# DVC ownership questions



## jdiepm (Dec 17, 2013)

Im sorry if many of these questions have been asked before and if anyone wants to post a link to all the answers and more i greatly appreciate it. 
Im a lot more familiar with the wyndham system as i have been researching it for the longest time (but have yet to buy) and the Starwood systems as my inlaws are owners.

My husband, brother in law and father in law are thinking about purchasing at Grand Floridian, they would want enough points to do a 3 bedroom every other year. Here are my questions.

1) is there a limit to the amount of names on a deed?

2) Is it the same as the other systems where you can bank and borrow points from the year prior and the next year? (we would only be going every other year) 

3) looking at resales, they seem to hold there values pretty well. Is there any benefits to buying directly from the developer? or are there any perks that dont transfer when you buy resale? 

4) Do i get anything more then priority booking at my home resort if i purchase at GF or are pretty much all points treated equally regardless of where your home resort is? 

Thanks for your help guys.


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## presley (Dec 17, 2013)

1.)  No.
2.)  Yes.  You can bank and borrow + or - one year with no fees.
3.)  Buying resale is the best way to go, but it will be very difficult to find resales for Grand Floridian.  The only benefits you lose are the ability to trade your points for cruises, adventures by disney and their "concierge" (expensive hotels) collection and any Disney Hotel.  All those things are less expensive when paid for by cash anyway.
4.)  You will only get home booking priority - 11 month booking window, to your home resort.  Otherwise, all DVC points are treated equally with booking beginning at 7 months out.

If you really want a 3bedroom at GF every other year, you are going to need to buy there.  It will cost a fortune, but at least you will get what you want.

DVCnews.com is a great site for looking at pricing/point charts, etc.
Mouseowners.com is a great site for discussion with DVC owners.


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## vacationhopeful (Dec 17, 2013)

jdiepm said:


> ...
> 
> My husband, brother in law and father in law are thinking about purchasing at Grand Floridian, they would want enough points to do a 3 bedroom every other year....
> 
> Thanks for your help guys.



Okay IMHO - that would be a mess - who is fronting the "buy in" cash for this?

If YOU and your DH love DVC, buy your OWN points package and plan your own every other year trip. Remember, DVC points can be use as "last year, current year and NEXT year".

*If you decide YOU want to go with FIL, transfer points to them *- YOU in year X, your BIL in year Y ... then EVERYBODY has there own pile of DVC and FIL can play HOST with getting the unit.

All DVC members can ONCE A YEAR, either transfer IN or OUT points - retaining their CLUB MEMBERSHIP --- yes, you would have to BUY Grand Floridain ... but your would control your costs and get your own DVC privilages.


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## MichaelColey (Dec 17, 2013)

presley said:


> If you really want a 3bedroom at GF every other year, you are going to need to buy there.  It will cost a fortune, but at least you will get what you want.


Isn't that the truth!  Grand Floridian ranges from 824 to 1419 points for a week in a 3BR.  If you figure 500 points/year and a purchase cost of $120 (is it that cheap?) and MF of $5 (is GF that cheap?) and going a week every other year, that's $60k upfront and $2.5k/year ($5k/visit).  The effective cost would be closer to $10k/visit when you factor in the upfront costs.

I've never seen the appeal of the 3BR units (relative to the points they take).  It takes less points to get TWO 2BR units, and those are much, much easier to get.


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## jdiepm (Dec 17, 2013)

vacationhopeful said:


> Okay IMHO - that would be a mess - who is fronting the "buy in" cash for this?
> 
> If YOU and your DH love DVC, buy your OWN points package and plan your own every other year trip. Remember, DVC points can be use as "last year, current year and NEXT year".
> 
> ...



The cost would be split 3 ways. The reason for the share would be so everyone gets together and goes together every other year. My FIL are a big disney loving family and usually go every year. This way we get to share space which we prefer for childcare reasons. 
Not 100% sure what you mean with the transferring points thing but im sure it will become clearer the more i research.


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## jdiepm (Dec 17, 2013)

MichaelColey said:


> Isn't that the truth!  Grand Floridian ranges from 824 to 1419 points for a week in a 3BR.  If you figure 500 points/year and a purchase cost of $120 (is it that cheap?) and MF of $5 (is GF that cheap?) and going a week every other year, that's $60k upfront and $2.5k/year ($5k/visit).  The effective cost would be closer to $10k/visit when you factor in the upfront costs.
> 
> I've never seen the appeal of the 3BR units (relative to the points they take).  It takes less points to get TWO 2BR units, and those are much, much easier to get.



we just received the sales catalog yesterday and points are now $150 per point, MFs are around $5ish. It a really high upfront cost, and beside guaranteeing my family a big dose of mickey every two years there doesn't seem to be much other benefits, 10% off here and there. I havent seen any print showing discounts on dining plans or park tickets.


