Hi, we are newcomers to The Villages and I will share what we learned. Resales are handled in-house by The Villages realtors who show only their listings. I recommend Mike Fink. An outside -The-Villages realtor can show other houses listed in MLS. They cannot sell houses listed by The Villages. So an "inside" and an "outside" realtor are both needed. You can see everything available on The Villages website including 360 degree tours. Lyle Gant is an outside realtor and you can see everything else on his site. After we sold our house and came to look for a home here, we knew every house available inside and out through the websites. We wanted a house built after 2001 for insurance purposes as those houses were built with more rigid hurricane guidelines. Stucco homes in Florida are preferable to stick built regarding termites and moisture. New and nearly new homes will have a higher bond payoff but the newer neighborhoods are not as treed, some are quite bare. We knew that we wanted to be close to a "town" to be able to walk into town to a movie, or a cup of coffee, or the live entertainment. Our thinking was that as we aged we didn't want to be "stuck" deep into a neighborhood far from a town center. Also we are just off a main artery to hop onto to go north or south. We found a house 1/2 mile from Sumter Landing off Canal St and have been very happy with our choice. A larger yard or a golfcourse view is important to some people . I agree with the others that a "try it, you'll like it" visit is a big help. As for neighborhoods, we knew from the visit that we wanted to be close to the town center and we focused our search on the ones closeby Sumter Landing. Good luck.
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