[CFrance]

Originally Posted by jimkerr

They do hold a significant amount of mortgages. We got one from them several years ago and unlike other banks, they never sold it to another mortgage company.

They have now!

[hdanielblank]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

Citizens First Bank is apparently being bought by Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida.

I expect that the new bank will not be offering the free popcorn

We were just discussing that exact thing this morning. It will probably take some time before we realize all the effects of this. I also wonder why TV decided to sell their highly profitable bank at this time but speculation is nonproductive. Hopefully, nothing good will be changed and we'll have branches we can use when we amble westward. Time will tell.

[thelegges]

Originally Posted by hdanielblank

We were just discussing that exact thing this morning. It will probably take some time before we realize all the effects of this. I also wonder why TV decided to sell their highly profitable bank at this time but speculation is nonproductive. Hopefully, nothing good will be changed and we'll have branches we can use when we amble westward. Time will tell.

Was it highly profitable, or the perfect tool to get a mortgage approval? That another bank wouldn’t have appraised the same $$$ amount. Only those who pitted Citizens with their home bank can answer that specific question.

Four houses, two with Citizens because it was easier. One house with our home bank, who appraise house $5,000 less, and Citizens made our closing hell on the highest level. Last with mortgage broker, house also appraised for less than Citizens.

[Plinker]

Is it possible that this is the beginning of an exit strategy? Perhaps the younger generations of the Morse family are not interested in taking the reins from the older Morse members that may be approaching retirement age. Jennifer Parr recently purchased a $20 million dollar property which could be her future retirement home. Continuing to expand TV footprint (think Sasquatch) may be more of a headache than it’s worth. Sure, TV developers are reaping very substantial profits but it requires a tremendous amount of work. The assets of TV must be worth billions. Imagine what that kind of money would throw off every year without any headaches.
Obviously, on a much smaller scale, is that not what many of us did in order to retire?

[FredMitchell]

Originally Posted by jimkerr

They do hold a significant amount of mortgages. We got one from them several years ago and unlike other banks, they never sold it to another mortgage company.

What makes you think they never sold the mortgage?

Most likely, because you still send them the mortgage payment. That just means that they are still servicing the mortgage. They provide that service on behalf of the investor, charging a small percentage and remitting the rest of the payment to the current owner of the mortgage.

Servicing is a source of income for mortgage bankers. They get income without the risk of having to pay higher interest for funds than the mortgage pays. They do that by reselling the mortgage or packaging it into a mortgage security and selling the security.

[Lisanp@aol.com]

I'm slightly concerned about what my crystal ball is telling me...
First they get out of the restaurant business (Fenny, McGradys, Show kitchen, etc)
Then the Movie Theater Business
Then they sell The Villages Insurance off
Hometown Property Management - sold!
Now Citizens
I believe they sold The Daily Sun too?
Next I'm sure Peninsula
Villages Golf Cars?
Is anyone else paying attention?
What are these moves saying about the family's future plans?

[Lisanp@aol.com]

It's not only the appraisal that's an issue. I had three other banks with much lower interest rates quoted for us, but they can't figure out how to close the loans on The Villages aggressive timelines. You can't appraise a house that doesn't have a CofO and The Villages wants the closing to be the day after they are done constructing it. So, we are stuck using Citizens or pay the astronomical daily fee for delaying the close to get a "standard" bank to complete the underwriting process and get a clear to close on the loan.
This change in ownership is going to be interesting to watch.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Lisanp@aol.com

I'm slightly concerned about what my crystal ball is telling me...
First they get out of the restaurant business (Fenny, McGradys, Show kitchen, etc)
Then the Movie Theater Business
Then they sell The Villages Insurance off
Hometown Property Management - sold!
Now Citizens
I believe they sold The Daily Sun too?
Next I'm sure Peninsula
Villages Golf Cars?
Is anyone else paying attention?
What are these moves saying about the family's future plans?

The moves are interesting but they *might* be saying that family is most interested in running a development business. The ancillary businesses probably made a lot of sense when the Villages was small and the size of the business was manageable. With the Villages growing, some of the businesses needing rejuvenation, and others just growing large, they may be finding that the additional effort is going into them is not worth the benefit coming out.

I don't see this as something to really worry about. It was nice having three theaters around even if you didn't go to any of them. It was nice having a bank tightly coupled with the practices of the primary developer in the area. It was nice having "the Villages Insurance" even though they were simply brokers. Selling these won't necessarily change anything. The theaters that are still open will still show films, the bank under new ownership will still find it necessary to work closely with the developer, and the insurance brokers will still sell insurance. And in all of these, the Developer will still own the building and will still make money off the businesses. Sure there will be change but it might not be significant.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by Lisanp@aol.com

I'm slightly concerned about what my crystal ball is telling me...
First they get out of the restaurant business (Fenny, McGradys, Show kitchen, etc)
Then the Movie Theater Business
Then they sell The Villages Insurance off
Hometown Property Management - sold!
Now Citizens
I believe they sold The Daily Sun too?
Next I'm sure Peninsula
Villages Golf Cars?
Is anyone else paying attention?
What are these moves saying about the family's future plans?

