Bonds, home flippers and the likes
 

Wondering what are your thoughts about purchasing a pre-owned with the enticement of Bond Paid being the key selling point? I'm finding these homes have few or minimal enhancements and are generally out of sync with true market value with very little rationale for their pricing? Is "BOND PAID" really that important an enticement to buyers causing them to ignore or lose sight of true market value? I've also discovered that quite a few of these properties are owned by "Flippers." I would have thought that "house flipping" would be very risky these days, even in The Villages. But, then again, it's really just an investment that pays a hell of lot more dividends than banks and investment shares these days huh???

I haven't found that to hold true - the bond increasing the price of a home by very much. My advice is talk to a good realtor who should give you the skinny. And yes homes sell very quickly here, but unless they are resale it does not benefit a flipper because of the "one year resale rule" that applies to new homes.

The advertised price of any house carrying an unpaid bond understates the true price of the house- in the new areas, by a considerable amount. (This gives the developer a leg up in trying to sell a new house to a buyer who is comparing its price to that of a previously owned one.) To get the true price, you need to find out the amount of the bond and add the bond amount to the advertised price. When a seller advertises the price "bond paid", he is just telling you that his advertised price is the true price. I don't think that "bond paid" is really being used as an "enticement".

Most Villagers understand this, but a lot of first-time buyers probably do not. The surprising thing about all this is that the FTC or some other consumer-protection agency hasn't required the developer and brokers to list the amount of the bond in all their house ads. I can't think of any other situation in which this kind of deceptive advertising would go unchallenged by regulators.

I think that "flipping" a home that has the bond paid only shows the age of the home. There are "investors" in TV that purchase older homes and fix them up a bit and sell them to the Resale Market. I suppose you can call this Flipping.

Bond Paid should not be the key enticement to buy, but the amount of unpaid bond should be considered part of the purchase price. You owe it just like any other unpaid portion of a mortgage. In most other states infrastructure costs must be "up front" paid by the developer and are subsequently included in the "purchase price" of the home when sold to the customer.
As for rehab-flippers, I believe the good honest ones are performong a service for our community. Over the past year I noticed a few "estate" and "repo" properties which were blights to their neighborhoods being cleaned out and fixed up and quickly resold to the benefit of everyone around.

I agree with your every word.

When you look for a resale, look at what has been done to a home or not done to a home that you must change. I found a lot of older homes looked a little behind the times in terms of light fixtures, and dated tile styles. I AM a person who notices stuff like that and it is NOT important to a lot of people. Some focus on the fact that garage steps had been installed and the downspouts in the back and the garage floor was painted and the landscaping had palms added, things generally done by all homeowners. I focused on wallpaper to be removed, smoky smells, out of date cabinet styles, overgrown landscaping, bright colors on walls that didn't go with our stuff.

Generally speaking and with a lot of leeway a bond on a home five years or younger is...

About 10K for a patio villa.
About 15K for a cottage.(???) Not sure.
About 22K for a designer.
About 50K for a premier.
I haven't heard how much on court yard villa's.

Hope this helps. If we all liked the same stuff they would only sell vanilla ice cream.

flipping would be buying a home well underpriced...update the home and sell with a good profit...i found those homes with paid bond it reflects in the price of the home so you are still paying the bond;;but just what i have seen so far...i have seen house go on the market quickly due to not selling their first home...too big/small///garage size....and then sudden death comes into play more than flipping

Well said, Advogado.

not sure if it's changed, but
 

when we bought (2006), CYVs and patio villas had the same bond, as did ranches (now cottages) and designers. Based on density of development, not price. Our CYV bond was just under $10,000. I think the newer CYV and patio villa neighborhoods are more like $12,000, not $10,000, but someone can enlighten.

Don't know if they are still grouped that way south of 466A.

Bond Paid
 

We will be closing on a Designer Home in Sabal Chase on 8/19. The Bond of $18,000 was paid and we saw this as an enticement. It was not the main reason for buying the home but did help a great deal. We said that if needed we have $18,000 to spend on upgrades, if needed, that we would not have if the Bond was not paid. For us the $18,000 is money we saved vs buying a home where the bond was not paid. Just our 2 cents.

My thoughts on buying a pre-owned with a bond balance VS a bond payoff is as follows.

If you are looking at two similar homes, similar age, for example, 2 CYV's. One is listed at $180K with a $12K bond balance and another listed at $190K with a zero bond balance, what would be the better deal? The seller has invested $12K to pay off the bond and will be looking at recouping all or most of that investment. The buyer will look at the zero bond home and either pay the higher price or borrow $10,000 more to purchase the home.

As in any upgrade or additional investments in your home, putting money into an upgraded kitchen or bathroom usually gets close to 100% of your investment back when selling. The other upgrades net 50% or less, as a general rule of thumb. Bond payoff is definitely an investment or upgrade to your property and will be reflected in the selling price.

What would I do with the $12,000??? Pay off the bond?, buy a new golf cart?, birdcage?, landscaping? All these options are available to you and only you can determine what the best bang for the buck is and how you spend the $12,000.

Hate That Bond
 

We bought our house in 2009 and it has a bond. We new it had the bond and still bought anyway. We could pay off the Bond and I would be happy as it has a really high interest rate but if we ever decide to sell for any reason we will be at a disadvantage.

Very few buyers look at a house for the bond paid. When they search the listings they put in a max price they are looking to pay. That puts a bond paid house at a disadvantage as the bond paid house will be 15 to 18K higher and will never be looked selected.

I agree with an earlier poster that new and old homes should have to list the outstanding bond as part of the selling price of the home because it is.

Bond on CYV
 

We just purchased a new CYV in May. The bond is around $12,000 IF we paid it off now, BUT if we pay it off over the 30 year period, it is closer to $30,000. :cryin2: So when adding to the price of the home you also need to consider when you will be paying off the bond. :undecided:

Personally, I think if, which I do not, had a large bond on my home that I would take out a home equity loan for that amount and pay off the bond. The home equity loan is at a much lower interest rate than the bond.

As for buying a resale home with a bond vs one with no bond, I would make my offer on the one with no bond to be the same as the offer I would consider on the home with a bond. With some negotiation, the seller will usually come to an amount close to your terms.

Negotiation with a seller is one big positive over buying a new home from Villages Properties.

When I was in TV in May, I went to an open house for a new patio villa on Karin Place; I can't remember which new Village south of 466A it was in. The bond was between $12K and $13K (can't remember the exact $ amount but it was closer to $12K).