Putting aside the financial aspects, over the years I owned a number of rentals, some were wonderful renters and some were not.
If you take this route, it can become a job just make sure you are prepared for that.

AND insurance premiums are HUGE here.

Do nothing! Perpetually renting out your Village house overtime will honk off our neighbors. They will be so annoyed by the turnover of partiers with their specific proclivities that you will be a persona non grata.

If you have an investment advisor, run your questions past that person. I did and my situation currently made sense to just own one house. A good investment advisor can provide a better financial picture for you and your wife long term.

Realty if you only want to spend 300k you won’t get a house that you will want to live in full time one day. You will fix up whatever you buy even new homes are fixer uppers.
TV is expensive to buy and live and it’s loaded with investment rental property.
Do your research, the property taxes, the bond, the annual maintenance fee and all the other fees.

Patience is key and sounds like you and the wife have time! Start researching and create a budget spreadsheet. There are multiple Youtube video host that do an excellent job of reviewing real life expenses in The Villages. It's amazing what information can be obtained listening to the videos and reading TOTV :) We are all lucky enough to have many options and some are not apparent until later in the research. We recently moved to TV and in the end decided to rent for a year while getting a better idea of actual expenses. We hear many people move multiple times due to drinking the Kool Aid and not taking Vitamin P (patience). Good luck in your new adventure and enjoy!

Talk to Realty Executives in The Villages. They have a rental branch in the villages. They can walk you through the process, costs, tax advantages, and restrictions. I rented out my house until I could retire. If you claim it as a rental unit, you can claim the interest, improvements, taxes, depreciation, water, sewer,,,,,,. You are limited on how many days you can use the property per year. You would need to decide on long term rental or short term. (seasonal) Jan-March are the most sought after. April/May are a bonus. You will need someone to care for the weeds, grass cutting, landscaping, sprinkler system, bug spraying. Most places are furnished and include a golf car. Best rents are near Sumter Landing and Brownwood. Talk to your accountant what you can and cannot claim.

Second Home is Expensive
 

I agree. Maintaining a snowbird home is very expensive for us about $12-15,000 a year. Taxes, insurance, pest and lawn control, lawn cutting, house watch, roof, house wash, electric, repairs maintenance AC, Water, amenities etc. There are plenty of rentals around and it will give you an idea about what area you want to live in. That was our plan but ignored it and bought. Fortunately our house increased in value but not enough to offset the annual expenses. I suggest you put these figures together and then decide

I would wait until closer to retirement. Having a second home is way more costly than most people imagine, especially when having two mortgages, which seems to be one of your options. Only one house would receive a homestead exemption, while the other house taxes would increase possibly dramatically. Then there is the utilities, and appliances breakdowns, roofs that keep aging etc.

If you want to think about this as your actual retirement home, you might wan to wait until you have the resources to buy your dream home. If you are ok with this being purely an investment that you stay in 4-6 weeks a year, that would hopefully appreciate in value, adn that you might sell-up in the future, then that would be a easier way of looking at it.

I'm assuming that the 4-6 weeks that you want to stay here would be in the Jan-March window, which is the most lucrative window for landlords here.

So you are looking at fully furnishing the house, and doing short term rentals through a local property manager, and all the associated expense, but taking away about $4-$6k in gross profit right off the top.

Summer months rent for less than $2k/mo if at all. But if you have a pool you can still get some AirBnB traction in the summer. The least expensive pool home right now is $340k.

From a pure short-to-medium term investment and headache perspective you would be better off putting that money in a HYSA or CD or something, as others have said. But if you think that hard assets will appreciate a lot in the coming years and you don't already have real estate investment in your portfolio then it is still worth considering.

I greatly appreciate all the responses, even on becoming persona non grata! ;)

As always there is more information that can become I guess pertinent. I did have 2 homes prior, roughly 4 years ago I sold that rental property and have been just in our current home. That means I do get the pitfalls of rental property. I would probably just open it up to season rentals when not down there, just to not sit and have a company watch over it. I get that is typically 20% I would look into that more before purchasing of course.

