Many enjoy watching home prices here. I know I do. . Most homes that are clean, staged well, and competively priced don't last long on the market here in The Villages.

There are still sellers looking to hit a home run and price their homes way too high even with improvements which are often highly personal.

The bottom line. Overpriced homes don't sell. Most people of our age have bought and sold a few homes in their lifetimes and are pretty savvy buyers...and sellers. Much information is available on their computers that wasn't readily available in the past.

Never been a realtor. Not looking for business. Just enjoy watching the market.

If a home sold for 100K less three years ago than it is listed for today, even figuring in improvements and 20K bond paid, ............Or 200K less..........I would have some hesitancy as a buyer.

Download the Zillow app. It shows you the street view, satellite view, and lot lines of the home. With the street view you can travel up and down the street to look at neighboring houses, and with the satellite view you can zoom in on an areal view of the house or back out to see the whole village. And that's just the beginning.




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Thank you Chi.

I agree want it sold for in the pass has nothing to do with market value now. IMO the market is flooded right now and prices are lower than few years ago. Unless it's great location and price it will set for awhile.

Zillion google earth view not working on my computers, quite working few weeks ago. Anybody else experiencing this?

I strongly disagree. If you are talking about homes in The Villages. STRONGLY. DISAGREE.

And respectfully too.

Might want to look at Lyle's historical sale prices..........values have been going up.

The economy is predicted to remain strong thru 2018, as should housing prices. Beyond 2018, it's a guess........but we are due for a change in the cycle (nationally).

Hmmm Zillow shows 332 homes for sale in The Villages with 50 FSBOs and 282 listed by Realtors and a few foreclosures. The info they give on each home is easily verified, price/tax history, previous listings etc.

In so many words, you just repeated my point.

like a home make an offer. as long as you don' t lowball it could be a starting point.

I am not so sure about their being more savvy. It is surprising how many folks, young and old, out there who are not aware of websites such as Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com, etc.

We sold our house in Melbourne just one hour after we posted it in Zillow for only one dollar. His wife happened to be Internet-savvy and accidentally came across Zillow.

One great thing about Zillow is that it shows property taxes paid each year and gives the price when sold the last time.

No offense intended, but the houses in The Villages in same price ranges look pretty much alike. It is impossible (at least for me) to tell what the Villages look like. I do not know if For Sale signs are allowed. If not, then realtors are a must.

The best way to start looking is to attend open houses to get a feel for the village, neighborhood, and price.

The Villages are very much alike, but generally speaking they are older as they go Northeast with the exception of areas added on near 466 about seven years ago. (Bridgeport at Laurel Valley and the Haciendas at Mission Hills) Now there is a new area being built near Nancy Lopez Golf course.


There are areas that do not allow any yard art without permission from the Architectural Board and they are South of 466. There is one village, Harmeswood, North of 466 off Buena Vista that has very very large lots. There are clusters of a few two story homes. There was a suit brought by some people about eight years ago and those areas have different ways of handling things than the rest of the Villages.

The Villages is a CDD. A Community Development District and a census designated destination and it is not run like a city with a mayor etc. The Villagers do NOT make the decisions. Many like that very much and some do not. It is clean as a whistle and has very low crime and as I say, it is hugely successful. The fastest growing area of it's size in all of the United States according to Forbes Magazine.

NO. I don't sell property and I have never met the Morses. But I would like to. I would hug them.

Various websites to search for a home

MLS and Realtor.com - These are homes listed by a Realtor working for a licensed brokerage. These home owners will pay a 6% commission, half to listing agency and half to the buyers agency. But now there are companies that will charge you from $100 to $500 to list your property on MLS and Realtor.com, you as a seller pay only 3% commission to buyers agency. Obviously Realtors don't like this.

Zillow- Here you can see both FSBOs and MLS listings. Listing your home on Zillow costs you nothing and you can offer Realtors a commission or choose to only deal direct with buyers. Savvy buyers can check out FSBOs without an agent and negotiate a discount by dealing directly. Very easy to set up contracts and escrow with a reputable Title company.

VLS - This is The Villages site for resales of homes in the Villages. These also include a 6% commission, I think they only charge 5% if home sells quickly.

There are many others like Redfin, Trulia, FSBO.com etc that allow owners to list their homes for sale.

