How did you first find out about TV? [Archive] - Talk of The Villages Florida

Yorio

11-02-2011, 08:23 AM

Posh 08

11-02-2011, 08:30 AM

Saw the ad on television. Hated the song, liked the concept. This has been a few years ago.

jblum315

11-02-2011, 08:42 AM

2BNTV

11-02-2011, 08:55 AM

Many companies ask this question about their products? Am just curious how you came about TV. In our case, our friend who belong to the same country club up north bought a place in TV and invited us. Next time I meet, I'll find out how they "stumbled" on to TV. Next year we'll have two couples making the Lifestyle Package run as they are tired of hearing me rave. The other two couples will be staying with us. Can't wait how they will react to TV.

Please keep us posted as I am curious how they will like it.

A friend of mine moved to TV and invited me down. I never heard of TV and never saw an ad run in CT, as this was in 2006. The rest is history as I loved TV and can't wait to get there and go from a wannabe to a frog.

Even though I will be forever grateful to him, I wished I had received the literature and TOTV was in existence as I probably would have moved immediately. There are a lot of wonderful, smart people in TV and on TOTV. :)

Posh08 - I aslo initially hated the jingle but have come to like it.

quirky3

11-02-2011, 08:59 AM

My sister-in-law has a sister who lives in the Orlando area. She heard about TV, and my sister-in-law visited the squares during a visit to Orlando. She told me about what a "happenin' place" it was, and I started doing research.

DaleMN

11-02-2011, 09:10 AM

TV commercial during a golf tournament. Immediately intriqued.

Villages PL

11-02-2011, 12:39 PM

I found out about The Villages when my cousin and her husband bought a lot on the historic side in 1986. It wasn't called the historic side at that time; it was the only side. I lived about an hour away in central Florida and they invited me over to see the lot. There wasn't much to see, just a lot of empty lots. There were more empty lots than anything else.

They didn't even have a supermarket at that time and the residents had to go to Leesburg to buy groceries. Needless to say, there wasn't any Spanish Springs Town Square yet. They had line dancing in the courtyard across from the post office. The music came from speakers mounted on the restaurant at the extreme left side of the courtyard. There were no live bands yet, as far as I know.

The founder, Mr. Schwartz, used to walk among the residents and was known to become engaged in conversations. It had that small town flavor.

At that time it was very rural (with an abundance of cow pastures) and I wondered why they were attracted to a place that was so isolated from civilization. After they moved in, I visited them periodically and witnessed the explosive growth. I bought my home here in TV in 1999.

Thanks for letting me bend your ear!

:wave:

cgalloway6

11-02-2011, 12:55 PM

Saw ad on the Golf Channel.

aljetmet

11-02-2011, 01:38 PM

TV commercial during a golf tournament. Immediately intriqued.

Ditto!

Thought I would never convince my wife but she's all for it...
We're waiting to book out Lifestyle visit in April. We were here for three days Feb 2010.... Just looked at homes and just driving around and going to SS for dinner I think at Cattle Barrons is all we needed to convince TV was for us.

John_W

11-02-2011, 02:22 PM

Saw the 30 minute infomercial on the Golf Channel in 2003. Called and received the package and DVD.

Bill-n-Brillo

11-02-2011, 03:29 PM

Back in the '80s, Sandy and I used to see TV when we'd drive by on 27/441 on our way to see my parents who wintered in Haines City.

Bill :)

jerseyvillager

11-02-2011, 03:42 PM

My brother and sister-in-law spent a month with us at our beachfront condo in Melbourne Beach, FL. They left us to spend a few days with his former secretary who retired to TV. He called me and said, "You got to see this place." So my wife and I did the LifeStyles Weekend and here we are.

FrankD

11-02-2011, 03:45 PM

My wife and I have a Park Model Trailer at a campground in Illinois. While talking to a friend, I noticed that their neighbor had a license plate that read "The Villages." I asked him about it, we later went to TV to visit him and the rest is history.

eweissenbach

11-02-2011, 04:55 PM

Like a few others saw an ad on Golf Channel, probably about 2008. Started looking at real estate on the website every so often, but got serious about it in November 09 when I ran into an old friend who said he lived in TV and raved about it. Joined TOTV in December of that year and soon booked an LSP for April '10. My wife was very reluctant and only went for the brief vacation and because I promised her she could visit friends in Sarasota while there. She fell in love with TV (of course) and we now have our home for sale, renting in Feb and Mar. from a fellow TOTVer, and bringing our checkbook.

njbchbum

11-02-2011, 06:54 PM

we bought in 2009 after visiting friends who had bought two yrs before...because they had a cousin who had bought a buncha years before that...because they had friends who had bought years before them! and since we bought, another couple has come down and bought, too!

i plan on doing a "family tree" in needlepoint for each of us!!! it will be a tree with a few limbs from which i will 'hang' bird houses with the family name on them. the tree limbs will each be 'named' for the village where each lives! need to finish crocheting a few golf cart lapghans for this year's christmas gifts first!

