Hope to soon move to The Villages
 

My name is Sherry. I am waiting for my info packet for The Villages. Hope I can "sell" my husband on it. He's willing to move only to please me and mom. He loves PA. Yuck! If I'm lucky enough to be able to get out of the depressing, frozen (half the year) North, we will need to rent first. Hoping it will be a 3 bedroom. My mother is living with us also. We don't know anyone in The Villages but an online friend told me her cousin visited someone there and loved it so much she sold her house with all the furniture and moved into The Villages.

If 3 storms in a row doesn't convince him I don't know what will. Seriously though most people who come here are very pleasantly surprised. It's not as much a place to live as a lifestyle.

Are you still working? Employment here is not as broad a choice as that in Pennsylvania.

Take your time and come to visit and see what your husband has to say. Most people love it here but an unwilling spouse can ruin your happiness.

Be sure, hubby drives a golf cart around the squares, restaurants, groceries, shopping, appointments...DONE DEAL...

graciegirl, I saw a few of your posts even before I put my first one on. Looks like you really reach out to newcomers or maybe I remember you from your photo. :) Husband is retired. I'm disabled but plan to be a landlord -- somehow. We're pensioners so we're not desperate. hehe! If we have to rent a year before buying, so be it. :) If he sees we're really happier here, he'll be happy. He's really tired of our complaining about the north,...PA....

Good luck.

Yet it amazes me that it seems none of the TVers have bothered to explore other communities first before deciding on TV.

Sent you a PM, we are from PA also.

I think you assume incorrectly. Most of the people I know who live here are widely traveled.

I was surprised about The Villages because they were uninterrupted niceness. So much of Florida is a tourist destination with all of the kind of not pretty things that go with that and lack of zoning is evident in most places.

We are in Ohio and as soon as our house sells, we will be on the road to the Villages half of our stuff is packed already. In fact as I get older the more I hate the cold and winter months. We already have our house picked out to buy in the old section, as long as it is not sold before we sell our home. The one thing I think about is that you can be as active all year long compared to about 7 months in Ohio. That's got to be good for your health in our later years. Over the years there have been several friends have moved down to the area here.
Does your husband play golf or tennis, or enjoy fishing or boating, there is plenty of that here in the villages.
If you are unsure about your husband liking the area, it would probably be a good idea to rent for a year or so, then maybe he can establish some friendships first, that may help him ease into the community better. Also the villages has entertainment on one way or another almost every evening that is very popular. Also many fine dining areas and lounges.

Take the lifestyle visit....a great way to experience the villages. It is relatively cheap $99-$159 a night, you get a fully furnished villa, golf cart, passes to play golf and use all of the amenities while you are here. Take one of the trolley tours that are free. Once you try it....you will see why everyone moves here over all of the other choices in Florida! New friends to meet around every corner!

"...uninterrupted niceness."

Best short description I've heard.

We purchased a home last year and are from Upstate NY. I would move in a heartbeat, but are concerned about the heat of summer.
We are planning to go in June to see just how "hot" it is and if we can tolerate it.

If you are interested in renting, our home is available from July- Dec 27th...It is also available in May.
The home is 2 bed 2 bath with a Queen size sleeper sofa in the living room.
You can view all the details on VillagersHomes4Rent.com..property 5160.
The golf cart is available for an additional $200 per month.

If interested, please call or text Jean- 585 694 3279 or email jricciuto@rochester.rr.com

We lived in Florida for 7 years about an hours south of here. When we decided it was time to find our retirement location we looked at over a dozen different developments. All of them when The Villages was mentioned tried to compare themselves and say why they were better than The Villages. Most had some valid points on one or two items. When you look at the entire package of what is available here, none can come close.

A good many were less expensive than TV, some were more. TV was at about the 80th percentile for price, but at the top when you looked at all that was offered and available as far as activities and surrounding services.

If the initial price is the main concern, this is not the place. If you're looking for a place to settle down and die in your old age this isn't for you. If you're looking to live and have fun in your golden years, welcome to The Villages.

Sherry from PA, We are in the process of relocating to TV just as soon as we sell our home. We participated in the Lifestyle program in July 2012 (to see if we could stand the heat...which was less than what we experienced that summer 106 F in KS) and October 2017 (after Hurricane) just to make sure TV was going to "fit". Since we are far away from Florida, I looked on-line at numerous possibilities of other retirement communities and visited a competitor in Florida during our 2017 visit. While their homes may be less expensive, the activities in TV are so numerous that boredom would happen only if we chose that. While the activities are appealing, we struck up conversations with people wherever we were...even at Dunkin' Donuts in Brownwood. Everyone was so positive and friendly which confirmed our decision to choose TV. ToTV is a great way to learn more about TV from those who live here...and those who want to! I hope to meet some of these wonderful people who are regular posters on ToTV as they have secretly mentored our decision. Take the Lifestyle opportunity! Good Luck with your decisions!

