[Bella]

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading our way
Coming to THE VILLAGES in 18 days
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Which brings me to my question - we are very serious about buying a home when we are there (hopefully something will pop out at us!!!!)...Hubby will not be retiring for another 12 to 15 months and the house would be empty for this period of time as we probably will not get much of a chance to head down...Should this be a problem and what should we do to make sure everything is OK during this period of WISHING AND HOPING that the time will fly by...

I know we will have to hire a lawn service and probably one of those house check services, but don't know about...

things like...
1. do we keep the air on
2. do we keep the water heater on or off
3. things I haven't thought of???????

Comments would be appreciated....YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!!!

[Skip]

DON'T let the sales people pressure you into buying a NEW home. They are still pulling the "we only have a few hours before I have to give it up to another sales agent" BS. They will push new homes always, so take your time and go out to all the open houses you can find offered by ANY real estate firm. You'll have to dig through all the listings because The Daily Sun stopped "Houses Open For Inspection" section. Always add the total new bond to the price of the new house when comparing it to a resale. For resale figure your NEGOTIATED cost plus remaining bond principle (if there is any left) also considering any major upgrades the former owner added. Taxes vary by county location too. Sumter is the lowest and trending down in the last 4 years.

There are tons of houses here and this winter is being predicted as the slowest sales in many years. By March the $20,000 incentives we were seeing, will be up to $30,000 if sales are slow.

Yes, you will need:
Lawn Care (once a week)
Lawn Irrigation checked
Home Check Service (make sure they run water down every drain)
Saran wrap your toilets
AC must be left on to prevent mold accumulation
(82 degrees is about right)
Water heater can be left off.

Welcome Snow White!

Skip

[golfnut]

We had a humidistat installed to regulate the humidity inside the home when we are gone in the summer, we also turn off the house water and water heater. A house service can advise you of anything else that needs to be done. Good luck finding your dream home!

[Skip]

Originally Posted by golfnut

We had a humidistat installed to regulate the humidity inside the home when we are gone in the summer, we also turn off the house water and water heater. A house service can advise you of anything else that needs to be done. Good luck finding your dream home!

With the house water turned off, how do you keep water in the drain traps so roaches don't overtake your abode?

Yes, humidistat is a great idea. So is a wireless whole house intrusion/fire/flood alarm system. You can do it yourself.

Skip

[Bella]

Goodness, I am so glad I asked - didn't even think about these other things... We have pretty much decided that our main focus is going to be on preowned - I am being very proactive in looking at listings and will contact a realtor about a week out...
Of course we will also be looking at new construction.
We are not easily swayed, especially me...sometimes frustrates the other half...

[Skip]

Forget about contacting a Realtor™. They can NOT show you or help you buy any house listed with The Properties of The Villages. They can only show you MLS listings in TV (of which I'm guessing is only about 5-10% of the homes for sale here). Best thing to do is go to every open house in your price range (dozens per day), narrow down what Villages and floor plans you'd like to live in and then, go up and down every street looking for For Sale signs (even FSBO). South of CR 466, you won't see them on lawns, you have to look closely in the windows. The developer stopped the lawn variety of For Sale signs years ago by making it a deed restriction. You'll have hundreds of homes to choose from. Eventually, you'll find the perfect house.

Have you taken a LifeStyle Preview visit yet? It's worth it.

Skip

[Bella]

We plan on doing all 3 - have the TV realtor show us new and preowned, an outside realtor because we will need one to look inside some of the homes that I already have in mind to look at and ride around and look ourselves - we have an idea where we want to be, but that could change when we really start riding around. We were at TV in April on the ''Lifestyle", - spent a day with the TV realtor, looked around some, and played some...Only had 3 days that time...

[Skip]

That's the way to do it! Use all three resources, yourself included.

Skip

[jjdees]

Skip, where do you live?

[another Linda]

Coming to THE VILLAGES in 18 days

Lucky you!

[Skip]

Originally Posted by jjdees

Skip, where do you live?

Right here and for a long time.

Skip

[PJ]

Saran wrap your toilets?? Please explain, I'd like to know what that's about.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by PJ

Saran wrap your toilets?? Please explain, I'd like to know what that's about.

Sure - Leave your toilets alone for about 3 months and the air conditioner sucks all the water out of the bowl until it's empty and the trap no longer has a "seal". Sewer gases enter your home and great big Palmetto Bugs (known by a different name in big cities up north) crawl out and invade your house.

Simple solution. Have someone flush the toilet every two weeks or lift the seat and put plastic wrap over the porcelain bowl - makes it (almost) air tight.

I know, everyone thinks this is a joke. :

Skip

[PJ]

Thanks very much, I never knew that.

Is this true for the trap in a bathtub drain if it dries up? I have a tub in the guest BR that is rarely used. Haven't seen any bugs there, or anywhere, though.

[chuckinca]

Originally Posted by Skip

With the house water turned off, how do you keep water in the drain traps so roaches don't overtake your abode?

Yes, humidistat is a great idea. So is a wireless whole house intrusion/fire/flood alarm system. You can do it yourself.

Skip

Skip:

Even with water main valve open how do you get water into the traps when you are gone?

Do you have trap primers in your house? And if you do (they are mostly used in commercial and industrial buildings) they normally activate when water is run on an appliance on the same branch line - how do you get them to activate?

Only way I know is like you mentioned - have someone come in the house and run water in every drain to fill up their traps. I would think that once a month or so would be fine. Our house is empty 11 months a year but we have relatives check on it at least monthly and have had no problems (never told them to fill the traps tho - will have to do that)

How do you put Saran Wrap over the other drains, Bathroom lavs, kitchen sink, laundry sink, etc? They drain to the same line as the toilets.