Wondering how often owners stay at their home resort and how often they stay elsewhere. One can get far more bang for their buck in some places when looking at cost per point.
Would it make sense to buy more points at a more affordable resort, or fewer at a resort you’re more likely to frequent. Weighing options.
It depends on a few different factors:
when you’re likely to be going. At peak DVC times (Oct to early Jan), having that 11 month window could be crucial to getting the room you want.
can you be flexible? If you can only go at certain times and know you really don’t want to stay at SS or OKW, then don’t buy there
are you going to happy staying at your home resort? If you know you really want to stay on the monorail then imo you should buy there. But if you fall into the “anywhere is fine, it’s Disney” camp then it’s less important.
are you after the popular room types? If so, that 11 month window is critical.
also though, never go for the minimum number of points you need for the cheapest (points wise) room type at the resort you want. You may not be able to get the standard view BLT studio, or the value AKV rooms, even with the 11 month window. You may have to upgrade to get a room, so you need those extra points to be able to do so.
My home resort is Boardwalk, but I didn’t buy into DVC until 2014. When we were deciding on a home resort our available choices were Aulani, Grand Floridian or Animal Kingdom (I think). I asked our agent to look if there were anything else available and he walked in and told me Boardwalk had come up. It was more points then I needed/wanted, but I jumped at it. We normally go in September/October as the majority of the birthdays are in October and Food and Wine and MNSSHP. If there is a choice, we always stay at Boardwalk. We booked last years vacation a little late and had to stay at Animal Kingdom and absolutely hated it. We got spoiled at Boardwalk. For our big family trip each year we always stay at Boardwalk, but I just booked a solo trip in April for OKW because it was the cheapest in terms of points.
For a place like Boardwalk the 11 month window is especially necessary considering we go during Food and Wine and it is VERY popular. But I have booked other vacations at different times with the 7 month window (Twice at DAKL and twice at OKW and once at Bay Lake Tower).
Although the original contract was many more points than needed, I have found that they have come in handy. We have been able to trips we would not have been able to do before and we have also rented a couple times to help pay down the balance. I think picking the home resort would be just make sure you like it because that could be where you end up staying much of the time.
Well I love AKL so there’s that LOL and we are to date not huge EP people.
I’m not so much looking for recommendations on where to buy, more interested in how often people actually stay at home resort vs others and whether buying more points is better than buying at a particular resort. Or whether it would be better to buy fewer points but where you prefer staying.
Understanding of course that over the course of a contract preferences could change.
We bought SSR resale because of the value proposition that you mention. Plus, as much as I love Copper Creek or BLT, I couldn’t imagine always staying at the same place! We really want to try the different resorts. We bought enough points to get a 1-bedroom if needed (seem to be the least popular) and just plan to be flexible and do split stays if we have to! We also do really like SSR so if we get “stuck” there, I won’t mind!
I do think for the people that HAVE to have Boardwalk every year for F&W should probably buy there, but I will take the much later expiration!
Can you share where you’ve had the good fortune to stay? Could you share also whether there is anywhere you have not been able to get?
I wish I could, sorry! We just purchased at the end of 2017 and are banking to book a 2-bedroom at AKL next fall.
“Worst case” I will most likely book a treehouse at 11 months. I’m probably going to go spreadsheet crazy this year when the 7 months starts to open for Oct/Nov and see what is available!
Are you active on Mouseowners at all? I have found a ton of great resources there.
I have been over there a few times.
Thanks for the reply!
OH gotcha. Sorry. I guess I’m not the best to answer that then haha we have just fallen in love with Boardwalk - it’s hard for us to justify staying anywhere else. And for reference it is me, my almost 3 year old and my mom, who has a bum knee. I think that’s why boardwalk works for us because it limits walking so she doesn’t nag as much haha therefore I like it better.
Yeah. And see Boardwalk and Beach Club don’t work for us because in order to get enough sleep surfaces we need to book something that sleeps 5 (we have boy/girl kids, oldest is a teenager now). Beach club studio could sleep 5 but that’s tight for us - so next option is 2br and we are not that rich 
I also wonder, as I mentioned, about preferences changing with time. Maybe in the long run just having the points is the most important thing. Right now we’d need about 200 points give or take to make a 1 week stay in our usual travel season. But once the kids are older and we are going more often on our own we will need fewer because we can go smaller.
I keep going back and forth on this. 
The Boardwalk studios sleep 5 as well, but I imagine it would be REALLY tight. I do think in the long run it’s the points that matter. If you ever had a surplus of points you could always rent them for cash so it is not as much as a loss or take that cash and put it towards a cruise or another destination. I really don’t think we will prefer Boardwalk forever especially as WDW continues to evolve, but who knows!
Yes not enough space there. Which is a bummer.
Actually points chart I was just viewing today said 4. Hmm…
I thought you replied about BC not BWV above.
Are you looking at studios or 1 beds?
The studios at BC and BWV sleep 5.
The 1 beds sleep 4. And if you book direct with Disney that is a strict limit.
However, because of the discrepancy between the studios and 1 beds, DVC allow members to have a 5th person in the 1 beds, but don’t provide a bed or bed linen for the,. So you have to either sleep on the floor or bring an air bed or some other kind of sleeping surface.
That is true of all the 1 beds across the property where the studios sleep 5.
The points charts show the official limit of 4, but the notes under the room types give the explanation.
Personally I think more points is better option (probably because we never seem to have enough points for all the trips we want to do). Our home resort is BLT which is great, but we have honestly stayed at other resorts much more often because we rarely plan trip 11 months in advance. We stayed at AKL the most which is fine because we all love it and there often seems to be availability.
I have owned at SS for 12 years and never stayed there! Maybe I am lucky but I have always gotten what I wanted with the exception of GC in June I had to take a one bedroom over a studio. I have traveled in April and May mostly, twice in October. We have stayed at BCV the most but also at AK, BLT, WL, BWV and Poly. I always jump on the 7 month window and have never had a problem. We go every year and stay in a one bedroom or studio
Fantastic information
We bought where we wanted to stay, which is SSR (in 2003) and AKV (in 2007). So far we’ve stayed at SSR 14 times (mostly 1BR, but also 2BR and Grand Villas with family), and AKV six times, including three times in Club Level. We have also stayed at BWV six times (four of them during F&WF), BCV twice (both during F&WF) as well as BLT, BRV, CCV… We’ve never had a problem getting in somewhere other than our home resort when we’ve wanted to, but we almost always stay in 1BR villas which are easier to get, and are flexible in terms of when we can travel. Our next trip is in April, when we’ll be doing a split stay between SSR and BWV. We’re going again in September (for F&WF), and we’ll be staying in AKV and BCV.
My advice would really be to buy where you want to stay if location is very important to you. If you always want to stay at the Poly, it would make little sense to buy somewhere else only to find that you can’t get into the only resort you really want when you want it. If you’re flexible it may make more sense to get a more cost effective option.
Not sure if that helps, but it’s my two cents anyway. 
It’s interesting to hear that 1BR villas are easier to get than other layouts, as that is what we would mostly want for our family - at least in the next probably 8-10 years.