[Boomer]

This morning while doing about three other things, I wrote a response here about patio villas. Well, actually it was about patio villas on steroids.

(We have looked at a patio villa as a possible second home. We are not selling Boomer Base up north so taking on a second home takes more time to figure out, especially considering what's happening now in the economy. So we will be doing some more renting as soon as we can get back to it. We need to know for sure.)

So anyway, I got it all written, and had added numbers and research and all manner of stuff to try to gain credibility, and then I hit send. And found that I had timed out. (I never compose in Word. You would think I would learn.)

Well, now we all know that the opening page on The Villages web site shows the big number. And the page that shows the details of the home shows the square footage shrinking back to normal and that (Living) is after the number.

So gimme a break. What's that about? Who is writing that advertising? What are they thinking? I guess I could get real snippy and say, "Oh my! Sounds a little like it is bordering on bait and switchy to me." But I won't say that. Somebody might throw something at me. And it is not exactly bait and switch. Not exactly. But it is a come-on that makes me feel a little bit like I am being talked down to. Underestimated. Oh I don't know....it just makes me a little grouchy.

And besides all that, don't they know that at this point, most of us want smaller homes. Or is that opening page number supposed to imprint a lower price per square foot in our brains or something.

Who knows? Whose idea was it it anyway? Whoever it was does not know the market very well. Never insult the market. The market that tends to do the math. The market where some actually even know how to do math in their heads.

And now I will shut up my somewhat snippy self and flounce off for a little while to get over being insulted by this advertising tactic. -- I have only recently recovered from my fear that everyone who lives in TV looks just like those skinny, beautiful people in the ads, the people who all appear to be excellent golfers. But I can forgive them that advertising. It's expected you know. But this one bothers me a little. I wonder how old the person who wrote that ad is. Somebody needs to rethink it.

Boomer