Quote:
Originally Posted by Gulfcoast
I often hear people recommend renting in TV before buying. I'm curious to know who followed that advice (or wish that they did) and what they learned from renting first. Did renting change your mind about where you bought or what style home you wanted?
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We rented two winters before buying. First we rented a courtyard villa for a couple reasons. It was less expensive to rent, and we wanted to see what that size would feel like to live in. The following year we rented a lovely home.
We learned that a villa is a little small, especially the garage and curved driveway. Also, the closeness to other villas was sometimes an issue. One neighbor let their dog out in the enclosed yard, where it proceeded to bark nonstop until taken back in. For the second rental, we learned that we liked the size better and the roomier garage (plus golf cart garage), and that we did not prefer that floor plan.
Both rentals were in the same village, so we became very familiar with being south of 466A and north of 44. Renting definitely helped us narrow search to a specific area and to the size of the home we wanted. And we are very happy with our choice!
Good luck with your decision-making! Hope to see in TV someday!