Cautionary Notes for Anyone Buying a Home in TV
 

Retirement day came, we sold our home, packed up a POD which is now in storage and headed toward the Villages. We are renting and have been looking at homes. While renting we have enjoyed all the activities which are great and met lots of wonderful people. We entered into a sales agreement on a preowned home. I have a cautionary note from my experience that I would like to share with anyone who has not had the experience of purchasing a preowned home in the Villages.

Caution 1 – When you are seriously looking to purchase, ask your sales agent for a copy of the sales agreement and sit down with an attorney and see if the terms of the contract are agreeable. What I learned from a manager at TV only after we signed a sales contract is that on pre-owned home sales contracts the terms of the contract are all negotiable. What I found was although our agent was friendly and personable he did not represent our best interest. When we went to buy a pre-owned home I wanted a 15 day inspection period. He said that in TV they do a 10 day inspection period. Because of the large amount of home sales in TV it is hard to get one of the 3 top home inspectors Harwood, DeAngelo or Comer within that time period. There are other home inspectors and The Villages provides a list of home inspectors you can use. However, our experience was problematic. We hired a recommended home inspector; he agreed to meet us on site with our agent who was to open the home. He did his inspection and provided a very limited report but rather then send it directly to me he sent it to the Villages POH which in turn puts the report in a file that can be viewed by the seller’s agent and made it available to the seller which is detrimental to our bargaining process because his recommendations were very limited. My agent then sent me the report. So the report was viewable to others before I had the opportunity to review and approve its disclosure to the sellers. This way of operating seems to be an ethical violation at the least because I am the client and I am the one paying for the report. If you engage a home inspector make sure it is agreed to and understood that the report should go directly to you to review and approve before it is sent to the Villages POH and is visible to the sellers and their agent. I did speak to a sales manager about their process and she said that this procedure is in place to protect the buyer because there time line is tight (10 days) and if the report is not turned over quickly (within 10 days) then the buyers might lose their opportunity to have the action items fixed at all. I did hire another inspector (not one on TV’s list) who found a second crack in the foundation. The recommended inspector identified one crack in the foundation.

Caution 2

TV Sales Agreement states the seller is responsible to fix structural issues (up to 1.5% of the purchase cost) but not cosmetic issues. The Villages contract defines cosmetic conditions differently than I would. But they spell out their definition to mean items that do not affect the working condition which includes by their wording in the contract fogged windows, including windows with broken seals, caulking, improperly working sprinkler heads, minor cracks in walls, driveways, sidewalks, pools decks, garage and patio floors, cracked roof tile, curling or worn shingles, torn or missing screens in windows, pools, patio or garage screens. To me screens have a function and impact the use of house but they don’t see it that way. If you are buying a pre-owned home you can amend this however, your sales agent may discourage you from doing so. Ours did to the point that we thought it wasn’t allowed but the sales manager said on a pre-owned home any terms agreed to on the contract are between the buyer and the seller. So had I not spoke to the manager I would never have realized adjustments can be made to the sales agreement.

Caution 3

When you look at a home, you will not have an inspection report with you. Make a list and try to check for cosmetic conditions before you make an offer. We made an offer predicated on thinking that items in the inspection report would be fixed by the seller and as such made a higher offer than we would have had we understood this concept. But given the standard Villages sales agreement those things are not required to be fixed. If you look at a home with an agent for a few minutes, like it and then make an offer without examining caulking, screens, windows, cracks, over hanging branches then you may be offering more than you should because after purchase you will likely want to fix those items. This is especially true if you are a cash buyer because when financing lenders may not provide the mortgage if certain repairs are not made. The way TV sales agreements are written the buyer is at a disadvantage because once you write your offer the negotiating aspect after the sales agreement is accepted is practically gone. I say practically because the seller does have an obligation to fix up to 1.5% of the sales cost of structural items. If the value of the repairs exceeds 1.5% then there can be further negotiations.

I hope this will help anyone who is considering purchasing a pre-owned home in the Villages.

Hope the items end up being minor and you can enjoy The Villages and your retirement.


I would say, any and all negotiations should happen before signing, after "they" have all the leverage.




Hopefully the bad taste in your mouth will go away.


:welcome: to TV.

My BIL closed on a pre-owned home that was an MLS yesterday. His experience was completely opposite The realtors are sisters and were outstanding. They did recommend the inspector and my BIL received a detailed 38 page report on a 2/2 cottage. We were there with the realtors during the inspection. The realtors negotiated an outstanding price for all the furniture and a gas golf cart. The realtors listened to what he wanted and they found it! If anyone would like their contact inf send me a message.

Please tell me who the realtor was, I’m looking for a good MLS realtor.

While not in the market, thanks for the reminder. Typically, the seller knows all of the homes deficiencies, AC inadequate, wiring quirks, small window leaks, etc. That is why, most often, they are not there during showings. Your questions to realtors can seldom bring out these facts.


