We are still Snow Birds, and before we bought our designer home, we rented for several years. Those rentals included both Patio and Courtyards. Based on those experiences, I knew what my "must haves" in a home should be.
For the Patio villa, we were very comfortable with the interior space and layout, but missed having a larger lanai. The lanai on most of the Patio Villas is right by the front door and is quite small and located right by the street so you always felt like you were "on display" all the time. And since almost all Patio Villas have a 1 car garage, you'll find that although you can put both a car and a cart inside, it is VERY tight. And finally, since there is no parking on the street in front of your home, if you had guest you could only get 1 car in the driveway and the other visitor had to find parking in the community area and sometimes that is not easy to find. Those 3 factors made me want a home with a larger lanai and a 2 car garage.
When we rented Courtyard Villas, we really liked the interior layouts and the larger lanai in the rear of the home. But because most Courtyard Villas have a 1 car side entry garage with a curved driveway, I had trouble putting both my car and cart inside the garage. When I pulled into the garage with my car, the swing angle really was difficult to miss the golf cart that was parked as close to the wall as I could get. One of those Courtyard Villas that we rented came with a 4 person golf cart and for those 3 months I had to leave the car in the driveway the whole time. Another thing to consider is that like a Patio Villa, parking for more than 1 visitor is severely limited. We have a friend who has a CYV and have managed to have 2 cars in her driveway, but it takes a lot of engineering and you are parked REALLY close to each other. So the side entry garage and limited parking made us want something different.
So when we decided to buy, we looked at the smaller square foot designers and ranches which had a 2 car garage with a decent driveway. There isn't a great deal of difference in cost between the smaller homes and the villas (both purchase and maintance) and they are perfect for a snowbird who has 2 homes to maintain.
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