What It's Like to Buy DVC
The Speedway
This is a post about the process of buying a real estate ownership interest via Disney Vacation Club.
I’ve previously written “Why DVC” here and here. Disclaimer: Some of the information may not be current.
Though I want to be helpful, I’m intentionally not recommending whether to buy.
What Do I Know?
I think I’m obligated to sketch out my expertise in this area. I’m anonymous, and the fact that I bought a logo and created a few accounts doesn’t tell you much. My wife, Mrs. DVC Dad, and I are the owners of three DVC contracts totaling between 500 and 600 points—I don’t know why, but I’d like to keep the precise number to myself—at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, the Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, and Disney’s Riviera Resort. We bought at Polynesian in 2017, one year after that contract went up for sale, and therefore we have a 49-year contract there. We bought at Copper Creek and Riviera in the years those contracts went up for sale and, therefore, they span 50 years. This may be the first useful piece of information in your decision-making: The contract end date for each property is the same for every owner, no matter when they bought.
In terms of the experience, we bought our first contract over the phone, totally sight unseen. We had vacationed in Florida as a family, with just one toddler at the time, and after spending exactly one day in Magic Kingdom we knew becoming a Disney family was for us. I can’t explain it—it just happened. In any case, as soon as we returned home, we called DVC and bought our first contract. It was 2017, and it wasn’t hard to use the internet to figure out Disney’s Polynesian Village is an amazing resort that doesn’t require much vetting. When the Copper Creek Villas contract went up for sale, we bought there sight unseen as well. By then, we had Kid 2 and had already had an amazing experience staying at the Polynesian. We knew we wanted more Disney, enough points to bring family and friends when possible, and a more diversified experience. Also, as DVC contracts are transferable, we wanted to have one contract to give each kid when they become adults. Ultimately, we repeated this act a third time with the Riviera contract. That one is ours for life. For what it’s worth, we did all three of these transactions with the same DVC “Guide,” who really has gotten to know us well. I’ll dig into some of the details below.
The Process
Primary v. resale market
There are two ways to buy DVC contracts: directly from Disney via Disney Vacation Development (DVD), Inc., or on the resale market. I can only discuss the direct sales process. I will note, however, a common misperception is that buying on the resale market is “cheaper” because the sticker price is lower. It’s more accurate to say it may be cheaper. It’s not necessarily cheaper, however, because any contract you buy on the resale market will have significantly less than 50 years of useful life and a much lower residual value. Whether it’s actually cheaper depends on amortization, which is a calculation that depends on purchase price, the interest rate you pay (if any) vis-a-vis the prevailing market interest rate, and the residual value of the contract—how much it’s worth if you wish to sell before it expires. Is a contract that will expire in 20 years really cheaper than one that will expire in 45 years? Maybe, but you have to do the calculation.
That DVC contracts have a robust resale (a.k.a. secondary) market is undoubtedly a good thing, as you can easily divest of your ownership should you need or want to. Having full-length contracts we can hand down was important to us, as was the relative ease of buying directly. Another nontrivial benefit of buying directly is you will have the same use year for your points, no matter what, if you end up buying multiple contracts. This is very important when combining contracts for larger villas and/or longer stays.
Buying DVC really is a real estate transaction, and so there’s a closing date (and closing costs). If you buy directly from Disney, closing happens very quickly. I can’t remember precisely how quickly, so I won’t venture a guess. If you buy on the resale market, however, it will take at least 60-90 days to close. Part of the delay is that Disney has the right of first refusal on all contracts sold on the secondary market. This is another good thing for owners—if you need to get out of DVC, Disney is a potential buyer.
Gathering the information
Despite there being hundreds of thousands of DVC owners—I couldn’t find a precise figure or reliable estimate—I really don’t know how unusual we are for buying sight unseen. I do know, however, most people understandably can’t wrap their head around this when we tell them. So, I now recommend everyone visit DVC kiosks in Disney parks or in Disney hotel lobbies. You will get a sense of what the villas offer and what amenities you can expect at Disney’s deluxe resort hotels. A DVC Cast Member (CM) will gladly take you on a tour of the latest offerings via complementary shuttle. If you want to crunch numbers, a CM will sit down with you in an office and discuss how many points you might want to buy based on your expressed needs—how often you want to visit WDW or Disneyland Resort (DLR), how many people are usually in your travel party, what time of year you like to vacation, etc. If you wish to proceed, the CM will tell you what to expect in terms of down payment, monthly mortgage payments (if financing), annual dues, and closing date. Annual dues pay for property taxes, maintenance, and CM salaries and wages. Financing is subject to credit approval and, as always, your interest rate will be determined by the size of your down payment, the length of the loan, the prevailing market interest rate, and your credit score. This is true, of course, whether you finance via Disney or a third party. If you buy over the phone as opposed to in-person, the process goes exactly the same way.
