[rhart]

I would love to get opinions on which way to go.

[MikeV]

You don't mention if your buying or selling or if you want resale or new. If you are buying and want new you will have to use TV Sales. If you are buying resale you can use any Realtor. If you are selling then you can use whichever you like. I would use TV just because that is their focus.

[Boomer]

If you are buying pre-owned, use both. That keeps all your options open. We ended up buying through the MLS. We were in no hurry, actually not really knowing if we would buy or not, but an extremely professional MLS agent knew what I wanted and found it.

[rhart]

Looking to buy resale. Of course I would look at both but was curious if there was some advantage to one or the other.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by rhart

Looking to buy resale. Of course I would look at both but was curious if there was some advantage to one or the other.

The advantage is findin the right house. Both represent houses the other cant. We used a TV rep, but did look at houses with MLS. Just didn't have what we were looking for

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by rhart

Looking to buy resale. Of course I would look at both but was curious if there was some advantage to one or the other.

Although I know there are many highly professional TV salespeople, be aware that there are some who will try to steer you strictly to the new houses.

I would not be saying this had I not personally heard it.

A few years back, a TV agent implied that I would not have any friends unless I bought new.

Another time, we were out and about one day and decided to stop by a brand new area. The sales guy on duty there actually said to me, "It would be so much better to buy this house instead of one of those overpriced pre-owned."

I did not engage in dialogue with him. We had just bought a lovely, well-maintained Gardenia with upgrades, in the middle part of TV. I knew the TV market pretty well and we were happy with our MLS deal that was fair to both buyer and seller. So I just smiled to myself and thought it was a highly unprofessional, condescending, and just plain stupid thing for him to say. I tend to read between the lines, and beyond, so I had to wonder if this guy had any pre-owned listings and if he was using those Open Houses to steer potential clients to new.

Like I said earlier, use both, but make sure you get a recommendation for a TV agent that sells lots of pre-owned homes and has the kind of numbers that mean they do not have to chase whatever internal reason there may be for steering potentials toward new.

There are posters on here who have bought and sold pre-owned through TV and can recommend someone who knows a sale is a sale and will be completely professional, as I imagine most of them are. I just happened to attract a couple of stinkers I guess.

[graciegirl]

The Villages sales people don't have to SELL you anything. We the people who live here are a marching army of selling tools.


There is no arm twisting and no need to finagle anybody. If you don't want the property, someone will and soon.


Both times we used Jim McLaughlin from The Villages to buy a new home, one was built, one we had built. We sold our home with no realtor and used McLin Burnsed to close. They handled everything perfectly and the buyers and us split the $700 fee.

[Jim 9922]

[QUOTE=Boomer;1159647]Although I know there are many highly professional TV salespeople, be aware that there are some who will try to steer you strictly to the new houses.-------QUOTE"

There is a reason that's the fourth question out of the mouth of almost all TV salespeople. 1. "What's your name?"; 2." Where are you from?"; 3. "Do you live here?"; 4. "Have you seen the new houses?", or "May I show you new houses?"

It is a far simpler sale with probably a much quicker commission. One or two neighborhood choices, the house is as is - take it or leave it, fixed price, no negotiation points, plain vanilla interiors, standard fixtures and appliances, no wild furnishings or decorating schemes to overcome, what you see is what you get, no inspections, immediate occupancy, individual seller personalities and wants are not a factor, houses are available for immediate inspection, the inventory is all in close proximity with minimal driving around, The Villages standard procedures and forms supporting you, the full bond is there for you to assume requiring no further explanation, and special spiffs from time to time to encourage new home sales.
In short it is generally easier to sell one "off the shelf" than an existing home in a neighborhood, both which have real personalities.

[goodtimesintv]

[QUOTE=Jim 9922;1159671]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Although I know there are many highly professional TV salespeople, be aware that there are some who will try to steer you strictly to the new houses.-------QUOTE"

There is a reason that's the fourth question out of the mouth of almost all TV salespeople. 1. "What's your name?"; 2." Where are you from?"; 3. "Do you live here?"; 4. "Have you seen the new houses?", or "May I show you new houses?"

It is a far simpler sale with probably a much quicker commission. One or two neighborhood choices, the house is as is - take it or leave it, fixed price, no negotiation points, plain vanilla interiors, standard fixtures and appliances, no wild furnishings or decorating schemes to overcome, what you see is what you get, no inspections, immediate occupancy, individual seller personalities and wants are not a factor, houses are available for immediate inspection, the inventory is all in close proximity with minimal driving around, The Villages standard procedures and forms supporting you, the full bond is there for you to assume requiring no further explanation, and special spiffs from time to time to encourage new home sales.
In short it is generally easier to sell one "off the shelf" than an existing home in a neighborhood, both which have real personalities.

Far, far off-base. Literally hundreds of Lifestyle Preview Stay people are here for the first time and are not ready to buy. Probably 70% are not even close to being ready to buy.

