What would you change if you had it to do all over again?
 

Hello to All! :wave:

We are in the early stages of planning our move to The Villages after a very enjoyable Lifestyle Preview week! We have enjoyed looking at all of the many positive and helpful posts about life in TV, and were wondering if those of you who have made the move might share the "ONE OR TWO THINGS YOU WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY" now that you have been through the process.

I'm sure we will be very happy there based on what we have seen and heard, but we would also like to improve our decision making process by learning from your experience.

Suggestions regarding all aspects of the process from the first steps of putting our house on the market, to your current experiences actually living in The Villages would be greatly appreciated. Retirement (and then our move from Pennsylvania) is planned for June 2011. We did live in Tampa for five years and can't wait to get back to Florida. As I always say... You don't have to shovel sunshine!

It will be interesting to see the diversity of comments and advice! Thanks in advance!

~ The Morning After ~

WOW! I posted this late last night and the many varied comments are already very helpful! Please keep 'em coming... no suggestons is too big or small as we all have different priorities and no one can think of everything. Thanks again!

Allen

I would buy in Lake County, NO bond!

Allen,

I wouldn't let the bond worry you too much. The amount is known upfront whether you buy a resale or new. It might even be paid off on a resale. In any event just add the bond into the negotiated price to get full cost of property. The bond does not go up at any time - it only goes down as it gets paid off. Also there are no new homes in Lake County anyway.

We were blessed and stayed in our RV while we shopped for a home. I bought a golf cart first and kept it at a friends and used it to become familiar with TV. We took 7 months before we bought. During that time learned many things that we knew we wanted. Block versus stick construction, which way and time the sun shines into the Lanai, granite or corian counter tops, and a big one ....location.
The best decision you made was to move here if you can take your time shopping, that would be my suggestion

The sales person is ALWAYS working for the seller unless you sign a contract for a "buyers agent". They had to sign a contract with the seller when they listed the home that is a legal contract making them have a fiduciary relationship with the seller. They represent the seller and during every aspect of the sale are looking out for the best interest of them, not you.

So never share confidential information with the agent. Example: If you make an offer on a home selling for 275K of 260K and you tell the agent that if they refuse, I will go to 270K. They are bound by law to tell that to the seller. If they don't and it somehow came out later, the seller could sue them for that additional amount and they would win. And the agent would probably lose their license. So even if you know you will go to 270K, it is important to tell that agent that if they don't accept the 260K, that you are moving on to a different home. I go so far as to tell them I am have another home with an MLS or VLS (opposite of who I am working with) agent that is my next choice. I want them working as hard as possible to "sell" that offer to the seller. Not say lets try for a little more. Think about how you would present the offer if it was a FSBO.

Think about your self as a seller and how you would want your agent handling an offer for your home. They work for the seller, not you. You can hire a buyers agent, who is then bound by real estate law to work in your best interest. However most homes for sale already have a sales agent representing them. All except FSBO's

As for other things to consider, buy the most home you can afford, buy the very best location you can find. Avoid the power lines, close to roads, close to sewage treatment plants, etc. All those things have a negative impact on value. You will find some of the best buys in those places, but right now with prices low, you can find better values with out those compromises. And someone will say they bought there and love it, and I am sure they do. But based on 3 years of tracking home sales, those things negatively impact value for a majority of buyers. Consider bond amount, added features that your willing to pay for in pre-owned, and location, location, location. I would also consider renting for 6 months before buying. You will know so much more about where you really want to be when you buy. TV is a big place and there are significant differences between different locations.

Good luck. Your dream home is here, just take the time to find it.

Hardest part of the move would be the transition from previous home to TV. Is it better to buy in TV before or after I sell up north!! Alot really depends upon your individual financial situation so the answer is different for most people. There is of course safety to wait but there are also advantages to buy in TV before you sell...especially if one person is retired and the other still has one or 2 years to go. During that time you can prepare your PA home for sale, prepare for the move (ie weed the junk out), visit TV for vacations and longer periods when allowed by your schedule, get to meet the neighbors, and start setting up your new home while its vacant...this could include anything from painting the rooms, staining the garage floor, installing crown moulding, whatever your desire and best done (or easier)while a house is vacant. BTW: although we planned a 10 month transition, it took us 21 months to sell up north before we could permanently move to TV.

