Quote:
Originally Posted by Daddymac
I WOULD NOT USE THE VILLAGERS REAL ESTATE.. THEY WILL TRY TO SELL YOU IN THE SOUTH END.. THATS WHERE THEY ARE TOLD TO PUSH.. just my 2 cent…
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Maybe - don't "yell" - it sends a message of desperation.
Meanwhile, our Villages real estate representative helped us buy our manufactured home in the Historic section just a handful of years ago. They don't push at all. They help you look for and find whatever it is you're hoping to live in. Their primary focus is on new construction but if you want a home with no bond, you've made it easier for them to narrow down your options.
Villages agents DO sell all over the Villages. They represent homeowners from north to south, east to west, looking to sell their properties. The Lifestyle visits will always be closer to their new construction though. There are no Lifestyle properties in the Sumter or Spanish Springs area anymore, all those properties were sold to homebuyers years ago.
To the OP: I live in the Historic Section. I'll state emphatically that all the things people warn you to watch for - don't apply to the Historic section. For traffic - someone said find a village that has just one way in and one way out. Historic section has 5 ways in, 5 ways out, not including their golf cart bridge over 441. Traffic in the Historic Section is pretty minimal. The only real "iffy" spots are at the Boone gate and nearby at the golf cart path leading to Wawa (there's no car/truck traffic on that path, it's golf carts only and no red button on the gate, you need an actual gate pass).
We're not just manufactured homes. There are block and stucco, some wood-frame homes, and yes - some of the old original single-wides that should be replaced. I live in a double-wide manufactured home, it's 1200 square feet with a metal roof that had NO damage at all during any of the hurricanes we've experienced in the last 5 years. A house on the street behind us lost half their roof, a house across the street, that was a site-built (not manufactured) lost the roof over their lanai.
I won't try and sell you on a manufactured home but I will let you know there's a vacant lot on an interior road, away from the traffic but in walking distance to the Post Office (not postal station - the actual post office), for $89,000. At that price, you could have a brand new manufactured home rolled in and tied down, set up with electricity and water, and be ready to move in within two months. All for under $300k. There's no bond on that side of 441, so if you wanted to have a house built on site, there'd still be no bond for the new construction as there is in the rest of The Villages.
It's 5 minutes from the Golf Cart bridge. The bridge takes you to the parking lot near the Veterans Memorial Park in Spanish Springs town square, so you can park your cart right at the end of the bridge and not have to deal with any traffic, no lights, no nuttin. Just get out and walk to dinner or ice cream or whatever.
You can also drive through that lot and across the main street to get to the supermarkets (Publix AND Winn Dixie), and a bunch of shops including Belk's department store. You can go the other way, and go to your doctor's office or the hospital.
There are 6 different strip malls, one right after the other, on 441 heading south from the "Historic section." You can drive to the furthest one within 10 minutes, even during rush hour. A golf cart will get you up to Rolling Acres, and if you are quick-footed you can easily cross the road and hoof it to Chipotle, Best Buy, HomeSense, Brooklyn Bagels, Ulta cosmetics, Kohl's, and more.
The Historic section has a library, two recreation centers, 1 Mexican restaurant, 1 church, 1 18-hole country club golf course with a public restaurant at the top of the hill, two 9-hole executive courses, 2 adult pools, 1 family pool, the country club pool with a waterfall and jacuzzi, two lakes, bocci and shuffleboard, tennis and pickleball, softball, archery range, walking trail, dog park. The Villages fire department's Engines are right there on that side of The Villages on Paradise across from the basketball court and postal station.
Taxes in Lake county are higher than taxes in Sumter County. But honestly - the difference is marginal. We also don't live in a CDD, which means all the politics of this or that CDD being required to pay this or that for whatever new widget that needs to be replaced is entirely avoided. Our streets and trash are maintained by the city of Lady Lake, in Lake County (Lady Lake is in Lake /and/ Sumter County).
The entire side of The Villages has matured landscaping, and while we do have deed restrictions and community standards, they are less strict than those on the other side of 441. In other words - we CAN put up tacky pink flamingos if we want to. Most of us don't. But I always get a little giggle out of it when someone has a Flamingo party (a driveway party that everyone knows about because there are 5-6 pink plastic flamingos skewered into the front lawn).