Buying resale dilemma

[meggiebeth]

Hello all,

We are finally in a position to start looking to buy some DVC points and having looked at the price of resale as well as direct with Disney, it looks like resale is about 50% cheaper for us on average.

We know that we want to have access to Beach Club Villas, so I know we need at least some points at BCV to get the 11 month access, but BCV is coming up over double the cost per point as some other resorts. Would it be viable to buy a small number of points at BCV and the rest at a less expensive resort? Vero Beach, Hilton Head and Old Key West are all coming up much cheaper. Is this a case of too good to be true or is there a catch? Am I correct in thinking that we would still be able to use all our points at BCV as long as we own some points?

Also, I really hoped to buy direct to get some of the DVC perks, but read that they require a 150 point minimum purchase to offer DVC discounts. This would amount to about $15,000 more than buying resale - is there anything that would justify this? Is there any other way to get DVC discounts buying resale (namely dining, merchandise and tickets) or is it simply not possible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have a basic understanding of DVC but the technicalities are all new to me so I appreciate any advice!

 

[AstroBlasters]

There is a huge catch: the annual dues!

 

[Jlo85]

Am I correct in thinking that we would still be able to use all our points at BCV as long as we own some points?

No, you only get 7 month priority at BCV with non-BCV points. Only BCV points get 11 month priority.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Take a look at this:

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/best-economical-dvc-resorts-to-purchase-fall-2023/

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Hello all,

We are finally in a position to start looking to buy some DVC points and having looked at the price of resale as well as direct with Disney, it looks like resale is about 50% cheaper for us on average.

We know that we want to have access to Beach Club Villas, so I know we need at least some points at BCV to get the 11 month access, but BCV is coming up over double the cost per point as some other resorts. Would it be viable to buy a small number of points at BCV and the rest at a less expensive resort? Vero Beach, Hilton Head and Old Key West are all coming up much cheaper. Is this a case of too good to be true or is there a catch? Am I correct in thinking that we would still be able to use all our points at BCV as long as we own some points?

Also, I really hoped to buy direct to get some of the DVC perks, but read that they require a 150 point minimum purchase to offer DVC discounts. This would amount to about $15,000 more than buying resale - is there anything that would justify this? Is there any other way to get DVC discounts buying resale (namely dining, merchandise and tickets) or is it simply not possible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have a basic understanding of DVC but the technicalities are all new to me so I appreciate any advice!

Home resort priority is only with points at that home.

That said - it can be possible to get the 1 and sometimes 2BR's at BCV at 7 months at times. You can luck into a studio at times too. There's kind of 2 thoughts - buy where you want to stay or else if looking to maximize then buy the least expensive that you don't mind staying at and take a trade to other resorts as a bonus.

 

[sndral]

Hello all,

We are finally in a position to start looking to buy some DVC points and having looked at the price of resale as well as direct with Disney, it looks like resale is about 50% cheaper for us on average.

We know that we want to have access to Beach Club Villas, so I know we need at least some points at BCV to get the 11 month access, but BCV is coming up over double the cost per point as some other resorts. Would it be viable to buy a small number of points at BCV and the rest at a less expensive resort? Vero Beach, Hilton Head and Old Key West are all coming up much cheaper. Is this a case of too good to be true or is there a catch? Am I correct in thinking that we would still be able to use all our points at BCV as long as we own some points?

Also, I really hoped to buy direct to get some of the DVC perks, but read that they require a 150 point minimum purchase to offer DVC discounts. This would amount to about $15,000 more than buying resale - is there anything that would justify this? Is there any other way to get DVC discounts buying resale (namely dining, merchandise and tickets) or is it simply not possible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have a basic understanding of DVC but the technicalities are all new to me so I appreciate any advice!

No, if this worked we’d all own 25 points at our favorite resort & 300 at SSR.
You can use your BC points at BC at 11 months, your VB points at VB at 11 months, HH points at HH at 11 months, etc. At 7 months you can use your resale points anywhere except Riviera, the new Disneyland hotel, & the soon to open cabins.
There’s a couple reasons VB & HH points are so cheap, first they’re going to expire in 2042 (as is BC,) second most folks prefer a WDW resort for sleep around points because they book their home resort at 11 months & then try to switch to something else at 7 months but if they can’t switch, they still have a place to stay at WDW, and finally annual dues at VB & HH are really high.

 

[Nabas]

If BCV is really where you want to stay, then you will have to buy there. BCV is the smallest DVC resort at WDW and perhaps the most in-demand. Owning there is essential unless you are willing to compromise a lot (specifically, not getting the room type or dates you want).

