Quote:
Originally Posted by Bizdoc
Oh yeah... look at some houses. Unless you know exactly what you want, try to tell your sales rep what is important to you in a house. That way they can zoom in faster on what to show you.
If you look at some of the existing threads here, you will see reasons to be in an pre-owned vs new, villa vs cottage, cottage vs designer vs premier. When you first talk with your TV sales rep, turn off your conventional "dealing with a realtor" thinking. They will work cooperatively with you and the more you tell them about your situation, wants, needs, etc, the faster they can zero in on exactly what you want. And be honest about the price point you want. They won't try to convince you to spend more (they will show you homes in that range).
I was amazed at how fast our sales rep (after showing us several homes), figured out exactly what we wanted. The house we bought was 8th or 9th. He took us out to look at some others at around the same price point and features, but was quite happy when we stuck with our first impression of what is now our home.
Other than that, have fun. Jump in your cart and just drive around. Go to each Town Square (try to do at least one on its market night) and see what vendors are there.
|
Most of the Villages real estate salespeople are pretty low-key, I am sure part of their training. The one problem I have had with some of them, which is likely also a by-product of their training, is their insistence that the bond is "no big deal" or "you'll hardly notice it"! The bond is an add on to the sales price, and used to pay for the community improvements and amenities. On a new or newer home it is twenty thousand dollars or more. If you pay it off, you may have difficulty recouping the outlay if and when you sell. If you don't pay it off you will pay higher interest than a typical mortgage, and it is not legitimately, tax deductible. The bond is not a bad thing necessarily, but you should understand how it works, and for a salesperson to allege it is almost not worth talking about is borderline malpractice.