On one of my LSV, I was sitting outside at Redsauce watching the Yankees-Rays baseball game having a refreshing drink and a gentle breeze was blowing.
It was a beautiful night to be outside. I was thinking, wow, this is great. Can life can any better than this?

And then the Rays won. :(

So many people I know have "heard" of The Villages, but when they come to visit they are amazed! They ALL say: "I had no idea that it's so beautiful". I think our English friends expected an English village everywhere.....with a pub and a shop and stuff like that.

By mentioning how wonderful outside eating area is at the Lighthouse, I've probably extended my waiting time to over one hour during lunch time. My table is the corner table as one turns the L shaped outside dining area. I also like the outside at R.J. Gators but during lunch hours the area is shaded. We still like the tables outside and watch the comorants steering the boats as we do the happy hour drinks.:icon_wink:

bump

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I was told they are anhingas, so that's what I tell our visitors. Are they cormorants or anhingas? I want to get it right.

I am a high school band director in Indiana. Last April, I took 100 high school band members on a 22 hour bus ride to perform in Disney World. On the way down, our bus driver mentioned that we were near where he had his retirement home. Five days later we were on our way home with the same bus driver. I asked him about his retirement home and he went on and on about this wonderful place called The Villages.

When I got back home, I went on line to check it out. My wife and I were going on a cruise out of Tampa, so I signed up for a 4 day lifestyle preview before the cruise. Before we left home, my wife insisted that we leave our checkbooks at home. She insisted that "We are not going to buy anything!" After 2 days of drinking the kool-aid we were hooked! Our wonderful realtor, Sarah Godleski, found us the perfect CYV in Tamarind Grove. We put the initial deposit down on the spot with our credit card. We agreed to wire the remainder of the deposit by the following Friday.

Unfortunately, we boarded the cruise ship on January 2nd. We had no access to our bank accounts! I called our local bank from the cruise ship and they were understandably very skeptical about wiring a large sum of money to a bank in Florida from a cruise ship! When I explained our predicament to the Royal Cribbean crew, they gave us full access to the fax machine and all business services on the ship. I don't know how we did it, but we wound up buying our CYV from a cruise ship in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico!

We are closing by mail on Monday, January 30th, and we are flying down to take possession on February 10th. We can't wait! We plan to spend all my school vacations in TV until I retire in 2 years. It is better than a cruise!

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the bus driver. He drives for Lamers Bus lines and also owns his own airplane. If anyone knows who this is, please send me a private message so I can thank him!

Tom Budzinski

Great story. RC does treat you like royalty. Probably figured that, if you were rich enough to buy a retirement home while on board, that you'll probably cruise again with them. They know their market.

Love this thread! Here's my story. Hubby and I were increasingly bit*****ing about the winter in NEPA (northeast PA) and neighbor would join in whenever she visited. Moving to FL was always mentioned. So one day the neighbor, hereafter known as Sandy, came over and we all started in except this time Sandy mentions this place called The Villages, that she heard about from a customer. I googled it and it seemed pretty nice, so on our next Disney vacation, hubby, daughter and I drove up to take a look. Wow! Took the trolley ride and had a sales person show us model homes. Very, impressed. Now, on the same trip, we also decided to go to Sarasota, another area of interest. Wow! Loved Sarasota too! Now we are somewhat undecided until hubby starts talking to a guy on the beach who lived in the Villages. He went on and on about the lifestyle, the cost of living, going on vacations and coming home to a vacation every day. So it's decided and the waiting begins. We do a LSV and love the place even more. Daughter graduates from college and decides to look for a job near the community where mom and dad are going to end up. She gets a great job, finds an apartment in Lady Lake and starts living the FL lifestyle. We visit but the waiting keeps getting harder. On the last visit we buy a beautiful lot. We expect to wait a year before being able to build but I'm offered an early retirement incentive! The house up north sells and The Villages offers a 4% incentive. Long story short, we signed the final paperwork on Friday, construction starts Feb 7 and closing is April 12. Thanks to that 4% we are able to build our dream home with all the upgrades we had hoped for! Living in Lady Lake now but can't wait for April 12 to become official Villagers!

Good for you, Lynnelf! Don't ya just love it when a plan comes together??!!

Bill :)

Hey Tom, I was also a band director in Indiana. I taught at North Harrison High School in Harrison County for 20 years. Just retired to TV in December 2011. Live in St. James area. Welcome to the greatest place on earth.

Gary

This is a follow up on the posting I did 1-18-2012. Yes, I did buy and will be moving in and becoming a "Frog" on or about March 1, 2012. I am currently a residential real estate appraiser in Southwest Florida. I have been in all the PUD's and communities in a 5 county area in SW FL many times. But, there is no other place like The Villages.

Oh, by the way, my company name is Appraisals in Paradise, Inc. and I think it will be very appropriate for my new location in The Villages. I plan on being active on a limited basis so that I do not upset the folks regarding my social security benefit that I should be receiving.

:clap2:

Everybody who lives here has a similar story!

Friends bought a patio villa here and became snowbirds. The Villages was all they talked about (we're from Chicago area). They kept bugging us to come down and see what it's like. We finally DID, just to get them to stop bugging us!

I didn't expect much and my husband was downright NEGATIVE. Told me to sit up front w/our real estate guy, he was gonna sit in back and take a nap. We began our tour. 5 minutes in, I looked back and he had one eye open, looking around. Another 5 minutes and both eyes are open. Next his arms are on the back of the front seats and he's REALLY looking now! Next thing out of his mouth is, "Show me the homes I can afford!" LOL!

This was March 2007. We purchased in July 2007 and moved in March 2008. We still can't thank our friends enough for bugging us until we finally came to see for ourselves. Nobody "gets it" until they see it in person. It's as much an attitude as it is a lifestyle/place.

What convinced us? What didn't!!?? The beauty, the cleanliness, the safety, the amenities, everyone we saw was friendly/happy. It seemed too good to be true. I must say, this is the one and only time in my life where something that seemed too good to be real, turns out to be pretty much as wonderful as it seems. Compared to any other place on earth, there is VERY LITTLE to complain about living in our community. NO place is PERFECT, but The Villages is about as close as you'll ever come to perfection in a place to live! WE LOVE IT!:a040:

Yes, I do Bill! Our plan was 5 years in the making. It's hard to believe that it's finally all coming together!:)

Everything just fell into place, didn't it?!!! When that happens I always say it was meant to be!!! Enjoy your life in The Villages. April will be here before you know it!