RunDisney+DVC?

[Herding_Cats]

I know we have some DVC owners (experienced and newer) in here. I'm pretty much in the "DVC-curious" stage now since I really do enjoy the rD weekends, and even though DH would LOVE for me to pick a different vacation for our family, DD is getting into what I consider to be the prime Disney magic age bracket. The phrase "We need to lay off the Disney for a few years" and then 2 days later "We need to take P to stay at AoA because she would LOVE IT" have been said, and NOT BY ME.

Anyhow. We've rented points directly from owners every time we've stayed DVC, and it's been a pretty simple process. What (if any) are the benefits to owning instead of just continuing to rent as we have been? Any specific considerations? I have a basic understanding of use year, points/banking/borrowing, the 11/7 month windows, and that "dues" exist. I also know that guaranteed weekend contracts are a thing (although they are very rare.)

And as a specific aside, do any of you know what owning a timeshare does to FAFSA stuff? I know that "2nd homes" pretty much nix getting any grants/aid federally and that would be a complete deal-breaker for us since DS1 is a HS junior and DS2 is a freshman, so college expenses are coming.

 

[Cabius]

We rented points for a few years before buying at PVB. We bought enough direct points to earn Blue Card benefits, then the rest resale.

The main advantage to us vs renting is just knowing that we can book at the 11-month window at our home resort. We love staying at the Poly, especially for marathon weekend, and didn't want to be at the mercy of finding somebody who would rent us a reservation. The past few years have had a glut of points and good resale deals, but I don't know if it's always quite so easy. I'd much rather have the sure thing!

With a blue card, we also get some "membership extra" perks, but honestly with AP sales suspended I don't know if I would've made the same decision. Resale saves a lot of money, and you still get the same booking windows. (Caveat: you can't use resale points to book at newer resorts, like the Riviera).

I have no firsthand experience with FAFSA, but Google suggests that the resale value of the timeshare would count as an investment asset on your application.

 

[McMonsters]

We bought a 50 point direct contract 10 years ago. Now the direct requirement is triple that. We have been able to attend a few DVC events and at one time purchased discounted APs with our DVC. Our kids are just now passing the prime Disney age and are more interested in Universal Studios. We have also recently taken time off from our runDisney obsession so DVC isn’t a factor with those trips. We actually spent more time at the campground during races because we had our beds and food in our RV which helped us immensely on race days. We are at the point of less Disney and more other things so our focus will probably be every other year at Disney World or using the points to stay at Hilton Head or Vero Beach. I know other DVC members also will stay at Disney a Uber to Universal while not even stepping foot in a Disney Park. You have to do the math for your situation. We homeschool and have access to military discounts so it makes things more manageable for us with travel.

 

[striker1064]

We used to own DVC but sold it earlier this year. We bought into CCV when there were specific runDisney weekends, which was a nice perk, but that doesn't exist anymore. You can still buy fixed weeks through DVC, and if you're interested in using them for the races it might be worth looking into those since you don't want to have to fight for bookings.

What (if any) are the benefits to owning instead of just continuing to rent as we have been?

The main thing is you have direct control over the reservation, whereas a rental tends to be non-refundable (or not fully refundable) if something happens.

Any specific considerations?

If you think runDisney Disney IT is bad, wait until you get a load of the DVC website.

I would say if you are perfectly fine staying at AoA, your break-even point is so far in the future it's not likely to be worth considering DVC. When coming for races, I always tried to book a 1-bedroom because I liked the in-room laundry. Note that DVC has gotten so expensive, you really need to do the math to find out if it makes sense. You'll think to yourself "I'll save so much money on rack rates by buying DVC!" And yes, that's true, but I also see how Disney is fudging the numbers by continuing to raise rack rates beyond the point I'm willing to pay regularly, so it's not really a savings at that point - it's a forced inclusion into the Disney system. Additionally, while the buy-in is expensive, annual dues are the true cost of ownership. Assuming a 3-4% annual increase year-over-year, dues in 12-15 years and beyond are truly eye-popping. And remember, you're only pre-paying for lodging. There's no magic. There are no upgrades. No park tickets. You still have to pay for tickets, races, and food. In many ways, you spend much more money as a DVC member. There's also been various gnashing-of-the-teeth over annual passes, so I would not consider that particular perk for a direct sale.

