[LG]

When you buy a new home, you 10% of what you paid for it in NEW furniture from Southern Lifestyles. ( Owned by The Villages of course ) EXAMPLE -- $200,000 home = $20,000 worth of furniture, pictures, decor items,silk plant.

Once that cap of $3,500,000 has been met the deal is done.

[Frangyomory]

We bought several things from Southern Lifestyle when we got here. I must say, they were a bit more pricey than I expected since we had just refurnished our home in Fredericksburg, Va with all oak pieces. We kept a few but the living room had to be Florida style and the bar stools had to have golf fabric and be study with backs on them.

There are lots of choices here from Ocala down to Tavares so you are not limited to SL. However, SL does have some fine pieces. Just look around folks to verify prices and compare. :bigthumbsup:

[gigi22]

Originally Posted by LG

When you buy a new home, you 10% of what you paid for it in NEW furniture from Southern Lifestyles. ( Owned by The Villages of course ) EXAMPLE -- $200,000 home = $20,000 worth of furniture, pictures, decor items,silk plant.

Once that cap of $3,500,000 has been met the deal is done.

Thanks for the info.!! That's a real incentive for buying a new home!

[dars1040]

I too was concerned if I could afford furnishing an entire house when I bought. How long will this deal be going on? Anyone know? Thanks for his forum, you are a godsend, Darlene :-*

[Bubbalarry]

I don't close until 9/10 does that apply for me?

[darbyduff]

That just happened to me. Our sales lady asked if we wanted $29,000 credit or 10,000 off the home. We took the $10,000. But wow!! Things must not be going as fast as I'd heard.

[bamafan]

Hey Bubba let me know if it does apply as I just closed and that was after the deal Darbyduff was offered on her home. I have a feeling that it will not, however TV is going kill themselves and us in the process as everyone is soon going to want a rebate. I personally think they should not be so secretive. A friend of mine once said "You pays your money you takes your chances"

[Bubbalarry]

Originally Posted by LG

When you buy a new home, you 10% of what you paid for it in NEW furniture from Southern Lifestyles. ( Owned by The Villages of course ) EXAMPLE -- $200,000 home = $20,000 worth of furniture, pictures, decor items,silk plant.

Once that cap of $3,500,000 has been met the deal is done.

It would be nice to know where this info actually came from so buyers like me can get our hands on that person and grab some of this discount.

[Autoshow]

For all buyers of new homes.
Bonds to be paid.
If your bond is (lets say) 21000.and you do not pay it off and are told you can pay it in yearly installments,they do
not tell you that you must pay interest on the balance.
Example,It is like taking out a 30 year mortgage for that 21000.
Interest builds and you will find out at the end of the first year that 21000 is reduced only a few dollars.Also you are charged a fee for them doing the paper work.
This is the way it happened to me.
Bond was $6000, paid $500 first year, during 2nd year add interest and bookkeeping fee and it reduced
bond by about $80. Needless to say I was fortunate enough to have the cash to pay off the balance of bond.
As I said earlier it is like taking out a 30 year mortage.

[LG]

Originally Posted by dars1040

I too was concerned if I could afford furnishing an entire house when I bought. How long will this deal be going on? Anyone know? Thanks for his forum, you are a godsend, Darlene :-*

Until they have given $3.5 Millon away

[samhass]

Why is 3.5 mil the magic number?

[patfinn]

I was disappointed to learn that the new deal does not include Villas. I am coming down on 9/21 to look for a Villa and was told by my agent that the Villas are their best sellers and so - no deal

[bimmertl]

We just got back from a 3 day house hunting trip to TV. Spent two days with a Villages sales rep. Looked at both pre owned and new Villages listings. Sales person did not pressure us to buy new versus pre owned. We decided we liked some of the new Premier homes the best. Best price around 468K. Of course this included $46,800 worth of furniture!!

We live in Florida and have furniture so we don't need $46,800 worth of furniture. In addition, the bonds on the new Premier homes are a whopping $47,000!! So we had some concerns.

We spent some time in the Villages Southern Lifestyle furniture store and realized we couldn't even come close to buying $46,800 worth of furniture as it would be more than the house could handle. So the " wonderful" free furniture deal had no appeal. Our sales person seemed fairly confident that "management" would consider a 5% price reduction of the home in lieu of the $46,000 furniture credit.

So we went back to the sales center where a "manager" came in and told us it was take the furniture or nothing. Lovely!! Last time I checked I didn't think the US housing market was that strong.

Fortunately, we were aware that there are other pre owned homes for sale in TV and they are listed by realtors who are not employees of TV. Villages homes are not in the MLS system and homes in the MLS system will not be shown by TV employees. We spent a full day looking at homes listed in the MLS listing service and ultimately ended up buying one of them.

TV has plenty of smiling friendly faces greeting you at their sales center. Their sales personnel know their stuff and are very helpful. Having said that, at the end of the day The Villages entire sales pitch is strictly aimed at their bottom line with little real concern for the buying public. It's their way or no way.

If you spend some time sitting in the sales center you will see people walking in who are in awe of the entire place. Unless they are aware of the fact TV personnel only market their product their options are limited. The friendly greeters have the script down. See the place talk to a sales rep, pay sticker price for a new home and get 10% of the purchase price to spend at our previously failing furniture store which is now getting a pump of 3.5 million in new sales to get it back in the red. They make the money on the house and the furniture. What a deal!!

Well in this instance anyway, it didn't work out the way The Villages had planned!!

[mrgumwood]

keep in mind that tv also owns southern lifestyles so the 46k furniture allowance actually means only 20k or less to them. you did the right thing.

[chuckinca]

Not that it matters in this discussion but: the object is to get out for the red - black is on the plus side of the ledger.

Very interesting post.