As a buyer, I like to look at all of them.

If you are looking to buy a house here listen to the negatives...there are a lot. Try to ignore those that drank the Kool-aid years ago.

Nothing wrong with TV if you are willing to accept it is a city now and will have tye problems associated with it

From this we can conclude you have never purchased a very desirable property that had multiple offers at or above the asking price.

We offered 20,000 above the asking price in one place...and lost.

We paid the full price for our current house because when we went to the open house, there was a lot of traffic, and we overheard several people talking about making offers on this house.

We sold one house at the full asking price.

The famed real estate columnist Robert Bruss said that if the house sells in less than 3 weeks, it is underpriced. Three weeks, it is priced just right. If over three weeks, it is overpriced. The longer it takes, the more overpriced it is. Of course, this is when the market is normal.

Our realtor told us that you had the best shot in the first ten days a house is on the market. We did all of the things she suggested and we had three offers and a bidding war at nine days and it sold above the asking price. This is our home in Ohio that we left when we moved here.

I don't get it
 

Why would you be hesitant as a buyer three years later, when assuming you know the improvements have value and knowing the bond is paid off?
You make no mention to the current market value, which is the real clue to what the price should be.
And with knowing all the pertinent information regarding the property which is within the realm of being well-priced, you would be hesitant?

I paid over market purely for location. Very happy where I am and doubt I'll ever move again.

You did not over pay............With an arm's length transaction, you made Market Value by definition.

Congrats on your home!!

Location, location, location. Sometimes it's priceless.

Congratulations.

What someone paid is nice to know, but has very little to do with current market value. If they paid more than what it on the market for, does that mean you will offer more? I doubt it.

I have flipped a few homes over the years. Once I bought a lake cottage for 125K on June 15. I spent about 10K to fix a serious problem with a set of stairs going down to the lake. Home set on a high bluff overlooking the lake. On September 1 I sold the home for 250K. I had a buyer who really wanted this place. But they refused to pay market value because they found out what I bought it for. I met them a few years later and they were so sorry they had not bought that cottage. Said it was their biggest regret in real estate. Think about the cottage in the movie "On Golden Pond" This was a replica of that place on a nearby lake.

Market value is market value is market value. Has nothing to do with purchase price. Maybe good information to have but don't base your purchase decision on it. You might lose the perfect home because you are influenced by what the current owner paid.

Very true. Also, Sometimes the price paid on record is not an arms length transaction, for various reasons.

If you are paying cash, price is really irrelevant, if you really want it pay whatever they are asking.....

But, if you are paying with a mortgage, you are subject to a appraisal, and the bank will not finance more than the home is worth, unless you come up with the difference in cash.

just a little information.

And in most cases the banks appraisal will be at or very close to market value. At least it should be.

We fell in love with this place and bought our first home in Hadley. The only time we ever bought real estate emotionally, frivolously and without careful and long consideration.

Excellent choice.

Four years later, we shifted our life from snowbird to year 'rounder and bought our next house here.

Excellent choice.

This place and it's people fit us fine. We have found many, many, folks here who were raised like us and still have the same attitudes and values and sense of fun.

It isn't for everyone. But it is for us.

They get most of their info from county property records and transfer records. It amazes me how few people know that they can see property records of others simply by going to the county website.

Correct. The appraiser tries not to screw up the sale, so he is careful not to under-appraise.

I think he meant he paid more than the asking price.

Our realtor had what was called an office tour. All the agents in his office came through and came up with what they thought we should ask for.

Realtors typically refer to this as a caravan.


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This reminds me of one offer that was such a lowball offer ($200,000 less) that it made us angry enough to fire our realtor. That town had such a glut of houses for sale that buyers come in, thinking they could steal properties.

Lowball offers should never make a seller angry. Whenever I have sold a house, I told the realtor to bring all offers to me regardless of how low it is. If it is too low you can just say no or make a counteroffer. There is no reason to be angry. An offer is an offer. That is a good thing.

:agree:

And getting angry enough to fire your own agent, given that they are required by law to present you with every offer...seems a little strange.

There HAS to be more to that story...there just has to.

Is that you, dewilson58?

Is what me???

It's me, no one else will be me.

:thumbup:

The avatar. Quite dashing, I say!
(oops... off topic:D)