How Did Your Journey Get You To The Villages?

Closed Thread
Thread Tools
  #16  
Old 01-13-2022, 04:00 PM
CoachKandSportsguy CoachKandSportsguy is offline
Soaring Eagle member
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Marsh Bend
Posts: 2,447
Thanks: 598
Thanked 1,854 Times in 893 Posts
Default

We have been vacationing with golf clubs all over the US. . . except the SW. many times on the east coast between SC and FL and some gulf coast. Mostly near the beaches. Friends of ours said to check this out, so we were looking for a December vacation location and we picked a weeks lifestyle visit in Dec 2018

Just when Marsh bend opened up. . and on day4, we happen to find a lot by ourselves which has a very nice view to offer, but not a direct water view, so it was very cheap, and purchased it. we put the saved money into the house. closed May 2019, spent the next 6 months furnishing it and then since we aren't ready, put it into the rental market.

Target retire date is Dec 2024 when we reach or nearly reach FRA. . .

so it was an impulse purchase with no ball fields, no everglades and no publix and no bridge to brownwood. . .

just got lucky, but have been through this get in early drill before, and chickened out and then missed a huge opportunity so that's why i acted on impulse, not willing to miss another potential nice opportunity
  #17  
Old 01-13-2022, 04:22 PM
pdnesbitt pdnesbitt is offline
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2021
Location: We are building a home in the Hammocks of Fenney
Posts: 21
Thanks: 0
Thanked 31 Times in 8 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G. View Post
There are retired people from all over the nation that settled down in The Villages, some snowbirds, and some full-time residence.

My question is: "What's your story that brought to TV, and why not other areas in Florida?"

Cheers!
***CAUTION*** I tend to get a bit verbose, so grab your favorite beverage before jumping into my story.

We are right in the middle of our move to The Villages. In fact, construction started on our house in Hammocks at Fenney just yesterday. That said, if you had asked us a year ago about moving to The Villages, or anywhere else for that matter, we would have said that we had no plans to move.

Four and a half years ago we retired and moved to our “dream retirement”, a big house on a lake in South Carolina. We had planned it for years and we fully intended to live there to a ripe old age. It was a nice life. We had boats and a pool, and even belonged to the local country club. But what we hadn’t counted on was the isolation and long distances to just about anything we wanted to do, other than stuff on the lake.

Even in SC the winters were still cold (to us) so we would spend January and February in South Florida. And even then the other winter months were a bit chilly for any outdoor activities, let alone lake activities. We were even considering buying a condo or something in south FL to spend Winters in.

Then along came the 2021 real estate boom. We kinda followed it in the news, but paid little attention to it. Then our neighbor put their house on the market for (what we considered) a ridiculous price. That got us talking about “what would we do if we could get $xxxxxx for our house”. We talked about all kinds of options and kept finding reasons they wouldn’t make us happier. So it was just an occasional topic for discussion that went nowhere. After all, we had spent years planning for the place we currently had.

When we discussed what we thought would make us happier, we settled on things like better (Winter) weather, lots more activities, restaurants, clubs, and store less than 30-60 minutes away, more of a social life, closer to the activities we currently enjoy, etc… Does it sound like I am describing The Villages? We had no idea what TV was other than a big retirement community. We had never, ever, even considered moving to any type of community.

This story is starting to drag, so I’ll speed it up. It was in September last year we kinda decided on what would make us happier, IF such a place even existed, and IF our house could sell for a stupid amount of money. Big IFs. So we started looking and remembered that we knew a couple people that moved to TV, so we looked harder. We were amazed at what TV seemed to have to offer, so we booked one of the Lifestyle visits.

So in late September we visited TV and immediately thought that it was Disneyland for adults. After a 4 day visit we were hooked. We immediately went home and put our house on the market, which sold for full asking price, in just 2 days. 30 days later, we had put down a deposit on a Designer Home lot and closed on our house. Now we are Villages Guests while we anxiously wait for our house to be completed.

I am a planner by nature (and profession), so this big spontaneous life event was of some concern to my child, family and friends. In fact, words like “senile” and “crazy” were spoken at times, but here we are, trying to live our best life.
  #18  
Old 01-13-2022, 04:34 PM
Tom52 Tom52 is offline
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 203
Thanks: 9
Thanked 216 Times in 71 Posts
Default

After spending our entire lives suffering thru midwest winters DW and I decided to look for a winter getaway in Florida. DW found a rental in a CYV here in TV. That would have been 2017. We really liked it here so decided to rent a couple of months in 2018. After the second visit we decided to look for a house when we returned for a couple of months in 2019.

