[Nonni252]

I'm looking into re-sales and I'm trying to distinguish what makes a Designer Home, a designer home. Some have the fenced backyards that look like CYVs and others have larger floor plans. Do any Designer Homes have pools?

[Dan9871]

I don't think there is a real definition of what a Designer home is but they run about 2000sqft, and have 10ft ceilings in the main area. The have either 3 bedrooms or 2 bedrooms and a den (a den like a bedroom but has no closet). They have two car garages and some also have a cart garage. Some have pools and some are on lots have space for a pool and some, of course, don't have a pool nor space for on.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by nunzi

I'm looking into re-sales and I'm trying to distinguish what makes a Designer Home, a designer home. Some have the fenced backyards that look like CYVs and others have larger floor plans. Do any Designer Homes have pools?

A designer home is between 1500 to 2300 square feet of air conditioned area. That is really it mostly. Sometimes their finishes are nicer than some ranches and cottages and PATIO Villa's. Premiers are usually 2000-4000+ square feet of airconditioned space and have fancy moldings and finishes. Usually.

Every single man and woman's home is their castle.

[Packer Fan]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

A designer home is between 1500 to 2300 square feet of air conditioned area. That is really it mostly. Sometimes their finishes are nicer than some ranches and cottages and PATIO Villa's. Premiers are usually 2000-4000+ square feet of airconditioned space and have fancy moldings and finishes. Usually.

Every single man and woman's home is their castle.

As usual, Gracie Girl is correct. I would add that they normally have higher ceilings (not flat ones like many ranches). They always have top molding on the cabinets also versus a ranch. Normally nicer finishes in general.

There is some crossover where they look similar - Amarillo/Alamanda for instance. If you walk through, you know which is the designer.
Most designers like Begonia/Gardinia/Jasmine/Lilly/Iris etc do not have a ranch/Cottage equivalent and are much nicer than you will ever get in a ranch/cottage series.

Full disclosure - I own 2 designer homes(rentals for now, but one I am going to live in). I prefer them to anything else.

[Midnight Cowgirl]

If you ask ten people to define what a designer home is, you will get ten different answers.

A designer home is simply the name or term The Villages decided to call a specific model floor plan.
We expanded our home to 3,400 sq. ft. but it was still a designer home.

[graciegirl]

[QUOTE=Midnight Cowgirl;1651251]If you ask ten people to define what a designer home is, you will get ten different answers.

A designer home is simply the name or term The Villages decided to call a specific model floor plan.
We expanded our home to 3,400 sq. ft. but it was still a designer home.[/QUOTE

The Courtyard Villa is almost as large as a Designer home. Sometimes up to 1700 feet. Usually Patio Villa's and ranches are 1500 sq. ft. of air conditioned space, some have two bedrooms. A Designer home and a Courtyard Villa has a bond of about $24000, and a Premier has a bond of about $50000 and I think Patio Villas and ranches are about $15000 for a new bond.

The light fixtures and moldings are usually a little nicer on Designers. And Designers and Premiers may have rounded corner on their walls.

[Kenswing]

Per the Developer's website..

About Our Homes | The Villages

For some reason the link won't copy showing what actual floorplans are considered "Designers". Easy to find on the website though.

[Nonni252]

Quite a learning curve for buyers, isn't there? Thank you all for the valuable info. I received a very detailed street map from AAA today. The map has the following borders: 42 on the North, 44 on the South, 209 on the West and 25 on the East.