How did you discover The Villages?
 

One day a new golf coach in my league told me that her father moved into a Florida retirement community where “There are 50 golf courses, all for free and you will love it there.”

When my wife and I were in Hilton Head I Googled what the new golf coach said and we drove here for an overnight trip. Two years ago that overnighter turned into a week and that turned into many weeks renting and that turned into a house.

What’s your story?

The "BOOK".

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Golf channel.

The commercials on Fox and Friends every morning, followed by a feature in our newspaper, turned into a quick trip here on our own ( no lifestyle preview). The Waterfront had just opened, so we stayed there for a long weekend and fell in love with the place. Everyone we met was so nice and people were out playing and being active all day. Finally just bought this year, and we are so glad we did!

Surfing the Web for Retirement Communities in Florida........

An older friend started renting here during the winter months and she continually RAVED about how active everyone was! We came two years ago for a month to try it on and LOVED it, as well. We love seeing so many people out and about, living life. Not sure when we can get here for real, but I sure hope it's soon!

I hadn't played golf for many years. Decided that since I was retired I'd take it up again. We went to Dick's here in Indianapolis. I had a good salesman who suggested a sale set of clubs to start back into the game. I was talking about enjoying retirement, and he told us about The Villages with the free executive courses and the many activities. He had worked as a pro in TV at one time. A few weeks later I started researching TV on the internet, and it sounded even better than he had said.

TOTV was really, really helpful in learning about TV. We made our lifestyle preview visit in Sept. and ended up buying our home on the second day. We working hard to get ready to move by the end of the year. Coming back week after next to get blinds, furniture and our golf cart.

I'm still enjoying TOTV!

Same as Northstar .... "Surfing the Web for Retirement Communities in Florida"

We are from Hollywood (S. Fl.), & used to drive up to Inverness to see my brother & family who live on a small ranch just 20 miles west of here. We would see the signs & really not pay much attention. Then a teacher colleague of mine mentioned that she & her hubby were seriously looking to retire here, & we decided to take a look. We were very impressed by our sales person's low key approach. Wow...no high pressure- what is that all about?!? So we liked it & kept coming up here for weekends on Lifestyle stays, & @ The Waterfront Inn. We did this for two years & got to know this place like home. We finally retired & bought our forever home 3.5 yrs ago.

As a high school band director in Indiana, I would bring my band to Disney World every few years. On our last trip, I mentioned to our bus driver that my wife and I were looking for a retirement community in Florida. It just so happened that he lived in The Villages. He spent the next week telling me how great it was. My wife and I went home, got the DVD, went on a lifestyle visit and bought after 2 days. We haven't regretted it for a minute!

Visiting our friends the first time a few years ago and then by we visited for the third time we knew. We aren't there yet but we just bought our forever home in June. Funny though we always said we weren't going to retire in FL, that we would probably go to Arizona. Never say never...now if next spring would just get here quickly.

A coworker would come to TV for vacation and she suggested we visit TV. The rest as they say was history.

In response to what Lanabanana said, I like how active everyone is. They are out & about, living life. It is wonderful to do that & see that all around us. Being from s, Fl, we do drive down often to see relatives & old friends. And, every time we drive back here I see all the people out & about. They are walking their dogs, biking, driving their carts to the pool or golf, or to a rec center for a class. It is so refreshing. Honestly back in s. Fl, where I was born & raised...people are not out & about like here. There are so many choices & experiences here. Luv it!

Well. First this big black van pulls up to the curb and 4 men jump out and I only remember a rag placed over my nose and mouth and I blank out. Oh wait. That describes the beginning of my first marriage. Seriously. We visited my father who was living in a retirement community outside Ocala at the time. My initial thought those many years ago was " I'll never be doing this". Look at these older farts running around in golf carts. Years later after checking this place out, I'm now later running around in a golf cart. Best form of karma I can think of.

We were going to FL during July because my hubby wanted to check out retirement communities and I wanted to go to DisneyWorld. In looking for a place to stay near DisneyWorld, TV came up as a place to stay. I went on ****, found a house to rent, stayed for 2 weeks, left TV for ONE day but never got out of the car, stayed at TV for the rest of the time, had a blast, fell in love with the lifestyle and loved how people are so active, happy and upbeat, my husband decided that maybe he'd retire in 2 years instead of 3. That was July of this year and we bought our villa in September. He is still working for awhile more but I'm here full time, permanent!!

