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Before I bought my Saratoga Springs contract from ResalesDVC many years ago, I did extensive research into how to visit Disney World more often for less money. I read about how some owners rented out a portion of their DVC points each year to cover their annual dues, and I was intrigued!
If you are considering buying a DVC ownership interest, you may want to consider buying a larger contract than you plan to use yourself in order to rent points and offset the cost of your annual dues.
In this post, I’ll share my experience buying a DVC contract with the intention to pay our dues by renting out part of our own points. This approach allowed us to stay at DVC resort every year for free after our initial ownership purchase.
Why We Chose A Larger Contract
Animal Kingdom DVC studio
We bought a 160-point Saratoga Springs contract from ResalesDVC back in 2011. This was when the timeshare market as a whole was at a low and we got an amazing deal on our DVC ownership!
I settled on the 160 point contract knowing that we would likely use much less than 160 points each year. Our family was just two people at the time (a little one has since joined us) and we loved staying in a Studio Villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge, our favorite resort.
Since I was a teacher at the time, we had limited time to visit Disney World when we wanted to go (i.e. NOT during the summer!) So at the most I knew we would be able to spend 5-7 nights each year in Disney World.
80 points, or half of our 160-point contract, would meet our needs for our stays (check out the 2019 DVC point charts here). But I decided on a larger contract, because 1) I had the down payment available and 2) I planned on renting out the excess points to pay our annual dues.
How To Pay Your Dues By Renting Points
Beach Club Villas
When we were owners, we paid our annual dues each year with the money we made from renting half of our points.
This is how it works: If you buy a 160 point contract, use 80 points for yourselves. You can stay five (or more) nights in a Studio Villa at most DVC resorts during Adventure Season for 80 points or less.
Then rent out the other 80 points to someone looking to stay at DVC resort. This can be another owner who is out of points, someone who wants to try out staying in a DVC resort before they commit to buying themselves, or someone just wanting to pay less for a stay at a Deluxe Resort.
There are several ways to find someone who wants to rent your points. My top two ways are using David’s Vacation Rentals or the Mouseowners Rent/Trade/Transfer board.
You can expect to receive $13 -$16 per point for renting your points out to others who want to stay at a DVC resort. Since you are the owner, you are in control of the reservation and can create a contract with your rules for payments, changes, etc. You can see lots of samples of rental contracts here.
If you rent with David’s they will take care of all the details for you. I have rented our points to many happy people through MouseOwners and have never had a bad experience.
If you rent 80 points out at $14 per point, you will generate $1,120 through the rental of your points. In 2018, annual dues at Saratoga Springs were $5.86 per point (find the annual dues for every DVC resort here). That means your annual dues will be roughly $938.
As you can see, you will make more than enough renting half of your points to cover your annual dues. You will even have a profit of $182 you can put towards your own Disney trip!
You’ll want to do the math and see which resorts have annual dues that will allow you to make the most profit. Saratoga Springs has one of the lowest annual dues, so that’s in part why we chose a Saratoga Springs contract.
Summary
Renting part of your points can help bring down the cost of DVC ownership and make your annual trips to Walt Disney World super affordable. While annual dues do increase slightly each year, so does what you can expect to earn by renting your points.
You can see all of the current DVC contracts for sale here. I suggest not limiting your choices to the contracts with the amount of points you will use, but instead consider how you can offset part (or ALL) of your annual dues by buying a larger contract.
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