So, you can hear your neighbor through the bathroom fan vent? I'm in CYV and this horrifies me! Lol I don't whisper while indoors as I never thought it would be an issue. I've never heard our neighbor through our vent?

Yikes! After reading the comments about hearing neighbors thru the vent, etc, am definitely re-thinking the villa option as that was the one thing I wondered about, whether or not the closeness of the villas, and the tendency of the concrete walls to amplify sound, would be problematic. Thanks everyone for their replies.

Well, after reading about the noise/voices travelling, my DH and I did an experiment today. I have a Stoneybrook model and our Master bedroom and bath are near the wall dividing our yard with the neighbors yard. (We are on a large corner lot, but have a neighbor fairly close on that one side).

I had my husband sing loudly in the bedroom and in the bath, and I could hear nothing when outside. Then we did the opposite, and I could not hear him when outside talking loudly, while I was inside.

The only thing we ever hear is our neighbor if we are out back and she is out in her backyard talking to someone. Not enough to hear what is being said.

We LOVE our Villa. Low maintenance yard and privacy on three sides!

Have lived in 2 CYVs over nearly 7 yrs. Have never experienced any noise issues. Only thing we hear is our next door neighbors motorcycle start up(love it) and the garbage truck.

I visited one of the Courtyard villas open house at Sumter Landing and the agent said none of the appliances had been replaced. The house came furnished but not turn key no dishes towels ect..

Thanks for sharing your "experiment". Perhaps the noise varies as to the materials used in the villa walls? I notice some alls are concrete, and some are just a thin plastic. We will continue to research this well before we consider a purchase.

HOA for Courtyard Villa's
 

After 15 years The Villages turns over keeping the wall around the villas to homeowners in the villas. If someone runs into the wall your village is responsible for the repair! You have to get registered with the state. Have HOA election meetings. Maintain the wall with power washing/ paint if it's a block stucco. (ours is) Get people to hold office. (big challenge in our neighborhood) only a hand full of people are willing to do this. Going on 4 years now. We didn't know this at closing. I love my home only the extra stress isn't fun!

Does anyone know a company who could take this over and not charge an arm & a leg? Our dues are currently $100 per yer per home. We have 75 homes.

Thin Plastic??

I never hear any noise from anywhere and Im 3 in in walking distance to Spanish Springs..I love the Courtyard Villa!!!! Great for dogs! they don't bark if you put bark collars on!

Never had any problem with neighbors to the sides due to 1) the fence and 2) the lanai's/yards orientations.
In fact, I've got a half busted water pump on my spa and it whines pretty noisily to me, but I really can't hear it from my neighbor's yard.

Villa was then and is now still the best choice in our opinion.

My husband and I owned a courtyard villa in Mission Hills and loved it. The villas in there are block and stucco (noise was never an issue), our home like most of the homes in Mission Hills was stretched an extra 200 square feet, Mission Hills has its own pool, the homeowners in Mission Hills were fantastic and it was a very active village. We were fortunate to have a corner lot and were able to expand it. We owned our villa for two years and decided to sell because the homes went up so much in value compared to other homes. We were able to sell without a realtor and even after factoring in cost, upgrades that we did and came out with enough money to purchase a spec Gardenia and have a large pool built for less than what our courtyard villa sold for. Don't know if that can happen in today's Villages market, but, purchase wisely. Every home that we purchase has to be sold eventually.

This post is probably one of the best pieces of advice. There are of course others as well.

Courtyard Villas are terrific, Mission Hills is very nice along with other areas.

I do think though that you have had loads of sound advice on this subject.

I think in all honesty...It's make your mind up time. :plane:

I think it depens on your neighbors. If you buy an exiating home you might be able to talk to your neighbors and see how they use the court yards.

didn't know that!
 

I didn't know that about the walls:BigApplause::BigApplause: