Like you said - To Each Their Own!
 

Welcome to TOTV and for voicing your opinions. :ho: But, don't think that most of us didn't consider other retirement communities before deciding on TV.

We are 7 years into our journey, and we are buying a resale, with the bond paid, a pool (fully enclosed by a birdcage) and mature oak trees in the front and side. There are some downsides to our choice, but it's what we want!

Those who have regrets may not have checked into everything before buying. Example: At first, we thought the individual villages were fully gated, but learned different after doing more homework and research. I don't think there will be any more surprises, thanks to all the information available on TOTV, talking to visitors and residents in person during our 9 visits. If there are, we will deal with it. Like most people who bought at TV. . .it's for us!

We have heard horrendous horror stories about other retirement communities. Example: A gentleman at our golf course here in Montgomery told me he bought a villa ($230,000) in a community around Orlando/Disneyworld thinking the kids and grandkids would be visiting often. After 3 years, it turned out they only visited once. With the fees, etc. he was paying, they decided to sell. Sold it for $75,000.

All retirement communities may not be as extreme as my example, but the point is most of us have checked into other communities. Considering everything, TV is it for us - case closed! :pepper2:

We have met people who live in a retirement community in Leesburg. It's great for them and they visit TV occasionally. But we also talked to a couple at the square in SS several years ago that bought just North of TV. But found they were coming to TV a lot more than they imagined and they regret their decision not to have bought in TV.

SO. . . "to each their own"! Each of us has our unique situations and decide on a retirement location that fits our budget, our interests and our needs.

This is "Talk of The Villages". There is more information here to help you decide if TV is for you. If it's not for you. . . then come visit us anytime! We'll welcome you with open arms. :beer3:

Good luck on your journey! :thumbup: "You only go around once in life, and this is no dress rehearsal!"

So you realize TV is the GOLD standard, but fail to say why U may leave.

Been there done that, lasted an hour, you're spot on.

We got the same feeling. In some places we felt like we were way to young to be hanging out there.

1800 activities doesn't hurt, along with the strong financial backing of the founding family.

Boy howdy R U right there, I know if I want to sell in the future it can happen due to the demand here.

.

took me all night to read this thread. Bought new and buying a resale so both worlds covered

????
 

Is reality depressing to you?

Not reality.............just opinions.

Spot on, Trish!! Thank you!!

I agree also. Been here knee deep in boxes for a week. Happy as a can be and I haven't even begun to enjoy the place. Well Breakfast today at Bonafay was a nice start.

Looked over at the Wife she was smiling- Were Good!

2 weeks from today we will be knee deep also! Breakfast at anyplace will be a treat on THAT day.
Don & Kaz

Glad to hear ya'll made it OK.

Important opinion for some
 

I don’t go on the TOTV website a lot and only now see this thread from a couple weeks back. It also took me a long long time to read through it. People can buy -- if they decide to buy -- whatever they want related to what they can afford to spend. That’s a given. Whether to buy new or preowned or buy elsewhere, that’s up to the buyer. But -- and this is a big but -- many people come here only having heard about The Villages and go to the sales center for info, right? They get taken on a trolley tour with a driver and a cheerleader to areas of new construction and are led to believe that this is what’s available. Sometimes you can see them rushing out of the trolley to check out a new street for a lot and put their stake in the ground, and from that point on it’s a done deal.

The original poster who started this thread with a long quote from his friend about the negatives of new construction and the positives about buying a resale is offering info--yes even as an opinion -- that too many people could not find anywhere else. Isn’t this why people come to TOTV -- to find info about most anything having to do with TV, whether it’s finding a plumber or a doctor, hearing the opinions of other people about this versus that restaurant, etc? Whether you agree or disagree with what the friend of the poster wrote, just keep in mind that there are potential buyers out there who will find this opinion, even as strongly put as it was, useful -- and who might never hear it anywhere else. No one is obligated to accept it as Gospel. It’s just an opinion!

We came to TV the last week of April 2011 for our first and only LSV. We stayed 7 days at one of the cottages east of the sales office at LSL near the Morse Bridge. We never took a trolly ride. Our salesman Tony Trussler only took us to where we asked to go. I said I wanted to see new CYV's and Cottages. We went to Pennecamp and looked at every model Cottage and every model CYV that was available. After that we were on our own. Two days later I asked Tony if we could see new patio villas. He picked us up and he took us to Buttonwood and we looked at both versions of the patio villa and a couple of furnished models and he drove us around that neighborhood.

Tony is a laid back fellow with a british accent and was probably older than me, mid to late 60's I would guess. He wasn't any cheerleader and didn't try to steer us in any direction or another. We didn't ask to see any resales, those we looked up ourselves and visited them.

We sold our house just a couple of weeks later in May and had to be out by the end of June. Rather than make a second trip, since we decided on a new CYV and we knew the floorplans and communities available, we bought our new home off the internet. We called Tony and gave him a credit card and he put a hold on a new CYV, we closed and moved in July 5, 2011.

We will be visiting the Villages through a LSV before the end of the year. Is a salesperson assigned, or do you know if one can be requested? It would be nice if we could request one with whom someone had a good experience.

Tony was assigned to us when we made our LSV reservation. It was probably the only thing I didn't research. If you read enough good reviews of a salesperson, I don't see why you can't call the '800' number and just ask for them. Unless they are swamped with customers I don't see why they wouldn't take you on.

You can request a specific person as your sales agent. You can contact them directly and have them handle it for you. I was given this info by our sales agent.

Tony and his wife are wonderful. No pressure, and really understood what we were looking for. We came down in 2010 and 2011, then sold our house in 2012 and bought in TV. We picked the neighborhood we wanted, and our forever home was there. Looked brand new inside even though about 5-6 yrs old. We thought that since most have been here since the houses were built here 5-6 yrs ago, it would be clanish. All the neighbors could not have been nicer. We have made so many new friends in 3 months, and we have not even been to the rec centers to join anything yet.

We found the things we thought we had to have - big yard (we left 2 1/2 acres), golf cart garage, birdcage - became unimportant once we settled in and met our "new families". Our choice was made, in part, on location. Wanted to be able to get to Sumter via golf cart in a short time.

I know TV is not for everyone, and my husband was the one in 2010 who said he would never move here, but the following year he started warming up to the idea, and once we got here he was a happy camper.

Oh, and we do not golf - yet. LOL

Yes, it is perfectly OK to request a salesperson by name.

although assigned a realtor, we switched after we ran into someone we really liked at an open house. We had to initiate the contact and TV called to make sure there wasn't a problem. We had no problem with the original realtor and told them so, but like everything in life sometimes you like someone's personality or particular expertise. Everyone from TV was outstanding in their service and information.

Back to the original post many pages ago, there are pros and cons of buying new or a resale. We are all different, all have different budgets and wants which makes the world a much more interesting place than if we all had the same opinion.

you also get the older roof, the older HVAC and appliances, and the lack of sidewalks and infrastructure that's found on the south end. We looked at both, and for the CBS place we got (and we do prefer CBS over frame), we're very happy with a new villa.

IMHO

Just saw a designer list built in '09, asking I think 220K, the extras listed were worth perhaps 5K, a new one built to today's building code with the new home one year warrentee and you can get full sinkhole is 185K.

Makes no sense to me, they paid less in '09 on the base cost too, I'll just guess 10K.

Where's the value.

The price difference could easily be in the lot premium. Anyone can cherry pick listings and find some that are apparently overpriced. Those that are will either sell for much less than listed.....or won't sell. My experience is that you can GENERALLY find homes that are better values in resales than new, though new may still be anyone's preference for good reasons.

Good point Oldcoach Ed.

It was not a premium lot, I checked that point before hand.

I agree with Trish, I'm also looking to buy in TV...We live in Kissimmee, Fl and we arent fond of our surrounding area but, I keep my thoughts btw hubby and I...Now lets get back on positive track....after all we are growing older and lets start to live whatever time we have!!! Just saying

Hmmmmm?
 