With all those irons in the fire, my guess would be they provided all the necessary attractions to draw people into a thriving community. I don't think it was ever their intent to continue to provide all those different services. As said in the previous post, they are developers.

[thelegges]

Originally Posted by Lisanp@aol.com

I'm slightly concerned about what my crystal ball is telling me...
First they get out of the restaurant business (Fenny, McGradys, Show kitchen, etc)
Then the Movie Theater Business
Then they sell The Villages Insurance off
Hometown Property Management - sold!
Now Citizens
I believe they sold The Daily Sun too?
Next I'm sure Peninsula
Villages Golf Cars?
Is anyone else paying attention?
What are these moves saying about the family's future plans?

Since the beginning developers eventually rented out established restaurants, with an active clientele. 15 plus years of track records.

Theater have been closed and never opened after pandemic because 10 movies are no longer released every month. Everyone stream on giant screens at home

Insurance has been owned by Baldwin group for close to 10 years, name change came later. (Who in their right mind want to broker insurance in Florida)

In the beginning Home town was used for lifestyle visits, rent residential homes. Once the developers built sections just for lifestyle, it didn’t make sense to continue Hometown.

Daily Sun I believe was sold, then brought back into the fold, probably because it wasn’t highlighting developers correctly.

Peninsula hasn’t been the only game in town for awhile, mainly too many closings for Peninsula to handle.

What is it saying about developers, they are in business to maximize their profits, adding Manufacturing and other business ventures. Am I worried probably not, I don’t think I will outlive the future generations of The Family

[BillyGrown]

Originally Posted by Plinker

Is it possible that this is the beginning of an exit strategy? Perhaps the younger generations of the Morse family are not interested in taking the reins from the older Morse members that may be approaching retirement age. Jennifer Parr recently purchased a $20 million dollar property which could be her future retirement home. Continuing to expand TV footprint (think Sasquatch) may be more of a headache than it’s worth. Sure, TV developers are reaping very substantial profits but it requires a tremendous amount of work. The assets of TV must be worth billions. Imagine what that kind of money would throw off every year without any headaches.
Obviously, on a much smaller scale, is that not what many of us did in order to retire?

Just a realignment for Kelsea to take over.

[ElDiabloJoe]

Originally Posted by BillyGrown

Just a realignment for Kelsea to take over.

Interesting read, what with the bagoogle machine turned up when she was searched. Quite the web of holding corporations:
https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/d...12315_2020.pdf

[mrf6969]

Originally Posted by Lisanp@aol.com

I'm slightly concerned about what my crystal ball is telling me...
First they get out of the restaurant business (Fenny, McGradys, Show kitchen, etc)
Then the Movie Theater Business
Then they sell The Villages Insurance off
Hometown Property Management - sold!
Now Citizens
I believe they sold The Daily Sun too?
Next I'm sure Peninsula
Villages Golf Cars?
Is anyone else paying attention?
What are these moves saying about the family's future plans?

Golf cart stores were sold years ago.

[BillyGrown]

Originally Posted by mrf6969

Golf cart stores were sold years ago.

I can’t think of a better time to liquidate. Nothing in the Florida real estate market is appetizing.

[Snowbirdtobe]

I'm reading the SEC filings from the Seacoast takeover of the Villages bank. There are two things that aroused my interest.

1. Villages Bancorporation has grown to $4.1 billion in assets within and alongside The Villages community through the first phase of
growth on the original 30,000 acres from 1983 to 2017. Villages II is expected to roughly double the size of the original development over the next 15 to 20 years.

First I heard of a villages II. I wonder who they will sell to since the boomers are dying off.


2. The Villages and its affiliates shall not lease, sell or otherwise
make available space that is generally intended to be operated primarily as a “Bank Branch” in any commercial center within the Covered Geography (as defined
in the Developer Support Agreement. The Villages and its affiliates also shall not lease, sell or otherwise make available space that is generally intended to be
operated primarily as a “Bank Branch” in a New Shopping Center to any “Person” other than SNB or its affiliates (i) during the 90 days after delivery of the
applicable development plan, and (ii) with respect to New Shopping Centers where SNB has entered into a lease for a future bank branch, for one year following
execution of such lease.
What about the ATMs at the postal stations? Can the developer charge market rent to Seacoast bank.

All the documents are on Seacoast Banks investor relations web pages,