[Dennis and Rose]

Coming for the VLS in Sept. We noticed no bond on homes in Lake County. I would guess there are other charges that are imposed there. Is there an advantage to the bonded communities, or not bonded?

[luvmagic2]

Only advantage to having a home with no bond is less debt, ( bond payments are made with tax bill). All homes have, or had, a bond.....no bond just means it's been paid in full already and when you pay your taxes it will be about a grand less. Newer sections have a larger bond than older ones

[applesoffh]

It is my understanding that a bond cannot be charged in Lake County since it is against the county law. If the house is new, the cost of infrastructure will be built into the price of the home. If it is a resale, the price is the true price. A great deal of this information was made available when the Developer started building The Villages of Fruitland Park, which is in Lake County.

[njbchbum]

Dennis/Rose - No bond on the historic side and no other assessments/manitenance costs either. We just pay our amenities fees as all other residents do. We are the original properties of the Villages and any cost of a bond is long gone! Our neighborhoods have been here for more that 25 years!

The advantages to the newer communities with bonds - traffic, smaller lot size, lack of mature landscaping, kissing lanais with neighbors and about a 40 minute cart ride to visit any friends you make in the historic villages.

[LynnDeb]

We bought om Marion County side in The Villages (not far from Nancy Lopez) a resale the bond was paid in full by previous owner

[Dennis and Rose]

Thanks as always for the advice, you guys never let us down. Our heads are starting to spin though with all the research

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Dennis and Rose

Thanks as always for the advice, you guys never let us down. Our heads are starting to spin though with all the research

More info on Bonds:
VCDD Bond FAQs

[Shimpy]

Originally Posted by applesoffh

It is my understanding that a bond cannot be charged in Lake County since it is against the county law. If the house is new, the cost of infrastructure will be built into the price of the home. If it is a resale, the price is the true price. A great deal of this information was made available when the Developer started building The Villages of Fruitland Park, which is in Lake County.

Isn't this the way the rest of the country operates? You buy a home and the price reflects what the markup is including what it costs to build it plus the infrastructure.'The Villages does it this way to make their homes seem low priced until you realize that you have a bond which normally would be included into the selling price.

[JB in TV]

Originally Posted by Shimpy

Isn't this the way the rest of the country operates? You buy a home and the price reflects what the markup is including what it costs to build it plus the infrastructure.'The Villages does it this way to make their homes seem low priced until you realize that you have a bond which normally would be included into the selling price.

If I am not mistaken, CA has something called "Mello-Roos" (named after the two legislators whose bill was approved and put into law) that allows the developer to charge each homeowner a specific amount on their property taxes to pay for the infrastructure. I know when we were looking at new properties there 10-11 years ago, some developements had it and others did not. It added quite a bit to the tax bill. Not sure the details, but it seems very much like the bond in TV.

EDIT: Just looked this up on wikipedia... "...A Mello-Roos District is an area where a special property tax on real estate, in addition to the normal property tax, is imposed on those real property owners within a Community Facilities District. These districts seek public financing through the sale of bonds for the purpose of financing public improvements and services.[3] These services may include streets, water, sewage and drainage, electricity, infrastructure, schools, parks and police protection to newly developing areas. The tax paid is used to make the payments of principal and interest on the bonds.

Many communities requiring new schools and infrastructures such as public parks and roads impose Mello-Roos...."

[Bogie Shooter]

I remember "Mellow Yellow".

[buggyone]

Originally Posted by Dennis and Rose

Coming for the VLS in Sept. We noticed no bond on homes in Lake County. I would guess there are other charges that are imposed there. Is there an advantage to the bonded communities, or not bonded?

The bonds on new homes is around $23,000 to $50,000

Personally, I suggest a preowned home as you will be able to negotiate price, see what mature landscaping does, and have much lower or no bond.

Also, use a Villages Properties agent AND a MLS agent as neither can show each others listings.

