Yes!
I so appreciate all of your information! I did contact Disney and the only resorts they have available right now are Copper Creek and Aulani.
This process is very interesting.
Do check out the resale sites. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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Hi! DVC owner here…OBNurse and Principal Tinker gave you some great info…just so you know…we live in Nebraska…only really go to WDW once a year, and we own DVC. I did purchase the bulk of my points resale, but I have a small(now it would need to be 75 pt) contract direct from Disney for perks. We did go to Moonlight Magic at Epcot, because it coincided with a trip…and we were underwhelmed. The only real perk I see us using a lot is the annual pass discount rate, which doesn’t always happen each year(in fact, I’ll bet for the Star Wars opening year, it won’t happen). And, that perk doesn’t necessarily make sense when I could buy my contract for over 50 dollars less a point via resale than direct. That is a lot of money. Also, we would have never bought dvc, if we had to finance it. My mother passed away, and with a small part of my inheritance, I purchased DVC points. It would have made her happy. 
My very best advice is to read everything you can, research a lot, and know exactly what you want when you are ready to buy.
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I purchased resale at the end of last year. We purposely purchased a stripped contract since we were trying for our 2nd baby and knew that a trip was not in our near future. We watched for quite some time until our preferred number of points in our preferred use year came around. Since it was stripped we bid just about 10% under asking and were shocked when they accepted with no counter. We passed ROFR pretty quickly, but times have changed quite a bit there and I’m not sure if we would pass now. We bought at SSR but I had my eye on AKL, extended OWK and BLT. A couple of the resale sites have apps that will push notifications. That can be helpful if you think you are looking for a high demand contract.
I have a pretty thorough spreadsheet with many tabs and some “plug and chug” numbers for your crystal ball estimates of dues increases, room rate increases and rental rate increases, etc. I’m happy to share it here. Does anyone know the best way to do that?
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I think you just have to make it a googledoc
Can I just share it on my personal Google drive?
I have always done my very best to avoid @JJT’s AP spreadsheets for the sake of my pocketbook unfortunately.
I think so?
Just came to add my story. I bought resale in 2014, but through Disney. It was more points than I really wanted, but it allowed me to get Boardwalk as my home resort. DAKL, Grand Floridian and Aulani were my other choices. I did the math and realized that if I went every year, 5-7 week long stays would be the breakeven point for the initial cost of the contract not including yearly dues. I pay roughly $1,000 a year for dues/maintenance fees and after hitting the breakeven point for the initial cost of the contract, I still come out ahead. DVC has also allowed us to get annual passes because of the special they ran last year and that has saved us even more money.
DVC has allowed me and my family to go more often and stay at resorts we probably would have never stayed at normally because of the cost. Just wanted to add my experience!
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When do you hit the breakeven point when you INCLUDE the yearly dues. Because yearly dues are legitimate costs. (Guests who stay on property outside of DVC do not pay yearly dues.)
Ok, here is the Google Sheet version of my spreadsheet. I stole the methodology from a couple of different places, but it basically calculates the difference if you take your initial “buy in” cost and put that into an interest bearing savings account and instead use the money in there for each vacation. Each year you would pay the “dues” into that account. As soon as your pretend vacation account goes negative, you’ve made up the cost.
The biggest guess is obviously trying to figure out how you would vacation. Would you really go to Disney World THAT many times if you didn’t own DVC. Would you get a PIN code for a room-only or would you stay offsite for savings? So I have two “scenarios” being that I rented points for every single vacation that I think I would take at WDW or more of a “real world” combo of value/mod/offsite, etc. Happy to provide more detail.
The last piece is anyone’s guess of how much dues will rise versus how much rack rates will rise as well as how much interest your money could be earning doing something other than sitting on Disney’s balance sheet. Those are all in the yellow boxes and you can play with them.
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I figured the breakeven point INCLUDING dues would add roughly 1-2 more trips (really like 1.5). This is also on weeklong stays. We are going for 11 days this coming September and went for 9 days in January of 2015 (and also stayed in a 2 bedroom villa as opposed to a deluxe studio which what I based the breakeven point stays on).
I hope that makes sense haha
Just for clarification purposes for folks new to DVC, you do not buy resale “through Disney.” You bought direct from Disney but at a “sold-out” resort. You receive all the perks of direct ownership. You just have to get on a waitlist in order to buy what you want. You also paid the direct price.
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You are correct - I wasn’t completely sure how to word it haha
Okay. So, even if we were to stay on Disney Property (which we don’t), and took a vacation about every 2 years to Disney (we average about every 3), it would take about 16 years to break even.
In reality for us, I think the break even point would end up being about 30 years, if ever.
The main advantage I see to DVC is it, perhaps, allows you to buy into staying at a Disney Resort more often. You are ultimately paying more than you otherwise would, perhaps…but it is kind of like choosing to buy a hot tub for your house. Sure, it costs more than NOT having one…but you can actual sit in the hot tub when you want!
One thing I did wonder about in terms of cost versus benefit is if you factor in renting out your DVC points in off years. LIke, if you don’t go every other year, you can bring in enough by renting it out in those off years to offset the costs…well, then, perhaps there is additional benefit that isn’t otherwise obvious.
I love the hot tub analogy! And I haven’t rented points out before, but it looks like 2019 will be the first year we will be skipping going to WDW, probably in favor of a cruise. I just started looking into renting points and I plan on putting that money from renting into the cost of the cruise.
I do have friends that bought at DAKL and have not been to WDW since they bought in, but have rented their points out every year and paid off their contract super quickly putting the money toward their contract and dues
That Mousesavers article noted by brklinck states that it is not cost effected to buy if you go every other year compared to renting points. I might look at it for other reasons but not really as a good financial decision. If you went every year and bought a resale maybe it makes financial sense. The spreadsheet has it as about 2060 but I think it uses buying direct.
We bought into DVC in 2000. That year I gave my parents and step kids rooms at the Boardwalk for 5 nights. In 2002, I gave my parents, my brother’s family and my fiancee’s family 5 nights at the Boardwalk. At the end of that trip, the TS had paid for itself. In 2007, we got 13 studios and a 1 bedroom for 5 nights for 35 family members so they could stay at the Boardwalk to celebrate my wife’s and my wedding. We were married in the gazebo at the Boardwalk. In 2011, we got rooms for 2 couples that are friends for 5 nights in order to enjoy "Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. That same year, we got rooms 15 family members for 5 nights in order to celebrate 3 kids turning 5. Had to borrow a few points. Did it again in 2016, when the kids turned 10. My wife and I go at least once a year and there are times we bring other people. I’ve been retired for 5 years now and have no problem with the condo fee cause we stay in a studio at the Boardwalk for 3 weeks.
I guess I’m just saying the TS has been a lot of fun not just for us. My biggest problem is that I’ll be 92 when it’s done, but I won’t be!!