What is your point?? Are you expressing unhappiness, discontent with your choice of living in TV? My hubby and I are actually thinking of maybe buying in presale home due to cash flow, stability of home, established area,etc...basically I want to call my home a home if we need to change out we'll do it on our terms but, I like the concept TV living has.....where we live currently in Kissimmee, Fl doesnt offer TV lifestyle

Preference
 

Agree different strokes for different strokes.....If we all think alot we'd have a boring world and not learn new things

Agree
 

AGREE how sad isnt life becoming shorter???? hmmm:shrug:

Woohooo
 

Glad to see LIFE IS GOOD on your end....this thread is so depressing for a want to be soon to TV...Lynn:spoken:

I had an old boss & mentor who used to say.."There's a rump for every chair". Although he didn't use the word rump! There are certainly many, many choices out there for people when they are looking for a retirement community. My father's mother & dad lived out the last years of their lives at the lifecare community called Shell Point Village outside of Fort Myers.

We came this way to be closer to my wife's parents who live at TV in Belvedere. My wife's aunt & uncle also live at TV although I cannot remember which village they are in. I can find it, but I don't remember it's name. My in-laws built their Designer in 2006. My wife's aunt & uncle bought a new one back in 2011. IMHO the "build" of the '06 home was richer than the one built in '11.

When we looked at new homes in TV my wife thought that all of the new homes that we looked at seemed cheap. I didn't entirely agree with her, but hey..there's that happy wife-happy life thing, so I wasn't about rock the boat. So we confined ourselves to looking mostly at the older builds.

One item mentioned in this thread several times was that the new homes qualify for full sinkhole insurance. Our rep at Villages Insurance says that that is only the case "for now". It could all go away in the wink of an eye due to things that they cannot control happening at the state level.

I would think that if what you want in retirement is to be busy throughout your days and you like the hot weather, then buying in TV is a no-brainer. If it's not what you want, then it's probably not for you.

Ultimately we bought in Stonecrest. Why? First, we're not retired and won't be for some time. Second, at this point in our lives we have no interest in "the lifestyle". So there's no point in spending money for things that you are never going to use. And Third, we were less than 10 minutes from my wife's mom & dad. So that worked out well for us. But as I mentioned earlier if you are going to find a place to retire where you don't mind the heat and will find plenty to do there's not much better place to pick than TV.

I agree completely. As many have said, we each have our own needs and desires. But I'm convinced that there are many resales out there, and probably quite a few south of 466 that are better buys than new, and they may be more central as well. I know a number of people that have gotten fantastic deals on re-sales. We live near Lake Sumter south of 466 and the designer next to us sold for about $40,000 less than what they paid for it 6 years ago, and they had about $20,000 in improvements to boot. And you know the bond is about $10,000 less than what new would be. If I was in the market for rental property I would have bought it myself for a rental. And I think that was the aim of the original poster - to point out that if you look around, and don't get caught up in the "fever" of buying new, you can save a lot of money if you look at resales. I also think there are a couple of people on this board that consistently back the Developer, always seem to have the latest information, etc, and I suspect are connected with the Developer in some way. If you're a newbie or wannabe, take everything you read with a grain of salt.

We love our new home and did not consider a resale.
Nothing will/ should need replacing for years vs. a used house.
We picked out all the details we wanted inc. the paint color.
We wanted to be S of 466A to meet new people to TV and it has exceeded our expectations.
No relation to the Morse family (we are from MI) but will gladly accept a check for this endorsement.
Kidding of course; or am I?

You obviously did what was right for you - good for you! Several people have posted that they were equally happy having bought pre-owned - good for them! People generally have a propensity to emotionally and positively, reinforce major decisions. They consider what they want, look around a lot, and finally make a decision. In most cases they are unlikely to second-guess that decision or have remorse. There are a few that have remorse and end up buying something else, or moving away, but they are in the minority. If you are a wannabe cruising this site you will find all kinds of opinions - most positive, but some negative. The Villages is not for everyone thankfully, because there is only going to be room for some 110,000 or so out of many millions of seniors in the U.S. In my opinion, it is a fabulous place for ACTIVE and SOCIAL seniors, and for those people, is like no other. If you are not particularly social or active there are other places with some of the ameneties of TV, but not all, and are somewhat cheaper. NOBODY should decide whether to live anyplace based on opinions they read on a message board, despite their being a lot of good information on here. Come and see what it is about for at least a week, if not more before deciding that this is it. If you are like many of us, you will be hooked, and if not there is probably another place that will suit you better.

:agree: As usual, an intelligent thoughtful post. :smiley: