After 25 years of helping families purchase DVC on the resale market, I can tell you that the buyers who do well are the ones who think through a handful of decisions before they start shopping. The buyers who struggle are the ones who jump at the first contract that looks like a deal without understanding what they are actually purchasing. This checklist covers every decision that matters, in the order you should think about them.
Start with What You Want to Book
Before you look at a single listing, you need to answer four questions. What room type does your family need? What time of year do you travel? How many nights per trip? And how often do you plan to go?
The answers change everything. A couple without kids might be perfectly comfortable in a studio, which is the cheapest option in points. A family of four needs a one-bedroom at minimum, and that costs roughly 50% more per night in points. A family of six or more needs a two-bedroom, which runs about double the studio cost. Grand Villas sleep 12 and cost triple or more.
Season matters just as much. A studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge might cost 10 points per night during value season (late January, early September) but 20 points per night during Christmas week. Same room, double the points. If you travel during peak season, you need significantly more points than someone who can go during slower months.
Here are some ballpark numbers to get you thinking:
- Couple in a studio, 5 nights, regular season: 60 to 85 points
- Family of 4 in a one-bedroom, 7 nights, regular season: 120 to 175 points
- Family of 6 in a two-bedroom, 7 nights, regular season: 180 to 280 points
- Studio during Christmas week, 7 nights: 100 to 150 points
Look at the actual DVC points charts for the room type you want, at the resort you prefer, during the season you travel. Not the cheapest option. The realistic one.
Choose Your Home Resort (This Matters More Than Price)
This is the single most important decision in your DVC purchase, and it is the one I see buyers get wrong most often.
Every DVC owner can book at any resort at the 7-month window. But at your home resort, you get an 11-month window. That four extra months of booking priority is the real power of DVC ownership. During popular seasons at popular resorts, the difference between 11 months and 7 months is the difference between getting your room and getting nothing.
I have seen it happen dozens of times. A family purchases at Saratoga Springs because it was cheaper per point, but what they really wanted was Beach Club during EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival. Beach Club books up at 11 months during that period. By 7 months out, the studios are gone. They are stuck booking Saratoga Springs for a trip they never really wanted, or they are scrambling to find availability at a resort they don't love.
Purchase at the resort where you actually want to stay. If you love Old Key West and you are happy booking there at 11 months, it is one of the cheapest options per point. If your heart is set on Polynesian or BoardWalk, don't compromise on a cheaper resort hoping the 7-month window will work. At high-demand resorts during popular seasons, it usually won't. Browse our resort guides to compare what each property offers before deciding.
Pick the Right Use Year
Your use year determines when your annual point allocation becomes available. A February use year means new points arrive every February 1st. An October use year means October 1st.
The rule of thumb: your use year should start a few months before you typically travel. If you always go in June, a February or March use year works well. Your points arrive in plenty of time, and you have months of buffer. A December use year for a June traveler creates headaches because you would need to bank points from the prior year and hope the dates are still available.
People ignore use year because they are focused on price. A contract with the "wrong" use year might be $3 to $5 cheaper per point, which feels like a deal until you realize you are fighting the calendar for the entire life of your contract. Every year. For decades. That is not a trade-off worth making to save $600 on a 200-point contract.
There is no universally "best" use year. But there are definitely wrong ones for your travel patterns. Think about when you go, then pick a use year that puts fresh points in your account 3 to 6 months before that trip.
Contract Size: Buy What You Need
My general advice: purchase exactly what you need for one typical vacation per year. Do not buy extra "just in case." Do not buy fewer and assume you will figure it out later.
If your family needs 160 points for your annual trip, purchase a contract in the 150 to 175 range. That gives you your trip with a small buffer. In years when you travel during a cheaper season or stay fewer nights, you bank the leftover points for a longer trip the following year. In years when you need a few extra, you borrow from next year's allocation.
Small contracts (75 to 125 points) have real advantages. Lower purchase price, lower annual dues, less ROFR risk, and the option to add on at a different resort later. A 100-point contract at Saratoga Springs runs $11,000 to $13,000 on the resale market. That is an amount many families can pay cash for.
Large contracts (200 to 400+ points) typically get $2 to $5 better per-point pricing, give you maximum room options, and are simpler to manage. But the dues add up fast. On a 200-point contract at $9.19 per point, annual dues are $1,838. On a 300-point contract, that is $2,757. Over 30 years with 3% annual increases, the dues difference between 100 and 300 points is roughly $95,000. That is far more than the purchase price difference. Dues are the real cost of DVC ownership. Do not purchase points you will not consistently use just because the per-point price is slightly better on a larger contract.
The Multi-Resort Strategy
If you need 200+ points, consider splitting across two resorts instead of purchasing one large contract. Here is why.
Purchase a small contract (75 to 100 points) at a hard-to-book resort like Beach Club, BoardWalk, or Polynesian. Then purchase your main points at a lower-cost resort like Saratoga Springs or Old Key West. You get 11-month booking priority at the popular resort for special trips, and your everyday points come from the cheaper resort.
At the 7-month mark, all points become interchangeable. Your Saratoga points can book Beach Club at 7 months. But your Beach Club points can book Beach Club at 11 months, when availability is wide open. It is a best-of-both-worlds approach that gives you dual home resort advantages.
