[iaudit]

I have a closing on a place in the Villages next week and have a couple of questions.

1. Is it necessary to sign up with thevillages.net (for $5.50 per month) in order to use the golf reservations system? I read where there is a phone system, is it hard to use?

2. Is there any consensus on what is the best type of golf car to buy? Electric or gas? New or used? Yamaha, Club Car, EZ go, etc? Where are the best deals at?

3. Are there any lawn services, pest control companies, etc. to avoid? Overpriced, lousy job, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Talk Host]

You pose some good questions.

It is my understanding that the on line golf tee time service does cost $5.50 per month. I have it but the fee was waived as a grandfather from the original Villages clear link contract.

I have an electric Par Car golf cart. I like it very much. There is lots of discussion about this issue. I like my electric and can get up to 50-75 miles on one charge. I had a gas yamaha but sold it. It was a good cart, but I like the electric better.

Lawn service and pest control to stay away from? Lots of them. The best thing to do is ask here with specific names when the time comes. We use Massey pest and like them very much. Our lawn guy is one of 10,000 in the villages. It's trial and error.

[JohnZ]

We just switched from Showtime landscape to JJJ out of Wildwood. So far so good. Showtime started-out ok, but after a year the quality of work went down hill. The jury is still on on JJJ.

[dandt]

A friend of mine cannot use his computer to make golf reservations because he does not have Comcast, he told me. He can, however, make reservations by phone -- which is said NOT to be difficult.

[swrinfla]

Dandt:
Back in February, my brother-in-law and his wife visited. They're the only true non-Villages golfers I know, so I had to get them a chance to play. As a complete non-golfer myself, I was most pleased with the ease of the phone system for this one-time shot. I did review how to do it with a booklet from the folks on Wedgewood Lane and from the appropriate pages in The Villages phone book, ahead of time. I hear "horror" stories from people who want to play every day, or nearly so, but my experience was very good!

[GERALDINE]

Originally Posted by iaudit

I have a closing on a place in the Villages next week and have a couple of questions.

1. Is it necessary to sign up with thevillages.net (for $5.50 per month) in order to use the golf reservations system? I read where there is a phone system, is it hard to use?

2. Is there any consensus on what is the best type of golf car to buy? Electric or gas? New or used? Yamaha, Club Car, EZ go, etc? Where are the best deals at?

3. Are there any lawn services, pest control companies, etc. to avoid? Overpriced, lousy job, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help.

1.) If you get Comcast (which is expensive) thevillages.net is INCLUDED in the price...however they do NOT tell you this. We signed up for villages.net THEN found out we had it in our Comcast and went to villages.net and got a refund.

2.) We have a pre-owned gas Yamaha and LOVE it. Only problem is that all of our neighbors have electric carts of various manufacturers and need to "borrow" our cart a lot...or ride along on a golf outing...when their electric carts won't work or QUIT on the way home!! The dealers do NOT tell you the truth about electric carts. At least once a week I see a cart repair truck/van at one of my neighbor's houses!!!

3.) There are only about 10,000 of each ...You do have to be careful though...there are some really unscrupulous people out there doing business. One landscaper to stay away from is "Guardian". He may have changed the name of his company but his name is Jason, he's young, suave, quick talking, has a glass eye...and is totally unscrupulous!!!! :edit:

[Sandy222]

This is the first time I've heard about theVillages.net being included in Comcast.

We have been paying both. We will be giving them a call Monday for sure.

Thanks for the info.

[Talk Host]

You learn all kinds of things on Talk of The Villages!!! :2cool:

[REDCART]

Since iaudit had a closing in April, the article titled "Shoddy Siding Vigilante Targets Villages Contractors" in the The Reporter on the Web http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../1131/REPORTER may be of particular interest to them. My sister commented that the problem was noticed in Duval and she thought that it might be limited to that one village. My take on things is that the vinyl contractors who sided homes in Duval probably did all of the homes South of 466 as well and if they've installed siding improperly in Duval, they've probably did it incorrectly on thousands of homes. Something else to think about.

[iaudit]

After our closing by mail in April, we flew down and stayed for about five days. One of the things that I looked at was the siding and it appeared to by alright, although it has only been up for about a year. i have some more questions for everyone:

1. Is it necessary to have a lawn service put pesticides on the the lawn? Are there certain type of lawn pests that are prevalent in Florida?

2. For anyone that commutes up north on a regular basis - Do you feel the shuttle service to Orlando is worthwhile or is there another alternative? For my wife and I it would be $120 for a round trip shuttle to the airport.

3. For any of the snowbirds - when you leave your house for an extended period of time - how do you set the air conditioner? I read where it is alright to use a timer thermostat and run the air conditioners for only a couple of hours a day to remove the humidity instead of running it all the time at a high (84 degrees or so) setting. I also read where running it off a humidistat is not that energy efficient as a timer. Any comments?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[LindaManson]

Not all the homes south of 466 were sided by the same sub contractors. That covers a lot of territory. Many homes are fine. You need to have each home checked out but so far we were told ours was ok with just a cursory look but we still plan to have it inspected since we do live in Duval.