SunsetMaven
TUG Member
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2015
- Messages
- 204
- Reaction score
- 50
- Points
- 138
- Resorts Owned
-
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Hyatt Beach House
Disney Bay Lake
Disney Animal Kingdom
Disney Grand Floridian
Background - we have owned a week at SBP for 6 or 7 years now (initially purchased for $0 off eBay) and use it as an Interval Trader. Thanks to the Sightings board, we trade into Westin Nanea, Four Seasons, NCV, Pulse, etc. And we enjoy occasional getaways (mud season @ Breck, off-season @ Orlando Marriott, etc.). It is worked out GREAT for us. Love it!
Recently, now that both our kiddos ski, we added a Hyatt Beach House platinum week ($4000 off eBay) primarily to trade into ski weeks in Colorado (we live in CO) and it has worked out tremendously well for us this season. Including our upfront purchase price (amortized over 10 years NPV0), we end up staying at Mountain Lodge and Breck Main St Station for $65/night. (Since we are local, we end up with a lot of last minute reservations.) Mind-blowing really! (Thanks @travelhacker for the encouragement and answering 1000 questions!)
In running a "gap analysis" for our family's travel style, I have always wanted a DVC and have done a ton of research but never could justify it until the last year now that our youngest one is old enough to enjoy WDW. But it still feels rather like an emotional purchase because it's tough to justify the numbers.
I'm posting here because many of you also own outside of DVC and understand the context of having II or RCI traders that give you nights at 5* resorts for ~$50-100/night (depending on your home resort MFs). For example, I just paid $400 for a getaway week in a 2 bd at the Marriot Harbour Lake!
So my questions:
1) Should I do it?
I am admittedly emotionally biased towards the ease of being in the DVC bubble (albeit the bubble is a bit less appealing now with Magical Express being discontinued and bags no longer going direct to resort).
Being on the monorail is a game changer with 2 young kids, but they won't be young forever nor will MK be our go-to forever.
I'm concerned that as the kids get into elementary school, we won't have as many opportunities to travel in the off season when we can get trades, and as much flexibility in traveling to sync up with availability. So owning at DVC plus planning 7-11 months ahead will allow us to get in when we want.
I'd like to purchase more points than what we need to rent the remainder to help pay for each year's DVC MFs. Seems like there's always a huge demand for point rentals whether going direct or through an intermediary like David's.
Locking up $30K is a big deal and if I can earn a decent amount of money on it, should we just rent points each year we want to splurge at a DVC instead? Downside is the lack of flexibility when working with another owner or intermediary.
I don't know how to determine residual value on our contract if we don't want to own at DVC anymore in 10-20 years.
2) If so - which resort?
My criteria for the DVC resort:
Just looking to bounce my thoughts off like-minded TS folks here on TUG. Any and all discussion welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!
Recently, now that both our kiddos ski, we added a Hyatt Beach House platinum week ($4000 off eBay) primarily to trade into ski weeks in Colorado (we live in CO) and it has worked out tremendously well for us this season. Including our upfront purchase price (amortized over 10 years NPV0), we end up staying at Mountain Lodge and Breck Main St Station for $65/night. (Since we are local, we end up with a lot of last minute reservations.) Mind-blowing really! (Thanks @travelhacker for the encouragement and answering 1000 questions!)
In running a "gap analysis" for our family's travel style, I have always wanted a DVC and have done a ton of research but never could justify it until the last year now that our youngest one is old enough to enjoy WDW. But it still feels rather like an emotional purchase because it's tough to justify the numbers.
I'm posting here because many of you also own outside of DVC and understand the context of having II or RCI traders that give you nights at 5* resorts for ~$50-100/night (depending on your home resort MFs). For example, I just paid $400 for a getaway week in a 2 bd at the Marriot Harbour Lake!
So my questions:
1) Should I do it?
I am admittedly emotionally biased towards the ease of being in the DVC bubble (albeit the bubble is a bit less appealing now with Magical Express being discontinued and bags no longer going direct to resort).
Being on the monorail is a game changer with 2 young kids, but they won't be young forever nor will MK be our go-to forever.
I'm concerned that as the kids get into elementary school, we won't have as many opportunities to travel in the off season when we can get trades, and as much flexibility in traveling to sync up with availability. So owning at DVC plus planning 7-11 months ahead will allow us to get in when we want.
I'd like to purchase more points than what we need to rent the remainder to help pay for each year's DVC MFs. Seems like there's always a huge demand for point rentals whether going direct or through an intermediary like David's.
Locking up $30K is a big deal and if I can earn a decent amount of money on it, should we just rent points each year we want to splurge at a DVC instead? Downside is the lack of flexibility when working with another owner or intermediary.
I don't know how to determine residual value on our contract if we don't want to own at DVC anymore in 10-20 years.
2) If so - which resort?
My criteria for the DVC resort:
- Home resort is a popular place for point renters
- Home resort is somewhere we want to go that usually doesn’t come up at the 7 month mark
- Longer life of contract remaining
- MFs increases have been stable and will continue to likely be stable
Just looking to bounce my thoughts off like-minded TS folks here on TUG. Any and all discussion welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!