Previous suggestion in using a MLS RE agent in addition to a TV agent is a good one..it will take additional time to do this but it sounds like you have time on your side. Remember you can pick your house but you cant pick your neighbors.....so focus on the house and location where you would like to be. WE had no idea being close to a Town Square would be so important to us but we can walk to LSL if need be from where we are now located and love the location. Although most locations in TV are not that far from a Town Square, you definintely appreciate location in the winter months. Location is also important for your golf outings if you are located near 466a and have a course to play near Lopez or Orange Blossom. Others like being near a Rec Center, close to the pools and pickle ball courts....Find the house style/model you like then pick your priority as far as location. If you wait and are looking for something new, do you want to be south of 466A and how will that location fit your priorities?

I personally would stay away from being on any Executive Golf Course especially if you are not a golfer and understand where balls can go and land from the tee....You pay a high premium for these lots because no one is behind you but if you have the wrong loaction you will forever be sorry with balls landing on your property or hitting your house or golfers comming in your yard looking for balls.


Sure there is a Bond to pay for most Village properties but I would Not limit myself to Lake county because they have NO bond???? That would not be the primary reason to buy any house.

We bought our home in the end of 07 (also moved from Pa).

I have said this a zillion times on this forum: Our biggest regret is that we didn't rent for 6 mos BEFORE we decided on what location and model of home to buy. It is impossible to get a true understanding of TV, all the locations, home models etc during 1 or 2 visits. I'm sure you've heard how many people buy and sell a house in a year or two after getting here.

One thing we did correct: We sold or gave away almost ALL of our "stuff" and furniture before the move. Remember... No basement.... No attic.... No room for "stuff".

Fasten your seatbelts. Moving is stressful.

We closed on our home in Duval in April, 2009. We are totally thrilled and can't wait to become full-timers in 2015. The only thing we would have done differently is looked more closely at the options when building our home; we rushed through the process. We did not realize until after the fact a couple of modifications that could have been done to our home: expand the bedrooms by two feet (this makes a difference because you cannot fit a king bed easily), the front of the house could have also been bumped out two feet, and if you get beveled edged counter tops they look like solid surface counter tops. These are small things but they would have been nice upgrades. The things we did do and we are very please we did included: bumped out the garage four feet on the side and two feet out front (we would have preferred a golf cart garage but this was not an option due to our lot size), a roman shower - no cleaning showers doors (yea!), rounded corners throughout the house - looks very nice, a sink in a nice cabinet in the laundryroom (a lot of storage) and we purchased the blinds and appliances with the house. It was nice to have all blings hung. The appliances are lower end but they are o.k. for now - I do anticipate us upgrading these one day. The dishwasher takes over an hour to finish and it is very low.
We bought a less expensive home (Wisteria II) so we could purchase a lot on the lake/pond, and we are so glad we did! We could not be happier with our home and The Villages - the only negative is the fact that we have to wait for a few years until we retire!
Good luck!

We are just about to come out the other end of the process on our home in Duval. We close this week. From our experience in selling our house up North, I would advise hiring a stager and pricing it carefully according to current market conditions. Scott H. advised getting rid of all stuff possible and I agree wholeheartedly. That step is more important than you can possibly imagine if you haven't moved recently. There is absolutely no substitute for doing your homework regarding purchasing a home here. Get your financing in order before you decide on a purchase. Work with both an MLS (Lyle Gant is great) realtor and a Villages sales rep. Get to know the market here intimately. Make several trips and/or rent for a while. It is a nice hobby in the cold months up North. Be aware there are expenses here that you never heard of back home. They have critters here you aren't familiar with either. Everything needs treated or fertilized or trimmed... and often. Closing costs are much higher here than what I was used to. Last, have a substantial pot of money readily available to deal with unexpected expenses. Good luck! All in all we are very excited and can't wait to move in.

Tom - could you detail the closing costs for me? I've heard this before but some detail would be nice so I can plan. Thanks! Russ

Definitely you should rent for a while before purchasing!

On the sale of your home, Clean it out, hire a stager, make it look like a model home. Less in a room makes it look larger. we rented a storage unit for furniture and sold the things from there. We also removed any off season clothing to make the closets look bigger. Pots and pans, dishes went to storage. we kept the minimum to live on and ate out a lot.
Here in the villages I wish we had enlarged the garage, for storage.

We bought a new home in November. The Villages paid all our closing costs. All we were responsible was pre-pay of the annual bond payment and a few assessments for the remainder of the month.