Quote:
Originally Posted by bsloan1960
With the lottery system we were told, "There is no guarantee you'll get a house- Ever". And there is only a window of a couple of hours to say, "Yes" or "No" when you get the call telling you you are #1 on the lottery (beating up to 20 others who were in the lottery for the same house). So if you are 2,000 mile away- like we are when the phone call comes: 1) You feel REALLY lucky that you have gone from "Maybe Never" to "We have a house". There is no time to fly down, so you say, "YES". To make it even more difficult you can only be in 1 lottery for 1 house at a time. I hope this gives people an understanding of why people are desperate to get any house that is offered- and worry about moving, or making a petition later.
|
The lottery is if you want THAT SPECIFIC house. It's not the only house in the Villages for sale. If you want THAT specific house and it's on a lottery system, then you're taking your chances. I don't know why you'd do that, but that's your choice and your decision, and you're the one who has to live with the results.
We saw a pre-owned place we liked in the Villages while we were up north, listed on the internet. We called a Villages sales rep. Told him what we liked about it, and what we were concerned about it. Asked them to check it out. He called from the living room and said "I'm calling from your new home."
Did we give him our bank account and routing number? No. Of course not. That'd be stupid. Instead, I booked a flight down and a bus trip from the airport, had the agent bring me to the hotel, and arranged for a visit to the property the next day.
It was lovely. I saw things that concerned me, but weren't deal-breakers. So I put down a deposit, and the sale was a contingency sale, pending inspection.
Since it was a cash sale we didn't have to wait for a mortgage company to sign off on a loan, and we started moving our stuff in the following month. We've been living in it for the past three years.
I would do that for a brand new house, or a vintage home, or anything in-between.