Questioning possible purchase
 

We have been to TV 3 times now, having just returned from our lifestyle preview. We looked at homes as TV is our retirement destination in 1-year and 167 days, but who's counting, and of course we found "the house". It had everything on our wish list, and more, except 2 things. No 3-car and it backed up to other lanai's. There was more space between them than others we have seen and wonderful landscaping but still..my question is what is the general opinion or experience with a home like this. I have read many downsides to this and it has always been a concern and yet when you see "the house" you are willing to consider this. Now we are back to -1 here in Chicago and are questioning whether carrying costs might be worth it for the 18 or so months. Looking forward to your replies.

Are you saving it didn't have a golf car garage, or a 3 car garage? Big difference.

It seems every home in The Villages has some compromise that you accept. I have yet to find any that are perfect at a price I would pay. Make a list of everything you want, try to select the absolutely must have, the very nice to have and those that you can live without. A three car garage is really nice, but could you get by with a two car oversize? Are you willing to pay for that back yard privacy you want? Golf course and view lots are a huge premium. Once you have the list and the must haves, compare it to that house.

Just remember the house you can change (if you have some room), the location, lot or restrictions you cannot.

From talking to others the 2 biggest reasons for people wanting to move are 1) no golf cart garage, and 2) kissing lanais or lack of some privacy.

If either of these are high on your list (and you can afford it)..you may want to keep looking until you find it!

One of my criteria when I bought was no kissing lanai's. Been here two years and I mafe the right decision. It might take some effort to find one, but for me it was worth it. As far as carring costs, I assume you mean buying now and renting until you get here. I rented mine unfurnished for a year. There is a market for unfurnished long term rentals.

It had a 2-car garage but that we can compromise on. It was the lanai issue. The lanai behind the house was further back than most and had extensive landscaping. We will not find a house with everything else it had for this price next year. We would not be renting it unless we did an unfurnished long-term. I guess we have to think about our carrying costs versus how much more we would pay for this house next year. Thanks for your thoughts. I'm still picturing me on the golf course as I had one of my best rounds ever at Evans Prairie last week.

We settled on 2/12/14. We had our personal wish list. With only spec homes being built, having ruled out the existing homes currently on the market, we had to trim our list considerably for the house in order to get the privacy we wanted with the lot.

The decision was difficult and our theory was in time we could change some of the things we would have liked to have in the house, but we couldn't change the location without moving.

I think your "gut" is telling you that a kissing lanai is not for you.
Location is the most important consideration when purchasing a home.
Just one tiny little opinion. :duck:

We narrowed our choices to only homes with a golf car garage. It came down to a Begonia, or a Gardenia. Both virtually the same house, except the Gardenia has an "outside" Golf car garage, meaning it allows a nice big window on the front of the house in the breakast nook, an area that is taken up by the "inside" Golf Car garage on the Begonia. Then we were down to two choices: a Begonia with Granite counters and a Gardenia with Formica counters. Realizing we could change the counters, but not relocate the golf car garage, we went with the Gardenia. We changed the counters to granite an are very happy.

Lanai
 

We bought a home wit an extended lania. It is 35 ft from our backyard neighbors lania, but directly behind id. They landscaped, we landscaped andd we hardly notice them. The funny thing is we can still holler back and forth from each other. I
guess if it was much closer, it might be a problem.

Scaly bow...the house I speak of is in Buttonwood so perhaps it could be me you shout out at through the lanai!

We too are a few years away from retirement. During a visit, we looked at new and pre-owned homes in a specific price range and didn’t find any that appealed to us. We then saw a furnished model on a golf course that was magnificent, but way over the price threshold we had set for ourselves. We spent that evening figuring out that we didn’t want to settle for a lack of privacy, wanted the larger garage, The Villages would probably be built out at the time we retired, (perhaps only fewer pre-owned choices), and that we could afford to go higher to get the home we wanted now. We upped the price range and the next day, saw quite a few homes that fit the bill (knowing we could always go back to the furnished model at the end of the day). We found a new home that day, with a great lot and location with the features we wanted. We decided to buy it. We determined that we could actually make more money buying now and renting the house than we could get from current interest rates. (Plus historically, there has been a steady increase in home values in TV. Our thoughts were that maybe we wouldn’t be able to afford this home if we waited to buy it in the future.)

Our TV Sales Rep was invaluable and helped guide us through. On the day we decided to buy, he took about 80 photos of the house, inside and out, which he gave us to use in our rental ad. He introduced us to a great TV rental listing site, and he recommended that we list with them immediately (pre-settlement). We took this very sound advice and rented the unfurnished property ourselves within a week of posting the ad and three weeks before we went to settlement. We also got window measurements. We live out of state and in the three weeks leading up to settlement, we arranged for a washer/dryer installation, ordered custom window blinds, selected lawn and other service providers and arranged to epoxy the new garage floor. A little hectic, lots of decisions, but great recommendations and guidance. We had settlement, the installations were done and the new tenants took occupancy five days later.

We have a great home to look forward to, have peace of mind knowing where we will retire and can spend our interim time planning and focused on the goal of getting to TV. We can’t wait!