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## vacationhopeful (Dec 17, 2013)

jdiepm said:


> ....Not 100% sure what you mean with the transferring points thing but im sure it will become clearer the more i research.



You own your own DVC Grand Floridian points - 500 points.
Your BIL owns his GF 500 points.
You FIL owns his GF 500 points.

IF you do the transfer point - you would have to BUY every other year points - any NOT all the same ODD/EVEN.

All ownerships within the family have the SAME USE YEAR.

You transfer your 2013 points for the upcoming 2014 reservation (473 points) to your FIL account.
Next year, your BIL transfers his 2014 reservation points (473) to FIL's DVC account.

FIL make the reservation using all 3 sets of points - no money changes hands, no issues with anything between you all. 

You have 27 DVC (2013 points) points to "play" with in addition to your 500 2014 points.
Your BIL has his left over 27 DVC (2014 points) plus his 2013 points to use.

Each family unit pays there OWN MFs, has access to other DVC reservations and there is NO, "those are my leftover points AND you use them AND I had paid the MFs on them AND FIL/MIL should NEVER have left them in the WILL to you" crap.


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## slum808 (Dec 17, 2013)

Why not do BLT instead? You could buy resale points for about $95/pt and points/night are about 25% less than GF.


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## chalee94 (Dec 17, 2013)

vacationhopeful said:


> Okay IMHO - that would be a mess...



Agree.  OP should keep in mind that if one of the parties gets into financial trouble or a conflict develops, you would all be screwed.


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## presley (Dec 17, 2013)

jdiepm said:


> The cost would be split 3 ways. The reason for the share would be so everyone gets together and goes together every other year. My FIL are a big disney loving family and usually go every year. This way we get to share space which we prefer for childcare reasons.



If someone gets sick/hurt at the last minute and can't make the trip, are the rest of you going to subsidize the cost?  

I think it's great that you want to vacation with your extended family every other year.  My experience with getting larger rooms for extended family is that there is always an unforeseen circumstance.  I literally mean, always.  In our case, it's our (my husband and I) loss since we don't charge family for the rooms.  

You could save money by buying a different resort, but it would be nearly impossible to get a 3 bedroom unit at GF.  How important is GF to you?  If you would be happy with 2, 2bedroom units, or even a 3 bedroom treehouse unit at SSR, you could cut your purchase price in half.  Some people prefer staying at same resort all the time because it feels more like a vacation home.  

Where have you been staying when you visit WDW?  Has it always been GF?  There's always the option of a 2 bedroom unit with the rest of the family staying in the Hotel.  Everyone could still use the DVC room for cooking/eating.


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## stanleyu (Dec 17, 2013)

Regardless of exactly how many points you decide you need I would strongly recommend two or even three separate contracts.
- If you should decide to sell, smaller contracts are much easier to move - and typically at a higher per-point price.
- You can NOT split a contract. So if you ever decide to go it alone you can easily divvy up three small ones


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## MichaelColey (Dec 17, 2013)

If you're considering a 3BR Grand Floridian unit, price is probably not a factor at all.  But if it is, keep in mind that you could rent a 3 BR (or 4-6 BR!) house near Disney EVERY YEAR for less than half of what you would pay in MFs on the GF (and no $60k upfront cost!).  If family sizes change or someone isn't able to make it, you could easily adjust each year.

Like others who have responded, I can just see this turning into a very expensive mistake.  A lot can change every two years.


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## fluke (Dec 17, 2013)

I would agree with the above posters that it is very expensive and has potential problems.

But if this is what you and your extended family intend to do there is only one way to really do it - buy the Grand Floridian points directly from Disney.  Determine the time of year and point cost and then half that for your purchase for every other year trip.

Be aware that point systems don't work that well for people doing what you are proposing to do.  And allocations of points can change for specific seasons (the total year is fixed). Disney does sell fixed weeks at VGF for an additional upfront fee.  But I have never heard of them selling every other year fixed weeks.  But if you have the financial means and determination you could attempt to go that route.


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## jdiepm (Dec 17, 2013)

I really didnt consider how potentially messy this could get but i also didnt realize that you could transfer points to another DVC member. It definitely makes more sense to get our own contracts. That said, if i buy my points resale at say BLT (im more a resale kind of girl) and my inlaws bought GF points, if we transferred our points to them would they still have priority booking at GF?
Of the last five times (in the past 5 years) we've been to Disney, we've stayed at the Grand Floridian 3 times (Once at Port Orleans Riverside and once at Bonnet Creek). GF is definitely the families favorite resort, they like the boat/monorail/bus options and it just smells amazing.


