[villages07]

Donna,

A clarification..... you bought your "first" house

[Donna]

Originally Posted by villages07

Donna,

A clarification..... you bought your "first" house

Oooops, 007...I forgot about the other house!

[renielarson]

I found TV only by accident...and in my opinion...by fate.

I came down to Florida to look for a lakefront home (we live on a lake here in Michigan and I didn't want to give that up in retirement to Florida) and stayed in Tavares because of the Lake Harris chain. My hubby didn't come with me because he said that I had to find the home that made me happy and his input would make no difference...

After spending days with realtors and discovering Florida lakefront wasn't for me because of the alligators I decided to take a day off from house hunting and drive to Silver Springs.

On that drive along 27/441, TV appeared out of nowhere. I was intrigued as to what this "oasis" was. I even took pics through my windshield while driving past this beautiful place so I could share them with my hubby. I had no idea what it was!

Upon my return to Michigan we did an Internet search. A few months later, my hubby and I returned to TV for a visit.

The rest is history.

By the way...we trailered one of our boats down last Fall and it is now on Lake Harris. Although I refuse to swim in Florida lakes, at least we enjoy going out to fish, relax, and cruise the chain. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and there are lakeside and riverside parks along the way for midday picnics! Also, the locks are quite an experience!

[Boomer]

I know somebody who spent each vacation at a different Florida retirement location. Avid golfers. They went to lots and lots of places. All over the state. All over the coasts. When retirement time came, they picked TV. Said it was no contest. So much to do, in addition to golf.

So how did I find out about this place?

Well, I guess I copied somebody's homework.

Boomer

[ouma1938]

Awhile back I kept seeing this cheerful commercial while watching the golf channel. I Googled it and came upon TOTV. I started reading the posts, people kept saying how much they loved TV and TV was just wonderful and I thought, gosh so many TV addicts, wonder what programs they all like, when dimwit that I am I realised they were shortening The Villages. Anyway, after joining TOTV and becoming a part of the community I knew it was for us. We made a Lifestyle visit and since then all I can think about is getting this house sold and getting to TV. So, basically thank you Admins for TOTV. Your great site and all my new friends on it got me hooked.

[colleenj]

I first heard about TV through the commercials on the golf tournaments. I checked it out through the internet and then found TOTV. Came for a 5 day lifestyle visit last May and ended up buying a house.... Can't wait to move here full-time.

[BritParrothead]

We saw an 'ad' in an English Sunday newspaper, about 15 years ago. We were in orlando with our sons on vacation and decided to take the tour. Our boys were teenagers then, now 31 and 32. Each year we came over to Florida for our vacation, they would say lets go up to The Villages for the day
Now we come to TV for our vacation and will be buying a home very soon .

[Niels]

My wife and I were looking for a place in the Orlando area. We found a few nice homes but they were either off by themselves or in isolated developments that seemed to be lacking a sense of community. We looked at homes in Celebration, Florida but that community seemed to be very expensive.

I started doing a search of retirement communities in the central Florida area. I came accross many retirement communities in the area including TV. Initially, I wanted to be closer to the Orlando area than TV is. However, when I started reading online about all the clubs in TV and all the places accessible by golf cart I figured I had to check out the community.

Now I just have to wait until I can retire so I can move here.

[njgranny]

My daughter's brother-in-law's parents live in TV, and I'd heard my daughter talking about it frequently. When we were in Florida, last winter, we went to visit and have since done a six-day lifestyle preview. We love it, and hope to be there sooner rather than later.

[Dirigo]

My wife, Diane, and I first discovered The Villages in 2000 by chance. We were on our way from Davenport, FL, where we were staying with friends while on vacation, to Ocala National Forest for the day.

We passed under the cart bridge on Rte 27 and saw “The Villages” sign and thought “What are 'The Villages'?” Curious, we stopped in at Spanish Springs on the way home and were immediately taken with TV.

We came back and spent the next day of our vacation at TV driving around, taking the trolley tour, talking to a sales rep., looking at model homes, and walking around Spanish Springs (for LSL was only a twinkle in the developer’s eye at that time).

We started getting the videos and have quite a collection of them now. We watch them on cold, snowy winter days and dream of what life could be like living in TV.

We are doing a Lifestyle Preview Feb 24-Mar 1 this year. Diane says I may have to drag her kicking and screaming back to Maine (where the sub-zero temps of late have been replaced by a forecast of 1-2 feet of snow today).

[wdwduo]

In 2005, we were sitting in the cardiologist's office, waiting for Larry to have his 1st stress test after his heart attack, and started talking to another patient there. We talked about job stress, possible retirement...(Larry had to wait until he was 55) but we really didn't know what we wanted to do or where to go.

The other patient told us all about TV and the Lifestyle Preview and it was almost an "ah-ha" moment, (Oprah watchers know what I mean!) and just felt like fate was telling us to look into TV. We came here for a week, loved everything AND the fact that we're only an hour from DisneyWorld, went home and put our house on the market.

Almost three long years later, we sold our house in Sea Girt, NJ, bought into a small retirement co-op in Brick,NJ (so we can stay in touch with our kids and grandkids) moved to the Keystone Villas, became FL. residents and here we are!

[imbrennan]

Hi, I still think that we are probably the most unusual in that we heard about The Villages in Muscat, Oman. (The country shares its borders with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the Yemen). Oman is a great place to visit by the way, Muscat is not so commercial as Dubai and the people are so friendly.

A friend of ours was playing golf on our golf course in Muscat and happened to mention that he had bought a home in The Villages where there was "free golf". Of course my husband's ears pricked up at that and we decided we would come and have a look.

We are from England and a lot of the Brits have bought in Spain, but we went over there and didn't like what we saw, so we thought we would come out and have a look at the Villages.

On the way over on the plane my husband said "don't get too carried away, probably nothing will come of it". On the way back though it was a different story - all we could talk about was how we were going to finance it. We bought originally in Piedmont and then moved a couple of years ago to Sabal Chase. We love it in this area because we are more or less in the middle of everything.

No-one in the U.K. realises what a great community we have in The Villages with all there is to offer. Friends come out to visit us and can't believe how great it is. Trouble is when they fly over from the U.K. they want their money's worth because the flights are expensive and stay for 3-4 weeks at a time!!!!!