We decided we would look for a resale designer home as we liked the amenities in the already established areas. Problem was a minimum of a 3 car garage was required. They were few and far between but we found one that would suit us and made the purchase.

We arrived back to our existing home on March 9, 2019 and less that 7 weeks later we moved to our new home in TV on April 23, 2019. During that 7 weeks we sold our house and most all our possessions accumulated over 40 plus years. Looking back on that, it seems nearly impossible what we went thru to make the move in such a short time.

The reasons we chose TV was because of the lifestyle we would be able to live, it is unlike anywhere else we could imagine. Also DW would never consider living where there is a higher chance of hurricane damage. We feel very lucky to have many new friends here and good health to enjoy the lifestyle. Sure the summers are hot but it gets just as hot and humid in the midwest. This beautiful winter weather way more than offsets the hot summers. We have been here full time going on three years now with few regrets. My main regret is that we did not find a house with an even larger garage.
  #19  
Old 01-13-2022, 05:29 PM
Michael G. Michael G. is offline
Soaring Eagle member
Join Date: Nov 2019
Posts: 2,046
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2,124 Times in 806 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by pdnesbitt View Post
***CAUTION*** I tend to get a bit verbose, so grab your favorite beverage before jumping into my story.



Four and a half years ago we retired and moved to our “dream retirement”, a big house on a lake in South Carolina. We had planned it for years and we fully intended to live there to a ripe old age. It was a nice life. We had boats and a pool, and even belonged to the local country club. But what we hadn’t counted on was the isolation and long distances to just about anything we wanted to do, other than stuff on the lake.
I just read the best place to retire for all-around weather was S. Carolina
  #20  
Old 01-13-2022, 07:02 PM
bagboy bagboy is offline
Soaring Eagle member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,213
Thanks: 224
Thanked 1,034 Times in 364 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G. View Post
I just read the best place to retire for all-around weather was S. Carolina
Not true, we lived at the beach for almost 12 years.
  #21  
Old 01-13-2022, 07:09 PM
manaboutown manaboutown is offline
Sage
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: NJ, NM, SC, PA, DC, MD, VA, NY, CA, ID and finally FL.
Posts: 7,377
Thanks: 12,795
Thanked 4,572 Times in 1,748 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G. View Post
I just read the best place to retire for all-around weather was S. Carolina
I was stationed at Ft. Jackson near Columbia, SC while in the army. It was quite cold and damp in the winter - pneumonia weather - and hot and humid in the summer.

The best place to retire for weather is San Diego, CA IMHO. No, I have not lived there as an adult but an aunt and grandmother did and I spent a lot of time there while I was growing up.
__________________
"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth." Plato

“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” Thomas Paine
  #22  
Old 01-13-2022, 07:27 PM
tophcfa's Avatar
tophcfa tophcfa is offline
Sage
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Wherever I happen to be.
Posts: 5,982
Thanks: 2,822
Thanked 8,930 Times in 2,700 Posts
Default

Good friends bought a place here back when Lake Sumter Landing was just built and no one yet visualized anything south of 466A. We were invited down several times over the years, at first we were still relatively young and thought the place was fun and interesting but never saw ourselves living with all those “old people”. However, as time passed the place really grew on us and suddenly we became a couple of those “old people” and realized we fit right in. And besides, where else in the world can we go everywhere in a golf cart, get to 8 regulation lap swimming sports pools, 12 Championship golf courses, a whole bunch of Executive golf courses, three town squares with nightly entertainment, and a whole lot more all within about a 35 minute golf cart ride? We are both very active people and know of nowhere else where there is more fun stuff to do all in one place. Plus, the weather from November through April is soooooooo much better than up north. So here we are, living large and making all our friends still up north jealous.
  #23  
Old 01-14-2022, 05:51 AM
Professor Professor is offline
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 188
Thanks: 1
Thanked 287 Times in 95 Posts
Default

My wife and I had decided many years ago that Florida would some day be our home. Looked up and down both coasts over the years but never found exactly what we thought could be our forever home. Wife saw an add for The Villages on Fox News and mentioned it when we flew down for a company seminar in Orlando. We drove up after the seminar ended one day and fell in love with the place. We did two lifestyle visits over the next 12 months and bought our house as a vacation property that same year. 3 years later I received an offer to work remotely full-time. I accepted it and two months later we moved here full time. I still work full-time remotely and we are still in the original house we bought back in 2009. Love it here.
  #24  
Old 01-14-2022, 05:56 AM
La lamy's Avatar
La lamy La lamy is offline
Platinum member
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 1,765
Thanks: 424
Thanked 2,125 Times in 873 Posts
Default

