[OldManTime]

Originally Posted by tomwed

One day a new golf coach in my league told me that her father moved into a Florida retirement community where “There are 50 golf courses, all for free and you will love it there.”

When my wife and I were in Hilton Head I Googled what the new golf coach said and we drove here for an overnight trip. Two years ago that overnighter turned into a week and that turned into many weeks renting and that turned into a house.

What’s your story?

A truck drove through the middle of my home, Insurance Co. put me up in a Hotel with TV on TV.

[scarflady]

Found an oldies cruise on the internet with Rocky and the Rollers. Didn't know anything about the Villages when we went on the cruise, but every morning at breakfast the people at our table would talk about the Villages and how great it was. Five months later we did the lifestyle trip to the Villages and fell in love, just like everyone else does. They showed us some homes, but nothing seemed right for us. The day before we were scheduled to go back north we saw an ad in the Daily Sun for a house for sale by owner. Went to see it immediately, loved it, signed the papers and were NEVER sorry. Still not a full time frog, but we love what time we can spend there. It's a feel good place to be. Really special!

[NYGUY]

I watch a lot of golf on TV and back in 2006 after seeing a ton of commercials for The Villages during golf broadcasts I told my wife we should drive the short distance from our home in Tampa to see this place. After 7 years of of real estate crashes we finally moved here in 2013

[asianthree]

Came in 07 stayed for a week. Husband saw it on the golf channel. That was when houses were selling before you could drive there. Husband would have bought then I said no. Came and went and in 2010 bought a house. Not the one of our dreams but what we could afford. Our goal was for our parents to use the house whenever they wanted to.

[John_W]

In 2003 in Baltimore I was watching the Golf Channel one night very late and the 30 minute infomercial was shown. I had grown up in St. Petersburg but left in 1977 and also lived in Pensacola, Savannah and Atlanta. I was familiar with most parts of the south but I had never heard of The Villages so it got my interest. I called and they sent me the info packet and VHS tape. By 2011 we were ready to make our move, so we took a 7 day LSV in April. Returned to Baltimore and listed our home in May. The first viewing was a manager from the new Wegmans built across the street from our home, and they bought our home, sold in 18 hours. We moved to TV in June 2011 to a CYV we had bought from TV website sight-unseen.

[Madelaine Amee]

We had been renting a condo on the beach in Reddington Shores, just south of Clearwater. Loved the area, but the other half refused to buy a home on a Hurricane Evacuation Route, and Gulf Blvd has Evacuation Route signs all over the place. We gradually became disenchanted with Spring Break and told friends of ours we were done with Florida. She said "come see The Villages where we are", so on our way north at the end of March we stopped to see them, fell in love and decided that the following year we would rent for the winter. So the following year we rented a Villa in Spanish Springs, fell in love and bought a place immediately, kept the home up north for two years and then decided to move full time. Love it, have never ever regretted it and feel so very fortunate to live where we do and have the life we have.

[villagetinker]

Found TV almost by accident. A friend was talking about this place near 441 and 466, with all this neat stuff. After some searching on Google, found a place called TheVillages, and saved the info. Fast forward 2-3 years we are visiting a relative on the East coast of FL and decide to see what TV is. Went up for a quick tour, just with the realtor (seed planted). Fast forward another 2-3 years and TV has come up in conversations a couple of times, so as a surprise for my wife, I arrange for a week stay at TV and tickets to the Daytona 500. We were so impressed with TV, on the last day of our stay we tried to buy a house. No luck, all were already sold. Tried for another month by e-mail, no luck. Finally bought a lot and had a house built (we were the last group to be able to do that). We will be here 1 year this week, and LOVE it.
Still waiting for the person that mentioned TV to get down here!
PS: I had previously told many people I would never retire in Florida, that was before I heard of TV.

[Carpe Diem]

Our friends in Ohio vacationed here for years and kept inviting us to come down. They described this place called "The Villages" with great exuberance. We figured it would be nice and fun, but we thought they were a little crazy. Our last kid went off to college so we finally said yes . . . and we bought that first week.

They tried. But you just can't accurately describe it.

[janeg]

Suffering from TV withdrawal! You too? It's the worst.

[jblum315]

My husbands brother and wife moved to TV from Tampa in 2005. After my husband passed away, I finally got around to visiting them in April 2009, leaving snow in NY. I moved into my own house in Oct. 2009.

[duhbear]

A friend.

[DougB]

I brought my wife to The Villages go do a Lifestyle visit to celebrate our anniversary. She wasn't that enthusiastic about it and told all our friends, "I can't believe he is taking me to a retirement community instead of a cruise". Well, after about 4 hours here, she said buy me a house here. So, I did. Looking forward to the day we can stay permanently.

[Aandjmassage]

We lived in New Smyrna Beach for 7 years. Wanted to drive are golf cart to lunch. After spending a lot of time and money making cart into LSV then having to prove to Beach Patrol it was legal. We started looking for a place to do this with out all that trouble. Seen Sunday morning program then came over to see the carts. Loved every thing here.

[tedquick]

Up until about 2.5 years ago, my wife and I were going to retire in Arizona. A good friend of mine was telling me over tea one day about this wonderful community in Florida that he and his new wife had just purchased in. We called some other friends who had purchased in TV also a couple of years before that. They invited us down. The second day we were here, Teri and I looked at each other and said "this is where we are going to retire". Teri retired August 15th and we moved in two weeks ago this Monday (13th).

If you have any interest in living at all after retirement, you just can't say "no" to TV. It only takes one visit and you're hooked.

[beachx4me]

We were coming to Florida to visit family and thought we would stop here to surprise an old friend. We were the ones who were surprised!!! We ended up buying about two years later, and then found out two of our friends had bought here and then another friend bought after us.