We too are a few years away from retirement. During a visit, we looked at new and pre-owned homes in a specific price range and didn’t find any that appealed to us. We then saw a furnished model on a golf course that was magnificent, but way over the price threshold we had set for ourselves. We spent that evening figuring out that we didn’t want to settle for a lack of privacy, wanted the larger garage, The Villages would probably be built out at the time we retired, (perhaps only fewer pre-owned choices), and that we could afford to go higher to get the home we wanted now. We upped the price range and the next day, saw quite a few homes that fit the bill (knowing we could always go back to the furnished model at the end of the day). We found a new home that day, with a great lot and location with the features we wanted. We decided to buy it. We determined that we could actually make more money buying now and renting the house than we could get from current interest rates. (Plus historically, there has been a steady increase in home values in TV. Our thoughts were that maybe we wouldn’t be able to afford this home if we waited to buy it in the future.)

Our TV Sales Rep was invaluable and helped guide us through. On the day we decided to buy, he took about 80 photos of the house, inside and out, which he gave us to use in our rental ad. He introduced us to a great TV rental listing site, and he recommended that we list with them immediately (pre-settlement). We took this very sound advice and rented the unfurnished property ourselves within a week of posting the ad and three weeks before we went to settlement. We also got window measurements. We live out of state and in the three weeks leading up to settlement, we arranged for a washer/dryer installation, ordered custom window blinds, selected lawn and other service providers and arranged to epoxy the new garage floor. A little hectic, lots of decisions, but great recommendations and guidance. We had settlement, the installations were done and the new tenants took occupancy five days later.

We have a great home to look forward to, have peace of mind knowing where we will retire and can spend our interim time planning and focused on the goal of getting to TV. We can’t wait!

Thats great Waverunner...sounds like it all worked out beautifully for you!

Totally agree. Back when you build your house and choose all the options you wanted, would have been the perfect time to buy. Unfortunately, even if you buy a new home, it will come built without your input.

I don't think there is such a thing as getting everything you want. You have to decorate to your taste anyway. Ask yourself, "what is a deal breaker"?

Just like life, is a compromise, you have to do what is right for you!!

Decisions, decisions, and more decisions.

There are over 5340 homes sold per year by the developer and another 2000 sold by MLS.
When we came to look for a home we stayed at the Waterfront inn and looked full time for a house. We kept the MLS and developer agents busy showing us homes. When we passed a place with a sign we made a note in our notebook. We drove around in a rented cart whenever we weren't with an agent. We took pictures of every home we looked at and ended up buying a place in one week just over the top of our price range.
My wife replaced all the flooring and counters and we couldn't be happier with our home.
We closed painlessly by mail.
If you can't find a home that you want keep looking. Settling for less than you need will result in another commission for the sales agent down the line.

It's very cool how different we all are! I bought a new Wisteria and cannot be there full time but I can see that it was a good decision to "carry the cost" till I can close up shop here. Prices have already increased and interest rates surely will.

I have a dining room and a kitchen with a breakfast nook.. Two areas of hospitality seating. That's a good thing for me. I have a golf car garage in addition to my 2-car garage.. .. Yes my lanai backs up to another house but this doesn't bother me a bit. I like my new neighbors behind me and next door a lot! I'll landscape and make my own semi-privacy, and though I'm a social person it's easy to have privacy without backing up to a golf course. Also saved me about $100K.

As a single girl there's always been a sense of security in knowing others weren't far. But make no mistake.. all the home beauty, comforts and Village amenities would be worthless if it weren't for the great sense of community.The people make it happen!

I'd never heard of the Villages until someone told me that I belonged there.. She was correct!:pepper2:

Perhaps you might ask yourself what you are looking for in terms of privacy. Is it a view you would prefer? Or just knowing that you won't have noisy neighbors behind you? As someone else mentioned, there is a huge premium for a golf or water view which affords privacy behind. We had considered going that route, but as my spouse correctly pointed out, that it really is the luck of the draw as far as neighbors. You can have a beautiful golf course view, but the houses are generally so close on the sides, that neighbors, if they are noisy or have barking dogs, etc., can be heard. So we went with an interior lot. All of our neighbors to the back and sides have now enclosed their lanais. With the privacy landscaping, we rarely see or hear the neighbors. By contrast, we have friends who have a pricy golf course view, but have neighbors 2 doors down that play a loud karaoke machine on their lanai/birdcage that drives them buggy. So there really aren't any guarantees as far as privacy. Just something to think about.

my reply is this. After 3 visits and not finding what you want maybe it would be best for you guys to look elsewhere,. You will never like it here if you have to compromise and after 3 visits you should know by now

If you talk to people here most have move at least two times because they did not buy what they really wanted the first time. There is a give and take here unless your budget allows you to just get it all up front. Choose wisely. Carrying costs are not cheap but we looked at a home 18 months ago and the same home is $70k more today.

I wasn't saying we weren't ready to be in TV, just whether to hold out for the issue I described. As it turns out we decided to go for it but today found that we did not get the house. Obviously someone accepted that someone was behind them. We have visited 3 times yes, but the first 2 were just to visit friends and the last one a week ago was a fact finding mission but we found a house and so on and so on. It has not deterred us. Our goal is 2015 or sooner. Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Buy now if possible. I mentioned in another post that my neighbor bought his house for around 442K and 18 months later sold it for $625K in 1 day. This was on an interior lot.
Other neighbors we have don't retire for a while but locked in now.
With the number of boomers retiring daily only a handful need to move here to keep things going up.

Wow... That is just such good advice! I have been looking at 2 houses a day since New Years and the "perfect house" just aint gonna happen. But I have made a list of what I absolutely must have to be content and will work off that. Lots of folk sort of settle for a house with "potential" and do just terrific stuff to it over the years...
Good Luck Chicago!!