# Considering First Purchase



## Prayme36 (Aug 13, 2013)

We are looking to purchase a resale of either points or deeded property.  Ideally we would like to have access EOY to one of the resorts in Orlando, Florida.  We are a young family of 4, with two small children so at least a 2 bedroom is a must.  We know that we would use an Orlando area resort for at least the next 10-12 years until our kids are older.  It is then that we would like the flexibility of exchanging that property for other locations once we are KID FREE!!  

I guess I'm hoping some current DRI owners can give insight as to what they believe would suit our family's needs the best.  We've been reading several threads on here, have begun looking at resales that are available but, ultimately want to make sure we've considered all options before taking the leap.

Any tips, tricks, specifics to our situation that we should consider would be most helpful.  We appreciate any and all feedback.  Thank you in advance!


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## dougp26364 (Aug 13, 2013)

I'd recommend Hilton Grand Vacation Club before DRI. HGVC has some great resorts, lower MF's and they treat resale owners nearly as we'll as those who but direct. HGVC also is more likely to have some residual value if you ever want to sell. 

DRI's trusts management fees are to high, points buyers have some pretty severe restrictions on them, deeded week buyers have to pay high fees to join THE Club and there is little resale value when it comes time to get ripped of the product. 

DRI has a very nice product but you pretty much have to buy direct to get the value out of it. HGVC is a LOT more friendly to all it's owners, includinfpg resale buyers. It's probably why resale HGVC weeks cost considerably more than DRI resale weeks


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## Rent_Share (Aug 13, 2013)

because Hilton doesn't do everything in it's power to make sure re-sales are worthless like Clooberg


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## Bill4728 (Aug 13, 2013)

Have you read the FAQ for DRI on the website?  DRI FAQ

In it it explains that if you buy resale, You can buy the "US collection trust" at pennies /$ and use it to get point reservations at any of the 30 + resorts in the US collection ( including Orlando). 

BUT I agree the MFs seem high to me and when you are done and want to sell selling DRI is difficult.


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## GeraldineT (Aug 13, 2013)

Have you looked at Wyndham.   We own bonnet creek and the resort is super kid friendly.   Waterslides, spraygrounds, lazy rivers, playground, mini golf and a ton of family/kid activities.


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## Prayme36 (Aug 14, 2013)

Wyndham is one of the others that we would strongly consider.  For what we want, 2 bd/2ba EOY, what would be the ideal amount of points to buy?  I apologize if these questions are annoying.  I am trying to do research on my own by reading the FAQ pages and many of the threads.  Most of those threads start to go WAY over my head.  We just want something simple - for now we won't be renting, exchanging, etc... We do want our purchase to have moderate exchange value for the future.


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## SMHarman (Aug 14, 2013)

Prayme36 said:


> We are looking to purchase a resale of either points or deeded property.  Ideally we would like to have access EOY to one of the resorts in Orlando, Florida.  We are a young family of 4, with two small children so at least a 2 bedroom is a must.  We know that we would use an Orlando area resort for at least the next 10-12 years until our kids are older.  It is then that we would like the flexibility of exchanging that property for other locations once we are KID FREE!!
> 
> I guess I'm hoping some current DRI owners can give insight as to what they believe would suit our family's needs the best.  We've been reading several threads on here, have begun looking at resales that are available but, ultimately want to make sure we've considered all options before taking the leap.
> 
> Any tips, tricks, specifics to our situation that we should consider would be most helpful.  We appreciate any and all feedback.  Thank you in advance!



Have you considered the Starwood resorts?
They have 4 in Florida. Vistana Villages (Bella and Key West phases only) comes with mandatory membership of their star options exchange scheme (this is a good thing) so when you are done you can exchange for the other 19 properties in the system. 
Vistana Villages
http://www.starwoodvacationnetwork.com/sheraton-vistana-villages/
Network
http://www.starwoodvacationnetwork.com/villa-collection/

That purchase would gives you four places to visit in Florida, not just Orlando every year until the kids are grown.