If DVC makes sense - a big if - buy resale, and buy at a resort that you don't mind staying at every time. Booking has gotten very tight as people are much more internet-savvy. Book your home resort at 11 months and switch at 7 if you can. Don't book nothing because you'll figure you'll grab whatever at 6 months - it's likely to be gone.

I could go on and on about DVC, but if you have specific questions I'm happy to help.

 

[RunDisney Matriarch]

With a blue card, we also get some "membership extra" perks, but honestly with AP sales suspended I don't know if I would've made the same decision. Resale saves a lot of money, and you still get the same booking windows. (Caveat: you can't use resale points to book at newer resorts, like the Riviera).

Like Herding_Cats, we are also looking into DVC, but the inability to get an annual pass has us stalled out. I even inquired from DVC sales to see if there might be some annual passes available for new DVC owners (it seems like it would be a mutually beneficial incentive), but so far no dice.

 

[striker1064]

Like Herding_Cats, we are also looking into DVC, but the inability to get an annual pass has us stalled out. I even inquired from DVC sales to see if there might be some annual passes available for new DVC owners (it seems like it would be a mutually beneficial incentive), but so far no dice.

This has been on and off pretty much since the pandemic. I have nothing to back this up, but it strikes me that Disney as a whole is very much trying to lance the boil of APs. Via earnings calls, the executives are very clear that APs spend less money overall and they are specifically targeting the once every 5 years, once every 10 years, and once in a lifetime travelers who have a much larger budget.

It's written out in the contracts that membership perks can be taken away at any time and there is no requirement to provide them. Don't fall in the trap of thinking DVC is anything other than a prepaid hotel room. That's all it is. Additionally, even if APs were on sale, are you really saving that much money? It's so easy to say "I have to renew this AP at the discounted renewal rate" year over year even if it doesn't make perfect sense. And again, this goes to one of my prior points - DVC makes you spend more at Disney, not less. So you're already paying way overinflated direct pricing to get that AP, and now you're paying for multiple APs every year or every other year, plus dues... just stop and do that math and make sure it makes sense before you take the plunge. I used to read posts every day from new DVC members who bought direct who really would have been significantly better off buying resale, but they got the pixie dust in their eyes.

 

[RunDisney Matriarch]

This has been on and off pretty much since the pandemic. I have nothing to back this up, but it strikes me that Disney as a whole is very much trying to lance the boil of APs. Via earnings calls, the executives are very clear that APs spend less money overall and they are specifically targeting the once every 5 years, once every 10 years, and once in a lifetime travelers who have a much larger budget.

It's written out in the contracts that membership perks can be taken away at any time and there is no requirement to provide them. Don't fall in the trap of thinking DVC is anything other than a prepaid hotel room. That's all it is. Additionally, even if APs were on sale, are you really saving that much money? It's so easy to say "I have to renew this AP at the discounted renewal rate" year over year even if it doesn't make perfect sense. And again, this goes to one of my prior points - DVC makes you spend more at Disney, not less. So you're already paying way overinflated direct pricing to get that AP, and now you're paying for multiple APs every year or every other year, plus dues... just stop and do that math and make sure it makes sense before you take the plunge. I used to read posts every day from new DVC members who bought direct who really would have been significantly better off buying resale, but they got the pixie dust in their eyes.

Great advice. Thank you! We primarily want to tie DVC with annual passes because if we're going to commit to Disney vacations through DVC we want to make sure to have an option to get more affordable tickets (via an annual pass) whether they have a DVC discount attached or not. Right now, we can't get annual passes at any price.