I thought I'd retire near St-Pete on gulf side of Florida, but a pickleball buddy told me I should check out TV. I'm so thrilled to have had that reference!
  #25  
Old 01-14-2022, 06:38 AM
Zenmama18 Zenmama18 is offline
Member
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 87
Thanks: 38
Thanked 44 Times in 28 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G. View Post
There are retired people from all over the nation that settled down in The Villages, some snowbirds, and some full-time residence.

My question is: "What's your story that brought to TV, and why not other areas in Florida?"

Cheers!
We stayed at my sister-in-laws place in Duval many times over the years. Looked at several other retirement communities nearby. TV checked off the most boxes for us. We wanted minimal maintenance and a lot of activities. Hubby is disabled so golf not a big draw for us.
  #26  
Old 01-14-2022, 06:42 AM
OronocoCharlie OronocoCharlie is offline
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2021
Posts: 16
Thanks: 11
Thanked 8 Times in 6 Posts
Default

I'm from Minnesota and I retired in the Summer of 2019. Covid hit just as I was returning from an extended vacation in Arizona. I went from feeling footloose and fancy free to being on virtual house arrest. Covid torpedoed my planned life of endless traveling and was the catalyst for me deciding to move to Florida, where I’d escape both the cold Winters and the high Minnesota state income tax. I put my Minnesota home on the market and it sold in 3 days. The buyers set the closing date nearly 3 months out so I had lots of time to plan next steps. I did some research on the internet and discovered a planned retirement community called The Villages. What a neat idea I thought. I secured a villages rental home for after my Minnesota home sold and I flew down to do some advanced scouting via "Lifestyles Preview Visit". During my visit I was shown around by a really nice Villages employee. I found a home I liked and nearly bought it, but the seller was a greedy contractor/house-flipper who set the asking price 10's of thousands above the appraised value. Frustrated, I ditched the Villages sales team and struck out on my own to find a new home. Using MOVOTO and their nice filters, I quickly found a really nice home for a fair price. So far I love the home and being a Villager.

Last edited by OronocoCharlie; 01-14-2022 at 07:13 AM.
  #27  
Old 01-14-2022, 06:45 AM
midiwiz midiwiz is offline
Veteran member
Join Date: Jun 2021
Posts: 607
Thanks: 14
Thanked 353 Times in 207 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G. View Post
There are retired people from all over the nation that settled down in The Villages, some snowbirds, and some full-time residence.

My question is: "What's your story that brought to TV, and why not other areas in Florida?"

Cheers!
This nightmare of sorts is 100% blamed on my wife's job offer/contract inclusive to that is that it was the only place I could snag a house within the timeframe (trust me I tried real hard not to be in T.V.)

We aren't retired, our house is far too small, the prices... OMG, and at least I don't fit any of this possibly ever (including the way over the top censorship) We don't like being shut down at 9pm. We like to take our time go to dinner later, etc. So here we are, the neighborhood is nice. Thats all I have for that

You asked - there's your answer.
__________________
Never give up, Never surrender.... just take your prisoners with you
  #28  
Old 01-14-2022, 06:49 AM
RICH1 RICH1 is offline
Gold member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: South
Posts: 1,279
Thanks: 3,255
Thanked 1,296 Times in 557 Posts
Default

I heard about the variety of casseroles!
  #29  
Old 01-14-2022, 07:07 AM
BarbaraB BarbaraB is offline
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 3
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default

Saw The Villages on the Golf Channel. The Villages is Del Webb on steroids. Husband died and all was right here. Wonderful place to live out the final years.
  #30  
Old 01-14-2022, 07:17 AM
OronocoCharlie OronocoCharlie is offline
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2021
Posts: 16
Thanks: 11
Thanked 8 Times in 6 Posts
Default You made me laugh

Quote:
Originally Posted by BarbaraB View Post
Saw The Villages on the Golf Channel. The Villages is Del Webb on steroids. Husband died and all was right here. Wonderful place to live out the final years.
LOL, I'm picturing Del Webb with bulging muscles, striking a body builders pose.
Closed Thread

Tags
villages, residence, question, story, brought

Thread Tools

You are viewing a new design of the TOTV site. Click here to revert to the old version.

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:33 AM.