We live on Nancy Lopez, with an enormous sand trap in front of us, then a large green and the cart path. The path is next to a very high berm, with a long tight line of mature trees completely blocking the farm beyond it. Literally, when I look through my birdcage I can only see the roof of one other distant TV home. One evening we heard a cow mooing rather loudly. My wife, who grew up on a dairy farm smiled and said 'her calf wandered away.' The farm has been for sale for years, but if it is ever developed, we will not be able to see even the roofs of any buildings.
This is the most peaceful place we could ever imagine. Places on the border can be like heaven.
You can find one too if you carefully do your homework.

O.k. maybe I should clarify that statement............no 'bad' smells where I live. I do enjoy the smells of fresh turned black dirt, fresh mowed grass and rain, my coffee in the morning and my dogs after a bath! If we want to 'enjoy' the other smells we have to take a drive through the country :)

When driving by a cow pasture here in upstate New York last summer, I'd swear I heard one cow take a few sniffs and say to the other cow... "Dat me or you Elsie?" And the other cow answered back... "Neither Bula! I think it's dat guy driving by in his car!"
http://freeemoticonsandsmileys.com/a...icons/cow3.gifhttp://www.findemoticon.com/animated...icons/cow5.gif

I personally would not buy on the edge of TV. And I would not buy on a busy street, near the train tracks or where I can see the power line towers or near a sewage treatment plant. Every one of those impact property value or have the potential to impact property value. While having a nice farm view is great today, tomorrow it might be a shopping mall or a drag strip or a strip club or a drive in restaurant open 24 hours. I guess anything could change in the future, but the more control over that change and the limitations to it, the better off you will be from a value perspective. I have tracked resale values for 4 years now and all those things impact sale price in a negative way. Especially the power lines. House for house there is a significant sale price impact on those homes that abut the power lines. Even a few rows of homes away there is still an impact. I know someone will identify the exception and someone else will buy there because it is doubtful it will change, but believe me when looking at many homes sold close to them the impact stands out.

Excellent post. When we bought a few years ago, there was a horse pasture a couple of streets over that was wonderful. We could hear the horses whinny, and it felt like a little bit of our home up north. Within a year, the farm was gone and replaced by a new housing development. We have since sold and moved on to another neighborhood, but you just never know. I especially agree with the powerline comment. I find the lines unattractive, and have spoken to quite a few people that didn't buy their new home in a particular area, because of power lines, so I'm sure it applies to re-sales as well. I think a nice, central location, on a quiet street, is more valuable than a location on the perimeter, with potential noise or other problems.

"Out There" at the perimeter of TVs
 

We live at the end of Buttonwood Run, adjacent to farmland. There is a country road dividing TV from "out there". We enjoy the sound of horses whinnying, roosters crowing when I walk our dog at the crack of dawn, and hear the occasional "moo" from cows. Its all rather pleasant, (smells as well) as is the train whistle. Opposite our home, a row of Designor homes abutt the split rail dividing fence from the county road. While there is no barrier type fence, most of those homes have LARGE evergreen shrubs providing privacy. As for crime, my husband is a retired Richmond VA detective - and knows the crime rate here is nowhere NEAR what it was in an inner city. On the other side of that rosy view coin, apparently the average Village resident moves 3 times - perhaps we will move into the Sumter Landing area at some future date!

I2ridehd, as always an excellent post, which I agree with totally. As we had discussed several years ago when we bought our villa, as another poster had done, me & the wife looked at sat. photos to find all the powerlines, busy roads, sewage plant, etc.

Army Guy

Here's a suggestion: a home on Tailfer Ave. shown on the Villages real estate website. It's on a lovely corner lot on the border with a separate private view on two sides.

From a security perspective, I would think that bordering a farm would be safer than living "inside" TV and backing up to a pool or rec center. Thieves don't want to walk long distances from where they park their get away vehicle and would probably prefer parking in a parking lot of a pool or rec center and walking a short distance to the back of a victim's house.

Re: power lines
 

At least for preowned homes the price the market brings should reflect the power lines or sewage plant etc when you buy as well as when you sell.

JimJoe is right about different things in The Villages. I was playing golf on a course in the village of Calumet. Beautiful course and beautiful homes but the train tracks are very close by and the train noise and whistles would disturb me if I lived there. There was also a working farm just on the other side of the fence and it did have some farm smells - but not bad.

I do hear the train whistles late at night but it is faraway and is kind of a comforting sound - at a distance.

There are no hog lots here - thank goodness!

I have heard that there have been burglaries of unfinished houses in the areas such as Buttonwood. It has been the appliances being stolen. Wildwood is in a direct line to that and is a rather economically depressed area with a higher crime rate.

The Community Watch has no arrest or detain authority but they will call the police if necessary.

Personally, I feel 100% safe here. I go walking the panda (see the picture) at midnight with no problem.

:agree::agree:

The day we purchased our home in Buttonwood we looked at 3 similiar homes and one was on the border of TV. My wife remarked how nice to be next to all those trees. The TV rep said that property was not TV. As I told my wife, In a few years they could build a 24 hour truck stop there.

or...
 

Or a Hog Lot or a retirement home for me. Ya never know.
:p
JJ