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## presley (Dec 17, 2013)

jdiepm said:


> I really didnt consider how potentially messy this could get but i also didnt realize that you could transfer points to another DVC member. It definitely makes more sense to get our own contracts. That said, if i buy my points resale at say BLT (im more a resale kind of girl) and my inlaws bought GF points, if we transferred our points to them would they still have priority booking at GF?
> Of the last five times (in the past 5 years) we've been to Disney, we've stayed at the Grand Floridian 3 times (Once at Port Orleans Riverside and once at Bonnet Creek). GF is definitely the families favorite resort, they like the boat/monorail/bus options and it just smells amazing.



No, transferring BLTpoints won't help.  Points will keep their original resort and use year.  Another thing to keep in mind is that each contract can make a transfer once per use year.  If you transfer your points to your father in law, that counts as each of yours one time.  Another brother couldn't transfer in to make a bigger pile.  On transfer per contract per use year.

Sounds like it will be worth it to you to buy at GF.  Since it is so new, it will be hard to find a resale.  Cost per point is going up to $155./per point in February.  If you decide to buy a smaller direct contract now and add on later when resales are easier to be found, choosing the same use year will allow the contracts to be combined into one membership as long as all deeds are the same.


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## mecllap (Dec 19, 2013)

jdiepm said:


> we just received the sales catalog yesterday and points are now $150 per point, MFs are around $5ish. It a really high upfront cost, and beside guaranteeing my family a big dose of mickey every two years there doesn't seem to be much other benefits, 10% off here and there. I havent seen any print showing discounts on dining plans or park tickets.



Have never seen any discounts on dining plans, or MYW park tickets.  There is usually an offer of $100 off an annual pass, but not other kinds of tix.  If you're only going for a week every other year, annual pass(es) won't work very well for you. 

The type of DVC purchase you're considering seems fraught with lots of difficulties.  mouseowners.com and the DVC section of disboards.com will give you lots of into to consider all the in and outs of how to meet your goal.  There are reliable places to rent points that might work better for you on a "pay as you go" basis, rather than a huge long-term financial commitment which has inheritance concerns.


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## AnnaS (Dec 20, 2013)

I agree with all the pp to really, really consider each family buying their own # of points.  If you are set on the Grand Floridian, also buy there and direct as of now.

Not based on my own experience but from what I have seen and heard from a few people I know, I would never buy something with someone else (condo, second home, home, timeshare, etc.).  Just my opinion.

Lifestyles change, relationship change, work obligations change, family health changes, etc. etc.  What is good/sounds good now - can change in a heartbeat.  You are not saving anything by buying together.  

If you plan on banking and borrowing - # of points needed and split it into three (three years worth) more or less.  I would even or add a few more to that total.  If your amount comes to 400 - I would also consider splitting your own contract into two 100 point contracts.  Much easier to sell smaller contracts if you needed to down the road.

Good luck with your decision.  Keep us posted and enjoy!


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## pnkrockprincess (Dec 27, 2013)

First, let me just say how totally jealous I am that your family is into Disney together!  My family thinks I'm a crazy person and my husband just tolerates me. 

In your shoes, I'd think very seriously about Bay Lake Tower!  It's our family's very favorite resort.  The proximity to MK, California Grill, the views of the fireworks..... It's just awesome.  You'd also be one monorail stop away from the Grand Floridian.  

Some math!

Let's just say you want to stay in Premier Season (Easter and Christmas) because that's the most points expensive season, I'm gonna base my calculations on that.

GF Grand Villa = 1419 points.  So, you'd have to buy 710 points to go every other year. 

710 x $150 a point = $106,500 

BLT Lake View Grand Villa = 1065 points.  So, you'd have to buy about 535 points.  

535 x $95 (resale) = $50,825

It's not just the price of the individual points that gets ya, it's the points inflation!  The GF points are not only the most expensive per point to buy, the rooms cost the most points.  

And, you could book a GF Grand Villa at 7 months with your BLT points, if one were available.  You'd have to own enough BLT points.  So, let's say you bought 710 of them.  710 x $95 = $67,450.  Still a huge savings, and you'd have enough to splurge on an MK view grand villa.  

If you went this route, you'd book your MK view grand villa at 11 months.  And then attempt to book the GF when it opened to you at 7 months.  You could even attempt "walking" the reservation (calling at 7 months plus 7 days and book the week ending the day you actually want to check in, then call back each morning for 7 days and add a day at the end and drop a day at the beginning.)  Or use the waitlist.  But then, if it doesn't work out, you have a grand villa at BLT with an MK view!  And $40,000 extra dollars!  Hardly settling.

I mean, if your hearts are SET on the GF, then you really must buy GF points.  I understand better than anyone that the heart wants what the heart wants.  People tried to talk me out of BLT when it opened, using the resale argument.  We bought direct at $107 a point and have never regretted it.  But at $150 a point, I might reconsider. And, the direct prices are going up to $155 in February.


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