[Ouida]

My husband and I were down in TV for the past four days, looking at homes to buy. We were looking at pre-owned only and saw a few in the VLS (as opposed to the MLS) that we were interested in. As many of you know, but for those of you out there who don't, only a Villages agent can handle VLS listings, whereas outside agents handle the MLS listings. When you are assisted by a VLS agent in the purchase of a pre-owned home, that agent is basically representing both you, the buyer, and the seller as well, which creates a conflict of interest in my mind. We were already too far into the process of buying a home before we realized this fact. Before that realization dawned on us, we were somewhat taken aback that after looking at a particular home, we asked the agent for her input as to how much to offer. She quickly responded that she thought the listing price was reasonable and didn't see any reason to offer less (!!!). We thought that quite odd at the time. We proceeded to make an offer on another house, which was accepted at the time by the seller but who later backed out of the contract. However, that's another story. It was during the process of the agent's preparing the Offer to Purchase paperwork that we got caught up in the excitement of the moment and forgot to request a home warranty on the house we were buying. She made no suggestion or gave us any advice as to what we should include in that contract for our protection or in any terms of looking out for our interests as buyers. We were flat-out on our own with no advocate to represent us or help us in any way. In hindsight, we are glad that the seller backed out because we will not make that mistake again. We will be back down in TV in three weeks to start looking again for a permanent home. But this time, we will deal ONLY with an outside real estate agent so that we will feel more assured that we have at least one person who is looking out for our best interests. Has anyone else had a similar experience?