You also get lower ROFR risk (Disney exercises ROFR more aggressively on larger contracts) and easier resale if you ever need to sell (the buyer pool for 125-point contracts is much larger than for 250-point contracts).
Budget for the Full Cost
The purchase price is just the starting number. Here is everything you will actually pay:
Upfront costs: Purchase price, $500 Disney administration fee, title company closing costs ($300 to $500), and possibly prorated annual dues. On a typical 150-point contract, your total upfront cost is roughly $1,000 to $1,500 more than the contract price itself.
Ongoing costs: Annual maintenance dues, which run from $8.31 per point (Grand Floridian) to $14.89 per point (Vero Beach). These increase 3% to 5% per year. On a 200-point contract at a resort with $9.50 per point dues, you are looking at $1,900 the first year, roughly $2,480 by year 10, and around $3,330 by year 20. Over a 30 to 40 year contract, you may pay more in cumulative dues than you paid for the contract itself. Check current annual dues by resort before you commit.
Make sure you can comfortably afford the purchase price AND the annual dues AND still enjoy your vacations. DVC saves you money on accommodations, but it does not make trips free. You still need flights, park tickets, food, and everything else.
Making a Smart Offer
Once you find a contract you like, the offer stage is where some buyers lose thousands of dollars by trying to be too clever.
Offering 5 to 8% below asking price is reasonable and gets accepted more often than you would think. On a $25,000 contract, that is $1,250 to $2,000 off. Sellers expect some negotiation.
Going 10% or more below asking puts you in lowball territory. The seller might counter, but more likely they will ignore it. And here is the bigger risk: even if the seller accepts a very low offer, Disney can exercise their Right of First Refusal and purchase the contract themselves. Disney is more aggressive on contracts priced well below market. I have watched buyers waste months on this cycle. They lowball, wait 30 days for ROFR review, lose the contract to Disney, start over, lowball again, lose again. Three or four months go by and they still do not own DVC. Meanwhile, the buyer who offered a fair price on day one has already closed and is booking vacations.
If a contract is already priced below market, recognize the value and do not try to squeeze more out of it. A 160-point BoardWalk contract at $112 per point when everything else is listed at $125 is already a gift. Offering $105 is how you lose it to someone who recognized what they were looking at.
Common Traps to Avoid
The 7-month availability trap. "I will purchase at the cheapest resort and just book wherever I want at 7 months." This works fine at resorts with high inventory (Saratoga Springs, Old Key West in off-peak). It does not work at Beach Club during fall, Polynesian over Christmas, or Animal Kingdom during spring break. Those are booked solid by people who used their 11-month home resort advantage. The 7-month window gives you whatever is LEFT after home resort owners have had four months of access. At popular resorts during popular seasons, what is left is often nothing.
The cheapest-per-point trap. Sorting listings by price low-to-high and clicking the cheapest option ignores everything that actually determines value. That cheapest contract might be stripped (no current year points), at a resort with high dues, with a use year that does not match your travel, or with a short deed expiration. A contract that costs $10 more per point but has lower annual dues might be cheaper over 20 years. A loaded contract at $15 more per point gives you $3,000+ in immediate vacation value that a stripped contract does not.
The emotion trap. A DVC purchase is a financial decision you will live with for decades. Running the numbers matters. Calculate your cost per vacation night over the life of the contract (purchase price plus estimated lifetime dues, divided by total nights). Compare that to renting DVC points or booking hotel rooms. Make sure the math works before you sign anything.
Work with a Good Broker
A good broker provides detailed listing information (exact point counts, use year, loaded vs. stripped status), helps you understand ROFR risk, is transparent about commission rates, uses a licensed title company, and gives honest advice even when it means talking you out of a purchase. The buyer pays the $500 Disney administration fee and closing costs. The seller pays the $150 Disney estoppel fee and the broker commission (ours is 6.9%, compared to the 9 to 10% industry average). Those are standard across the industry.
If anyone tells you the fee structure works differently, ask why. And if a broker is pressuring you to skip title insurance on a real estate transaction, that is a red flag. Title insurance typically costs a few hundred dollars and protects you from liens, unpaid assessments, and recording errors you cannot see. It is worth every penny.
The Checklist, Summarized
- Calculate the points you need based on room type, resort, season, and trip length
- Choose your home resort based on where you want to stay, not where it is cheapest
- Match your use year to your travel patterns (points should arrive 3 to 6 months before your trip)
- Purchase the contract size that covers your annual trip, with a small buffer
- Consider the multi-resort strategy if you need 200+ points
- Budget for purchase price, closing costs, AND annual dues for the life of the contract
- Make fair offers that will pass ROFR
- Work with a reputable broker who gives honest answers
Start browsing current DVC resale listings from every broker and filter by your target resort and point count. Compare pricing across contract sizes to find the sweet spot for value, which is usually in the 150 to 200 point range. And when you find a contract that checks most of your boxes at a price that works, make the offer. The families who are happiest with DVC are the ones who did their homework, purchased smart, and started vacationing. For more contract options, you can also browse DVC resale listings on DVCSales.com.