 

[Herding_Cats]

We used to own DVC but sold it earlier this year. We bought into CCV when there were specific runDisney weekends, which was a nice perk, but that doesn't exist anymore. You can still buy fixed weeks through DVC, and if you're interested in using them for the races it might be worth looking into those since you don't want to have to fight for bookings.

The main thing is you have direct control over the reservation, whereas a rental tends to be non-refundable (or not fully refundable) if something happens.



If you think runDisney Disney IT is bad, wait until you get a load of the DVC website.

I would say if you are perfectly fine staying at AoA, your break-even point is so far in the future it's not likely to be worth considering DVC. When coming for races, I always tried to book a 1-bedroom because I liked the in-room laundry. Note that DVC has gotten so expensive, you really need to do the math to find out if it makes sense. You'll think to yourself "I'll save so much money on rack rates by buying DVC!" And yes, that's true, but I also see how Disney is fudging the numbers by continuing to raise rack rates beyond the point I'm willing to pay regularly, so it's not really a savings at that point - it's a forced inclusion into the Disney system. Additionally, while the buy-in is expensive, annual dues are the true cost of ownership. Assuming a 3-4% annual increase year-over-year, dues in 12-15 years and beyond are truly eye-popping. And remember, you're only pre-paying for lodging. There's no magic. There are no upgrades. No park tickets. You still have to pay for tickets, races, and food. In many ways, you spend much more money as a DVC member. There's also been various gnashing-of-the-teeth over annual passes, so I would not consider that particular perk for a direct sale.

If DVC makes sense - a big if - buy resale, and buy at a resort that you don't mind staying at every time. Booking has gotten very tight as people are much more internet-savy. Book your home resort at 11 months and switch at 7 if you can. Don't book nothing because you'll figure you'll grab whatever at 6 months - it's likely to be gone.

I could go on and on about DVC, but if you have specific questions I'm happy to help.

yes. THESE are the points I was looking for because even though they were vaguely floating through my brain, those are big items.

Dues--yeah. That would eventually become the "cost of the trip." And looking at what a (resale for sure!) contract would cost for like....80pts (which is enough for around a week in most of the studios for January, or banking/borrowing for every other year in a 1br) and then the yearly dues...it's not particularly far off from what we are paying to just rent points right now, especially with how many owners are becoming disenchanted with the current direction of the parks.

Studio v 1-br----we got SUPER lucky last year and rented a 1br at OKW for like $13/pt. Best. Stay. Ever. Having a full kitchen, a huge room, and laundry IN THE UNIT was amazing. I would never ever ever pay rack rate for any of the DVC resorts though. What I am finding (and I don't know how much longer this trend will last for...) is that I can rent dvc for nearly the same price (or less) as moderate resort or skyliner-access value resort. And not pay for parking. So do I *really* need to be an owner when I can just rent the points and not have to front the cost of the purchase?

APs--we live too far away for those to be even remotely a consideration.

But my brain also says "If we own DVC, then DH can't say no to a trip every year or every other year.

I am curious as to why you decided to sell. But it's also not really any of my business. Just one of those things where I like to understand people's reasonings for things.

 

[Cabius]

But my brain also says "If we own DVC, then DH can't say no to a trip every year or every other year.

I'll be honest: this was a big factor for us. We had a major financial windfall in 2020, and while we saved or gave away most of it, we splurged on DVC me) and a kitchen remodel (my wife). And I definitely wanted DVC, in part, to lock that into our family's annual plans.

Heck, the only reason I started running in 2019 was because my wife didn't want to go back to Disney every year, and agreed to go in 2020 if I signed up for the half-marathon.

 

[striker1064]

Great advice. Thank you! We primarily want to tie DVC with annual passes because if we're going to commit to Disney vacations through DVC we want to make sure to have an option to get more affordable tickets (via an annual pass) whether they have a DVC discount attached or not. Right now, we can't get annual passes at any price.

