When you are buying a house here hire an inspector, and then do a total inspection yourself. Our inspector did not notice the dishwasher didn't work at all. In fact it was rusted. We just went by the report, and the answer from the Villages realtor now is that we could have looked in the dishwasher ourselves, so they won't do anything.

If possible, get to the villages to close. We were away, and when we got here the mailbox keys didn't work. At that point the villages realtor said it was our mailbox that we couldn't get to, so there again, was nothing they could do about it. If we were here the day of closing we could have checked all the keys before signing the final paper.

I think if I were to buy another home in the villages I will first try the MLS realtors. Perhaps they do less volume, and can give me the service I've come to expect. The villages realtors do a lot of business, so they are very busy, and often don't have the bandwidth to check details.

can anyone recommend a company to remodel a manufactured home kitchen flooring etc

Thank you all for the great tips. We plan to buy our first home in the Villages soon, so these will come in handy. Does anyone know whether or not the Villages Real Estate will negotiate on the price of their brand new homes? On their website, many have been marked down with "sale" prices. Wondering if anyone has been able to negotiate a purchase price even lower than those advertised discounts.

TV Real Estate may discount some homes but the price is never negotiable. Only pre-owned home prices can be negotiated.

How about landscaping. There are a lot of homeowners in TV that have utlity boxes, big electrical transformers, and other objects sticking in the ground on their property or adjacent land and you don't even see them. They have been hidden behind hedges, palm trees, bushes, etc. That's what I would do if I didn't want to see something in the yard. In our CYV's, every other villa has a utility post sticking up right in the middle of the front yard next to their lampost where they hang their name. You don't see them for the most part, they've been landscaped away.

There are dozens and dozens of these throughout TV.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vKKv5B9Zdy...ransformer.jpg

See how it's done.

http://cedarlakegardens.com/wp-conte...mer_slider.jpg

Hi Janice,

Although it's been several years since you closed, perhaps you can help me out. We are selling our home in upstate NY at the end of October and plan to rent for a month while we search for our new (or pre-owned home). What did you decide about hiring an independent inspector? Do you feel it is necessary on a brand new home? Also, did you hire an attorney to review your sales contract and represent you at the closing?

We've visited TV for vacations for several years, and now that we've retired, are anxious to get there. Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Door Knockers
 

The door knockers are the WORST. Do not buy from them.

When I moved in we were hit by lawn guys, water treatment, shutters, windows, every home service possible.

I waited 3 months before I started shopping and very glad I did. The companies that I went with, I was able to research and understand the product and services. You also can research the best value for those products as well!

Great Advice.
Join Nextdoor.com.

Nextdoor is a social networking service for neighborhoods. It was launched in the United States in October 2011; in February 2016 the service became available in The Netherlands.[2] Nextdoor allows users to connect with people who live in their own and nearby neighborhoods.
Nextdoor competes with other social networks such as Yelp, Yahoo Groups, Facebook and Google. It claims to be better than Facebook as membership is by invitation only, so "you don’t have to deal with strangers trying to add you as a friend".[3][4] An article in The Washington Post said when Nextdoor launched that it "seems poised to ride the wave of people’s desire to connect back to their community".[5]

I cannot access the video tutorial to learn how to post a classified ad. I am on a MAC. Can anyone help me?

Do not believe or take to heart anyone in these forums as many do not live here and just hang out for the posts and some are trouble makers. There are other forums not here who check address and the people are normal because they have something invested.

Wow! I've found the majority of people here go out of their way to help others. They find names and phone numbers for folks, provide helpful links, offer comfort and support. For someone who just moved to TV and is relatively new to TOTV, I'm sorry you've had such miserable experiences. Every site has its trolls, just like there's always one mean kid at school. Nature of their beasts. Put the trolls on ignore, follow those people you've found to be knowledgeable and helpful, ignore the rest.

Now, the one advice I would give any newbie is go slow. If buying new, make sure any renovations won't void your one-year warranty. Wait on landscaping until you know what plants thrive here. Don't try to do everything at once. Put at least one day week aside to just have fun. The boxes will still be there tomorrow.

just moved in last monday and i am amazed how many solicitors are ringing our bell

:agree: I'm very surprised that The Dude hasn't found this website helpful.
I'm still learning things on TOTV, e.g., the Thread on 2017 Yamaha QuieTech technology.

Anyone moving to The Villages should be made aware that we are NOT a gated secured community. The Villages has traffic gates on public roads. Even gates with gate attendants cannot stop any car or even ask you questions about your destination. These are fine hard working gate attendants but they are NOT security guards.

But at least give credit to The Villages that most gates have camera recording devices which when needed can see who is coming and going.

These are public roads...not private roads.

Agreed. But we are very safe. Most residential locations have no outlets, and people in the 'good' neighborhoods actually wave at each other.

There are big roads but what you see are walls and people's backyards (mainly fenced in at least south of 466a).

To compare.
Beverly Hills, California
2.93 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
35.68 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
236 Crimes per Square mile

The Villages, Florida
2.02 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
(remember the violent crimes in The Villages are mostly from people not living in the Villages IMHO though I cannot verify that)
7.29 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
18 Crimes per Square mile

Key West, Florida
6.25 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
46.40 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
219 Crimes per Square mile

and one of the best to compare:
Greenwich, Conn
0.18 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
6.43 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
9 Crimes per Square mile

So, considering the poorer areas that are close to The Villages...
Leesburg, Florida
7.68 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
54,38 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
33 Crimes per Square mile

Ocala, Florida
6.51 Violent Crimes per 1000 residents.
52.13 Property Crimes per 1000 residents
76 Crimes per Square mile

...inside our Gated 'non-secured' community, we are doing pretty well.

Anything could happen. But if numbers matter, we are doing pretty well.

(numbers from neighborhoodscout.com)

:BigApplause: