[OU812]

I'm looking at buying a preowned listed home form the Village properties and would like to know how that works. I found a house to buy but don't understand the process. It seems like I have my Village Property agent (who works for the Village) write up a contract for me, but he doesn't really have my back. Who do I have on my side to help negotiate the contract? And do they discount from there listed price, if so what percentage off is a good deal?

[vintageogauge]

If the home is listed with The Villages you can only make an offer through a Villages agent. As far as a price, on a re-sale you can offer whatever you feel comfortable with but you cannot make an offer on a new home. If you don't like your agent, get another one. I would highly recommend Beth Pope, we have purchased two homes with her and she has also helped many of our friends. Good luck.

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by OU812

I'm looking at buying a preowned listed home form the Village properties and would like to know how that works. I found a house to buy but don't understand the process. It seems like I have my Village Property agent (who works for the Village) write up a contract for me, but he doesn't really have my back. Who do I have on my side to help negotiate the contract? And do they discount from there listed price, if so what percentage off is a good deal?

Nobody is on your side as a buyer. The real estate agents / sales reps (not worth explaining that now) all get paid by the seller not the buyer. They can snuggle up to you and give you that warm puppy feeling but at the end of the day the higher the sales amount the higher the commission. There is an avenue I did use out of this state. I have no idea if Florida has this same avenue. I hired a sales broker to represent me. They actually sign a contract that states they will act in the buyers best interest. They got the percentage what a non listing MNLS sales agent would get but I as the buyer had to pay them another 1 % on top of that. It worked out well for me given I was in a monopoly of a real estate agent market. I actually caught the real estate agent not presenting my original offer to the seller. The broker got nothing unless the sale was completed. That was and is a long story. What is your options with The Villages _ I don't know. Maybe worth a phone call to a person called a real estate broker.

Originally Posted by OU812

I'm looking at buying a preowned listed home form the Village properties and would like to know how that works. I found a house to buy but don't understand the process. It seems like I have my Village Property agent (who works for the Village) write up a contract for me, but he doesn't really have my back. Who do I have on my side to help negotiate the contract? And do they discount from there listed price, if so what percentage off is a good deal?

5% off in this market would be good. look at comps before making an offer

[Papa_lecki]

Do the Villages agents even provide comps? The first one we used started off by saying TV houses sell at full asking.

To original post - I hope you go walk through the house before you buy. Many homes I walked through I thought my wife and I would love, you have to go through the places.

[Malsua]

Originally Posted by OU812

I'm looking at buying a preowned listed home form the Village properties and would like to know how that works. I found a house to buy but don't understand the process. It seems like I have my Village Property agent (who works for the Village) write up a contract for me, but he doesn't really have my back. Who do I have on my side to help negotiate the contract? And do they discount from there listed price, if so what percentage off is a good deal?

My wife and I have bought two houses in TV.

The first was an MLS house, the second was a VLS house that we closed on a couple weeks ago.

I believe our agent was working for us and in part it's because she was referred to us by my sister who has purchased at least a half dozen houses with the agent.

She was super responsive, we offered 8% under asking and after a couple counters bought just under 5% off the list price. She didn't try to force us to do one thing or another just laid out our options. She kept us informed, answered all our questions, laid out the VLS contract and sale process all the way through. Very happy with the experience. Daisy Holley is her name by the way.

We did the contract 100% remotely but came down for the close. Never actually walked into the place until the day before close, but my sister who has a ton of experience in this area did. We know TV well anyway, it was mostly that the house wasn't a disaster. I can fix everything but smells, mold and major structural issues. We bought it because it's a CYV with a view and our current CYV doesn't have that. We can also add 12 feet to the back of the structure and still have a yard.

One house that we really liked was the perfect place, the perfect price and the perfect size. The entire house stunk! A completely empty home that reeked means that the smell is in the wall and ceiling sheet rock. There are probably leaks too.

If you don't like your VLS guy, switch. No sense buying a house with someone you aren't comfortable with.

[Laker14]

I have been through this process just recently. I had a MLS agent, that is, an agent outside of The Villages Real Estate organization. He could show me any house listed through any MLS agent. These would be any house you see on Zillow or Trulia, minus a few "For Sale by Owner", but he actually said that if there were one of those I wanted to see he might be able to get involved. He could not show me any homes listed though The Villages. My MLS agent and I signed a document that made him my fiduciary. Responsible to my best interests. This relationship applied to any house OTHER than the ones where he had the primary listing. IF he had the primary listing, his fiduciary responsibility, by prior contract was to the seller. This never came up. He was great, and if you want his name, you can PM me.

We also looked at houses listed through The Villages. We had an agent through them as well. She did a good job, even pointed out a few things to help us, but her fiduciary responsibility was not to us. It was up to us to read the fine print very carefully, even hire a lawyer if we so desired. The pre-owned homes are negotiable in price just like any MLS home. My MLS agent I felt was more aggressive in my favor regarding what he thought was a fair price, IMO, than the Villages agent, but I have no real basis for that. IT did seem to me that the listings I was interested in that were listed through The Villages were generally more in line with the comps (I got my comps from the "sold" search feature on Zillow), with fewer of what I call "pie in the sky" asking prices compared to what I saw on Zillow. That is just my opinion.

As it turned out, the house we bought was listed outside of The Villages listing, on an MLS listing (still in the location of The Villages). My agent was a real pro in facilitating the negotiations, pointing out little or big flaws on various properties, and guiding me through what he considered "big stuff" vs. "little stuff easily dealt with"... We are pre-closing now, and he his helping me nearly daily with dealing with the issues from the mortgage company, and insurance etc.
One unique thing about buying in TV is that probably all of the agents actually live in TV, and are personally familiar with the peculiarities of living and owning in TV, much more so than a more conventional experience outside the bubble, like buying in a suburb of a big city.
Good luck in your search.

[Laker14]

Also, although my MLS agent and I had a contract that he would be MY fiduciary, his commission comes out of the seller's commission. I do not pay him a separate commission. This is why The Villages won't let him into their world. They don't want to share their commissions with anyone looking out for the seller, or outside of The Villages Realty. It's their world, they can do what they want. I wasn't happy about it, but if I had found the house we really wanted, it wouldn't have been a deal breaker for me.

My friends bought pre-owned though The Villages Realty, because they had the house they wanted. It went fine. They are cautious smart people who can read contracts very carefully.

[Becky Hess]

We just bought a home in the villages, but wanted our own representative agent, found a Keller Williams agent who was a great person to work with. She became not just our agent, but our friend. Her name is Karen Kamperman, and, yes, she does live in TV, so she has an idea of how it works here. She was a lifesaver when it came to jumping through all the hoops in order to close in 30 days which was a requirement of this sale. Highly recommended!

[Bay Kid]

If this is the home you don't wait. A great buy is you love the property and you can afford the price. 5 years from now a thousand here or there won't make any difference.

[JohnN]

Originally Posted by rustyp

Nobody is on your side as a buyer.

You are your own best advocate. You can make an offer on a pre-owned home.
I believe historically homes sell for about 95% of their listed price, but that certainly varies a lot from home to home.

[vintageogauge]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

Do the Villages agents even provide comps? The first one we used started off by saying TV houses sell at full asking.

To original post - I hope you go walk through the house before you buy. Many homes I walked through I thought my wife and I would love, you have to go through the places.

The agent was probably referring to new homes which do sell for asking price only unless they have reduced the listing price. The agents will present offers on re-sale homes. If your agent told you otherwise I would find another one such as Beth Pope.