret buying into DVC, but wish we would have done it sooner.

Another thing to consider, is that regardless of when you buy, your interest in the DVC resorts ends at the same time. So you're (in theory) getting less time to be able to use your points if you wait.