VillagesFlorida

11-02-2011, 10:16 PM

Knowing nothing about Florida, except where Disney World and Busch Gardens were, we drove down Rt. 441 from Ocala and happened upon this place in 1997. We were on a tour of central Florida, trying to see if the area might interest us 5 or 6 years down the road as a possible retirement destination. We took the 45-minute trolley tour and agreed that we would come back then, and look again. The next year we again toured the area, stopping here first, and then looking at communities from Leesburg to north and west of Ocala. Nothing looked as good as what we saw here. Spanish Springs Town Square was partially completed and there were two supermarkets. 5 months later we were headed down the turnpike in a Penske truck, hauling our car on a flatbed trailer. I am still not sure how it all happened so fast but I think it had something to do with the water in the fountain on the square! Since that August day in 1998 we have had an ongoing love affair with this magical place. So, how did we find this place? Purely by accident!

hedoman

11-03-2011, 03:52 AM

Saw ad on the Golf Channel.

That and a few of the members of my old club rent here and convinced us to check it out

The rest is history

ceejay

11-03-2011, 07:47 AM

Five or six years ago, a friend in Brooklyn was cutting our hair and telling us about a wonderful "city" where her niece was a reporter for the local newspaper.

They only drive golf carts and you don't even have to leave the grounds because you have everything you need as far as shopping and entertainment,
golf courses and pools galore; they even had their own local newspaper.

I remember thinking "Wow, it must be like the Emerald City...what a cool place to live"!

Fast forward a couple of years. We have a friend who hates everything, except the Villages! It was one of those "he likes it, hey Mikey (substitute Frankie)" moments.

Thanks to Lillian and Frankie, we have found our OZ!

Lynnelf

11-03-2011, 09:22 AM

My husband and I were planning a trip to FL to visit some possible retirement spots. I was telling my neighbor about the trip and she had heard about TV from a friend of hers who had just returned from a visit. So we ended up visiting and loved it. Then we visited the Sarasota area and loved that too. We were torn between the two until we met a man who lived in TV and was vacationing in Sarasota. He told us how much he loved living in TV (like being on vacation everyday) and spending great weekends in Sarasota whenever he felt like it. That sold us! After that we scheduled a lifestyle visit and had a fabulous time. We bought our lot this summer and will become full time Villagers very soon! My neighbor can't wait to visit us to see for herself what she started.

Schaumburger

11-05-2011, 02:03 AM

I came to learn about TV last year while visiting TV with my friend and her sister who was looking to buy a home in TV. All 3 of us took the trolley tour last year, and I was very impressed by what I saw. The three of us went to several open houses, and my friend's sister bought a house in TV last year, and she moved to TV full time about 5 months ago.

Since that visit last year, I have rented twice in TV this year. I will be back to rent in TV hopefully in June of 2012 -- oh how I wish it could be tomorrow. :sigh:

redwitch

11-05-2011, 05:27 AM

I had to move from the Bay Area and knew I was going to move to the South, just not where. Fortunately, I played a lot of bridge on Yahoo at that time. I did a post saying I was going to do a tour of the South and would love to meet some of my online friends if they could me up for a day or two. I did a whirlwind tour from Homestead (by Miami) to the Carolinas (5,000 miles in 30 days). One of my stops was The Villages.

After some careful consideration, it came down to North Carolina, Kentucky (my father's home) or here. Had to eliminate Kentucky because there were no jobs in that area. Figured I would have aged out of North Carolina's area (who wants to hire a legal secretary pushing 60 when you can get someone much younger for a lot less money?). So, that left The Villages since (1) I would be one of the "young 'uns;" (2) I loved that I could be as busy as I liked; and (3) just really liked The Villages in general. Once I moved here, I discovered that I could find a job with no problem but not one that paid a living wage. So, I started my own business and am now doing well enough to be looking to hire part-time to help me in some areas. I LOVE my bubble and thank Nancy weekly for inviting me to come visit her!!!

bonrich

11-05-2011, 05:45 AM

We had vacationed for a number of years on Siesta Key, and really enjoyed going there twice a year. Well, while on a cruise we met a "young couple" onboard who were full time residents of TV. They in true Villages style, invited us over to their house to visit and look around. We did one year and really enjoyed the peek. We were able to see TV through the eyes of a resident and not "on the bus" as we later on did. We would look at the video of the Lifestyle here, and usually in the dead of a SW NY winter, cold, horizontal snow, below zero wind chill, etc. It took us about 3 years of rentals to finally make the commitment to purchase a Villa and now a golf cart, and last night was able to enjoy the monthly meeting of our neighbors at our Rec center.
Don't get much better than that!!

Yorio

11-05-2011, 10:52 AM

You think everyone should by now know about TV. Wrong. Definitely there are more people who have friends living in TV these days. Let me tell you about a good friend of ours at a dinner dance. We happened to be sitting together that evening and somehow our conversation gravitated towards retirement. I mentioned about TV and as I explained more about the place, my friend got interested but not his wife. Since he was going to a conference in Orlando next week, he said he might look into this place. A month later, as we met at the dinner dance again, both he and his wife had this sheepish grin on their faces. They went, smitten, and bought a model home with all the furnitures. They spent a total of three days. Now after 5 years they sold their home up north to their son and living happily in TV.

Sunshine Mary

11-05-2011, 11:33 AM

Girl friend told me about The Villages about 10 years ago .She looked every place to retired and this was the place ..She pick up and sold everything and move down to The Villages .Well last winter I stay in Fort Myers and on the way home spent the night looked around like what I saw .So we came back In Aug spent a week and come back to rent here for three month .The second day here husband wanted to write a check and buy a house I said no .I am glad we waited we found the right lot we love the lot and well build Golf course view .First need to sell the house in Pittsburgh but we are living here so we are enjoy it here till we build..