I would say you are a very bad candidate for DVC ownership, because they can (and have!) take away APs at any time for any reason. Additionally, the DVC discount on APs is gone - the only thing it gets you is access to the slightly-cheaper Florida resident pass. But AP prices were ballooning too, last I looked, so I really don't know how affordable this is.

Dues--yeah. That would eventually become the "cost of the trip." And looking at what a (resale for sure!) contract would cost for like....80pts (which is enough for around a week in most of the studios for January, or banking/borrowing for every other year in a 1br) and then the yearly dues...it's not particularly far off from what we are paying to just rent points right now, especially with how many owners are becoming disenchanted with the current direction of the parks.

I'm sure you've seen dues charts. The popular resale sites all have them. Here's one:

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/buying/annual-dues/

Ignore Riviera and CCV. DVC has made a habit of over-estimating dues on new resorts, and subsequent years see very little dues increases as a result. I have my guess as to why they do this, but it's beyond the scope of this discussion. I would also point you to Hilton Head and Vero Beach - even though they're non-WDW resorts, the dues are much higher. Why? Higher maintenance as a result of the types of weather that they see. If there's hurricane damage, there may also be a special assessment members have to pay. This happened at WDW once, I think with Irma in 2017. Remember - DVC at its core is a condo association and you are on the hook for the costs of ownership.

Since you mentioned OKW, I think that's a nice way to determine what dues will do. OKW was the first and has existed the longest. It was also built in the style of efficiency, so in theory its dues should be relatively lower at same points of life compared to other resorts. OKW has the highest dues and the highest year-over-year growth of all WDW resorts. If you project out that 4.4% CAGR, you're at ~$13.55/point in 10 years. With 80 points, that goes from $704.80 this year to $1,084.00 in 2032. And that of course goes up if you buy more points (80 does not go far).

Studio v 1-br----we got SUPER lucky last year and rented a 1br at OKW for like $13/pt. Best. Stay. Ever. Having a full kitchen, a huge room, and laundry IN THE UNIT was amazing. I would never ever ever pay rack rate for any of the DVC resorts though. What I am finding (and I don't know how much longer this trend will last for...) is that I can rent dvc for nearly the same price (or less) as moderate resort or skyliner-access value resort. And not pay for parking.

I want to point out that if you're at all interested in the financial aspect of breaking even, 1-brs are unfairly priced in the DVC system. They're far too expensive for what they are, and annualizing your purchase price plus dues for an annual stay in a 1-br will almost never break even with paying rack rate.

I just want to make sure you read what I wrote. There is a room type in DVC - of which the single biggest sales pitch is year-over-year savings - that is unlikely to ever break even, or if it does it will be so far out as to be an exceedingly poor financial decision (45-48 years). OKW has the best chance of breaking even over rack rates because the room is huge and OKW's points charts are cheap compared to other resorts, but that's if and only if OKW's dues don't rocket. The dues have exceeded their CAGR the past 2 years, as I recall.

Remember too that DVC is contractually obligated to reallocate the points charts to meet demand. They've failed miserably at this, but they've noticeably shifted points charts lately. If you think you only need 80 points for your booking right now, buy 100 so you're protected.

So do I *really* need to be an owner when I can just rent the points and not have to front the cost of the purchase?

I don't think you do. Every year there are new DVC owners who don't do their research and who are left with points they can't use or can't afford. There are also plenty of regular renters, but ostensibly they are going to want to make a profit, so as dues balloon, so do rental rates as owners seek to recoup dues + annualized buy-in + taxable income. But there will always be distressed points. And frankly, the value proposition of every-other-year DVC isn't there. It just isn't. In your shoes, the absolute best thing to do is keep renting. You will never beat $13/point at OKW every other year by buying. Honestly, at recent and today's prices, I think DVC is a bad financial decision, period. You'd be better off taking the buy-in money and investing it and adding the annual dues every year. Use the investment money to go to Disney when you want and stay where and how you want. If you ever stop or reduce how much you go, or worse if something bad happens, you'll have your investment money. If you must have a timeshare to ensure you take annual or every-other-year vacations, I think you can do better than DVC. But that's another topic.