Although none of us are Nostradamus-like, well I am not anyway. I would have expectations that property values 10 years from now would be up, and I would have the equity in there as well with a down payment. Upon my passing, this would be another nest egg for my wife... who likes to plan that already! ;). That being said, I could check out tomorrow!

One response talked about an annual maintenance fee. What is that in The Villages, or perhaps I am misreading that? I understand the Activities fee, etc?

How much do you all spend on pest spraying?
Lawn mowing, if I get a place with a lawn! (I don't want a lawn when I retire to do or take care of. Just my preference.)
What are your insurance rates? (I have watched so many YouTubers that have Villagers breaking down their costs, and it seemed somewhat reasonable to me.

I do think the home prices in TV are too much hence looking for a deal so I can be patient. I am coming down for 5 days in May to do the lifestyle visit and will be hitting up the areas, and seeing locations that we have a definite interest in.

And I will reach out as my schedule eases this week to query those who have left the invite to reach out.... as I don't think I have a hint of the picture and probably due to not providing enough information but putting down let us say $100k on a home purchase to lower the mortgage amount at a higher interest rate, or if paying off my $100k (much lower interest rate as to time mortgage was taken out.) Just curious if there is something I am missing in terms of a benefit either way other than just having one mortgage payment on a non-homesteaded home.

Just thoughts!

A few mentioned rental properties need to be on a golf view etc. to get the rental and not smart to get inner units, I do not want to pay a premium for those views personally, as for me they are overrated for living there. I have a family place on a lake in MN (Avid fishing guy myself) but unless I am on the lake, I don't spend any time looking at the lake. Since I do bass, I love a calm lake so I look at it at 6 AM and go, looks fab I am going out. That is my extent of looking at it lol!

I believe the value for a place (I could be absolutely wrong as it is my importance.) is having a place near a pool and rec center seems more valuable then golf view. Just one guys take! I am sure my life would love a Golf Course View, until the golfers are in the yard, balls are in the yard, and the Mini Schnauzer wants to get to them! ;)

Please keep on with the thoughts, I find them all valuable. :beer3:

Your described financial situation is way too precarious to be considering the purchase of a second home. Maybe you have substantial assets that you don't mention in your post. Or maybe your primary home that you owe $100K on is worth millions. Don't know and don't want to pry. But if most of what you have in liquid investable assets is the $150K you describe, you should not buy a second home....one person's opinion.

Most houses will have a bond, which is money used to construct the infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.). You pay off the bond with annual principal and interest payments. The maintenance fee is additional and it appears on your tax bill. It is the cost to maintain the infrastructure.

All houses in The Villages will be near a pool and a rec center. If you are too close to a rec center, you may have an issue with pickleball noise. Also, traffic noise is always something to consider when selecting a lot. Don't buy a house too close to the Florida Turnpike. Pool pumps are also a problem if they are located next to your bedroom.

The view lot will come into play when you sell the house. Houses without a view are a dime a dozen, but a house with a view (golf course or water) are much easier to sell and will command way more money. You should also consider the garage space. If you buy an expensive house, you definitely need a two-car garage and a separate golf cart garage. Without these, you will have a lot of trouble selling the house.

We owned a home here for 6 years before getting down here full time and this ^^^ is a thing. Plus managing it from a distance is a pain in the neck. Like when the neighbor (fortunately) calls and says one of your sprinkler heads is broken and you have a fountain in your back yard. You do end up with a home to move into that's closer to businesses vs. being new in the middle of nowhere....but nowhere becomes somewhere in a few years and you get to move in with all of your new neighbors at the same time and it's like going off to college but more fun. So I say....just wait and make the move all at once. YMMV!

Joe

I need to start using that phrase! Vitamin P is fabulous!