Househunting 101

[taylor111947]

I've been searching TV, FSBO and MLS Listings for awhile now and I'm finding it very frustrating.

Except for Lyle Grant, none of the websites offer enough search criteria to narrow down the search to a reasonable number of prospects.

I'm looking for a CBS Designer/Villa with a Golf Course/Waterfront view built in/after 2005.

The Villages website is the worst - ony criteria that's worthwhile is Price and Bedrooms/Bathrooms. Currently that brings up 28 pages (168 listings).

Lyle's website offers a link to homes with privacy and I can sort by year built = at least that reduces the number significantly.

Does anyone know of a better way of doing this? I'm hoping to come in March and I will be contacting realtors, but want to have done my homework prior to that.

[villages07]

Taylor... on the Villages site, you could search by individual Village for all the Villages built since 2005. Not the most efficient method, but, will work.

Caroline, Va Trace, Mallory, Liberty Park, Sabal Chase, Largo, Amelia, Hadley, Duval, Hemingway, Bonita, St Charles, Pennecamp, Buttonwood.

I think that's all of them ... if I missed any, someone will pipe in. The list above is somewhat in chronological order from 2005 to present.

[l2ridehd]

The Villages web site you can search by village, by home type, by price, number of bedrooms, or all of those. I actually find TV the easiest to use of all of them. Most of them don't tell you where the home located so I have to go to mapquest and plug in the address, if they even give you the address. Extra steps and time over the Villages site. When the most important thing to most buyers is location, it makes no sense why they keep it a secret.

[graciegirl]

If you are looking at a used home and want to know what it sold for originally go to Sumterpa.com than to search and put in the address leaving OUT the second word such as Havana....NOT Havana Trail.

That is for homes in Sumter county of course, which are newer ones.

[taylor111947]

Thanks for the list of more recent developments - I had already made one up based upon a previous post and I refer to it often. On the TV site, my problem is that you can't select multiple Villages or multiple home types - that would be a big plus and wouldn't be that hard to implement. Even if they added a selection for Year Built range, it would be an improvement.

[Snowbirdtobe]

My advice is to contact an MLS broker and have them do the heavy lifting for the MLS side. Find some agency that lists their top sales person on the web site and call up ask for that person by name and interview them.
Ask specific computer related questions. When we were looking in another part of FL my wife received a customized email with links to the MLS site every day.
Get a TV resident broker because they will have better connections.
Zillow on our iPhones was great during our search but had no VLS homes.
We rented a gas golf cart and drove through our target neighborhoods for hours. When we were out with a villages agent and drove by an MLS listing we made a note of it and called the MLS broker later.
Keep a notebook when you visit houses and take lots of pictures.
I took 20-30 pictures of each house we looked at. I tried to start with the address numbers and street signs so they would be identifiable from just the pictures.
Good luck

[JohnN]

There's not a real easy way except to know the different villages.
Also, if you're new to TV, I'd really suggest you rent a month or two and get the feel and look around. Good luck.

[Dirigo]

Except for Lyle Grant,

Just a nit, but Lyle's last name is Gant. Lyle's web site has provided this wannabe with hours and hours of dreaming and education.

[GatorFan]

I went to google and typed following in:
designer home golf course lot for sale the villages fl

Individual listings came up of homes for sale on golf course. Good luck

[taylor111947]

Just a nit, but Lyle's last name is Gant. Lyle's web site has provided this wannabe with hours and hours of dreaming and education.

Thanks for the correction.

[K9-Lovers]

When we was looking for our Villages home, besides the MLS and Villages official site, we also found the following site helpful: www.sallylovesells.com

[kandj]

In addition to many of the other sites listed I searched here - http://www.myfloridahomesmls.com/ We found our home though on here - http://thevillages.com/homes/vls/index_new.asp I checked these daily and we flew down in September and bought one of the pre-owned through the villages. We did see one other home that we were really interested in that we missed out on because neither of us could travel down to see it. Guess it wasn't meant to be. We love the location and view that our villa has.

Before we bought, we had stayed in the model of the villa I thought we would like for a week. It gave me the ability to sit in it and visualize where our "stuff" would fit. When we had rented, I made sure I rented a Beauregard, as that was the 2 bedroom model I was most interested in. When we came down for a LSP we stayed in a model similar to the Grantham. Oh how I loved how spacious it was, but we couldn't find anything in our budget in that model that had a view/neighborhood we liked so we went with a 2 brm Beauregard model. Love my view from my lanai - I just wish I was there now instead of snowy NH!

[whartonjelly]

It is -1 today in Indiana. Thursday we are flying down and meedting with Diann Barnet who has sent me info for literally, years. She knows it will not be for 6 months or later but is very helpful.:pepper2:

[Avista]

There is a villa just like your described (FSBO) just west off Canal St in Bonita Villas on Cottageville.

[Boomer]

I offer this as a little tip that might help you with the MLS choices. If you have not had a personal recommendation for an agent, you might want to have a look at the Prestige Properties site. (presprop.com)

Even though the listings under Prestige Properties are not the easiest to navigate, the site offers something that I think might help you.

If you go to the opening page of the site and look to the left, you will see Meet Our Agents. When you click on that, it will open to a page where most of their agents have written little bios that I think really help to give you a feel for whether the person is someone you might like to work with.

If you find an agent there whose bio looks promising, you might want to give that agent a call to see if things click. If so, the agent can then do the navigating for you and send you info on homes that fit your requirements and that you might like.

Another suggestion that I have is to get a map of TV. Actually get 2 maps. There is a $5.00 map that TV sells and there is also the AAA map -- if it is still available. I suggest both. The AAA map shows more things. The AAA map I have is an older one. I do not know if there is an updated version.

I do not work for Prestige Properties. I offer this advice because I have known it to work for others.

Good luck.

Boomer