For what its worth. It's good that you are experienced house hunters.. but moving quickly with any real estate in a strange area isn;t necessarily a good thing. Very good that you like uglies, as you will be able to see past paint, carpet, formica tops, dated light fixtures etc. You're obviously moving from out of town, probably out of state. So the next question is size.. How big of a house are you moving from. The great majority of homes are in the 1300-2100 sq ft size. They are 3/2's .. no basement. Are you prepared for that ? I think many villagers over downsize, and find themselves screaming for space in 1500 ft.. others are fine with it. Now your setting.. golf course, water, kissing lanai;s, a solid wall, or "no homes behind" - a code word for backs up to street. All have issues that are different for each person. As an aside, last week we looked at a Premier $$ home. When we went out to see the pool area, we could hear every word our new kissing lanai neighbors were saying, and they weren;t screaming.. Then we met their nice, but yippy dog. Have you sampled the 3 town squares ? have a preference ? Do you think you;ll be a golf cart person ? How far of a ride will it be to your favorite water aerobics activity.. or the poker game, or your favorite restaurant? what might be fun the first few times might be a PITA after a while. Structurally, look at the inside. are you a bath tub person, or is that just an ornament ? A walk in shower became standard a while ago, and accommodate walkers etc, while in later years you might think only a gymnast can get in and out of the tubs. So now start looking.. Block vs siding may or may not be the deal breaker you think, given all of the requirements you;ve already listed. In the end, after doing 2 lifestyle previews, we looked at over 50 homes (culled from many more for sales eliminated via the internet) listed by both the Villages and MLS (you do know that they dont sell each others listings, dont you). We, too can go into a house and within 5 or 10 minutes decide whether it bears further consideration. That was in 2016, and we didnt want to build. Now, you have another choice.. south of brownwood. and the blogs are full of opinions. BTW, we ended up with a large block designer (turn key) with lanai facing a street - many people would have eliminated it from consideration. Best and luck, m advice is to use your speed and experience to look at MORE homes in DIFFERENT areas to optimize time spent and increase likelihood of a successful first purchase.
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