A friend of ours moved here and heard her rave about the place. Did a 3 day lifestyle visit in December, 2011. Did another 3 day visit in July of 2012 with no plans on buying and as they say....the rest is history.

Husband retired last year, I just retired and will be moving full time end of November and we just bought our second home.

BTW our first home is for sale....2628 Thornberry Ave, 32162, Village of Duval. Great ranch home with bond paid. It's on Zillow dot com.

I LOVE it here. Yes it is lower paradise.:pepper2:

Toured south and central Florida in 1997. Drove by the Spanish-looking buildings on 441, turned around and came in to the sales office for the 45-minute trolley tour. Spanish Springs was still under construction and the tour was mostly on the historic side. Decided that The Villages, even as small as it was back then, was far nicer than other retirement communities. We told ourselves we would come look in earnest when we got ready to retire. A year later in March of 1998 we came back again, this time with appointments to see 7 or 8 other communities in the Ocala/Leesburg area. Nothing compared to what was here. Long story short we decided to sell our home and move to The Villages, years ahead of when we had planned to retire. It all looked like a lot of fun, almost too good to be true. Here we are, over 16 years later, just as much in awe of this place as we were when we bought our home here, when there were 16,000 folks who called The Villages home. We found it "accidentally" but watching this place develop and grow turned out to be the most fun of all. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

We blame our dogs.
In 2007 we were looking for a retirement community that allowed two large dogs with no weight restrictions.
We came on a lifestyle preview, we fell in love and put in an offer. But that deal fell through.
Two months later we bought a villa, sight unseen (viewed it on the internet, purchased it through MLS).
We've never regretted our quick decision.

I had not heard of it until the spring of 2010. They don't advertise in No. Fla. I was driving home from school and I heard a story on NPR about this central florida community that escaped the recession. I googled it when I got home and showed it to my wife. We came down on a Saturday out of curiosity and fell in love with it. We have made five other trips (three lifestyles). We close on a home in Dunedin on Monday (I retired 10/01 and my wife in June).

A co-worker retired 6 years before me and she and her husband purchased here. My wife and I would take2-3 weeks off in February and would come down to visit with them. They would take us out on a tour of The Villages and we knew that this was the place for us.

I retired in July 2009 and my wife in January 2010. February 2010 we were back down in The Villages, bought our home and closed in March 2010 and as many posters said -- "The Rest Is History".

Convinced my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to buy last year and again -- "The Rest Is History"!!

We had selected home to buy in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island and were previewing our daily life there and were coming up short after several days. We were at the hotel pool discussing our concern that it seemed dull. Happened to be talking to a then Villager who suggested we visit The Villages. They described it but came up real short in convincing us. Several months later we visited and were Highly impressed. Came back 6 months later and bought.

After reading this book I just had to visit The Villages.

A friend of mine knew she wanted to buy a retirement home in Florida, and she had heard about The Villages from a teacher colleague of hers. I came along with my friend to The Villages when she went on her initial house hunting trip in 2010. I was so intrigued and pleased by what I saw in The Villages from my first trip in 2010. My friend purchased her home in The Villages in 2010, moved down full time in 2011, and she is a happy frog.

I have been back to TV several times since that first visit in 2010, renting in a different village each time to get a feel of what living in different villages is like. My long term goal is to live in a place where I won't need a snow shovel, ice melt for the sidewalk or an ice scraper for my car. I certainly hope to make TV my home someday. It is a wonderful place!

We were getting work done on our motorhome at Alliance Coach in Wildwood.. While it was being repaired, they told us to take a ride and see Disney World for Adults, aka The Villages.

Long story short, we did, found our new house, sold the motorhome and never looked back. :wave::wave:

TV commercial and then sent for the DVD.

I was a flag twirler in our high school band and we made the trip to perform in Disney World in 1974 when I was a junior. Disney World looked very different 40 years ago and so did I :)

We had bought an ocean front condo Feb 2012, came to the Villages to see a Polo Match, stayed one night bought our house---moved in three weeks later, the condo was sold 6 months later

I knew I wanted to end up in FL after doing numerous house/cat-sitting stints for a family friend in Winter Park. As retirement arrived, the 55+ concept looked good. 55+ and Florida almost always brings up The Villages in conversation. We were not golfers so had never heard of TV. Several of our tennis friends knew people who had moved here. "So, where is it" .... "It's The Villages" ... "Where?" .... "It's a city unto itself". Did my web research, looked at a couple of other developments, this was the last stop on our 5 day Florida visit and the only place both of us liked. Came back that summer to rent in July just to sample the summer heat. Bought a house by July 7th. 8+ years ago and still loving every day here.

