New homes, agent or agents?
 

Just joined thanks for having me and what a terrific site!

I have perused around some but may have missed the following information so looking for some clarification regarding new home purchases.

1.) As I understand it new homes can only be purchased through a VLS agent?

2.) While surfing though the site I couldn't help but notice in a couple of threads around here somewhere that it was suggested that it would be in ones best interest to have a couple of agents working for you as opposed to just one?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Yes, the Village Agents are the only ones for new homes. I cannot think of needed more than one agents unless it is a team working together. They all have the exact same info. Just find one you like.

I started with one but ended up switching to another and bought from them. For me personally, the first person didn’t seem very interested in helping me find a place. The next one was very helpful. But i never used them both at the same time.

Ask for Tony Trussler. He's thorough, patient and he listens and he's just a nice guy. You won't be disappointed.

the realtors for the villages are not to be trusted watch your step with them

Why would you say that? Maybe you just had one that wasn’t that good. Ours was great and very trustworthy.

Villages agents are NOT Realtors.

WHO CARES?

I love that they will NOT hound you to death...

Because they don't have to. People are lined up to buy. They don't need to tell you anything untruthful. People want to live here and have made this the most popular place in the whole United States.

We have had nothing but good experiences and help and good advice from the wonderful man Jim McLaughlin both times we bought here. (He must be close to retirement) He was a """"licensed realtor""""" in his previous life. I don't think it amounts to a hill of beans.

I so dislike the constant calls and the hounding.

Jim showed us used homes too, our second time around. We decided to go with new. They were cheaper and warranted. But that is US. Some folks like that all the things have been added; pull down steps in the garage, gutters to the side and back, and other things that to me are too much personalization. We are ALL different.

No needs to hoodwink you to buy here. It is a GREAT place to live but getting more expensive all of the time.

They are just pricing according to the National market....so don't start about greed.

I love The Villages and I do not know the Morses, but would like to shake their hands and thank them.



I have heard nothing but good things from my friends about The Villages agents.

Beth Pope is the best 352-552-1511

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A REALTOR® is a member of the National Association of REALTORS®. The term REALTOR® should never be used as a substitute for "real estate agent."

The REALTOR® trademarks include:

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REALTOR-ASSOCIATE®
the REALTOR® block "R" logo
The REALTOR® marks let people know that you are more than just a real estate practitioner: you adhere to a strict Code of Ethics that protects clients, the public, and other real estate agents.

The term REALTOR® is not only a trademark owned by NAR and protected by federal law, it's a valuable membership benefit that distinguishes members from other real estate licensees."

From: Top 5 Things You Need to Know About the REALTOR(R) Trademarks

There are two ways to buy a new home, a spec built, or a custom built, which you design and create the specifications. With a custom build, you don't really need a VLS to look at lots and pick one out, you can do that online to find the lots, and visit them yourself to see the actual view, and potential lots around it, and the cost.

If you do a custom build, just call up a VLS, and tell them you want to buy X lot, and then ask what models WILL or WON'T fit on it, so that you then look at the models to see what you like or not. . . then put your money down

With custom builds, VLS doesn't do much but hold your hand through the initial sale financial process and gets you in line for the design session. . . and finds your lifestyle accomodations for the design session. . .

During our first and only lifestyle, the VLS assigned to us just drove us through a few areas and because we were both former military, we visited eisenhower rec center, Fenny for a couple of model homes, and then maybe marsh bend, not sure, I can't remember the first drive. . too much visual stimulation . . . . two days later we drove ourselves around Fenney and Marsh Bend, looking at the for sale map, and the prices. . . and the views, and discussed the financing at home, and what we had to do to afford the whole deal. . .

VLS wasn't involved with selling until we decided to actually buy. . .

YMMV

Thanks. That answers my first inquiry.
Thanks for this as well.

Perhaps I miss understood what I read and members here were talking about re-sale homes? I looked over and over again but couldn't find the thread.

A little background... we already have an agent and he seems like a good guy. We got to looking around and ran into another agent who was without a doubt much more knowledgeable.

I've done what I would consider some extensive research and felt surprised at how much more I knew about the area than the agent I currently have. The 2nd agent I ran into knew the same information that I did which leads me to believe they are more on top of their game. At least when it comes to knowledge of the area.

In turn, all of this got me to thinking to find a forum about the villages and start doing research there as well so here I am. We like our current agent, but more impressed with the knowledge of the one we ran into.

Attempting to figure out if it is considered gauche to drop the one we have been working with for over a year now and go with somebody else and/or prohibited to have two of them working independently as I thought I had read on here somewhere.

My first Villages agent spent as little time and energy with me as possible as he wanted me to do all the work, driving around to see open houses of various types. He mumbled minimal information when I asked him questions about The Villages, especially about the bond. He was extremely evasive about the topic of bonds and reacted as if he had never heard of them! lol All he did was take me to three spec designer houses and spent as little time with me as possible. BTW, and since the OP is only looking at new this would not apply but my first agent evaded showing me even a single resale after multiple requests and steered me to buy new. I did switch and found a much better Villages agent.

Re: getting more expensive. That is true everywhere.
I am an Ex-New Yorker the population of Florida now exceeds New York. The reasons are multi-fold. Rising labor cost, rising land cost, rising population, for the villages aging population and historically low mortgage interest rates. A perfect storm.

I am not looking to buy or to sell. It is interesting pricing on new homes numbers like 469,488. I just noticed it. Is that new for the villages? What ever happened to magic numbers-469,500?

Re: two agents.
Keep careful notes. You do not want to be buying a home and have two commission sales people fighting over who generated the sale.