Sellers of homes listed with TV would be exceedingly aggravated if the sales reps brought 10 preview stay people a day for showings, traipsing thru their homes they cleaned, exited and took their dogs out of, only to find out the shoppers don't know a Premier from a Ranch from a Patio Villa, and "Oh, by the way.....we won't be able to retire until 2019 and we'd have to sell our house of 30 years first". Sellers expect real buyers to come for showings, not dozens of people "just kicking tires".

They are shown new homes to familiarize preview stay people and those just browsing, with the varying floorpans and pricing levels. New homes are empty and a homeowner-seller is not being inconvenienced and led to believe these are people ready to buy.

[rhart]

Boomer's sales person must have had a room temp IQ or thought he did. Pretty shoddy techniques. Both Boomer and Jim make good points. Thank you
I like older over new. More for the dollar and vegetation is way better. Having taken a quick look at $/sq.ft prices of 50-70 or more homes on the market it seems that most FSBO's are priced 20-30% more than TV or realtor priced homes. Greed is good.
Next time in I'll speak with Gracie's guy.

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by Jim 9922

-------

There is a reason that's the fourth question out of the mouth of almost all TV salespeople. 1. "What's your name?"; 2." Where are you from?"; 3. "Do you live here?"; 4. "Have you seen the new houses?", or "May I show you new houses?"

It is a far simpler sale with probably a much quicker commission. One or two neighborhood choices, the house is as is - take it or leave it, fixed price, no negotiation points, plain vanilla interiors, standard fixtures and appliances, no wild furnishings or decorating schemes to overcome, what you see is what you get, no inspections, immediate occupancy, individual seller personalities and wants are not a factor, houses are available for immediate inspection, the inventory is all in close proximity with minimal driving around, The Villages standard procedures and forms supporting you, the full bond is there for you to assume requiring no further explanation, and special spiffs from time to time to encourage new home sales.
In short it is generally easier to sell one "off the shelf" than an existing home in a neighborhood, both which have real personalities.

Actually, Jim, I do understand all that you are saying here in response to my earlier post. And I truly have no problem at all with an agent saying, "May I show you new houses?" That is a perfectly professional question. (I kind of like that word may.)

I just did not like the insidious approach I heard -- trying to create doubt and/or insecurity, tearing down something else. Seemed so lazy and oily.

I am not ripping on TV agents in general. Most are fine I am sure. In fact, before we ended up finally buying through the MLS, I had found a TV agent I really liked. She had a ton of experience and did not get to where she is by being snide. Had she found what I wanted, we would have bought through her. In fact, I think she did ask us that "May I show you" question, but it was not even a blip on my radar because it was done professionally.

What you say here makes perfect sense. I understand completely. I know I tune in to nuance which can be kind of hard to explain sometimes. Maybe I can use this quote.......

.......from Maya Angelou who said, "I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Anyway, thanks for the dialogue. I think we are actually close to being on the same page.

PS: Just to clarify......the guy who was sliding around in his own oil-slick was not our agent. We just happened upon him on duty in an Open House. That was a couple of years ago.

[rhart]

[QUOTE=goodtimesintv;1159680]

Originally Posted by Jim 9922

Far, far off-base. Literally hundreds of Lifestyle Preview Stay people are here for the first time and are not ready to buy. Probably 70% are not even close to being ready to buy.

Sellers of homes listed with TV would be exceedingly aggravated if the sales reps brought 10 preview stay people a day for showings, traipsing thru their homes they cleaned, exited and took their dogs out of, only to find out the shoppers don't know a Premier from a Ranch from a Patio Villa, and "Oh, by the way.....we won't be able to retire until 2019 and we'd have to sell our house of 30 years first". Sellers expect real buyers to come for showings, not dozens of people "just kicking tires".

They are shown new homes to familiarize preview stay people and those just browsing, with the varying floorpans and pricing levels. New homes are empty and a homeowner-seller is not being led to believe these are people ready to buy.

Excellent point. I was there last week and I told the sales person that I need to do more homework before putting anyone out esp. since I won't be buying til next year. Like every thing in life there are good and bad people. Sales of TV are no exception obviously.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by rhart

Looking to buy resale. Of course I would look at both but was curious if there was some advantage to one or the other.

We bought two resale homes, one in 2007 (too small) and the second in 2010.
Both times The Villages salespeople showed us resales with no attempt to switch us to new.
Deb Parks is a very professional, excellent Villages sales rep.

[VApeople]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

If you don't want the property, someone will and soon.

Based on what we see on Zillow.com, it looks like a lot of houses in The Villages are not selling well. We have seen quite a few that have been on the market for six months or more and have undergone multiple price reductions.

[OpusX1]

If you are looking at resale you need both agents. One to look at MLS listings, about 50 percent of the market and the Village Agent to see the other 50 percent. New properties are 100 percent Village Agents.