[Talk Host]

I know that homes listed by the Villages are not part of Multiple Listing Service. I know also that lots of people who visit this site are in the process of buying a house or thinking of moving here. We had a house built four years ago and are very please with the home, with the exception that the agent did not tell us about the freight train in the back yard.

What is your advice to prospective Village residents. Should they deal with the Villages or an outside broker on existing housing?

[ohiogolf]

thank you for this post. We will be renting in Jan. and Feb. with the intention of using that time to find a place for purchase. we are interested in existing properties rather than new homes and do not know where to start, with an independent real estate agent or with the Villages personnel. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[nanci2539]

with the exception that the agent did not tell us about the freight train in the back yard.

Does this train go through the entire village or is it just in one location?

[golfnut]

If you have the time I say check with both. If you're limited a Villages agent can show you both new and resales I believe.

[villages07]

I believe a Villages agent can only show you resales that TV lists; you would not see listings from other brokers or FSBOs. When we were looking and deciding between new and resale, we had a Villages agent for new stuff and an outside agent for resales.

[nanci2539]

Can you elaborate a bit futher Curry? You say you sold a villa and had a bad experience - in what way? Are you referring to all outside brokers who deal with Village property?

[littlekat5]

As with everything in this world"caveat emptor" let the buyer beware. Investigate, investigate, investigate. You are spending some awful BIG bucks, and if you dont buy today there is always tomorrow. For everything that you "just Love" there are three things you are going to hate about one particular site. What's your hurry, you are retired you know! The Villages brokers are a bit expensive, and you are free to pick any broker or company you want. But again;, don't believe everything you hear or see, CHECK IT OUT FIRST.

[nanci2539]

Are there no laws to protect people against this???

[lmtemple]

there are plenty of good deals as it is a buyers market. we just bought new and got a great deal. resales for the same designer house are asking $75K more and ours is brand new. I had a great Realtor from TV. she spent many hours and about 7 days showing us many many homes, resales and new. we also dealt with an outside Realtor and we think the tv realtor's are more knowledgeable about tv. however, i would not count on using tv for all of your needs, e.g insurance, mortgage, we went thru the triple AAA office for both car/house and much cheaper for same insurance that tv offers. good luck.

[golfergal]

My advice would be to see houses with both Villages AND outside realtors. Ask LOTS of questions. Villages realtors seem to give only a rosy view, while outside sales people may be a bit more objective. My sister-in-law was looking for a house here, and the Villages realtor took us to many lovely homes, but only talked price, didn't like me mentioning the bond, etc.
Although new homes are now being sold deeply discounted, many existing homes have thousands of dollars of upgrades and improvements already done (drapery hardware, landscaping, water softening systems, paver driveways, etc.), plus should have lower, or paid off, bond balance.
Also remember, location, location, location. New homes are all south of 466, and are a lot further from Spanish Springs, 441 shopping/restaurants, so if that's important to you, consider the time and expense of traveling the extra distance. And if you are a golfer, note how far you are from many of the championship courses. Will that be a problem for you if you live so far south? Only you can answer that.
I used both Villages and an outside realtor, ended up buying from outside. I had a good experience with both, and found the house of my dreams, but it wasn't in the Villages realtor's pool of houses.
Good luck!!!

[Lil Dancer]

Its my understanding that the Villages brokers are not licensed real estate agents. They are essentially just salespeople. So, if you have any complicated real estate issues to deal with , they may not be the right person for the job. I personally would be more comfortable with a real estate agent.

[Talk Host]

Originally Posted by nanci2539

with the exception that the agent did not tell us about the freight train in the back yard.

Does this train go through the entire village or is it just in one location?

The freight trains runs 10 to 25 times a day and will increase by 33% over the next 10 years. The track runs along route 301 the entire length of The Villages. The closer you live to the tracks, the louder the horn. The farther away you live, the less you hear it. We were not told about the train by our agent and the day we moved in and the first train came by, we jumped out of our skin. It is so close to the back our house that we can read the side of the cars. It was not possible to know about it because we were still living up north.

It is LOUD. I sent a letter to the developer and he responded. He said, "you can sell your house and build another one." I will say that it will not likely be a problem for most people because they live far enough away from it. When you are outside, you can hear it from just about anywhere. The thing that really made me furious was that we were not told. Had we been told, we still would have had a house built, but elsewhere in the Villages. It has been four years now, and I still hear it day and night, night and day, Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, my birthday....everyday. Just be thorough in your questions to your agent. Don't let anything slip by. It's a great place, but you know, you can't trust anybody. We trusted our agent and see what it got us.

[REDCART]

In reading over this thread, I was surprised that no one mentioned the obvious--driving through neighborhoods. Many if not all homes for sale in TV have a sign in front, indluding those listed with TV. Stop when you see people outside and ask them if they're aware of any homes for sale in the area. Of course this works only if you're in TV and not a thousand miles away typing away on a computer.

Also, someone mentioned that TV real estate sales agents are not licensed and are no better than used-car salesmen, my description. That is not the case. They are all licensed and have passed the same qualifying tests as an outside real-estate agent. --George

[Barefoot]

We just bought in the Villages. I am a real estate agent in Canada and I will try to explain how the Village real estate system works. It took me a while to figure it out. At first I thought all Village listings were through the Village central real estate office on the VLS System. Not true at all. There are an abundance of listings not on the Villages system. I'm glad I read the local paper and found out about MLS listings.

The Village agents have their own listing service called VLS (Village Listing Service). There is another way to buy houses .. on MLS (Multiple Listing Service). The Village agents cannot sell you homes that are on MLS. And MLS agents cannot sell you houses on VLS, they are two separate systems and they do NOT cooperate with each other. They used to cooperate but there were big problems which resulted in two separate systems.

We started off by looking exclusively with a Village agent for quite a while. Our agent was a great guy, but didn't like to talk about bonds, or closing costs, or any negative issues. I found they definitely are trying to keep prices high in the Villages and they will NOT encourage you to make a low ball offer. Many houses listed in the Villages seem to end up reducing the price significantly as time goes by. So if you are uninformed and buy something immediately when it is listed, you could be over paying.

We ended up by buying from a MLS agent, who was fine with a low offer and helped us negotiate a deal which was great for us, and also good for the seller as they got to move on.

The house we bought was originally listed with the Villages on VLS for $249,000. When the Villages listing on VLS expired, the Seller then listed on MLS at $229,000. We paid much less than the asking price. We had a fantastic MLS agent, I cannot say enough good things about the agent. The agent answered all our questions honestly and gave us much, much more information .. both negative and positive.

[diskman]

Originally Posted by Talk Host

The freight trains runs 10 to 25 times a day and will increase by 33% over the next 10 years. The track runs along route 301 the entire length of The Villages. The closer you live to the tracks, the louder the horn. The farther away you live, the less you hear it. We were not told about the train by our agent and the day we moved in and the first train came by, we jumped out of our skin. It is so close to the back our house that we can read the side of the cars. It was not possible to know about it because we were still living up north.

It is LOUD. I sent a letter to the developer and he responded. He said, "you can sell your house and build another one." I will say that it will not likely be a problem for most people because they live far enough away from it. When you are outside, you can hear it from just about anywhere. The thing that really made me furious was that we were not told. Had we been told, we still would have had a house built, but elsewhere in the Villages. It has been four years now, and I still hear it day and night, night and day, Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, my birthday....everyday. Just be thorough in your questions to your agent. Don't let anything slip by. It's a great place, but you know, you can't trust anybody. We trusted our agent and see what it got us.

WHAT VILLAGE ARE U LIVING IN??
DISKMAN