VLS vs MLS on a pre-owned home?
 

Advantages? Disadvantages? Thanks in advance.

Selling or Buying??

I think you have to look at both markets when either buying or selling to see the complete picture. If you are buying you need only contact an agent when you have decided to look at a house. Of course if you decide to look at houses spaning both markets, then you will need two different agents.

One of each for buying pre-owned, Villages for buying new of course, and Villages for selling. After having 4 personal experiences I would recommend Beth Pope of The Villages for buying and selling.

Another vote one of each for pre owned

Oops, buying.

Don’t the VLS and MLS charge different commissions?

Need both.
If you don’t have both, you are limiting your choices.

As someone who is actually in the process of finding a home, we started with Village realtor on 10/17/24 for a pre-owned and had 3 for us to see. Then they really pushed the new section and drove us way down to Middleton. The following day, wife and I happen to go to an open-house by ourselves on Saturday and met an outside realtor.

After her open-house, she showed us 5 pre-owned, then emailed me 12 more on Sunday that met my criteria. Five more on Tuesday. Monday she called to hear my thoughts and again this morning at 10am to let me know upcoming decreases and to hear my thoughts. Never heard from Village realtor after that first day.

Of course it all depends on who you get and how many houses you are willing to see. We are open for anything. So Zillow has a ton in that area as long as you know the actual boundaries of the village. Don't go by google or zillow map. Also zillow doesn't usually mention bond and roof year since they are not village people. And I don't mean the band, although I would like for them to play at the village. That's my two pennies worth.

It’s been my experience that most VLS agents “push” the new homes. It could be because new homes, as a general rule, are less time consuming for the agent and an easier sale. Most prospects come to The Villages looking for a new house. VLS agents have a monopoly on new house sales and the Villages lifestyle program. It is what it is.

This is easier.

I would look on The Villages site & look on Zillow.
This will cover the market, then go see your Fav's.
(without broker pressure)

If you want the comfort of "being represented"......... ask a friend for a referral.

I sold my home in the villages and unfortunately signed up with a VLS agent. I was thoroughly disgusted as they used my home to try to sell new homes! I would never sell a home again with anything but an MLS agent. VLS agent started out with two open houses and a neighbor overheard them using my open house to push their new houses in comparison! After the open houses, they barely tried a darn thing to sell my house. It was many trips to complain and filled with heartache and sleepless nights before I finally got them to work for me.

To find preowned homes on Zillow type “Zillow The villages Fl” if you know a particular area zip code then type “Zillow The Villages 32163” there are many zip codes in the Villages. The advantage to having VLS agent if they are good is that they will send you a notice of what is coming on market before it hits the regular website. They won’t tell you about non villages listings so you have to have MLS too. You do need it look at villages homefinder site and Zillow regularly to see everything as agents don’t have time to look at everything all the time and some unfortunately will only tell you about what they get most commission from selling. If you say what area and size of home here you may get replies from people about to put home on market. Be sure to look at bond and taxes as each county has different tax structure. Make a list of what activities you will be trying to do and make sure near there too. Good luck.

When buying to see as many available homes as possible, we checked VLS, MLS, and FSBO.com (For Sale by Owner).

I made the mistake of contacting the Villages sales rep because I didn’t know any better. He drove me down south and showed me new sales. He did show me a few preowned but they were not to my liking. I wasted three days here before I realized that I should have contacted an MLS agent. Three months later I came back, contacted an MLS agent who showed me over 20 pre owned homes. I ended up finding the one I wanted to buy. As many said, contact both VLS and MLS.

I’m getting ready to list in the near future. Who was your “outside realtor”?. Thanks

VLS sales people have the seller provide a limited policy to cover (with a deductible) appliances, water heater, etc for a certain timeframe. MLS agents do not have the seller do that. I've bought from both and used it to replace a leaky water heater. (VLS sale)

MLS for Selling
 

When you list a home for sale through The Villages, you are limiting the exposure to ads on their radio station, the Daily Sun, and TV website. About 80% of people who are looking for a new home start on Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, etc. your house will not show up on these sites if you list with TV. Sell through MLS - exposure gets homes sold.

MLS…Matt Roberts
VLS…Rene Webster

I don't agree with that. 80% start with Google - "homes for sale in The Villages".

This is interesting I have never heard about a warranty offered on VLS sales.

I am actively watching listings and will call MLS if on Zillow and VLS if it on their site. If you are waiting for the right preowned listing at the right location, price with updates to pounce you must have both.

If you ask the MLS agent can do the same thing. Was told the cost of a one year warranty is about $500-$600. Pretty cheap if it helps sell the house.

When we were buying, the only new homes were in Chitty Chatty, Bradford and they were just opening St Catherine.

We decided we wanted to be above 44 and below 466A, and made that clear to our realtor.

The homes below 44 were never mentioned again.

We wound up buying in the Osceola Hills area...

Pertaining to resale homes: I was shown data that VLS sells about 3 times the resold homes than those sold by ‘ALL’ the area MLS ‘combined’.
My VLS realtor has sold more resales in TV than new homes.

My resale home sold in 10 days using VLS. Out of state Buyers used the Villages App and made me a cash offer.
My experience, You simply cannot beat the Villages application.

BTW: the Villages take 5% of sales price.

MLS gives you more options. We liked Carrie Wenzel. Don't use VLS unless they are listing the house you want. They will try to sell you a new house. Most of them are poorly constructed.

If you use an MLS agent to buy a pre-owned home at the Villages, make sure they are very experienced and knowledgeable about the Villages. Personally, I'd stick with a VLS agent if I had to do it again.

Google Chris Day - he is MLS but use to work for The Villages and is well known and does a great job - give him a call and you won’t be disappointed!!

The reality is they push the new homes as the developer gives the sales person a greater incentive to do so - plus they are graded on how many new homes they sell.

My MLS realtor bought us 1 year coverage of all our appliances as a thank you gift.

The developer’s business is literally selling the new houses.

I am finding our VLS agent is unresponsive. Worse part is mls doesn’t work within TV. We are stuck with our attempts to leave

MLS agents certainly will list & sell houses in the Villages. If you have a contract with the VLS, then you will have to wait until the contract expires. Then, if not sold, you can list with an MLS agency.

My MLS agent ...
 

My MLS agent for buying told me recently that MLS agents can just now show houses that are both on the MLS and the VLS.

An MLS listing (like on Zillow), will certainly mention the roof if the owner tells the agent & it will help to sell the house, ie: it is a new roof. If the MLS doesn't mention the roof, then it is most likely NOT new. Same with the bond. If the owner tells the listing agent that there is no bond, the listing will clearly state: NO BOND. If none of the above happens, then it will not be reported in the listing & you have to ask. But this type of thing is not exclusive to The Villages. Listings are sales tools. If something is not mentioned, then it likely doesn't exist or is likely to not help sell the property.

New one on me.

When I negotiate a listing contract, I always require that I have the right to fire the agent or broker if I lose confidence in them. If they won't agree to it, they most likely will not get my listing, or it will be a very short term contract.

When we bought 6 years ago, the agent for The Villages, could only show new homes or homes they listed. If this is still the same go with an independent agent. T

My understanding is a VLS agent first and foremost represents the seller. One has to ask, who best represents the buyer's interest in negotiations on an existing home listing? New/spec homes are priced as is and there are no negotiations. Please help me understand, should one have the MLS agent approach a VLS agent with an offer on an existing home to make sure the buyer is best being represented? And in today's buyer's agent agreement world, how would that work?😁