Let's be realistic...he may be complaining about the heat and humidity during seven months of the year. Renting first for an entire year is the only way to be sure.

Agreed! It looks like you might be one of the few who really did some exploring. One problem though...our golden years can suddenly be filled with health issues.

After we sold our house we rented in The Villages for three months in the summer. Took our time and closed in September. We didn't rush to any house or any certain Village. I think future buyers should first focus on the house they want then look for that house in The Village they want. If you decide to live here year around then buy a house and NOT one of the villas. Those are mostly for the seasonal owners and you will feel your in a ghost town when there are all away. My two cents...

My wife and I visited TV a few years before we retired and were knocked out by it. We visited again the next year and it was just as good as remembered. The next year, we got serious. We visted retirement communities in the Carolinas (we lived in North Carolina for 20 years) and researched many in Florida. We made a trip to Florida specifically to visit 8 or 9 communities we'd narrowed it down to, hoping to find one that had the things we liked about The Villages in maybe a smaller environment and perhaps at a lower cost. Trouble is, nothing really compares. We decided on moving to The Villages on the ride home. We considered doing a lifestyle preview visit the next year but instead talked ourselves into buying a new house we had toured during our visit. That was one of the best decisions we ever made as the neighbors and neighborhood have been great and we love the house.

The Villages isn't for everybody. We talked to people in other communities who had moved from The Villages. They had their reasons, but they didn't resonate with us. We've been here for a year now as full-time residents and I still wake up with a smile every day, looking forward to the adventure that is The Villages.

I don't know that I would recommend renting here for a year just to see if you like living here. Look into the lifestyle preview or rent a house from individual owners or a week or a month. That should be enough to convince you one way or another. I would think you might want to rent for a year if you really want to be sure which exact neighborhood you want to move to or if you want to build a new house but can't wait until it's done to move here (not that they take a year to build houses here!).

If you've never lived in the South, the summers can be intimidating. We got used to them by living in North Carolina so we are OK with heat and humidity. The first summer can be a bit of a shock though. Just keep in mind that there is a ton of things to do here indoors as well as outdoors. You can still play golf, tennis, pickleball or whatever in the summer by doing so in the early evening and can still hit the square for dancing after the sun has gone down. Between those times, there are myriad clubs in the many recreation centers plus movie theaters, bowling alleys, etc., etc. It's actually pretty doable. Plus there are fewer people here then so it's easier to get into restaurants and everything else.

Good luck with wherever you end up deciding to live!

Very untrue. We live in a CYV and most of our neighbors are full time residents. We, as for many of the CYV owners, selected the villas for our dogs.

We came and visited with a realtor and bougfht the same day--drink the loo-aid

You will not likely need to rent for a year before deciding one way or the other. Your husband will either love it almost immediately, or decide it's a nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there. If you have never even visited, you are basing a lot on the word of someone else. I often see and hear that TV "is not for everyone". For people who love it, it's hard to imagine why everyone would not love it. My parents moved to TV 6 or 7 years ago and we have visited many times and fell in love with the place from the first visit. Now we are at a point where we can make a move and that's where we are headed (in less than 2 weeks). To this day, I have a hard time describing the place, sufficiently, to people who have never been there. It's truly somewhere you have to physically see and experience to get the true picture of it, good or bad. I would definitely recommend renting first if you are fairly sure it's where you want to go. I have never done it but I think the Lifestyle visit program is a great, economical, no pressure, way to get a good flavor of TV, but is not long enough for most to really decide if it's where they want to be full time. Many come on the Lifestyle visit and commit to buying property before they leave. But it doesn't really give you enough time to take everything into consideration and make the best decision for yourself, in my opinion. Rent is super reasonable in the summer months. And if you can stand the summer heat and afternoon storms, then you can stand anything else weather related. We are renting for at least 2.5 months while we search for homes. It's not unusual, and in some cases it's even required, to contract to buy a home and close on it in 30 days. If you can't make up your mind or find something in that amount of time, it's usually fairly easy to extend your rental or find another one during the summer months. Finding places and renting them in the winter months is an entirely different story. For the place I'm renting starting this month, the rent for the same place in Jan - March is over triple per month what I'm paying for this time of year.

I would like to know how in the world you know that nobody but a few did any exploring. You don't live here, do you?

Even if you are somehow correct, how many people do you know that regret moving here? I can think of three former forum members.

