[NJblue]

graciegirl,

Thank you for the big welcome! I'm sure that you are typical of all the warm, friendly people that we met while on the Lifestyle Preview. I was amazed that as we were out looking at houses or lots that people would stop their golf carts or cars and talk to us and encourage us to buy in TV and in their neighborhood. It really helped ease any concern that we might have had about how well we would be accepted.

Perhaps I should have been more explicit in my listing of the "pressure points" that I felt in the process of buying a lot and house. In most cases, I didn't mean to imply that the agent was pressuring us. However, the policies as dictated by The Villages, could be interpreted as being one-sided with the effect being one of creating a feeling of pressure. Can you imagine going into a car dealership and being told that the car that you want will probably cost somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000 but to find the exact price you need to give them a check for $500 which is non-refundable? While policies such as this appear to be legal and may even make good business sense, I didn't drink enough of the water while I was down there to think that this is a customer-friendly approach to buying a house.

We are now trying to come to grips with whether we want to overlook the hard-nosed nature of their marketing policies and focus on all the positives that TV offers - including a whole lot of friendly, happy people. (Note: I am not inferring that the sales agents are hard-nosed ... just the policies that they are required to implement.)