Quote:
Originally Posted by RI401
I would like to winter in TV soon and keep a home up north for a few years and assume many of you did the same. As far as costs, not looking for anything perfect, just have a few items i am not sure of.
Water- I assume sprinklers stay on while up north? Approx$
Sewer-Is it based on water consumption, or just a hard fee?
Electric- leave air on to control humidity? Approx$
Trash- Can it be put on hold?
Cable- same as above?
Thanks in advance
Bud
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Water - You need to run your irrigation year round, doesn't cost much. Our base water fee is $8.15 per month and running our sprinklers is about $15 per month on top of the base.
Sewer - There is a base fee regardless of use and then a fee for usage. When not there you still have to pay the base fee. Our sewer base is $31.27 and even when we are at the Villages home we never seem to go over the base rate for sewer.
Electric - Yes, you absolutely need to run your A/C at about 81 degrees when you are not there to control humidity. Costs more in the summer than spring and fall, for us between $75 and $100 per month. Depends on size of home, how efficient home is, and quality of A/C system. We have a relatively small home.
Trash - Can not be put on hold. Costs us $19.38 per month (I think it just went up a couple of bucks but have not got the newest statement yet) regardless of being there or not.
Cable - We have an antenna for free TV and use the unlimited data plan for our cell phones as our internet source when at the Villages so I can not answer this question. We very much like the free TV our antenna pull in and watch very little TV anyways. We buy DVD's for $1 each at estate sales and watch movies sometimes. The cellular internet is OK but not great. We can make T-times, dinner reservations, check e-mails, and of course check TOV. But we can not stream. There is too much fun stuff to do in the Villages to waste a lot of time watching TV and being on-line.
Hope this helps.
One last thing, even though Snowbirds pay a base water and sewer as well as trash and amenity fees while they are not at the Villages, which subsides the rates of the full timers, many of them will still endlessly complain about you!