Quote:
Originally Posted by NatureBoy
And any other general advice on dealing with the "homeless" time between houses.
Yes, we have living arrangements. But hearing that other people rented for a few months with no problem is helpful. (Plans do fall through and having a plan B is not a bad thing.)
All the advice about buying used vs new is not as helpful. We've been watching the TV real estate market for several years - almost bought in Chitty Chatty when it opened. We want a veranda. Full stop. There are almost no pre-owned verandas available - and the few I've seen are way above my budget. (I think there is high demand for them so the price is accordingly cranked up.) And my wife is looking forward to having a fresh new house.
My wife looked into this and according to her, we have to rent the P.O. Box in person, so that will have to wait until we are in FL.
That's not a bad idea. I have some bills that could be switched to paperless.
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We closed on the sale of our R.I. home on 4/29/22 and once it was under contract we secured a 2 month rental in TV through Villages Hometown Rentals which had a pet friendly patio villa available which we needed as we have two cats. The day before closing we had our belongs packed in one large and one small POD and they were picked up by PODs. The same day we picked up the rental van we would be traveling to TV in, then after that we dropped off our car to the place that would be transporting it to a terminal in Orlando, and immediately after closing we began our 2 day trek to TV. Once we arrived at our rental we made arrangements with Groome shuttle service that brought my husband to MCO and from there he took a taxi to the terminal to pick up the car. When he got back to the rental with our car he then brought the van to the drop off place in Leesburg and our TV agent gave him a ride back to our rental. With regards to mail, I switched whatever bills I could to online payment, and we did a two month temporary address change to our friend's address that live in St. Catherine and we go to their house to pick up any mail as needed. Having been in periodic contact with our TV agent for nearly two years through 2 lifestyle visits, we knew we wanted a new 3br CV in one of the newer areas. Nothing wrong with pre owned or other areas but this was our personal preference. The following day after we arrived we spent time with our TV agent who showed us a list of the new homes that were being released for sale the following day and an Avondale CV with a golf cart garage in lower St John was on the list to be released and in our price so our agent took us to see the home. It was love at 1st sight, but we had to climb the next hurdle which was our agent had to beat out the other agents to get a hold on it for us when it would be released for sale at 8 am the following day. Our agent called at 8:40 to let us know she got the hold and we had 2 hours to decide if we wanted to move forward with the sale and we said an immediate yes!! We bypassed putting down the $2,500 to secure the hold and went right to the 10% deposit, and early evening we signed the contract with a scheduled closing for 6/3. Since signing the contract we have been busy setting up services, managed to get new PCPs, dentist, specialty doctors with upcoming appointments scheduled, and already had our hair cut by our new barber and stylist. We also purchased a few pieces of new furniture and a washer and dryer because we had to purchase our own. Our PODs are currently in a storage facility in Gainesville and we will call when we are ready for delivery. For us, we had to go this route as we wanted to be cash buyers, so we had to sell before we bought since this was the only way we knew how much CV we could afford to purchase. If you have your heart set on a new veranda model home, you really need if you don't already have a TV agent. I can pretty much guarantee you having just been through the purchase of a new home myself, all those pending homes you see listed daily on the TV website the buyers of those homes had a TV agent who got holds for them when they were released for sale. We had already signed the contract a few days before our CV made it up on the website as pending. Same thing happened to my friend who just closed on a Sycamore model home in Deluna. Just be prepared when purchasing new although the price may be lower than a pre owned same model, you are going to have a higher bond as ours is just shy of $32k. So you will need to decide what is of more value to you a higher cost pre owned with lower bond and likely many expensive upgrades, or lower cost new home with a higher bond and no upgrades. Best of luck on your relocation to TV and hope yours goes as smooth as ours did.