I had heard about TV about 10 years ago from my older sister, whose mother-in-law had spent 2 winters here - raved about it because she doesn't drive (a car) and was able to still get around by golf cart. My sister's mother-in-law didn't and doesn't play golf, any other sports, join any clubs or do much of anything except complain about things and watch TV, so I was not exactly inspired.
6 years ago I heard that friends of mine (with whom I had lost touch) had retired here. We'd both moved to different cities in between. We had time to kill on our way back to Ohio from a visit to Orlando and got in touch to see if they could meet us for dinner. Never ever expected to be impressed by TV.
They invited us to stay the night - we did, went on the trolley tour (best guide of the 3 tours we've been on with friends/family), got invited to stay another night, did, and saw how much fun our friends and their neighbors were having.
Short version - the next year, when we had turned 55, we decided to buy and rent it out until we could retire. Looked at resales and new construction. At that time, resales were priced and selling significantly higher than new construction. Things were hopping. We determined that a CYV was the best choice for us, chose the model we wanted (Ohioboy talked me into a 3 BR model - if he hadn't we'd be moving again now), the direction we wanted it to face, and got on a waiting list (had to be ready, willing and able to buy before they'd put you on the list) once we got home and listed and got an offer on my condo in Ohio.
Took a couple more weeks to move to the top of the list, and when our agent called with the address and some info (price, some decor info), we checked our map, took a deep breath and called back the next morning and said yes. We were lucky - we had overnight to decide because the call came late Sunday afternoon. Others had only 4 hours to decide.
We bought almost at the height of the market - spring of 2006. I think there was one price raise on new construction after we bought. We moved down this fall and are finding it to be as good as we thought it would be.
|