[applesoffh]

Originally Posted by Shimpy

Isn't this the way the rest of the country operates? You buy a home and the price reflects what the markup is including what it costs to build it plus the infrastructure.'The Villages does it this way to make their homes seem low priced until you realize that you have a bond which normally would be included into the selling price.

I don't know about the rest of the country. Where I came from the cost of the infrastructure was never included in the price of a house, as the infrastructure was almost 100 years old and the houses almost as old. We paid NYC taxes which paid for improvements to infrastructure. Considering what houses are going for in the neighborhood where I grew up ($600M to more than $2 million)
where the original asking price was $5,500 to $14,000, that would be a helluva markup. Real estate is different throughout the country.

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by buggyone

The bonds on new homes is around $23,000 to $50,000

Personally, I suggest a preowned home as you will be able to negotiate price, see what mature landscaping does, and have much lower or no bond.

Also, use a Villages Properties agent AND a MLS agent as neither can show each others listings.

Sorry, but your information is not true.

Villages agents CAN show a Realtor's MLS listings, but they don't and won't.
They would still get a commission if they did. Unfortunately, they don't have access to the MLS system, however, because they don't pay dues and belong to the local board. They still could see all the listings on Realtor.com, though.

Realtors can show Villages' listings but don't because the Villages will not cooperate with them and they won't pay a commission to them.
That's why Realtors don't show Villages' properties.

It's unfortunate that that's the way The Villages chooses to operate.
They really are doing a disservice to sellers here when a seller could benefit from both sides.

[mulligan]

Yet, they seem to be fairly successful.

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

More info on Bonds:
VCDD Bond FAQs

There is so much more to our bond issues here in TV, than other CDDs in Florida.

In other CDDs residents are also on their CDD board. Here, the CDD is made up of the developer's people ONLY. Since residents have no say, our CDD has taken it upon themselves to pay Mr. Morse's attorney who is defending him against the IRS, out of residents' funds (to the tune of over $700,000 thus far), not his own pocket. We have no say about this, nor will we have any say regarding the fine the IRS will most likely tell Mr. Morse he has to pay, which once again, will come out of residents' pockets.

Here's a little information to digest:

The CDD framework in the first six years allows developers to control the decision-making process because they are the primary property owner, and one vote is allocated for each acre owned in the district. The developer can elect supervisors who are his employees, associates or friends, who then can make decisions for the benefit of the developer.[4] Until the residents own property greater than 33% of total votes, they may not have a single representative on the BoS. Only when the residents own property greater than 50% of total votes will they have an opportunity to outvote the supervisors chosen by the developer. While the developer controls the BoS, he or she may direct the board to purchase the common property from the developer at highly inflated values determined by special appraisers, who use an income approach appraisal method rather than the standard, cost approach. This is legal because the appraisal is approved by the BoS. The district manager, hired by the BoS, may administrate for the interests of the developer rather than the residents.

In January 2008, the Villages Center CDD (VCCDD) was notified by the Internal Revenue Service of the IRS' intent to audit several recreational bonds issued in 2003 to determine compliance with tax regulations (mainly due to their status as municipal bonds which are exempt from Federal income tax). The IRS sent three "Notices of Proposed Issues" in January 2009 challenging the tax-exempt status of the bonds on three grounds:
1.the Issuer does not qualify as a political subdivision or "on behalf of the issuer" of tax-exempt bonds pursuant to Section 1.103-I(b) of the Internal Revenue Code regulations,
2.the opinions of value do not support the price paid by the Issuer to the developer for the Series 2003 Facilities and the payment of the sales price for the facilities to the developer by the Issuer is not a governmental use of the proceeds of the Bonds, and
3.the Bonds are private activity bonds the interest on which is not excludable under IRS Section 103.

The position stems in large part from the interrelationship between VCCDD and The Villages developers (since VCCDD has no residents, the Board of Supervisors consists solely of individuals who work for or have an affiliation with The Villages developers, and VCCDD's infrastructure was purchased by the developers-controlled board from the developers). Essentially, the IRS position is that the VCCDD is an "alter ego" for the developers.