What do you think about We were sold a bill of goods about Villages?
 

What do you think about We were sold a bill of goods about Villages?
its no longer a 55 and older communities and our amenities are being used by non residence?

Never was a fully 55+ community, and the occasional outsiders using the amenities is much overblown by residents with far to much time on their hands.

hmmm not sure i agree with that.

That was a given.
Most of your posts are ant-villages and developer, Can't understand why you came, or remain in such a bad place.

I think people who are unhappy living here have other options.

Based on what (other than the headline of an online letter to the editor)?

My experience has been:

I'm at the pool daily. I see people all the time that I immediately think they don't belong, but usually a worker appears, checks ID and these people pull out a piece of paper. So I assume it was ID because they stayed. I drive a car to the pooI because I like the ac after being in the sun for hours, so I can't judge people because they didn't use a golf cart.

I would say it's rare where I live, but during the summer, the number of children visiting parents is very high around here. Not all parents get them an ID for just a day or two visit. I'm sure they hear the "we don't need an ID, if they check us, we will just leave" response from their children.

Only 80% of the residents need to be 55+ for it to qualify for the federal designation. I agree that non-residents using amenities and horrible Airbnb renters are probably overblown, but I have a different philosophy---my number that I'm willing to tolerate is ZERO. The pool situation varies by village, but I believe those who frequent the Tamarind Grove pool adjacent to Trailwinds might have more skin in the game. Also , I suspect after hours exec course trespassers are more numerous say, on Sandhill, than Escambia for the same reason. Airbnb's are a blight on our community, in fact most peaceful communities, and we should do everything possible to ban them (and it can be done)

matter of opinion I'm just done drinking the Kool-Aid and pay for other people that come into villages and don't follow the rules.

I don't agree with the Kool-Aid part, nobody ever misrepresented what TV was to me. But I 110% agree with what I highlighted. Now, how much more in amenity fees are the residents willing to pay to eliminate the problem, especially since many don't believe it's a problem?
We would be talking about either high-tech gate cards and cameras at the pools and rec center outdoor facilities, or a massive increase in manpower. The golf courses would again need after hour monitoring either by camera or a person. But considering how cheap our amenity fee is in comparison to other Florida communities and how much more we get, I for one am willing to pay the price. The last thing I would want is a Villager alone at a pool when a gang of teenagers climbs the fence. They wouldn't be there to sell Girl Scout cookies.

Well said. I will leave as soon as the community in which I live no longer makes me happy. But that's just me. I prefer to be happy.

The problem is that many of the opinions being tossed about are based on headlines and zero evidence or fact.

Is the Villages a "55+ community?" Yes, they are. Are there people under 55 living in the Villages? Absolutely, but that is not inconsistent with the "55+ community" label. Unless you can show that more than 20% of the occupied homes in the Villages do not have at least one occupant who is over 55 then the Villages qualifies as a 55+ community.

"Pay for other people that come into villages and don't follow the rules?" How many people, which rules, and what would the difference in pay be? Are there some non-residents/non-guests using the pools? Probably. Are our pools and pickleball courts overrun with outsiders? No. Could the Recreation Dept. do a better job of keeping outsiders away? Maybe, but not at my pool, we aren't overrun. Which pools/courts truly have a problem with outsiders? Anywhere from none to all depending on who wrote the post or the letter to the editor. What is lacking is any evidence or facts.

you have your right to your opinion but how do you know that i am unhappy? do you have a crystal Ball? maybe i am just pointing out the obvious and am sick of paying for non residents!

Once get addicted to koolaid it’s hard to get off it. :faint:

How about conducting your own independent survey of people using the amenities….villagers vs. non villagers and let us know what you find out.

yup couldn't agree more lol

Anyone with a Search button knows how you feel. Some are only happy when they are miserable.

Since you are "done", where are you moving to?
:bigbow:

again someone that has a crystal ball, lol
I am not subject to all village nonsense and have a mind of my own. And yes everyone has a search button and i am not the only one that feels this way, just sick of all the mis-spending of our amenities and they keep going up. JMHO

how do you know i haven't already left? again can i borrow a crystal ball LOL

Hate Airbnbs
 

Those were the worst things to be developed in the start of this millennium. I would vote for any politicians who were for strangling these parasites with regulation. Airbnbs are a blight for sure. They infringe on those who have reasonable expectations for a normal neighborhood and lifestyle.

be careful you'll be accused of being unhappy, lol

No problem, she would just need to be at over 250 different amenities all at the same time, all day long (or hire 250 people). Then, without any authority whatsoever, ask to see IDs of everyone entering, while watching for fence climbers out of view. Not sure how she would handle anyone who "just says no" to her request. Don't forget to bring a golf cart so she can chase down everyone on the golf courses and ask for ID.

Might want to rethink that "suggestion"

What mis-spending is that? (examples please, not copy/paste of headlines or quotes from someone else's letter to the editor)

Odd. I find myself agreeing with just about everything that has been posted so far.

Yes, ineligible people are using our amenities. Villagers are in violation of this-or-that rule. Airb&bs exist also here, and can (and apparently do) attract people who have no interest in following the rules. And so on. But a lot of it is hearsay...people talk, and pass things along, and things get blown out of proportion. We HEAR about a lot of things related to the above. But just how much of it do we actually SEE? Especially if one reads The Online Newspaper That Shall Not Be Named one gets the definite impression that TV is being overrun by rulebreakers, unkempt properties and Airb&B hellraisers. But drive through any Village and the reality, aside from rare examples to the contrary, is totally different.

