[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Karmanng

I am from AZ all my stuff has been in garages there which BTW are lots hotter than the ones here,,,,,,,,,,,,NOTHING here in FL has been damaged from the heat mini split in garage is a waste of $$$$$$$$$$

Mini split in the garage is only a waste of money if you plan on using it only for storage. If your laundry area is in the garage, the last thing you need is to have to deal with laundry while sweating bullets. Also if you use it as a workshop, or have part of it sectioned off as a "man cave" you'll definitely want the mini-split.

[Special Ed]

We checked Open Houses on line. Just getting ideas. Sure enough we found a house we liked. Had a friend check out the house. We contacted a Village Realtor, bought it on line. No regrets.

[BrianL99]

[QUOTE=roadrnnr;2390127
We are in a great area next to Eastport and in a year or two it will be the place to be![/QUOTE]

There's only about 140,000 Villagers who would disagree with you.

[wolfie]

We use the Internet if we seen a home. We asked a friend to go check it out then once we came down, we stayed in Hampton Inn hotel, we contacted two real persons one village and one MLS. I would review the homes on the Internet then I would ask the real estate to show them to us, I refused any new home with Bond. We looked at 115 homes after three months and we found one for half the price of a new one with a Waterview , golfview and on a call Desac

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by melpetezrinski

But that $400k-$500k that you would have spent on a home is sitting in the stock market earning 9% or $36k-45k. Or, taking out a mortgage at 7% and paying that same $30k in interest expense. So, not really that cut and dry.

Or stock market could crash and now have nothing. And it will crash again.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

There's only about 140,000 Villagers who would disagree with you.

Hey as long as they think so all matters to them.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Mini split in the garage is only a waste of money if you plan on using it only for storage. If your laundry area is in the garage, the last thing you need is to have to deal with laundry while sweating bullets. Also if you use it as a workshop, or have part of it sectioned off as a "man cave" you'll definitely want the mini-split.

How long does it take put cloths I washer and dryer, not going to be folding them in garage.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

In my entire life, I don't know a single person who found it necessary to "rent in a neighborhood", before buying a home.

... except in The Villages.

Which leads me to believe, 1 of 2 things must be true.

Folk who buy in The Villages are overly picky.

Or specific locations become more important when you get older.

Nobody is saying it's necessary, but some are saying it's a good idea. Before I rented I had the mistaken notion that all of the neighborhoods and locations would be pretty much the same. By renting I learned that if lived bordering a street like Canal St., I would not be able to hear my television with the windows open. I learned that a villa was not for me. I learned that I wanted to be between the 6s, and not too far from the Odell loop.

Not "necessary" but good information to have.

[budfor]

If you liked the Village of Alhambra, like my wife and I do, it is a great location to be near Spanish Springs Square and Lake Sumter Landing, the two most popular Squares.
Start looking here as there are homes for sale in our Village.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by SHIBUMI

Why do Villagers sell their homes an average of 2 1/2 times........because they got the wrong location and didn't realize it until they lived there.

Figure out what you like to do, golf, swim,shop,pickle ball, etc etc, Find a location that is nearby all you love to do and Bingo. Thats where you look.

Get a Villages Real Estate person and keep them on the hunt for what you want. A great house in a bad location means you will be selling eventually.

You have time to wait , and hunt. BUT, once that property comes up you better pay the asking price and buy immediately.

Your realtor can be your eyes but they need to know what you want to see.

I have bought several houses site unseen......... My R.E. Agent was informed my eyes and ears.

Sounds like you have time, like the OP said, it's all about location. Get some informed eyes and ears on the ground and be ready to jump all in when the property comes up.

Mine was about to hit the market the next day, I did not let that happen, it worked great, I am close to everything I like and secluded enough from highways and outside noise, Town Squares.

Get some eyes and ears on the ground, Villages Realtors don't cost money and they will be the most informed. BINGO

Sorry you are implying people don’t have a clue on where and what not to buy.

Average person that buys more than one home is usually a death of a spouse, or need to accommodate an aging parent, or spouse that needs adaptive access.

Other reason is anywhere from 2.5 to more homes than you have finger or toes…Profit..buy/sell buy/sell and so one.

We are on our fourth and assure you no move had anything to do with we chose poorly on location.

[nhkim]

Renting for 3-6 months (I don't think you need a year) is money well spent. You can't possibly know where you want to live before you've actually lived here. We are snowbirds, so we rented the first year near Lake Sumter Landing because I thought that's where I wanted to be. I envisioned myself riding my bike into LSL in the mornings; my husband envisioned himself playing championship golf a few times a week. Then we got here and found we were so busy with all our activities that we never rode our bikes, and my husband didn't want to commit to 5 hours a day of golf with everything else we do, so he switched to executive golf, which he can do 3-4 times a week without sacrificing other activities.

Our second year we rented in Charlotte, which is between 466 and 466A because we found a lot of our activities were in that area, plus some south of 44. That year we decided to buy because we knew we'd be here at least six months a year. I wanted to go south of 44 and my husband initially didn't, but eventually saw my point. We ended up buying a year-old, turnkey house near Everglades Rec Center, and we feel like we're in the "center of the universe." We're equidistance between Brownwood, Sawgrass, and Eastport. Everything is newer and more vibrant, including the residents. Lake Sumter Landing looks dated to me now, and Spanish Springs - well, we don't even go there anymore. Now, having said that, everyone will explain why their area is the best. A lot of folks have never traveled south of 44 and never will. The fact is, you won't know how you feel until you get here and experience the lifestyle for more than four days.

I haven't even mentioned the actual house yet. If you rent, you'll get a feel for the size of house you need. There's no basements here, which is an adjustment for us northerners. Can you get by with a 2-car garage or not? Do you want a privacy wall or are you okay with kissing lanais? Are you willing to buy a fixer-upper, or do you want your home to be mostly maintenance-free?

You also are going to want to interview realtors/sales associates. The easiest way to do that is to go the many open houses that are offered each day and "interview" the host realtors/sales associates. You'll want one who works for The Villages (sales associate) and one outside realtor. Villages sales associates sell only Villages listed properties. Outside realtors sell only MLS properties. If you want to see everything that's available, you need both. And now there's the new national law of buyers needing to have a written agreement with their agent on how much they will pay. The seller's agent won't work with you.

You're making a big investment in the next stage of your life. Don't cheap out or rush it by trying to purchase a home 1500 miles away sight unseen.

[jimhoward]

We just came for a lifestyle visit, looked at many houses on both mls and villages and then made a purchase. The process was pretty straightforward.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by nhkim

Renting for 3-6 months (I don't think you need a year) is money well spent. You can't possibly know where you want to live before you've actually lived here. We are snowbirds, so we rented the first year near Lake Sumter Landing because I thought that's where I wanted to be. I envisioned myself riding my bike into LSL in the mornings; my husband envisioned himself playing championship golf a few times a week. Then we got here and found we were so busy with all our activities that we never rode our bikes, and my husband didn't want to commit to 5 hours a day of golf with everything else we do, so he switched to executive golf, which he can do 3-4 times a week without sacrificing other activities.

Our second year we rented in Charlotte, which is between 466 and 466A because we found a lot of our activities were in that area, plus some south of 44. That year we decided to buy because we knew we'd be here at least six months a year. I wanted to go south of 44 and my husband initially didn't, but eventually saw my point. We ended up buying a year-old, turnkey house near Everglades Rec Center, and we feel like we're in the "center of the universe." We're equidistance between Brownwood, Sawgrass, and Eastport. Everything is newer and more vibrant, including the residents. Lake Sumter Landing looks dated to me now, and Spanish Springs - well, we don't even go there anymore. Now, having said that, everyone will explain why their area is the best. A lot of folks have never traveled south of 44 and never will. The fact is, you won't know how you feel until you get here and experience the lifestyle for more than four days.

I haven't even mentioned the actual house yet. If you rent, you'll get a feel for the size of house you need. There's no basements here, which is an adjustment for us northerners. Can you get by with a 2-car garage or not? Do you want a privacy wall or are you okay with kissing lanais? Are you willing to buy a fixer-upper, or do you want your home to be mostly maintenance-free?

You also are going to want to interview realtors/sales associates. The easiest way to do that is to go the many open houses that are offered each day and "interview" the host realtors/sales associates. You'll want one who works for The Villages (sales associate) and one outside realtor. Villages sales associates sell only Villages listed properties. Outside realtors sell only MLS properties. If you want to see everything that's available, you need both. And now there's the new national law of buyers needing to have a written agreement with their agent on how much they will pay. The seller's agent won't work with you.

You're making a big investment in the next stage of your life. Don't cheap out or rush it by trying to purchase a home 1500 miles away sight unseen.

I don't understand this notion, honestly. The idea that you should do more than a couple weeks of rent first, buy later. I used to rent, when I was in college and several years after college. It wasn't to check out the neighborhood to see if it'd be a good place to buy. It's because that's what young folks on a budget DID. We didn't yet have enough money saved up for a downpayment on property, plus we were still working on what path our lives would take.

All three homes we've owned [edit] up north, plus the one we bought here in The Villages [/edit], we didn't rent in the neighborhood first. When my parents retired to Florida, they didn't rent in their gated community first. When my grandparents bought in Century Village, they didn't rent for awhile first.

We rented for a week here and there because it was our vacation time, and The Villages was a great place to vacation when you're "near" retirement age and considering a move out of state.

Many people who are thinking about buying in The Villages are still paying mortgage on their current home, and can't afford a mortgage AND a new property. That also means they probably can't afford to take a few months off of work just so they can rent in another state to check out the community.

Many people come here when they retire. Not before they retire. Unless you can afford to take a few months - like if you own the business, or you're already retired, or you're very wealthy and don't have to work for a living in the first place...you -can't- rent for a few months.

[LianneMigiano]

Originally Posted by MplsPete

How do you go about buying a (preowned) home in a community 1500 miles away from where you live?

Probably just like thousands of others of us did...Fell in love with what we saw when we visited (the cleanliness, the friendliness, the access to an incredible number of active adult activities/ clubs/ groups, the lack of an state income tax, what also turned out being considerably reduced living expenses, etc. etc.) Today you can also visit/view almost every home for sale online. There are no "bad neighborhoods" ANYWHERE here in The Villages, so that's never going to be an issue.
Welcome (in advance) and enjoy! We moved here from CT (yay, no more snow & ice) just over 14 years ago and love it here just as much today as when we first moved - even though we are now almost 84 & 89!

[spubear2]

We bought a house in 2022, sight unseen except for friends coming by to look at it for us and a video our real estate person did for us. We got a Village real estate person, Michael Veri, and he found one we liked just a couple days before it was listed, so we made an offer before the interest rates started to rise too much. But I think that concern isn't too bad at this time. Interest rates may go up or down this year. But you can do it if you know the area you want to be in. Otherwise, I would rent at first.