Realistically, if you buy there now, you’re only going to get 16 or 17 years of points left on the contract.

A sample week in a BCV Studio in the summer costs 116 points each year. BCV contracts close to that size are going to cost you perhaps $140 per point plus closing costs. This means you’ll pay (very) roughly $9.00 per point per year just to cover the purchase.

The current BCV annual Maintenance Fee is $8.63 per point. It will increase every year, but so will the price Disney charges for a cash room at the Beach Club. Keeping it simple, let’s assume it increases to $9.00 per point next year.

Let’s look at next year. Keeping it simple, you’ll pay roughly $18 per point, all DVC costs included, for a BCV stay in 2025.

116 x $18 = $2088 per week

$2088 / 7 = $300 per night

Looking at Disney’s current “Stay Longer and Save More” discount, you can get a room at the Beach Club for $2961 per week or $423 per night.

Even with only 16 or 17 years left, a BCV purchase will save you over $100 per night.

 

[gisele2]

I am a big fan of buy were you want to stay. Another thing is if you buy 2 contracts , buy the same use year, like that you can combine your points at seven months. I have two UY and it is sometimes difficult to have what I want..

 

[intamin]

I think you have a lot of research to do.

As @sndral was saying only the points that you bought with that home resort get priority at that home resort. You can't use cheapo SSR/VB/HHI points to book 11 months out at Beach Club.

And like @AstroBlasters was saying, don't just look at the buy in price. The annual dues typically make up 2/3 or more of the price of a contract over it's life time. You'd be much better off just buying Copper Creek, Poly or Bay Lake Tower resale for more and getting 11 month home priority on property at WDW, keep the contract longer and pay less in dues.

 

[meggiebeth]

There is a huge catch: the annual dues!

No, you only get 7 month priority at BCV with non-BCV points. Only BCV points get 11 month priority.

Take a look at this:

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/best-economical-dvc-resorts-to-purchase-fall-2023/

Thank you - this is really helpful! Interesting that BCV is near the bottom of the list

Home resort priority is only with points at that home.

That said - it can be possible to get the 1 and sometimes 2BR's at BCV at 7 months at times. You can luck into a studio at times too. There's kind of 2 thoughts - buy where you want to stay or else if looking to maximize then buy the least expensive that you don't mind staying at and take a trade to other resorts as a bonus.

No, if this worked we’d all own 25 points at our favorite resort & 300 at SSR.
You can use your BC points at BC at 11 months, your VB points at VB at 11 months, HH points at HH at 11 months, etc. At 7 months you can use your resale points anywhere except Riviera, the new Disneyland hotel, & the soon to open cabins.
There’s a couple reasons VB & HH points are so cheap, first they’re going to expire in 2042 (as is BC,) second most folks prefer a WDW resort for sleep around points because they book their home resort at 11 months & then try to switch to something else at 7 months but if they can’t switch, they still have a place to stay at WDW, and finally annual dues at VB & HH are really high.

Thank you - I didn’t realise they expired so soon! That does make things a bit more difficult to decide.

If BCV is really where you want to stay, then you will have to buy there. BCV is the smallest DVC resort at WDW and perhaps the most in-demand. Owning there is essential unless you are willing to compromise a lot (specifically, not getting the room type or dates you want).

Realistically, if you buy there now, you’re only going to get 16 or 17 years of points left on the contract.

A sample week in a BCV Studio in the summer costs 116 points each year. BCV contracts close to that size are going to cost you perhaps $140 per point plus closing costs. This means you’ll pay (very) roughly $9.00 per point per year just to cover the purchase.

The current BCV annual Maintenance Fee is $8.63 per point. It will increase every year, but so will the price Disney charges for a cash room at the Beach Club. Keeping it simple, let’s assume it increases to $9.00 per point next year.

Let’s look at next year. Keeping it simple, you’ll pay roughly $18 per point, all DVC costs included, for a BCV stay in 2025.

116 x $18 = $2088 per week

$2088 / 7 = $300 per night

Looking at Disney’s current “Stay Longer and Save More” discount, you can get a room at the Beach Club for $2961 per week or $423 per night.

Even with only 16 or 17 years left, a BCV purchase will save you over $100 per night.

Thank you for this - it’s really helpful setting out the costs like that! It looks like the newer resorts will be a little more cost effective then - but hard to weigh that up against the risk of not getting into BCV at 7 months.

I am a big fan of buy were you want to stay. Another thing is if you buy 2 contracts , buy the same use year, like that you can combine your points at seven months. I have two UY and it is sometimes difficult to have what I want..

Thanks - that’s exactly why we want to buy at BCV but it seems it’s nowhere near as good value as some of the other the resorts.