On the way to spring training baseball games. We left a day early intending to stop in Sarasota to look around as a possible retirement area. Had heard of The Villages so made a detour. It was late afternoon on a Sunday. Saw the sign for the Sales Center @ LSL, so thought maybe pick up a brochure out front. Oh no. They were open for business. Spent the night, toured with wonderful agent next day, and came back the following Friday. 1 year and several visits later we bought.

Good friends lived here and loved it.

A truck drove through the middle of my home, Insurance Co. put me up in a Hotel with TV on TV.:wave:

Found an oldies cruise on the internet with Rocky and the Rollers. Didn't know anything about the Villages when we went on the cruise, but every morning at breakfast the people at our table would talk about the Villages and how great it was. Five months later we did the lifestyle trip to the Villages and fell in love, just like everyone else does. They showed us some homes, but nothing seemed right for us. The day before we were scheduled to go back north we saw an ad in the Daily Sun for a house for sale by owner. Went to see it immediately, loved it, signed the papers and were NEVER sorry. Still not a full time frog, but we love what time we can spend there. It's a feel good place to be. Really special!

I watch a lot of golf on TV and back in 2006 after seeing a ton of commercials for The Villages during golf broadcasts I told my wife we should drive the short distance from our home in Tampa to see this place. After 7 years of of real estate crashes we finally moved here in 2013:D

Came in 07 stayed for a week. Husband saw it on the golf channel. That was when houses were selling before you could drive there. Husband would have bought then I said no. Came and went and in 2010 bought a house. Not the one of our dreams but what we could afford. Our goal was for our parents to use the house whenever they wanted to.

In 2003 in Baltimore I was watching the Golf Channel one night very late and the 30 minute infomercial was shown. I had grown up in St. Petersburg but left in 1977 and also lived in Pensacola, Savannah and Atlanta. I was familiar with most parts of the south but I had never heard of The Villages so it got my interest. I called and they sent me the info packet and VHS tape. By 2011 we were ready to make our move, so we took a 7 day LSV in April. Returned to Baltimore and listed our home in May. The first viewing was a manager from the new Wegmans built across the street from our home, and they bought our home, sold in 18 hours. We moved to TV in June 2011 to a CYV we had bought from TV website sight-unseen.

We had been renting a condo on the beach in Reddington Shores, just south of Clearwater. Loved the area, but the other half refused to buy a home on a Hurricane Evacuation Route, and Gulf Blvd has Evacuation Route signs all over the place. We gradually became disenchanted with Spring Break and told friends of ours we were done with Florida. She said "come see The Villages where we are", so on our way north at the end of March we stopped to see them, fell in love and decided that the following year we would rent for the winter. So the following year we rented a Villa in Spanish Springs, fell in love and bought a place immediately, kept the home up north for two years and then decided to move full time. Love it, have never ever regretted it and feel so very fortunate to live where we do and have the life we have.:smiley:

Found TV almost by accident. A friend was talking about this place near 441 and 466, with all this neat stuff. After some searching on Google, found a place called TheVillages, and saved the info. Fast forward 2-3 years we are visiting a relative on the East coast of FL and decide to see what TV is. Went up for a quick tour, just with the realtor (seed planted). Fast forward another 2-3 years and TV has come up in conversations a couple of times, so as a surprise for my wife, I arrange for a week stay at TV and tickets to the Daytona 500. We were so impressed with TV, on the last day of our stay we tried to buy a house. No luck, all were already sold. Tried for another month by e-mail, no luck. Finally bought a lot and had a house built (we were the last group to be able to do that). We will be here 1 year this week, and LOVE it.
Still waiting for the person that mentioned TV to get down here!
PS: I had previously told many people I would never retire in Florida, that was before I heard of TV.

Our friends in Ohio vacationed here for years and kept inviting us to come down. They described this place called "The Villages" with great exuberance. We figured it would be nice and fun, but we thought they were a little crazy. Our last kid went off to college so we finally said yes . . . and we bought that first week.

They tried. But you just can't accurately describe it.

Suffering from TV withdrawal! You too? It's the worst.

My husbands brother and wife moved to TV from Tampa in 2005. After my husband passed away, I finally got around to visiting them in April 2009, leaving snow in NY. I moved into my own house in Oct. 2009.