Have a fantastic 3 bedroom home for you in the Village of Ashland. Can send pics and prices. Text me. Rae 920-265-8425

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Regarding the hot summer weather: We are from the Chicago area, and worried about the heat in TV in summer. Then someone asked us whether, during the winter in Chicago, were we into outdoor winter activities like snowmobiling, skiing, ice skating or such. No? Then what did we do when it's cold outside? Stay in, of course. Or at least, only go from a heated home, to a heated car, to a heated destination. So, flip that 180 degrees. If it's too hot, stay in. Go from your air conditioned home, to an air conditioned car, to an air conditioned destination. And then, in winter, when your friends back north are shoveling snow, you can shake your head and wonder why it took so long to decide to move.

That's what we did too! Sold most of our furniture or gave it to people who needed something. Most people who move their furniture down here end up tossing it away when the get here. You will save tons of money by not hiring a mover. Just buy new or check out the multiple consignment shops when you get here.

Our first snow bird home we decorated all beachy and white and with some interesting recycled things from Bargains and Treasures and sold it furnished.

We brought our old stuff with us second house here. Our old stuff likes it here and with some pretty light blue greens on the walls and drapes, fits right in.. To each their own. I enjoy how people make their home beautiful.

Agree. That is what we are doing as well. By the time I start loading my rental truck next week, the largest piece of furniture I will have is a dining table. Other than that, a small recliner, a few small tables and everything else will be in boxes and bins. Not only does it make moving easier and less expensive, a lot of furniture people decorate with where they are from just doesn't go well with the style and design of the houses in TV. I can't count how many pre-owned homes I have gone to open houses at, or seen online, that are chocked full of furniture that just doesn't belong at all. We are basically moving our mattress sets for 3 bedrooms, a dining table, a recliner, and the rest I'll refer to as non-furniture items.

One of the first sales agents I talked to when I began going out looking at homes when I visited TV told me that there are 2 things most new villagers bring too much of with them - furniture and cars.

All of us can talk until we are blue in the face but most people don't believe us, when we tell how wonderful it is here, until they visit. IMHO

I would rent in three month intervals in different areas,
as TV is a humongous place. Send for a map and you can see how big it is and where you might want to rent.

It' not for everyone but can 120,000 people be wrong? :smiley:

Syracuse had 4 inches of snow on the ground this morning .. My brother can't wait to visit next week. I gave him my 7.5HP John Deere blower when I moved from the Southern Tier (Endicott) to Atlanta 20 years ago and the smile still hasn't gone from my face. Now the Villages .. I learned to drive in multi foot snowstorms .. Driving and living in high temps with high humidity is a breeze compared to dark skies and frigid temps.

Great post!
I have lived in FLA 20 years and still not a fan of Summer.
We do exactly what you are saying - stay in when it is really hot.

What makes a huge difference is closing in and air conditioning our lanai.

Also getting up earlier to do activities in the morning.

My project this Summer is to clean out & organize my house.
At least it will be cool!

Hi Clawdio, I am also from the Chicago area. I have been able to rent in The Villages a few times in July and August, and I think it is wise for those thinking about being full-time residents to rent for a couple of weeks or as long as you can during the summer months to see if you can deal with a Florida summer.

As for me, I would much rather deal with heat and humidity then the snow and ice of a Chicago winter. As many have said before, you don't have to shovel heat and humidity. Golly gee, it's April 8, today's high temp. will be 38, and Chicago is supposed to get an inch of snow tonight. :(

Looking forward to the day when I can give away my snow brush and sidewalk ice melter and move to Central Florida.

///

For me, cold is painful. Summer heat at times is uncomfortable but I much prefer it to cold. I play tennis or golf almost every morning in the summer and am in the pool in the afternoons. We like to go to the squares when the sun is beginning to set as there is almost always a breeze. I don't find the heat that different from Ohio except that it lasts longer.

:agree:

You should try the life style program. TV puts you up in a model home for a small cost. You get to see everything. If you like it you will not need 3 months to figure it out. One week and you will know. However i have found once you move here the first year is a whirlwind, doing everything possible. Then you settle in. Pick what you love and you are here. It is a wonderful life. As my friend says "Ah livin the dream"

One week was enough for us also. Went back sold our home and moved here 8 months later. That was 2 years ago and we are still loving it, no regrets at all.

Having moved 24 times, I can attest that the only way to really get to know the place is to actually live there. This is why I recommend renting for at least a year.

By the way, we lived in Melbourne three times for a total of 8 years, and while there, I visited friends in TV many times and had chances to do some exploring and hear stories straight from the TVer's mouth. Also in Melbounre we had a good friend who had relatives working and living in TV. Yes, I know of several people who regretted moving there due to the heat but could not afford to move back or were too embarrassed to admit their mistakes. But I also know of several who said they loved it there especially during the winters which I can certainly understand very well. After discovering how hot and humid it really was, some of them sheepishly stayed with their northern friends and relatives for 2-3 months.