What is DVC thinking raising the price?

[Olaf]

I just popped over to The Timeshare Store and I've never seen so many resales. Is it really prudent for DVC to be raising the prices in this climate?

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Whatever the market takes.

 

[Steve@BWV]

As the member base expands so will the number of members who have decided to go in a different direction. A better gauge would be the percentage of points available in the resale market place.

Personally, I have always been amazed at how few points are available for resale. We recently added on and could not find a suitable contract via resale. We ended up paying Disney prices (over $30 more a point than our first contract!)

 

[DebbieB]

As long as they are selling the new resorts, they will charge what they can. Now they have a new exciting resort (AKV) that probably will not be available on the resale market for awhile. If sales start to slow, they will offer a promotion.

 

[mrsR123]

There's also the possibility of members dumping older contracts to liquidate cash for contracts at AKV, or in the hopes of CRV. (It seems a bit early for the latter, however.)

 

[GEB@okw]

Remeber that building and all other costs keep going up. Thats what you are paying for.

 

[iloveokw]

DVC isn't selling resales - members are and people are still buying direct from DVC.

 

[Granny]

I just popped over to The Timeshare Store and I've never seen so many resales. Is it really prudent for DVC to be raising the prices in this climate?

Keep in mind that it is a relatively small percentage of DVC prospective buyers who frequent sites like this and even are aware of the resale market.

I'm sure that the internet has done a tremendous job of spreading the word but many people don't think of even looking at the resale market when they take the DVC tour.

 

[DisneyDVCdad]

When my family bought into SSR about 4 years ago we were not aware of this web site or the resale market! If we would have, we might have done things a little different

 

[crisi]

DVC has proved a few times that they make their plans so they can scale to the market. Vero Beach was supposed to be larger - when it sold poorly, it got scaled back. SSR could have remained one or two phases if sales were disappointed.

If sales are disappointing, they will scale back and/or offer promotions.

 

[PamOKW]

As others have said, the resale market doesn't have any bearing on what DVC charges. DVC charges what people who walk through their door will pay. If the price point slows sales, they offer "incentives" for a limited time rather than lower the price.

DVC is 15+ -- many of the orginal owners were 50+ when they purchased. Points could be becoming parts of estates at a greater rate than in the past. Hard as it is to believe, people who inherit the points may choose to sell. Or it may be too complicated for a large family to figure out how to "share" the points and the fees. Life changes always seem to be the greatest incentive for sales.

 

[ADP]

As long as Disney World continues to attract the crowds it does and guests continue to sign up for the tours with limited sales and marketing intervention from DVC and Disney then the prices will continue to go up.

Even in these tougher economic climates guests, and non-guests for that matter, are still buying DVC points. DVC can't really be looked at as a traditional timeshare because of the popularity of Disney World. Quite honestly and with no disrespect to the DVC sales force, my dog could sell DVC. (ok, I don't really have a dog, but if I did it could sell DVC points). In most cases, DVC sells itself because the program is that good.

 

[Olaf]

I understand and agree with most of the points you guys have made, but at some point the law of supply and demand has to kick in. There are contracts that have been at The Timeshare Store for some time now. I don't check it everyday, but it used to be that the BCV contracts were grabbed immediately. And I can't believe the number of SSR contracts over there (yes, I know, it's a big resort). I'm assuming that most of those people are taking a bath.

I guess it remains to be seen whether or not the prices will increase over there after the prices at Disney increase. But, by the looks of it, they're not moving all that fast at these prices.

 

[jade1]

It would be intersting to see how many points per month are purchased from resale compared to DVC direct. Maybe its insignificant?

 

[dannyh23]

Yes, lots of resales are available -- but you do have to remember there are over 100,000 members at this point, even if there were 1,000 contracts waiting at TSS, that would still overall be a very, very low percentage of members wanting to sell! Maybe some are "commercial renters", maybe a member died, divorced, needs to pay off debt, etc.

You could even say that if DVC raises the price, it makes the resales look even more attactive -- assuming they can still pass ROFR at those rates.

In terms of BCV, they aren't creating new points out of thin air -- the supply has remained the same since the start date. Even if the BCV resale price goes down to $2 per point sometime in the future, I don't care... I didn't buy DVC as an investment, I bought it prepay our rooms for the new few decades. For us, DVC membership has already paid for itself -- AND -- we could still sell it today for more than we paid for it.

 

[eliza61]

Keep in mind that it is a relatively small percentage of DVC prospective buyers who frequent sites like this and even are aware of the resale market.

I'm sure that the internet has done a tremendous job of spreading the word but many people don't think of even looking at the resale market when they take the DVC tour.

Most definitely true! We had no idea of timeshare resales when we decided to purchase, not sure if that would have made a difference but had we known we would have definitely check it out.

 

[Amy5000]

You know, I've noticed that a lot of resales entered the market this month and I kept wondering if it was a lot of smokers selling in light of the new non-smoking policy...

 

[jarestel]

You know, I've noticed that a lot of resales entered the market this month and I kept wondering if it was a lot of smokers selling in light of the new non-smoking policy...

The beauty of this, even if true which I would doubt, is that Disney has no horse in the race and won't even notice. If an owner wants to sell, the burden of finding a buyer is all on the owner. The "new" owner simply replaces the previous one and as far as Disney is concerned all is well. Dues continue to get paid exactly as before and Disney/DVC is impacted nada!

 

[lisaviolet]

Things aren't always as they seem. Last year I was one of those contracts listed. Only selling to buy more points at a different resort. So I laugh, I sell and Disney gets even more sales from me. Ie. I own two contracts but Disney has sold me three!

 

[dannyh23]

Things aren't always as they seem. Last year I was one of those contracts listed. Only selling to buy more points at a different resort. So I laugh, I sell and Disney gets even more sales from me. Ie. I own two contracts but Disney has sold me three!

Thats right! Some of those people may be selling their BCV or SSR points for Animal Kingdom points -- the number of extra years can make a really big difference!