[SteveFromNY]

Originally Posted by Sidney Lanier

From the other point of view, when we were looking to buy here in TV (which we did a year ago), we had both a Villages salesperson AND a MLS salesperson. However, friends of ours introduced us to the owners of the house that we ended up buying privately. Because of their personal circumstances, they HAD to sell, and before we said a word, THEY proposed subtracting the 6% commission to give us a STARTING point from which to negotiate.

The bottom line was that they had been unable to sell through their formal listing, and apparently in Florida all they had to do was make a call to the real estate office (in their case it was The Villages Preowned) to ask that their listing be ended as they were selling privately. Needless to say, we are more than pleased to have bought a designer home for little more than the patio villas that we as snowbirds had been looking at, and the sellers were relieved to finally be able to sell and move on.

I did caveat my remarks by saying "most folks"! Glad it worked out well for you .