But my brain also says "If we own DVC, then DH can't say no to a trip every year or every other year.

Now you're starting to think like a real Disney executive!

I am curious as to why you decided to sell. But it's also not really any of my business. Just one of those things where I like to understand people's reasonings for things.

This is part of it:

especially with how many owners are becoming disenchanted with the current direction of the parks.

Additionally, we are building a house, and ballooning annual dues and required very expensive vacations to the same destination became something we simply didn't want to take on. We never wanted to make a decision between dues or home maintenance. And while historically, selling has been easy, there's no guarantee this will continue to be the case, so we got out while we could. As mentioned, 80 points don't go very far. We had 160. Those dues bills were expensive, either as a one-time windfall or yet another monthly payment that we don't need. We still like runDisney weekends, but you don't need DVC for that.

On top of all that, DVC is meant to be occupied year-round, and people treat those rooms like they treat rental cars. I was tired of paying so much money for tired, worn down rooms. At least if there's an issue in a hotel room, the front desk can help you. With DVC, you're at the mercy of a call center. You can more or less forget about everything you know about Disney customer service once you're bought in, as well (because they've got you). On the whole this never bothered me, until there was a problem, then it was infuriating.

ANYway, this turned out way longer than I planned - sorry! I have a lot of thoughts as a once-owner now sold.

 

[The Expert]

What (if any) are the benefits to owning instead of just continuing to rent as we have been? Any specific considerations? I have a basic understanding of use year, points/banking/borrowing, the 11/7 month windows, and that "dues" exist. I also know that guaranteed weekend contracts are a thing (although they are very rare.)

We've owned DVC since late 2001, and we bought because of the following:
1. We were making 2 or 3 trips a year, always staying on-site in moderate or deluxe rooms.
2. We planned to continue that pattern for several years to come.
3. We planned our trips far enough out to take advantage of the 11-month booking window most times. Even if not, we were definitely booking before the 7-month window and still getting ownership advantage.
4. We had young nephews and were starting to take them on some of our trips, and like the flexibility of points to take some trips ourselves in smaller rooms and others with extended family in larger rooms.
5. We could afford the dues.

DH is a numbers guy and laid it all out in a spreadsheet. Not counting any other perks (because you really can't, long term), we broke even in 7 years. We've bought and sold contracts and have never had points go to waste or run short.

As the nephews and nieces have gotten older, now they're starting to have kids who will want to come to Disney with us. And if not, we can rent them out, or we have multiple separate contracts and can start to sell them off as we aren't using as many.

DVC has worked really well for us, but we're kind of the ideal candidates and we bought in early. If we were starting new now, we'd buy one contract from Disney for the blue card and the rest resale for sure. Many of our add-on contracts have been resale. We just stick to the same use year so the points at the same resorts get pooled.

 

[Baloo in MI]

I will preface this with the acknowledgment that outside of preparing for my retirement I suck with money…

My family are newer DVC owners. We sat down and looked at our lodging expenses vs. buying into DVC. After doing the math there is nothing cheap or a great deal about DVC ownership. But nothing about Disney is cheap or seems like a great deal these days… And it is very possible to rent points or stay at a non DVC resort for less; especially when you factor in dues!

We go to WDW two times a year for runDisney/family vacations, we maintain our annual passes so ultimately DVC made sense to us.

Here was the clincher for me. I absolutely love Wilderness Lodge, I enjoy the restaurants and grounds, truly enjoy morning rides on the lake to get into MK and love the resort theming. I know I do not actually own anything in WL. I know I have to duke it out with all the other owners to ensure I get a spot for MW. But when I am there it feels like I own a piece of the resort. And for the rest of the year I can look forward to my next trip (118 days away). So whether the best value or not DVC ownership at WL brings me joy and therefore is money well spent.

 

[Herding_Cats]

As the nephews and nieces have gotten older, now they're starting to have kids who will want to come to Disney with us.

