The 2% Rule for figuring tax/bond/mntce
 

We noticed that every Villages open house we went to had a sales rep. These reps were uniform in offering the 2% rule for figuring how much you would have to pay yearly for property taxes + bond + maintenance. Unfortunately, it doesn't add up to 2%, as we sadly found out at our closing. It's much closer to 3%, which in our case was a whole lot more money yearly. They really should reevaluate how they are reaching that number when the bonds have increased but their 2% has stayed the same. How many of you new Villagers have found it to be true? We don't understand how they can give out this information in good conscience. This is wrong. :spoken:

Never heard the bond and maintainance included.

Wish I could give you a good answer.
I know when I moved down to South Florida the general rule was 2% of purchase price for property taxes ONLY !

Absolutely. We even spoke to our sale rep (we just closed on our home a week and a half ago) and he admitted that the 2% was supposed to include all three. He also admitted that the number is off but they are told to say that. He suggested to his supervisor that they reevaluate the number they are telling potential buyers.

This is the only thing I've ever seen prepared by TV for estimating cost-of-ownership:

http://www.thevillages.com/images/CostofLiving.pdf

Bill :)

mine works..
 

Has anybody else run the numbers? Although i never heard this 2% number quoted before we bought, i just calculated my yearly Taxes (after Homestead Exemption) + Yearly Bond payment + yearly maintenance and divided it by our purchase price and got 1.85%.. worked for me...

taxes about 1%
bond $1300 yr.

Now it's not known what you are including in maintenance.


Bil I think our monthly costs on that Villages link comes in a bit lower like $750 mo.

But I haven't been here long enough to be 100% certain.

We were told that the bond amounted to a little less than 2% (several years ago), and it did. The sales rep did not mention property tax included in that percentage.

All bond amounts are here:
Village Community Development Districts

And all property tax amounts can be seen at:
Randy Mask - Sumter County Tax Collector

Education time
 

The 2% figure is pretty much right on for those who do not claim Homestead Exemption. For those who do claim Homestead Exemption, I believe it to be even lower. Here's a quick education in how you can look this up. Go to Sumter County Property Appraiser - Joey Hooten - Bushnell, Florida - 352-569-6800 - (Sumter County Property Appraisers website) and go to Record Search. Then put in a street name. Lets use Yankee Clipper. All the homes on Yankee Clipper will come up by address. Then click on the blue parcel ID # of any of them. You can then see how much the home was sold for and if they are claiming Homestead Exemption. After that (stay on the same page and on the top right you will see a smaller box which reads Retrieve Tax Record, click on that and remember what the home sold for. You will see how much they paid in taxes (listed under Ad Valorem Taxes), as well as the bond, maintenance and fire district (listed Non Advalorem Taxes).
Mine, as well as a few others I have searched is under that 2% quoted by our agent.
Hope this has helped!
And by the way JERSEYLADY, I used to own a home in Ocean City and Jersey has some of the highest taxes in the country.

I have found the 2% to be right on the number. Less if you have the Homestead exemption

Report this rep and tell us his/her name.
 

Then I suggest you tell his/her name to all of us on this forum and to the Sales Manager of the Villages whose name is Jennifer Parr and who IS a Morse, either by email and phone call if you believe that he/she was gving out incorrect information.

This is the second thread stating that The Villages reps were giving out incorrect information . The first one alleged that the rep did not disclose that the only way to buy a new home was with a conventional loan or a complete cash payment..

Something is going wrong here, either that the reps are becoming careless, inept, or deceitful or something else.

It appears to me that none of these shenanigans are needed to sell a home here. Why would someone lie if the truth would serve them?

...

Why not do what we did before we bought new, see what similar priced homes paid the year before in taxes, the bond and annual maintenance is easy to obtain, then you don't have any surprises

I think it has more to do with training then being deceitful. The agents for TV do not really have any latitude to negotiate anything, therefore there is no need to spend much time training them except for in the company way and send them on out. If you have ever asked a TV agent to see if an exception to the standard way of doing something can be approved you will literally see them shake physically. I've seen it twice with two different agents

There you are with logical information once again!!!. I do think that if people are reporting that their reps are not up to par, they should tell Parr.:MOJE_whot:

Now look what I just typed. ;) I surprise myself sometimes.