Reminds me of our home inspector findings on our new home from TV. Not to bore readers, but he found that the garage door horizontal supports were rusted on the bottom only. Only visible from the outside when the door was open. When I discussed this with the builders rep, I asked why they would install these on a new house. His comment was that the building schedule would not allow ordering replacements and delaying the building schedule. The items were replaced only after brought to their attention via TV warranty period. There were several other defects that were found, only after time spent in the house. Same reason, they do not inspect and thus you must. And this on new homes. Would expect similar on resales.

Teena Levy 352 430-9020. Her sister Karren works with her. They were absolutely amazing. They truly represented the buyer.

Are the Villages agents allowed to act as buyers' agents as are Realtors? Whenever I engage a Realtor for a purchase I always have a signed buyer's agent contract with them prior to using them. Most of the time they will want an exclusive agreement. Otherwise, as most of us realize, agents are sellers' agents.

IMHO purchase forms are merely forms. I never hesitate to modify them however I choose when I write up an offer. I do realize when purchasing a new home in TV that is likely impossible as it is a "take it or leave it" situation.

As stated by manaboutown almost all real estate agents work for the seller unless a signed agreement for them to act as a buyers agent is in place. This includes villages and MLS agents. You have to treat them as an arms length agent. Technically they can't lie to you, but they can sure avoid the truth by not offering up pertinent information.

Because they work for the seller it is incumbent on you to ask all questions, due complete inspections, get everything in writing and NEVER disclose your true intentions with an offer. And no matter what they say, everything is negotiable.

If for example you offer 300K for a 325K home, but tell the agent that if they refuse you will go as high as 315K, that agent is bound by law to disclose that information to the seller. So the counter would probably be 320K.

I usually go way in the other direction by telling the agent that the 300K is my best and final and that I have another home that I am considering with another agent that I will make an offer on if this seller doesn't accept. I want that agent and seller to firmly believe that they will lose me as a buyer if my offer is not accepted. Does not mean that I may move some, but they have to believe I wont. In fact I want that agent to believe he will lose a commission if he can't convince the seller to accept my offer.

That strategy has got me some deep discounts over the years and I only lost one purchase because of using it. It does work better in a slow market than a very hot market, but it does work.

I became a licensed Realtor in Florida in 1989 and in Georgia in 1984 when I was publishing Homes & Land of Savannah Magazine. That is the normal operating practice of an MLS agent, you represent the seller. In many cases the agent is the listing agent as well, and even if not, he is representing the listing agent. So it seems TV sales people are using the same rule.

Just remember, anything you say in front of the MLS Realtor or Villages salesman can and should be relayed to the seller. So if you're talking to your spouse or even the agent and say something like;

"I don't want to pay $400,000 for that house, but I will if I have to, for now let's offer $350,000 and see what they say".

A good agent will tell the buyer or the listing agent exactly what they heard. It is standard practice of a licensed Realtor, the word Realtor is only those who are licensed and are members of the Board of Realtors. Villages Sales Agents are not licensed and can act pretty much like a car salesman, they are working for the dealer or the developer in our case.

Never ever use a home inspector recommended by a realtor--get an inspector that is totally independent, the same goes for a marine surveyor when buying a boat

Always have your inspector pull all old permits and arc requests. We found problems that made the property out of compliance and had the seller correct them before the closing otherwise we would have been on the hook.

Inspector
 

The inspector my BIL used did pull all of the permits. There were a lot of upgrades and fortunately they were all permitted.

Also a good point, but a certified Marine surveyor does have to be independent. However if buying a boat and you know a really good one, they are worth flying them anywhere to do the inspection. I have one I have flown over a thousand miles to do a sailboat survey for me. And it was worth every extra dollar of cost. He surveyed 4 boats for me before he gave me the thumbs up on one.

We are in the process of buying our second home in TV (in less than a year ... yeah, I know ... ) The first was an MLS listing and this one is with VLS.

Yes, when you sign a contract to sell through VLS you agree to repair anything that is broken. There is no such agreement in MLS contracts. The benefit of that is you don't have to negotiate about repairs (and houses don't fall out of escrow because the parties can't agree on what the sellers should fix.) The downside (from the buyers' standpoint) is, as you learned, that you have to accept cosmetic issues. Most such things, however, are fairly obvious when you view the home or read the listing.

Which system is better? I think the VLS system is obviously better for sellers (and realtors, who don't make money unless the sale closes). As a buyer, I liked not having to request repairs from the seller. It was just a given that they would be done. We always assume we are going to have to fix/tweak/change/update some things cosmetically in a resale anyway and we take that into consideration when deciding what we want to pay.

BTW, the reason that sellers are encouraged to leave during showings is NOT because they might be too honest/open with potential buyers, as someone suggested. It is because a potential buyer cannot feel comfortable commenting on the house in front of the owners, who are likely to take negative feedback personally.

kathy

Incorrect. They are licensed in Florida. They are not members of the real estate board.