I had the carpeting replaced in my home 9 years ago no problem so far.

They also give them to Stonecresters and people from Spruce Creek who have to cross 441 in a golf cart. That's crazy.

In regards to privacy, the home location can make all the difference. The house next door will be 15 feet away, but the backyard view makes a huge difference. If your view is someone else's backyard, there will be no sense of privacy. If your view is a golf course, a lake, or woods, the feeling of being in nature is comforting.

Be careful if you are backing up to a golf course.
If you are near a tee box or a green on an executive you will have golf carts outside your lanai all day and hear lots of chatter.
On a championship, volume is a little less, but also consider where 2nd shots might land.

I will just comment on finding a PCP with regular medicare. You will need to get outside The Villages to use regular medicare for PCP but you can use all specialists in The Villages pretty much as the specialists will take both medicare and medicare advantage. I am on regular medicare because I travel a lot and some of the places I travel, the facilities I want to use do not take medicare advantage. It took me a few weeks to find a PCP, but there are some around. Orlando Health and AdventHealth are both fairly near and many of their physicians will take regular medicare. I can't recommend anyone right now because I won't have my first visit with my new primary care physician until February. Good luck.

2 relators
 

Are you thinking new or existing home? The Villages Sales are not an MLS listing agent. They do list a number of existing homes and new. MLS listing agents can't sell new in the Villages, but they sell a lot of existing homes. If see a house listed by the Villages, it will not have an MLS listing. Make sure you compare taxes, amenities, and bond when you buy. Be careful of the people that say "We're Just Like The Villages" except.

If you do not live in The Villages you can not use the amenities. Yes, even ones outdoors like courts and dog parks - they come and check IDs very frequently. The music on the squares, restaurants/shops are open to the public.

Leesburg Hospital seems to be rated higher than UF Health Spanish Plaines Hospital ER. I have not heard anything about that freestanding ER, but "no news is good news"?

We joined a waiting list for our PCP with Villages Health and were told it would be two to three months until the new doctor that had been hired was full time with the practice and seeing new patients. She is great, and I don't think that was too long to wait to get a new PCP in a new state. Call the main number for The Villages Health. They just last week opened a new care center in Eastport so I'm sure they have new doctors hired and joining that practice soon.

Yes, the construction is not high end, and yes the new construction has LVP floors. You do not want wood in FL. If you look at homes that are about 2 years old, you will find ones that are fully tiled with the wood plank look flooring. The Villages has stopped using this more labor intensive flooring in favor of LVP in all new homes.

Yes, the homes are close together, but as they say in Manhattan you sleep in you home and live in your neighborhood. You are literally never home with how busy most Villagers are. You are meeting people out and not entertaining at home too. It really is a shift from how you perceive you will be living in your (small and close to the neighbors) home.

There are "resident" and "visitor" lanes at most gates. There is a red button that you can push to raise the gate (which I'm told also snaps a date/time stamped photo of the car/plate). The Villages has gates, but is NOT a gated community.

Importantly, I have read multiple times that UF Hospital does not take regular Medicare. I found that hard to believe even though regular Medicare is not listed on their webpage. So, I called the billing office via the main number and was assured UF Hospital at Spanish Springs does indeed take regular Medicare. Let's put that misinformation to rest.

It is not "misinformation". Your statement is an over-simplification of the situation.

Regarding privacy. It took me a long time to find my house because privacy was important to me. I did not want to be able to see into others’ or have people see into my lanai. Therefore, I bought a veranda, which is a designer home with a fenced in backyard.

“They weren’t the best quality.” What exactly do you mean? I consider the homes built in The Villages solid and well-built. They are built to stand up to hurricanes. With proper upkeep, they will last for generations. Do you know enough about construction methods to comment on “quality”? Most are not LUXURY homes, but that isn’t the same thing. A lot of that luxury doesn’t have much to do with quality. Yes, the faucets and door handles and baseboards and windows and closets and flooring is what is known as “builder” level—the sort of things you can buy at Home Depot for the lowest price. But the quality is acceptable. My courtyard Villa standard faucets and door handles, but they are twelve years old but look fine. Yes, I have Formica countertops, but they are easier to take care of than stone. Yes, my house had the standard cheap carpet, ten years old, when I moved in. I paid to have that replaced with the best textured luxury vinyl planking I could get and upgraded baseboards, all done by Roberto’s. That cost me $14,000. A lot less than tile, but warmer, and longer wearing than carpet. Hardwood floors or fake hardwood floors (I.e., thin veneers of real wood) cost about the same, but they aren’t a good idea in Florida if you ever leave your windows open, as they will swell or shrink. I have friends who have crown molding in their homes here. It cost a lot. It looks nice. But I don’t want it in my home. And I don’t want fake pillars separating my entry from the living room, even if they are a mark of luxury.

The current thinking by the development team in The Villages is to build “builder grade” solid, reliable homes and let people rip things out and replace them if they want to, rather than let prospective buyers order upgrades before building. I think that is wasteful, but so it goes. It’s easy to put an extra $50,000 into aftermarket upgrades. However, consider what you need. You will get a lot of use out of a well-designed custom closet. But will a $300 faucet work better? Not really. Do you really need new cabinets in the kitchen? Perhaps put some money instead into adding slide outs in the cupboards or specialty drawers. How many thousands are you willing to pay for quartz counters that won’t work any better?

As for yards, in my courtyard villa I have full privacy, which I love. An acre of grass wouldn’t give me more privacy. I mow my postage stamp lawn in the front myself in a few minutes. The gardener comes every three months and prunes the shrubs and small trees. If I had a dog, it could run fifty feet in the fenced courtyard. Why would I need more?

I do believe you just verified his statement... The Villages homes aren't the "best" quality, they're builder grade. You are happy with that level and that works for you. Many like nicer home features and fixtures which works for them. Remember, we can't all fit in the same bathtub in this world...:wave:

We have used the ER on 44 at Meggison across from Brownwood square 6 times. Fabulous!!! New modern beautiful facility and the doctors and nurses top notch. The facility has all the bells and whistles with equipment and I believe 12 patient room for overnight stays. They do get a lot of drunks from Brownwood square hurting themselves falling on concrete, hitting their heads, cutting themselves, and heart attacks. Between myself and husband, of those 6 visits, 2 times we had to be admitted to the Spanish Plaines hospital for several days and that transfer went well. The other visits we were released with meds and instructions after a few hours, and other visits stay overnight while running more tests trying to find the problem (which they did).

I think you're confusing UF Hospital with The Villages Health. The Villages Health is a "medical group" just like any other medical group in the country, but it's really big, and has reciprocity with the Hospital (just like medical groups all over the country have reciprocity with their own local hospitals).

The Villages Health accepts most NON-medicare PPOs, and they accept Advantage plans. They are not participating providers for Medicare part B at all.

The hospital is a normal hospital, like most normal hospitals around the country. They are participating providers for most insurance companies (although certain HMOs like Kaiser would be out of network because they don't serve Florida at all).

Health Care
 

The problem with Health Care in or near The Villages is:

The Villages builds about 300 new homes a month.
Other developments are also being built (Apartments, Homes...)

The Villages homes average 1-2 persons age 55+. The Health Care facilities can not keep up. As long as The Villages continue to build there will always be a shortage of Health Care facilities.