And part of the "considerations" I'm making is that DD is going to be prime disney age for the next 10 years (maybe a little less) and there's a reasonable chance that I could have grandkids shortly after that (since my oldest is nearly 17 right now...how am I this old?!) that I would absolutely want to take.

My family are newer DVC owners. We sat down and looked at our lodging expenses vs. buying into DVC. After doing the math there is nothing cheap or a great deal about DVC ownership. But nothing about Disney is cheap or seems like a great deal these days… And for the rest of the year I can look forward to my next trip (118 days away). So whether the best value or not DVC ownership at WL brings me joy and therefore is money well spent.

Things that bring us joy are really important.

 

[accm]

We bought our first contract in Feb 2020 right after my second son was born, and then added on after Wine and Dine weekend last year.

I’ve always been a Disney person, so I know I’ll always want to go to the parks, and right now with a 2yr old and a 5yr old, we’ll be going often. I like the convenience of staying on site, and after a friend let me rent her points for really cheap, I got spoiled.

I made a spreadsheet that essentially calculated how much each point will cost per year, and then worked that out to a nightly rate using the points charts for the times we’d be going. For our family, it made sense to buy DVC. Our first contract was a small 100pt resale contract, but we ended up adding an additional 220 direct points to allow for an additional yearly rundisney trip in a 1 bedroom. The second contract was definitely more of an emotional decision, which I’m ok with.

I think you need to figure out if you want to always stay DVC, or if say all star or somewhere offsite would be good enough. DVC will always cost more than all star, but in general will be cheaper than renting.

Let me know if you have any specific questions, or I can share my spreadsheet with you if you’d like, it’ll just need to be updated. I mostly just rambled here.

 

[matt and beth]

I know we have some DVC owners (experienced and newer) in here. I'm pretty much in the "DVC-curious" stage now since I really do enjoy the rD weekends, and even though DH would LOVE for me to pick a different vacation for our family, DD is getting into what I consider to be the prime Disney magic age bracket. The phrase "We need to lay off the Disney for a few years" and then 2 days later "We need to take P to stay at AoA because she would LOVE IT" have been said, and NOT BY ME.

Anyhow. We've rented points directly from owners every time we've stayed DVC, and it's been a pretty simple process. What (if any) are the benefits to owning instead of just continuing to rent as we have been? Any specific considerations? I have a basic understanding of use year, points/banking/borrowing, the 11/7 month windows, and that "dues" exist. I also know that guaranteed weekend contracts are a thing (although they are very rare.)

And as a specific aside, do any of you know what owning a timeshare does to FAFSA stuff? I know that "2nd homes" pretty much nix getting any grants/aid federally and that would be a complete deal-breaker for us since DS1 is a HS junior and DS2 is a freshman, so college expenses are coming.

Oh we have debated all this and more. Pulled our hair out and then some. We owned DVC ran, parks, and more when they are young. Sold and thought all done. Well… a short few years later here we are owners, runners, and all. It’s a blast to be honest. As for FAFSA we’ve never gotten much from it. Honestly, in our opinion it’s a joke. I work my can off to make as much as I possibly can for our retirement. 70 hours a week. For our hard work our kids get zero to nothing. I’m struggling to understand how my success-pound of flesh has anything to do with my kids. To narrow it down… if you can buy DVC you’re not likely to see much on your fafsa anyways. They even want your total assets including retirement totals

 

[Onceuponamarathon]

A few things not mentioned yet:
1. The rental price per point will likely increase over time. This rental increase is also likely to be a lot more than any sort of due increases (a portion of which you can write off on taxes as they are Florida property taxes).
2. Logistics are a little easier. When you own the points you can waitlist. If you book a trip and later on grandparents want to join, you can swap to another resort with bigger rooms. If you decide you want two trips instead of one, you can move your 1st reservation to a cheaper point cost hotel and book a second one. If you have to cancel a trip you can. Etc.
3. Equity. You shouldn’t consider DVC a investment. That being said, there is a residual value of DVC contracts that you obviously don’t get when you rent points. You can also leave the contracts children/heirs.
4. Ability to rent points out yourself. Or bank to another year.

