[Ohiogirl]

Well, I for one didn't know when I bought, but I bought almost at the peak, (3.5 years ago) when resales were quite a bit higher than new, and I had to get on a waiting list to buy the new villa model I wanted. At that time, they were literally raising prices every couple of months and building like gangbusters.

When I asked our Villages agent about resales, she told me she could show resales to me, and she did - Villages resales, but the Villages didn't have any 3 bedroom resale Bonitas listed at that time. We saw some ranches that were comparably priced, but for various reasons decided on a CYV. I did notice that we weren't being shown any non-Villages properties, but there was SUCH a price difference at the time between resales and new that I didn't inquire further.

I'm sure if I would have asked about a specific one with a non-Villages sign, she would have told me that she couldn't show those, but since I was looking mainly at villas, didn't notice any signs to ask about - I think you can only put signs in the windows, and there were probably less because things were selling so well.

Not sure how long this website has been out there, but I didn't discover it until a year or so ago - there is some really helpful info here on TOTV that I wish I had known, but hey, don't we all have great hindsight, and not just about real estate! Those of you who are on it or have been before buying are much more educated that those of us who were not.

That said, there is still not the perfect house nor the perfect location - and I'm not just talking about the Villages. It's kind of like that song - Love the One You're With. Even if you check out the neighbors for barking dogs and loud TVs in existing neighborhoods, things changeover so frequently that next month

It turned out that we are very happy with what we bought and where it is, and probably there weren't many resales of the type of villa we wanted anyway.