I think you have a lot of research to do.

As @sndral was sayingonly the points that you bought with that home resort get priority at that home resort. You can't use cheapo SSR/VB/HHI points to book 11 months out at Beach Club.

And like @AstroBlasters was saying, don't just look at the buy in price. The annual dues typically make up 2/3 or more of the price of a contract over it's life time. You'd be much better off just buying Copper Creek, Poly or Bay Lake Tower resale for more and getting 11 month home priority on property at WDW, keep the contract longer and pay less in dues.

Thanks so much everyone for your advice. Now I’m more stuck - surely then buying direct from Disney for Riviera would work out cheaper than resale at Beach Club given the Beach Club contracts would expire in 2042. Getting the DVC discounts would be a big incentive but Beach Club is by far our favourite resort and we would really want to be able to get access to rooms there.

Generally speaking, is availability quite good August/September time booking 7 months ahead? Is there still a chance of getting availability at many of the resorts? It’s very tempting to book one of the newer DVC resorts but I know my family will still want to stay at BCV most of the time.

 

[Tatebeck]

You will not get much access at beach club with 7 month bookings, ALMOST EVER. The resort is too small and everyone wants to stay there. We were in a similar situation and bought in last month. We didn't like the idea of buying heavy at Riviera because if we ever sold the Riviera contract, it loses a ton of value because of resale restrictions on resale Riviera contracts and because it's not actually in walking distance to anything. If the skyliner goes down either for maintenance or a temporary problem you have to take a bus to get ANYWHERE. Resorts like Beach Club and Boardwalk expire in less than half the time, but also can cost less than half compared to Riviera for even better location.

After an absolute ton of research, We picked our use year and decided to buy just a small contract at a crescent lake resort (beach club or boardwalk) because we love the area and being able to walk to 2 parks. But didn't want to get all of our points there because they expire in 2042.

So we ended up buying a bit less than 1/3 of our total point purchase at Boardwalk (originally wanted beach club, but boardwalk is in basically the same location, has better room availability, and ended up being $30 or so per point cheaper than beach club because we found a semi-stripped BWV contract that we got a deal on at $99 per point). We may try for beach club every time we look at staying at the boardwalk, and if we never get one we could also rent out our points for a year and rent beach club points ourselves for about the same price.

Then we bought the other 2/3 of our points at Bay Lake Tower and Animal Kingdom Villas so we had a bulk of our points expiring way later than 2042 and have access to one of the resorts nearest to each park.

Does that make sense? If you have any questions for me, ask away! All of it is very fresh in my mind since we just did the research and bought in ourselves.

 

[wench]

Thank you - this is really helpful! Interesting that BCV is near the bottom of the list





Thank you - I didn’t realise they expired so soon! That does make things a bit more difficult to decide.


Thank you for this - it’s really helpful setting out the costs like that! It looks like the newer resorts will be a little more cost effective then - but hard to weigh that up against the risk of not getting into BCV at 7 months.



Thanks - that’s exactly why we want to buy at BCV but it seems it’s nowhere near as good value as some of the other the resorts.



Thanks so much everyone for your advice. Now I’m more stuck - surely then buying direct from Disney for Riviera would work out cheaper than resale at Beach Club given the Beach Club contracts would expire in 2042. Getting the DVC discounts would be a big incentive but Beach Club is by far our favourite resort and we would really want to be able to get access to rooms there.

Generally speaking, is availability quite good August/September time booking 7 months ahead? Is there still a chance of getting availability at many of the resorts? It’s very tempting to book one of the newer DVC resorts but I know my family will still want to stay at BCV most of the time.

I think you'll find 7 month booking at BC for August & September would be very difficult if not impossible to get. All of the bookings during F&W time are normally snatched up by owners well before 7 months.

 

[Cfabar1]

I would recommend if you really want beach club, and you are really committed to those times you really do your homework about renting points and cash rates/stays. What about Beach Club do you find most appealing?

I only ask because Boardwalk is pretty close by and much more affordable. What types of accommodations are you needing? If it is just studio accommodations I would strongly recommend looking at the Swan/Dolphin cash rates as well, even though it is a slightly longer walk.

I get you are saving about $100/night over cash rates, but that is a lot of money to tie up in 20 years of Disney vacations and a deeded real estate interest unless you're totally sure of it.

 

[MartyParty]

Got curious reading this thread and checked direct prices as of today. Beach Club $275/pt and Boardwalk $240/pt. Ouch! Bay Lake and Beach Club are the highest direct aside from the snipe hunt of points at VGC.

Unless the market dives it won’t be long till these cross the $300 mark for direct.