Things to be aware of:
1. Cost. It’s expensive.
2. Annual Passes. They are not for sale right now. I think ultimately in the course of the decades you will have the contract annual passes will come back, but that doesn’t change the “gotcha” of having high ticket and park prices with no AP option right now.
3. Resale/direct restrictions are frustrating

Extra Points:
1. When paying cash (either DVC rental or disney hotel), it often became a discussion of “do we want to spend this money on a disney trip or do we want to spend it on somewhere else”. And it got really frustrating to want Disney but also feel like we couldn’t fit in other places as well. Now that we have DVC, our bill for the hotel is 0 dollars when we check out. We pay dues once a year and it’s not part of our “vacation budget”. That means our actual vacation budget goes a lot farther, leaving more money to spend on other non-disney things. I know long term the math is more fuzzy, but psychologically I was surprised what a difference it made. This also means deciding to add another race weekend is less of a big deal in terms of family budgeting and finances.

 

[garneska]

I want to share my opinion. It is just that, an opinion. First I am NOT a DVC owner. I did look into back in 2003 or 2005 sometime around then. Benefits were different and if you bought resale you still got all the perks of buying direct. We sat through the disney presentation about how you can finance and it makes financial sense. First off I do understand money and i am a cheap person. I loved Disney and back then we took 2 to 3 disney vacations a year.

I could not make the math work if you had to finance. Short answer if you don't have the cash to buy the contract i would NOT do it. I will say it again without looking at anyone's pocket book. If you have to finance your purchase of DVC the answer is it does not make financial sense to do it. The other thing we determined at that time was it did not make sense to buy direct. Had I done it, i would have bought resale.

Now 20 years later and still no kids, we no longer make 2 or 3 visits to disney a year. I still do marathon weekend, but i have finally found other things i want to do. We do go to Disney multiple times a year but that is when i can get good rates and have an AP. I just look at the math and see what works. Because of this i am very glad i did not spend my money on DVC. The other way to break even is to take your disney vacation as much as possible and i am happy my money is not tied up there. I know some people really love disney and feel like they will never go anywhere else, and yes 20 years ago i was that person. Then things change and I am glad i did not buy into DVC.

@striker1064 that was some great stuff. You nailed all of it and made me feel better about the decision not to buy.

 

[supersnoop]

1. The rental price per point will likely increase over time. This rental increase is also likely to be a lot more than any sort of due increases (a portion of which you can write off on taxes as they are Florida property taxes).

With the higher standard deduction and low SALT limit, very few people will be able to write off the property taxes. With property taxes on a 150 point contract at around $230, you might save $65/year if you qualify to write off the taxes.

 

[Kerry1957]

I also looked at DVC and for us, it just did not make financial sense. Disney would think I am a great candidate; I am blessed with high disposable income and our family has gone to Disney 3+ times a year for the past 15+ years. The issue for us is that we either stay at Pop, or more frequently, one of the Marriott properties at Flamingo Crossings. My relatively quick calculations (given my MBA in Finance) indicated that when all is said and done, DVC offered a reasonable per night discount compared to rack rates at Deluxe rooms. But since we do not choose to stay in Deluxe rooms on property the per night cost was significantly higher than value or moderate rooms. We are certainly comfortable at Marriot locations as I have well over 1,000 lifetime nights with the chain in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

So after all that, my opinion is that if you envision staying at WDW Deluxe hotels for the next 15-20 years, then DVC should certainly be a consideration. If you are more a value, moderate, or off-site renter, then DVC is probably not for you. I like your idea of renting points when you can get a decent deal.

 

[FrannyFrogs]

We bought a resale DVC membership two years ago. I calculated that, with original purchase price and current dues, we have paid about $10.50 per point. Current rentals are about $20pp? If you're renting DVC every year maybe it makes sense to buy resale!