It would be really hard, if not impossible, the way things are working today, for a developer purchase to pay off in the long run. There's a lot of history - from contracts miscoded to special conversion options from weekly contracts to points (no longer available) to how resale points received VIP benefits in an account (not longer happening). Lots of history and options that just aren't there anymore.
There are owners who have both resale and developer points. They have to choose which points they want to use when making the reservation. They have found that if they switch back and forth between them for the same resort and same dates, they find different rooms available. Sometimes there are no rooms available for resale points and then available rooms for developer points and vice versa.
Really? I have a hybrid account (developer and resale) - I don't think I've found different availability based on the type of points I'm using. UNLESS I'm trying to book at a home resort at 15 months or whatever that number is, or using ARP, things that require me to use developer vs resale points. Where, IMO, it's valid that only my developer points allow me to book something.
There are owners who with the discounts and upgrades have a 4 bedrooms presidential unit for as low as $50 a night if they have low maintenance fees.
Upgrades such as these are few and far between these days. They used to be easy peasy, not any more. Mostly not doable anymore due to system changes.
One thing that is key to your decision in purchasing resale, it the maintenance fee. It is likely not necessary to own at the resort you want to stay at. Unless you want a super hard to book place at a specific time of year, you can likely purchase a resale contract at a resort with lower maintenance fees - but stay at the resort of your choice. I own contracts at resorts I have never stayed at because the purchase made sense for me at the time (although I guess I've stayed at most of mine). For example, my father, foolishly (sorry Dad) purchased at Ocean Walk because it was his #1 favorite place. Unless you absolutely wanted Daytona Beach for the Daytona 500 or Bike Week, owning at Ocean Walk is completely unnecessary. And, BTW, you can still likely book those times in the under 10 month mark.
If you really were looking at the savings of a VIP developer contract, I think you need Gold or better PERMANENTLY. You'd need to figure the cost of purchasing 800K on up. Ideally platinum (1.4M). If you look at the cost of purchasing that, you'd turn and run as fast as you could. Bonus points entice you to purchase, enjoy the VIP perks, and in 2 years leave you standing with almost nothing (but the desire to get those benefits back (by purchasing more developer points)).
Does anyone think CWA is a better purchase than a deeded contract? I think CWA maintenance fees have gotten too high to justify a purchase (even resale, even if someone gave it to me, no thanks).