This is important, especially if you’ve subjected yourself to timeshare presentations in the past: You will never be asked to buy. Not only are there no hard sales tactics with DVC, there are essentially no sales tactics period. It’s a purely informational experience. In fact, we’ve since taken tours of all three properties where we own—as owners! Disney didn’t care at all that there was essentially no chance a sale would result from the tour. I say “essentially” no chance because there’s always a chance an owner will add to their ownership interest.
Making the purchase
Whether over the phone or in-person, you can pay the down payment via credit card. I didn’t ask, but a cash wire is probably another option. If you have a Disney Visa credit card and are buying DVC directly from Disney, the down payment counts as a “vacation package” and, as of this writing, you can pay it off at 0% interest over six months. (This isn’t relevant, but I will note I use the credit card merely for points and pay off the balance every month.) If in-person, you will be provided a contract and disclosures to sign. As in any real estate transaction, there are multiple places to sign. You will need a government-issued photo ID to confirm your identity, too. It’s much less daunting than signing the documents for a 15- or 30-year mortgage on a primary residence, however. It takes just a few minutes. If you’re buying remotely, Disney will send you the documents. Some of them require that you get them notarized. I had the documents notarized at a UPS Store so that I could easily return them from there. For what it’s worth, Disney provided the return shipping envelope and label. Also, the flags telling us where to sign had a Mickey icon on them. And we got a DVC canvas bag or backpack sent to us—each time.
Though I don’t recall how quickly closing occurred, I can confirm I received an email with the subject line “Welcome to Disney Vacation Club!” the very next day after making the down payment on the first contract. The email contained our Membership Number and instructions for setting up our Disney Vacation Club account. We were able to make our first reservation after the transaction closed. Pro tip: By the time we wanted to make our first reservation for just a few months later, the Polynesian was (of course) fully booked. So we called DVC Member Services, and they worked their magic since it was our very first “Welcome Home.”
Is it Worth It?
Though I didn’t write this post with the intention of doing a pros/cons assessment, I do feel it’s incomplete without saying whether buying DVC has worked for us. I conspicuously still have not written Part 3 (Value) in my “Why DVC” series as, in January 2021, it became clear that Disney’s recovery from the pandemic would take much longer than the several months timeframe a lot of us hoped for. It also became clear a lot about the experience would change along the way. I still think it’s too early to take a hardcore analytical approach to this. I will share two thoughts, however.
First, is buying DVC ever going to be cheaper than staying off-property or at one of Disney’s value or moderate resort hotels? No. Of course not! Buying DVC is buying access to Disney’s deluxe resort hotels. If financial savings is one of your goals, the appropriate comparison is to the cash rate for staying at Disney’s deluxe resort hotels. If you use DVC points strategically, it’s very easy to achieve the discount of “up to 50%” that Disney advertises. You even can turn unused DVC points into an income stream, by renting them out.
More importantly, as you’ll recall, we didn’t buy DVC to save money. We bought it to have a great time and make indelible memories multiple times a year, year after year. And we have done that in spades. Since January 2018, our investment has provided us a total of 75 room nights either in Disney’s deluxe resort hotels or on the amazing Disney Wish. Incredibly, we have provided an additional 22 room nights to friends and family who have joined us. In addition to our three home resorts, we’ve stayed in Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, and Disney’s Old Key West Resort. We’ve stayed in every room type except 2BR, and even stayed in the utterly incredible 3BR grand villa at Copper Creek. We literally have not had a bad time yet, and we love to relive the memories in photo streams. One day I’ll do an actual financial calculation on the value of our investment, for my own information, but it literally doesn’t matter.
Editor’s Note: This post, as is the case with all my posts, is very much WDW centric. After publication, I was informed by a frequent visitor to the Disneyland Resort that DVC kiosks may not be as well staffed there. If so, I highly recommend calling DVC and arranging a meeting with a CM on property. I’m confident you’ll be accommodated.
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