But...the fact that they exist at all is just a symptom of the real issue, and that is that there is nearly zero enforcement. What I find especially ludicrous is this system, if you can call it that, that allows people to get away with rulebreaking unless reported to the powers-that-be by another Villager! It can conceivably lead to situations where two houses on the same block have identical violations, but only the one that gets reported must fix the issue or get fined until he or she does. I know of no other place or situation where the people governed by a rule have the primary responsibility for ENFORCING that rule. Yet that is precisely what we have here. The powers that be apparently just sit on their hands, never enforcing their own rules unless they have no other choice.

Yes. We're lucky that the problems so far are probably more apparent than real; a lot smaller than word-of-mouth and rumor would have us believe. But the fact that they're not only allowed to exist at all but to actually become worse over time is an affront to all of us who bought here believing we were becoming part of a community where the rules and standards that we sought as retirees were being enforced. The fact that they routinely are not is something that can be learned only AFTER we became residents here. I won't go so far to say that we were sold a bill of goods. I certainly wasn't. We have a nice home in a well-kept Village with good neighbors and zero hellraisers. TV is everything I thought it would be. But with the "system" the way it is, will I be saying the same thing five years from now? We should ALL be asking ourselves that same question.

example: they represented this as gated communities, its a communities with gates, please use your search button you've talk about?
now they got rid of the 12 to 6am staff.
cuts are happening all over the place, its exhaust dealing with the endless Kool-aid effect lol

I'm not sure it's a bad suggestion. Assertions are being made that imply knowledge of what is happening at 250 amenities, all at the same time, all day long. If the assertions are correct then the proof should be very easy to acquire. On the other hand, if it is difficult to prove that 250 different amenities are being overrun all day long then there might be a reason for that.

I would like to see something beyond an all-or-nothing approach. My pool is not being overrun, my pool does not need any additional money spent on enforcement. My pool is just one of many and may very well be atypical. It would be nice to see increased attention spent at certain pools/amenities that are known to have issues. Maybe a way could be found to fund something like that.

CDDs can help too. They can ban guest passes for renters. That would go a long way towards preserving the retirement lifestyle and prevent those who don’t pay for amenities from abusing our pools and recreation centers.

Who represented this as a gated community? Not to me "they" didn't.

The Villages *might* have been a gated community in the past but it certainly was not in 2018 and I suspect it was not in 2014. I'll spend time later looking up when the roads were turned over to the county.

What is mis-spending about cutting back the hours to save money to spend somewhere else? That seems like a very responsible approach to rising costs.

What cuts are happening all over the place? Where is the mis-spending? Are you sure you know which flavor of Kool-Aid you are drinking?

Or just make the minimum rent period 30 days (except in February). This would still leave people with investment property the right to rent, but not as an Airbnb for 2 days. Give them a year to re-organize their rental strategy.

The numbered CDDs have ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL over guest passes!

I haven't seen the written policy that governs guest passes. It might be something legal or it might be simply a Recreation Dept. policy. The Recreation Dept. falls under the VCCDD.

Be careful what you wish for when you ask for a ban or to make guest passes more difficult to acquire. Many Villagers enjoy having friends, family, and grandchildren come to visit and would be highly annoyed if they could no longer take their families to the family pools.

Every home pays for the use of the amenities whether it is occupied 12 months of the year, six months of the year, or only one month. Every ID card and guest pass is distributed against a home in the Villages that pays amenity fees year round.

As for "retirement lifestyle," that sounds a lot like "best pizza:" everyone who uses the phrase has a completely different concept of what it means.

If you see something, say something.... just make a call if you think outsiders are using our facility. They will send someone over to check ID's.... simple

Is this a veiled confirmation? 👍

BTW Top Of The World Communities uses the fact that the Villages allows short term rentals as a marketing tool for themselves.

The Airbnb’s are certainly problematic for those next door to them and I believe the CDD’s can do something about this issue. Non-residents using our facilities is just a matter of monitoring and IMHO less than some residents think. Fore.

There's a huge difference between a family member or friend visiting your home as a guest and someone paying rent to an Airbnb to stay for 2 days

Absolutely. When we moved here 15 months ago I thought it is what I could live with (not necessarily what I wanted). But now I cannot leave fast enough even though we plan to stick it out 2 more years. All we can hope for now is houses keep appreciating in value for the next 2 years. Thank goodness we have a "lake lot".

Happily, I kept my land in MN. I can travel back there as much as possible to get out of here and maintain my sanity.

We've started the shopping process for an acreage back in MN (20 - 40 acres ideally).

I can see how for many this is heaven for them. I can also see how for many this is hell. We all have different expectations and preferences.

If you don't mind, which aspects of The Villages lifestyle have you wanting to run for the exit????

Not when you're writing regulations for the issuance of guest passes: at that point every non-resident looks the same and every short-duration visit looks the same.

I have to disagree. A person (family or friend) staying in a home FOR FREE is a guest. The person who PAYS RENT is a renter. There should be no problem distinguishing between the two in terms of issuing "guest" passes.