[OldDave]

Hi Dreamer. Nice to hear from you. I know exactly how you feel. We made our first visit last summer and rented a house for a month. We have scheduled the official Lifestyle visit for March for one week to see how things are in the busy season.

I would highly recommend you do what we did. Rent a house. There are hundreds available in the summer, and the prices range from reasonable to unbelieveably cheap. I've also found people will even negotiate a bit lower because it is difficult for them to rent in the summer. I'd stay even longer if you could.

We had the time to relax and go to events and see things (although I had a vision problem and saw two of everything on our visit). I do think this is a great way to enjoy the experience. My wife had never driven a golf cart and didn't want to. But with my vision problem I couldn't drive. It took about an hour and she was hooked. She must have put 200 miles on that thing and just loved it. The place is beautiful to see, and the golf cart is a great way to see it up close and more slowly. (The other drivers and crazy by the way.)

I do have some of the same feelings you express. It is a different animal. At least for someone from Kansas in the land of large ranch style homes, everyone is really packed together. Prices are higher than even developments right around there, but it offers things to do that from my research nowhere else in the country has. That is a part of what you're paying for. The good news is the price are still a bit weaker because of the downturn a couple of years ago. Although the homes there didn't lose their value like other places in Florida. They more just held there own.

So, do your research on the villages site, the rent by owner sites or ****. Take the time to phone the owner and get to feel good about them. Make sure it is in a nice location and go down and see what it feels like.

One thing. I'm not sure where you're from but many people worry about how hot it is there in the summer. In Kansas this summer it hit 113. So even the hottest days in the Villages were pretty nice to us, plus we rented a house with a pool.(We wouldn't bother with that next time because there are so many community pools and they aren't busy in the summer.)

Best of luck to you,

Dave

PS. Tony is our salesman too, and we really enjoyed him.