[Gulfcoast]

Originally Posted by KRM0614

I did not know I was given the quick rush and wish I had rented them I would have never bought here. Problems with the house trying to get person show up for mowing. If you are alive especially a woman there is nothing for you. I’m also not elderly and never hung out with women. Biggest mistake I made and costly

I'm sorry that you felt rushed into buying but I am genuinely surprised that you aren't finding things to do in TV. I'm a woman and from what I have seen I could easily fill a day with all sorts of activities - clubs, classes, the swimming pool, fitness center, walking paths, shopping....my husband and I have a lot in common and I adore him but we also have different interests and the wide variety of activities in TV is very appealing to me. TV is also within a reasonable drive of Anna Maria Island and Clearwater Beach for easy weekend getaways. I'm just not seeing the downside of being there.

If you are more of a homebody who is not really there for the activities then I can see how TV would not be your cup of tea. I'm actually a bit of an introvert, myself, but I still like getting out and doing things. I'm not a cliquish person but I'm also not especially bothered by cliques if that makes sense. Give me a good friend or two to go shopping and have lunch with - I'm happy.

[bp243]

Just a thought if you're looking for a home and are unsure where to even begin. Sign in to Zillow.com, select your housing desires (location, price, pool, reserve, golf course, etc) and Zillow will send you daily choices of the homes that fall in your parameters. Another option is to contact Chris and Lynn Bartlett , Re Max Realtors. They will send you regular updates of places for sale that meet your parameters. After a few months of looking in both places, Chris came up with the perfect home and negotiated the deal to our satisfaction. He handled all of the issues with precision!

[celiarw]

We didn't rent first. We visited, then went north and watched for homes in our price range to come on the market. There were quite a few in October of 2014, so we came down one weekend & bought! We still love our decision - we have an inground pool on a busy street in an older section. Not for everyone, but as many have said there are no bad areas in TV! Welcome home!

[bill_rich@verizon.net]

Definitely rent before you buy. We visited twice with different friends in season of 2018. Then rented off season in fall of 2018 & again in Spring of 2019. We thought we wanted a smaller home with a pool. Found it too small & hardly used the pool. Then rented a designer home without a pool - which fit our needs much better. Bought a designer home “between the sixes” last summer. We are so glad we put our toes in the water before jumping in. Good luck.

[valuemkt]

Two lifestyle visits in 2014 and 2016 made our search easier. We knew we wanted to be between Lake Sumter and Brownwood. So we bought there prior to retirement and mostly rented the house out. By the time we were ready for the permanent move last year, we decided that our lovely designer home was too small, and contracted to build a custom home "below 44". So even with a lot of research, we're on "Number 2" and very happy

[bpascani]

We did, and were glad we did. We have moved many times and, since the first one (before kids) , we have always picked the area that we thought would be best, and rented for a year or so. Now here, kids being grown, we didn't really care what area we were in, as long as it was north of hwy 44. We just wanted to make sure this i where we wanted to be. Since our past rentals have either ended early, with a penalty, (usually rented for 1yr), or, one time, had to be extended, we were fortunate to get a 6 1/2 mo lase down here, with month to month after that, with 60 days notice. After 4 -5 mos., we decided to stay, contracted with 2 agents (1 Village, one MLS) and finally found and moved in early Nov 2019, and out of our rental Early Dec 2019. Many seem to buy on their 1st trip out. We were not those people, but both of our agents were very patient and understanding. Best of luck to you!

[Gulfcoast]

It's interesting to me that so many of you have found that your initial choice in homes was too small to meet your needs. Is that because you found yourself bringing more stuff with you than you initially thought that you would, is it a matter of having more frequent visitors than expected, is it a lack of storage in the TV homes, are the actual room sizes/closets tiny compared to the home that you moved from?

Right now, I am thinking of bringing the bare minimum, probably buying all new furniture and having a fenced in yard that is as maintenance free as possible while still giving my dogs some grass to do their bizness on. I'm wondering if I'm vastly underestimating the amount of yard equipment and workshop tools that we would need to bring. Obviously, we will still have a house to maintain and a yard to keep up even if it is smaller than the home we own now.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

As a wise man once said, You dont know what you dont know.

I don't know that wise man.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Gulfcoast

It's interesting to me that so many of you have found that your initial choice in homes was too small to meet your needs. Is that because you found yourself bringing more stuff with you than you initially thought that you would, is it a matter of having more frequent visitors than expected, is it a lack of storage in the TV homes, are the actual room sizes/closets tiny compared to the home that you moved from?

Right now, I am thinking of bringing the bare minimum, probably buying all new furniture and having a fenced in yard that is as maintenance free as possible while still giving my dogs some grass to do their bizness on. I'm wondering if I'm vastly underestimating the amount of yard equipment and workshop tools that we would need to bring. Obviously, we will still have a house to maintain and a yard to keep up even if it is smaller than the home we own now.

In our case lack of storage. Garage here is considerably smaller than the garage where we came from so we lost a lot of storage space.

Also came from 3200 sq ft to 2000 sq ft and from 4 bedrooms to 3.

To gain space back we are in the process of converting our lanai to Florida room

[clwahlstrom]

We rented one year for one month and the next for three months before we decided to sell our home in California. When we rented for three months, we got a better idea of the areas that we liked. And bought accordingly. We actually decided to move before we even sold our house in California

[clwahlstrom]

We sold mostly everything prior to moving, and just had a small pod take it out and stored it for a couple months before we actually moved here

[Gulfcoast]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

In our case lack of storage. Garage here is considerably smaller than the garage where we came from so we lost a lot of storage space.

Also came from 3200 sq ft to 2000 sq ft and from 4 bedrooms to 3.

To gain space back we are in the process of converting our lanai to Florida room

I think that one of the biggest shocks about moving to Florida from our house up north was the loss of a basement. All of the stuff that was on the unfinished side of our basement got put out in the garage. Mentally, I knew that this was going to be the case and, thankfully, we picked a model with a 3 car garage because by the time we put the workshop and yard tools, holiday decorations, lawn tractor, lawn mower, bicycles, etc in that garage we could only fit one car inside comfortably although we could squeeze 2 in if we're expecting a bad storm/hail.

The idea of having to pare it all down to fit into a one or two car garage seems sort of daunting. We have lots of camping equipment, fishing and beach gear in addition to the yard and household tools plus holiday decorations. The one thing we definitely won't need to bring to TV is our lawn tractor.

From an interior standpoint (bedrooms/kitchen/baths/living areas) I think we'll be good. It's the danged storage areas/garage that will cause us issues when it comes to downsizing.

[condomom22]

My plan was to rent for 6 - 12 months, unpacking only what we needed and kept all other boxes in the garage. I wanted to make sure TV was the right place for us. I went to many open houses to determine what models would would work for us and recorded the positives and negatives of each model. I also found out I could survive the summer weather here. So I bought a home just before the 6 months was up. I recommend it if you can handle making two moves.

[rmd2]

Before I bought I rented in 3 different places for about 1 1/2 years. Renting was my best decision. It gave me enough time to find out what I wanted to do and where I spent most of my time. When I decided to buy I bought a home near 466. Still my best decision. I love this location! Also I initially thought I wanted a 2/2 villa but after trying it out found I wanted a 3 bedroom/2 bath/2 car garage.

[Bonawitzk]

I rented first as well until I found the area that I liked the most. Then bought. While I await to move to TVs full-time, my home is available to rent starting mid-Jan 2021. 2 bed/2 bath. Waterfront view. Call or text me @ 717-856-3427 for details. No smoking/no pets.