Are we allowed to select the VLS agent we want to work with?
 

Hello,

I had a Lifestyle visit the end of May and fell in love with The Villages. I plan to move there in early 2025. In my prior real estate dealings, I interviewed real estate agents and selected the one I wanted to work with. In my Lifestyle visit, I was assigned a VLS agent but was wondering if I am allowed to interview VLS agents when I come back and find the one I most want to work with, or do I continue with the one I was assigned? BTW, my VLS agent I was assigned to was perfectly fine, it is just that I am used to interviewing a few agents before making a huge purchase. Thanks!

Use him/her.

There are "hundreds" of agents, how are you going to select who you want to talk to??...............pictures??

You absolutely can select the VLS agent you want to work with. My favorite is Chris Hallmark.

Yes, you can select any agent you would like to work with.

We went to several open houses and found one that was a good match.

We didn't mesh well with the assigned rep but we ran into 2 that we really liked on our own time at open houses. After we got back home we called one of the ones we liked and asked if we could work with him. He said yes and he helped us find the one we ended up buying.

The first guy was a nice guy but I felt like I had to dig information out of him and he was very cavalier with our money.

After our purchase and move we continue to see our rep as friends.

We loved our first rep, then he moved on up to management, selected a rep for us. We weren’t comfortable with the person. So we went to about 20 open houses, spoke with different VLS people and found one we liked, felt comfortable with, and chose to use.

So kind of interviewing, on a personal level, that you can walk away, if you are just not happy. You don’t have to disclose you are looking for a new VLS, unless you are happy tell them, if you don’t, find the next open house.

My suggestion, visit for another week, rent a house on your own. Rent in a different area than you LS visit. Go to EVERY open house you can, and meet the realtors to pick one.

As others have said, you absolutely can select who you want to work with and should. We recently did. As you may know and related to an above post, there are A LOT of open houses in The Villages everyday. It's an easy way to see different types of homes and different areas. It is also a great way to meet a lot of different realtors; they are the ones showing all the homes at the open houses. One other thing, do not forget there are also a lot of homes for sale that are listed in the traditional multiple listing service that is likely similar to your current market. Those can not be shown to you by a VLS agent. You will need an MLS agent. In essence if you want to be open to all existing home sales, you will have two realtors, each showing you a separate category of listings.

Lots of great answers here. Really appreciate it. The Open House introductions sound great and a couple of folks recommended their agents. I want make sure I click with my agent.

Cindy

Yes! I stuck with the one they gave me out of guilt for some stupid reason and he was a disaster on many levels. Not a good experience!

Since TV has their own VLS which seems like a monopoly, I can see them limiting which agent someone can work with.

Just had a LS visit and ready to buy? Look around, come multiple times and in 2-3 years make your selection.

They don't limit which VLS agent you can work with.

I was talking with someone at one of the sales offices about switching reps and they said 'all new home buyers are Jennifer Parr's customers, the sales reps are just here to help, you are free to work with whoever you'd like'.