Loaded vs stripped DVC contracts and what they sell for

A DVC contract that still has this year's points on it sells for more than the same contract with those points already used. That's what people mean by "loaded" and "stripped," and it's one of only three things that set a resale price.

The other two are the resort and the point count. That's the full list. Resort, point count, and the points available right now. So when two listings at the same resort with the same number of points are priced differently, the points sitting on each contract are usually the reason.

What the two words actually mean

Neither term is official. Disney doesn't use them and you won't find them on a deed. They're shorthand that owners, buyers and brokers use on the secondary market to describe how many usable points travel with a contract at closing.

A loaded contract has its current year points intact, and often banked points from the year before stacked on top. Take a 150 point membership where the owner banked last year's points and hasn't touched this year's. The person purchasing it could start with close to 300 points to work with, then receive the normal 150 every year after that.

A stripped contract has had its current year used up. Sometimes the owner also borrowed from next year, which means next year's allotment arrives short.

Most listings fall somewhere in between. Maybe half the current points are left, or the seller has a trip booked that stays with them, or nothing was banked and nothing was used. The in between contracts are where most of the real pricing conversation happens, because there's no neat label for "112 of 150 points available." You just have to read the numbers.

One more thing about labels. A points year is named by the year it starts, so a December member's points shown as "Dec 1, 2026 to Nov 30, 2027" are the 2026 points, even though almost all of that window falls in 2027. When a listing says "2026 points available," that's what it means. The naming confuses plenty of longtime owners, so read the dates, not the label.

Why a stripped contract sells for less

Think about what someone is paying for when they purchase a Disney Vacation Club membership. Part of it is the deed, which delivers points every year until the contract ends. Part of it is whatever points are ready to use today. A stripped contract delivers the first part and not much of the second.

So the buyer waits. If the next points year is ten months away, that's ten months of owning a membership they can't book with, while the seller of a loaded contract hands over something usable on the day it closes. Buyers know this and price it in. A stripped contract at Animal Kingdom isn't a worse contract than a loaded one at Animal Kingdom, and a few years from now nobody could tell them apart. But today it carries less, so it sells for less.

How much less? It depends on how many points are missing and how soon the next batch arrives. We're not going to pretend there's a fixed percentage, because there isn't one we'd stand behind. What we can say is that the gap is real, buyers notice it, and a sensibly priced stripped contract still sells.

You can see some of this in our own numbers. At Saratoga Springs, our 26 paid closings over the last 12 months averaged $99 a point, with a range from $85 to $112. Inside a range like that, contract size and the points that came with each contract are the things doing the moving. Our DVC market report keeps those figures current by resort, and prices do change.

Timing inside the points year matters too. Points with two months left before they expire are harder to use than the same points with eleven months left, unless they can still be banked. A contract can look loaded on paper and be less useful than it seems if its points are about to run out. Remember the booking windows as well: 11 months out at your home resort, 7 months at the others. A buyer who closes late in a points year may find the trips they wanted are already gone.

We get asked whether stripped contracts are worth avoiding. They aren't.

In our view, a stripped contract can be a perfectly smart purchase. If you aren't planning to travel for a year or so, why pay extra for points you couldn't get to anyway?

Loaded contracts have their own catch. Banked points have to be used in the year they were banked into, and they can't be banked a second time. So a contract loaded with banked points is only worth the extra money if you can actually book with them before they expire. A family that can't travel for another 14 months gets nothing from banked points that expire in eight. That's a limit buyers sometimes overlook when a listing looks generous.

What to check on a listing before you make an offer

Price per point gets all the attention on the DVC aftermarket. The available points line deserves just as much. When we look at a listing, these are the questions we want answered:

• How many current year points are left, and which points year they belong to
• Whether any points are banked from the prior year, and when they expire
• Whether the owner has borrowed from next year, which leaves next year short
• Whether any points are in holding, which comes with tighter limits on use
• Whether the seller has trips already booked on the contract's points
• How many points arrive at the start of the next points year

Most of this shows up on the listing itself. You can compare current DVC resale listings side by side on our site, and the available points are part of each one, not tucked into fine print.

Then do the math the way a careful buyer would. Look at the price against the points you'll actually be able to use in the first year or two. The contract size alone won't tell you that. Two contracts at the same resort with the same point count can look close on price per point. If one comes with a full year of points ready to book and the other comes with none, they aren't really close at all.

Disney confirms the points before closing. After the purchase agreement is signed, Disney issues an estoppel showing the contract's status, including its points, and the seller pays Disney's $150 estoppel fee for it. That's your backstop. It's still much better to know what you're getting before you sign than to learn it from the estoppel.

Don't forget annual dues while you're comparing. Dues are charged on every point in the contract every year, no matter how many points were left when you took over, and the purchase agreement spells out how the current year's dues are handled at closing. They vary a lot by resort, from $8.31 per point at Grand Floridian to $14.89 at Vero Beach in 2026.

Why sellers need to report their points accurately

If you're selling, your available points are part of your price. That isn't a figure of speech. When we suggest a price, the points on your contract are one of the three inputs, and we won't suggest a value until they're filled in for every points year. The DVC resale value calculator works the same way. It asks for your available points because the answer changes without them.

Getting them wrong causes trouble later. Say a listing shows 150 points available and the estoppel comes back showing 40. The buyer agreed to a price for a loaded contract and is now getting a mostly stripped one. The deal has to be renegotiated at that point, and sometimes the buyer walks away. A sale that should close in about 45 days from the signed agreement gets stuck instead.

This is the single easiest thing a seller can do to keep a sale on schedule.

So report what's there, year by year, including banked, borrowed and holding points. And tell us before you book anything once you're listed. Using points after a buyer has agreed to a price changes what they're purchasing.

Sellers sometimes ask whether to take one last trip before selling. That's your call, and we won't talk anyone out of a vacation. Just know the contract will then sell as a stripped one, at a price that reflects it. If you weren't going to travel anyway and your banking deadline is coming up, banking unused points keeps them with the contract instead of letting them expire, and banked points go to the buyer with everything else. Check your deadline with Member Services if you're not sure of it.

I'll admit the word "stripped" sounds worse than it is. It's a normal contract with a normal future, just missing its first year.

For sellers who worry about ROFR, the points don't change that part. Disney reviews resale contracts at the agreed price and has up to 30 days to decide, and on our closed deals over the last 12 months its answer came back in about 21 days on average. If Disney does exercise its right, nothing changes for you. Same price, same commission, same proceeds. Disney simply takes the buyer's place.

If you're not sure where your own contract stands, pull up your points page, write down what's available in each points year, and send it to us with your listing. We'll tell you plainly whether it reads as loaded, stripped or somewhere in the middle, and what that means for your price.