 

[Tatebeck]

Got curious reading this thread and checked direct prices as of today. Beach Club $275/pt and Boardwalk $240/pt. Ouch! Bay Lake and Beach Club are the highest direct aside from the snipe hunt of points at VGC.

Unless the market dives it won’t be long till these cross the $300 mark for direct.

It really doesn't matter what the direct prices are. Everyone buys BCV and BWV resale because you can get them for around $100-130 per point and Disney hasn't been buying ROFR contracts for either of those resorts so they don't have any points to sell for them anyway. Unless someone puts in a crazy waitlist for direct and then they may ROFR a couple contracts, but idk why anyone would ever do that. Just throwing money in the trash at that point

 

[intamin]

Got curious reading this thread and checked direct prices as of today. Beach Club $275/pt and Boardwalk $240/pt. Ouch! Bay Lake and Beach Club are the highest direct aside from the snipe hunt of points at VGC.

Unless the market dives it won’t be long till these cross the $300 mark for direct.

Nobody should be buying direct BC/BW from Disney unless they're absolutely desperate to find a small contract in their UY but even then it's not really worth it. 275/18+ maintenance fees = 23.9 per point direct which is pretty ridiculous. Buying BC direct at the price they want I don't think you're really getting any savings and would probably be better off just paying cash. Resale is still worth it currently if that's the only place you're okay with staying at but if you're flexible you'll get far better value not owning a 2042 resort and then just taking what you can get at 7 months.

@meggiebeth if it's truly Beach Club or bust, you need to buy resale Beach Club. Most times of the year it's not possible to get at 7 months. The only time it may be available at 7 months is a 1BR during the summer.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Generally speaking, is availability quite good August/September time booking 7 months ahead? Is there still a chance of getting availability at many of the resorts? It’s very tempting to book one of the newer DVC resorts but I know my family will still want to stay at BCV most of the time.

1BR's? Yes. 2BR's? They're there but go quickly at 7 months, at least August. Studios? If you consistently want them you should own there.

 

[HairyChest]

16 years of staying at beach club for a discount sounds damn good to me.

Buy Beach Club resale and never look back.

 

[wilkydelts]

@meggiebeth — I mean no offense at this but sounds like you need to do much more research into the world of DVC and all its inner workings. You seem pretty naive on the topic and it is never something you should enter lightly.

 

[Royal Consort]

Thanks so much everyone for your advice. Now I’m more stuck - surely then buying direct from Disney for Riviera would work out cheaper than resale at Beach Club given the Beach Club contracts would expire in 2042. Getting the DVC discounts would be a big incentive but Beach Club is by far our favourite resort and we would really want to be able to get access to rooms there.

Yes, buying Riviera (exp. 2070) from Disney would provide better value in the long term than Beach Club Villas (exp. 2042). In 2019 I was considering buying Grand Floridian resale but decided for the same cost I could buy Riviera direct. Resale is blocked from booking future DVC Resorts (including Riviera, Cabins at Fort Wilderness and Disneyland Hotel). I am glad I purchased Riviera direct initially over VGF to access direct perks and future resorts for the same cost (granted, I later bought Grand Floridian resale and direct anyway).

As previous posters have commented, you are unlikely to get into BCV at 7 months and will need to own there. Personally, I don't see the value in a 2042 contract no matter where it is and would want longer for marginally more upfront cost. However, if your preference is that it's Beach Club or your vacation won't be as enjoyable then there's a subjective value you'd need to contend with. I am an advocate of "Buy where you want to stay" as availability is getting tighter and tighter at 7 months now. Disney are looking at introducing a trust-based product which could further upend 7 month availability: we don't yet know.

I'd recommend getting a pen and pad and making a list of all the DVC resorts that appeal to you if you had to exclusively stay there as a home resort. Then next to each list their contract expiry dates (easily googled), and next to that write down the annual dues for each property. This will give you an overview on how long you will hold each property for, the upfront cost, and ongoing cost. From there you can begin to make informed decisions.

Then ask yourself how long you can see yourself going to WDW? Is the premium on a shorter contract worth it to you or would you like this vacation investment to last longer? Is renting BCV more economical for you or is owning going to give you peace of mind you can always stay there? Could you fall in love with another resort with a longer expiry date or will BCV be "the one that got away?" Will you feel FOMO not having the blue card and missing out on DVC promos/events/lounges they provide for direct members?

Whatever you do, however, do not buy Hilton Head or Vero Beach for access to Walt Disney World resorts. Their dues are ridiculously high and with availability tightening, you're playing a roulette game. Only buy Hilton or Vero to stay at Hilton or Vero. Even then the dues negate most savings over paying cash there.