[bestmickey]

I am moving to TV in August '08 and will rent while I shop/purchase my home. I've never owned a home. So, I'm in need of any (and all) advice ya'll are willing to offer re: the home purchasing experience in TV.

I've learned enough through a sibling living in TV and through the TOTV site to know about things such as lawn/bug contractors, garage screens, etc. I'm listing a few specific questions I have and you can (please) add any other related info I should know. :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow: I'm sure there are other things I don't know I don't know.

1. Did you use your own lawyer in the area, to review the TV sales contract? If yes, who do you recommend?

2. Did you shop around for a better mortgage interest rate than that offered by the TV bank? If you found a better rate, who was it with? (I know my own personal interest rate is somewhat based on my FICO score, but I'm referring to general interest rates.)

3. I know I would do this if I purchase a prior owned home, but if I purchase a brand new house, should I hire my own inspector to inspect the house before I sign the contract? (I know to have the house inspected a couple months prior to the end of my one year warranty date.)

I TRULY WOULD APPRECIATE ANY ADVICE YOU CAN OFFER. THIS IS THE BIGGEST COMMITMENT OF MY LIFE. I don't "do" commitment easily, so I'm quite nervous about the process. THANKS!

[kar guy]

BESTMICKEY... AFTER SPENDING SEVERAL HOURS BY PHONE TALKING WITH DIFFERENT LENDERS I HAVE FOUND "INDEPENDENT NATIONAL BANK" TO BE THE LEAST EXPENSIVE. THE LADIES NAME IS CLETA AND HER PHONE NUMBER IS 352-622-2377. BASED ON MY PERSONAL NUMBERS I WILL SAVE OVER $1400 USING HER. DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY. TAKE CARE THE KAR GUY

[Frangyomory]

We do all of our banking with one bank and transferred everything down here. Citizens really gave us a hard sell to get the business but they couldn't beat the rate from Bank of America so we went that way. Hindsight, should we have had an attorney review all the paperwork? I don't know, the paperwork is HUGE and in a book! I don't know what it would have cost to have it reviewed. If I were hiring an attorney today, I would Millhorn as we used them for all the other changes we had to make.

For example, Florida does not interpret out-of-state drawn wills so we needed to have new wills drawn in Florida; we were concerned about medical power of attorney since the only family we have live several states away and we have no children. So we did a medical power of attorney. We also did a special document which advised any physician or hospital not to use extraordinary means such as intubation in the event we were in a "terminal" state and could not speak for ourselves. This is kind of important here since the Terry Schiavo case a while back where the family fought over whether or not to continue gastric feeding to keep her "alive". We wanted to save our family from having to make that decision so we made it already.

Now, we are both in excellent shape but we wantedto be prepared.

On having an inspector, I would hesitate to do it before the closing only because if you are responsible for not closing by the specified date, there are contractual penalties. Best to have the place inspected within six months, well before the one year.

Hope I have helped you. Wish someone would have been there for us. We never hired an inspector and we should have at least done that. We are now here two years and whatever happens is our responsibility.

We love the Villages and the people we have met. Shopping is much better now since we moved here as more and more stores are opening up. Many new restaurants are coming this way. Recreation facilities are the best. You couldn't ask for a more wonderful environment.

Good luck and God bless! :bigthumbsup:

[bestmickey]

Thanks for responses. Yes Fran, you did help. I hadn't even thought about the medical issues. Good points!

[PJ]

If you're a member of a Credit Union, you might want to retain your membership even if they don't have a branch in FL. Sometimes they have the best lending rates, and if they know you already, it's pretty easy. This is what I did, got a good rate on the home loan thru my local CU. I did my closing by phone & fax before moving down here, and it went pretty well.

Best of luck to you!

[LG]

New homes have a 1 year FULL warranty. If you call with a problem, the contractor has 5 days to correct it.

You can have a lawyer read the contract, but it won't change anything in it, LIKE if you buy and want to sell within a year ( Flip ).. you are obligated to give all the profit back to The Villages.. Don't worry they have you initial that paragraph. You can get out of it for hardship..BUT they will not put it in writting.

[Villages Kahuna]

Lawyers for the sales contract. The contract is fairly clear. There may be a few terms that TV sales people might have to define for you. But because the sales contract is non-negotiable, the use of a lawyer for other than defining the terms of the contract is a not totally necessary expenditure.

Mortgage rates. I definitely would use a mortgage broker to shop the market for rates and terms. I found Citizens First Bank to be pretty expensive compared to the rates, terms and structures avaialble from mortgage brokers. (By the way, if you're going to have a mortgage loan you should have the documents reviewed by an attorney. In that case, you might as well pay a few bucks more and have the lawyer review the sales contract.)

Pre-closing house inspection. The warranty is pretty good. I think the use of a qualified, experienced inspector just before your warranty expires is a worthwhile expenditure. But to pay for it before closing? Only if it would really make you feel better.

There is one thing I would recommend you do before moving in. Have the entire interior of your house repainted with high quality paint in a color scheme more to your choosing than plain ol' Villages off-white. The quality of the interior paint used in Villages construction is...hmmm, pick a word for "less than what you might be used to".

[gingersmom]

That's because the developer just uses primer and doesn't really use any wall paint. We found that out the hard way. Every mark and bump showed up. Now we happily live in a multicolored house.

[olteech]

WOW! After reading all this stuff, I think TOTV should be handing out flyers at every TV tour. I can't imagine a better source for info. The people on this Forum are awesome! Such positive, down-to-earth answers for everything!