Before buying in The Villages

[LI SNOWBIRD]

We did our due diligence and checked out other areas than The Villages. We originally wanted the Orlando area but there was no community that fit our wants.

We started in the Solivita retirement community that was a big NO.
Luckily my wife's friend had visited The Villages and recommended it. We drove up took a tour and knew we were home. We bought 2 days later and have been loving it everyday.
Ya gotta kiss a few frogs before getting the prince(ess).

Do you have a story behind living in The Villages?

[manaboutown]

I read about it in "Leisureville" by Andrew Blechman.

Actually I had never heard of The Villages before that, was about to turn 65 and was just starting to look for a 55 and over community at that time. I visited both coasts of Florida, mostly toward the south as my brother had lived in Key Biscayne for years and I knew a few people living on the east coast in the Miami to Palm Beach areas, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach as well as Naples on the west coast. I visited and liked the GL developments on both coasts as shown in "The Boynton Beach Club" movie. I even saw the house where Dyan Cannon was portrayed as living in the movie. lol. After thinking about it a long time I realized I really did not want to deal with the hurricanes that hit the coastal areas although I love being near water.

[John_W]

I was watching the Golf Channel in 2003 and the 30 minute infomercial came on. At the time I was living in Baltimore but was eventually going to return to Florida where I grew up. I was familiar with the Gulf Coast since my parents retired in 1983 in Spring Hill and were in a golf course retirement community called Timber Pines. I liked how my dad could drive his cart from the garage to the course, and they had 3 courses to choose from. So when I saw the info on TV, it rang with me right away. I called and the got the VHS tape and info and then held onto the idea for 8 years until 2011 when it was time for my LSV and move that summer.

[vintageogauge]

I could not find another 55 and over community that had such a huge choice of homes from 1 bedroom villas to premiers. There is something for everyone here.

[JimJohnson]

I’m old and getting grumpy, but when we take a long trip or even a short drive it reminds me of the real world. Well, every time we get back to The Villages, I smile and become aware of how much I love this place.

[Cookie Princess]

We did our due diligence and checked out other areas than The Villages. We originally wanted the Orlando area but there was no community that fit our wants.

We started in the Solivita retirement community that was a big NO.
Luckily my wife's friend had visited The Villages and recommended it. We drove up took a tour and knew we were home. We bought 2 days later and have been loving it everyday.
Ya gotta kiss a few frogs before getting the prince(ess).

Do you have a story behind living in The Villages?
Why was Solivita a big NO? It looks really nice.

[kcrazorbackfan]

Same as John_W, we watched the infomercial in July 2014 and did our LSV a month later.

Now mind you, we had owned a tee box view golf course lot in NW Arkansas for 8 years, had it site planned for the home plans I drew up, had some trees taken down and had already moved my mother-in-law to Arkansas.

On the drive down, we discussed things we had seen and read about TV knowing full well we were going to build that Arkansas home.

As we turned onto 466 off 301and started driving towards Morse, we really started noticing how nice and manicured everything appeared to be. We turned onto Morse heading to LSL, got about halfway across the bridge and my wife turned to me and said “we’re selling the lot and moving here”, having not even gotten out of the Pilot.

And that’s what we did, sold the lot, found her Mom a place, moved her and closed on our home on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2014.

[michaelUK]

We're in our mid-60s, currently living in a 55+ community in Central Texas. There are many things I like about Texas and our current community is nice enough but, like most retirement communities we've previously visited, it is located some distance (at least 30 min) from the basics of life i.e. groceries, retail, personal, and medical services. That said, we recently (March) returned from a week long "lifestyle visit" to Brownwood and I was dazzled by the proximity to all that I had hoped to find in a retirement community. I had to take a purposeful moment to relax and force myself not to instinctively reach for my checkbook before our all-too-short visit ended. During our visit, we spent considerable time looking at home and lots South of the 44 in Fenny, Monarch Grove, etc. areas and fell in love with the golf cart access and most of all nature trails. The retail services there are currently not ideal but I'm sure they're in the offing. Besides, we've much to explore whilst waiting. Having only been in our current community for a year, we'd be foolish to sell at the moment but I'm doing a bit of maneuvering to buy in TV within the next several months. Dead chuffed at the prospect! Have others similarly moved here from other 55+ communities?

[2BNTV]

A friend of mine that I worked with retired and moved to TV. He kept asking me to come and visit and one year.

I did that. As they say, "the rest is history". I remember sitting in SS listening to Donna Moore singing "Crazy" by Patsy Cline and thinking, there can' be a better place to retire. It's more of a feeling you get when your here, that you cannot explain to people. They think you kidding them. I was also impressed how immaculate TV is!!! Seven years later, it's still immaculate!

The visit saved me a lot of money looking around as I never looked back and many people have verified TV is the community they wanted to retire in also.

It was a "no brainer" for me!!!