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## gjw007 (Aug 14, 2013)

I would look at the various system out there and from that, make a decision.  To do it right, you would probably need 6 months of research.  You can probably get the information sooner but it takes time to absorb and understand.

DRI has some advantages.  The fees are high but if you exchange within the system, you have no other charges.  You also never have any house keeping or a cost to make reservations or change reservations.  If you go with Wyndham, you could be nickeled and dimed to death ( transaction fees, house keeping credits) if you go over an allocation they give ( this will be especially true if you take short vacations or travel from mid week to mid week or need to make changes to your reservations).  One nice thing about Wyndham is that you get 100% return of your points if you cancel 15 days or more from the start of your vacation.  Many other systems require 60 or 90 days although I understand in Wyndham, canceled points have some restrictions whereas in other systems they go back to the original pool of points.

You could purchase an RCI resort (doesnt have to be in Orlando) but you also need to consider that An RCI points resort forces you to have membership in RCI with an exchange fee for every vacation made ( this is on top of your maintenance fees, the  RCI yearly membership fee, and if you take vacation 6 days or less possible house cleaning fees).  Note there is a difference in rci points accounts and rci weeks accounts so you would need to understand which one you are looking at.

I would check where you want to vacation, see what is there, learn the ins-and-outs of the various systems before making a decision.


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## csalter2 (Aug 14, 2013)

*DRI is not bad*

I see that others have shared their personal favorites. However, you asked about DRI and I will share with you the advantages and diadvantages with DRI from my perspective. 

First, I will mention the disadvantage which was discussed a bit already and that is the higher maintenance fees.  They are higher but not significantly in my opinion from what I have noticed.  However, I will say that I believe the reason for the higher fees is because there are a lot more locations in DRI's system than most of the other timeshare systems. This is how DRI is a bigh advantage than the other systems.  DRI's system includes resorts throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Austalia, and South America.  Thus, you can travel literally throughout the world and not pay an additional fee through II. It also means that you should have some idea of what to expect in the DRI resorts wherever you go.  The resorts in Europe are quite nice.  The other positive with DRI is that when you do use II, you will use less DRI points for exchanges than if you were to use points for regular in house reservations. The trade off is the II fees would have to pay, but the ability to stretch points is there.

Making reservations is quite easy with DRI. It can be done easily online as can be payments for maintenance fees or mortgage payments if you have them. 

If you are just going to Orlando and that is all, then I would suggest you buy a week or two resale and it probably won't make much of a difference wherever you buy. However, if you want to see the world, DRI is a good system for that.


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## TheWizz (Aug 19, 2013)

I have Elite memberships with both DRI and HGVC, and own some RCI Weeks and Points resorts.  Before I bought any of these I did a lot of investigating into the most popular systems out there.  I am Elite in both systems from a time past when you could "buy into" Elite via resale.  Those days are mostly gone.  

I can use my DRI Club Points at any of the 300+ DRI owned/affiliated resorts.  If you buy resale now, you would only have access to that deeded resort or the US Collection resorts (30?) if you bought resale points from a FLA resort.  I used to have some DRI Points ownerships as well and gave them back a few years ago because (a) I couldn't sell them and (b) the MFs were rising SO much faster than my deeded weeks that I converted to points, but the MFs are still based upon the deeded weeks.  I still keep my DRI ownership because I find it a great compliment to my HGVC ownership since we enjoy Hawaii and DRI has resorts on Kauai and Maui and HGVC has resorts on Hawaii and Oahu.  Also DRI gives me access to Interval and HGVC gives me access to RCI.  

But if I was going to focus on FLA, I would recommend HGVC.  I think it is a better org and has lower MFs.  You have several places to choose in FLA as well as many others around the globe and hundreds more if you wanted to convert your HGVC points to RCI.  Best of luck in your choice and whatever you choose, I'd recommend a lot of research on TUG and other places before deciding what's best for you and your family.


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