[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by Lynnelf

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!

Lynnelf, It was your destiny to become a Villager. Congratulations and may your home construction, closing and move in go smoothly. It's nice that you are just a hop, skip and jump from TV so that you can watch your new home going up!

[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by KYWildcat

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.

KYWildcat, Woo Hoo! In 31 days you will be a Villager. Congratulations. Hope your closing and move in go smoothly.

[tomjbud]

Originally Posted by gcrisp

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

Gary,

I am the band director in Mishawaka, Indiana. This is my 35th year there. Two more years until I retire. My wife and I will be coming down for the first week of April during spring break. Our Villa is in Tamarind Grove, so we are neighbors!

Hope to meet you soon!

Tom

[KYWildcat]

Originally Posted by Schaumburger

KYWildcat, Woo Hoo! In 31 days you will be a Villager. Congratulations. Hope your closing and move in go smoothly.

Shaumburger,
Thank you so much for the kind comments!

[gcrisp]

Originally Posted by tomjbud

Gary,

I am the band director in Mishawaka, Indiana. This is my 35th year there. Two more years until I retire. My wife and I will be coming down for the first week of April during spring break. Our Villa is in Tamarind Grove, so we are neighbors!

Hope to meet you soon!

Tom

Hope to see you in April. I don't miss the Indiana snows!!! Have a great remaining school year.

Gary
gacrisp47@gmail.com

[2BNTV]

I just wanted to thank "Keithwand" for inspiring this thread.

[angiefox10]

Originally Posted by 2BNTV

I just wanted to thank "Keithwand" for inspiring this thread.

I was just reading his comments on another thread and thinking of this post!

We were all reading his threads leading up the the "WOW" factor and waiting for it!!! *laughing* It's always fun to watch and read when someone gets to see what the big "fuss" is about!

[2BNTV]

Originally Posted by angiefox10

I was just reading his comments on another thread and thinking of this post!

We were all reading his threads leading up the the "WOW" factor and waiting for it!!! *laughing* It's always fun to watch and read when someone gets to see what the big "fuss" is about!

AngieFox;

You are a smart lady.

I hope you get done moving in so you can fully enjoy frogdom.

[Carmpat]

Our friends told us about The Villages and I started to do all the research myself. I fell in love with all the information they provided to us. Glen kept telling us living in The Villages was like living an adult Disney World so that got our attention right away. Last December we came out with them as they were having their closing. We saw many models and our real estate agent, Wesley took us around. At that point, I knew in my mind we were going to purchase a lot. We bumped into other folks who kept telling us don't wait until there is nothing left to buy. The right thing to do was to sell our house first, then go back to Fl and buy a lot. Of course, we didn't do it that way. We bought a lot on our first trip to TV. We hope to put our house up for sale in about 2 weeks and pray it sells fast so we can begin building on our land.

[angiefox10]

Originally Posted by Carmpat

Our friends told us about The Villages and I started to do all the research myself. I fell in love with all the information they provided to us. Glen kept telling us living in The Villages was like living an adult Disney World so that got our attention right away. Last December we came out with them as they were having their closing. We saw many models and our real estate agent, Wesley took us around. At that point, I knew in my mind we were going to purchase a lot. We bumped into other folks who kept telling us don't wait until there is nothing left to buy. The right thing to do was to sell our house first, then go back to Fl and buy a lot. Of course, we didn't do it that way. We bought a lot on our first trip to TV. We hope to put our house up for sale in about 2 weeks and pray it sells fast so we can begin building on our land.

Of course you didn't do it that way... None of us do!!!

[Finallyfree]

Boy, I have been reading these comments and laughing, sniffing, and thinking yep, yep!

Several years ago friends told us about the villages. "Disney for adults" they said. We thought nothing can be that good, it had to be a one time shot. Finally in February 2011 I had to go to Miami for work, talked my husband (who was already retired) into coming with me and driving down from Smyrna, GA. First we went to Tampa to visit friends and check out retirement communities near the water, didnt like anything. Next went to Miami, I worked we talked about the negatives of Florida; noseeums, hurricanes, heat, etc. decided for the heck of it to go home up 75 and as we saw signs thought, Eddy loved it maybe we should just stop by. We spent one afternoon with our agent, Ron Delk, and spent the evening on the square. LOVED IT!

A few months later we booked a LSV for September, meanwhile we kept looking. We went to Hilton Head and left there telling our friends, we will be neighbors when I finally retired. I ALMOST ASKED MY HUSBAND TO CANCEL THE LSV. Decided heck, it would be a nice mini vacation. You all know the rest. We wanted a lake lot so we would have to wait for it.

We got the call on 11/30 while we were in the hospital room with our newest granddaughter being born. Explained to our daughter we had to get home to make decisions. It was too hard, with too many concessions, even Ron said when it is this hard it is not right. We were miserable.

January 5th we got another call, we took the lot, listed our home January 10th, got a contract on 2/5, close on march 30 and move into a rental in Duvall on April 1 while our house is being built. We can't believe how easy it went this time. Ron was right, everything just fell into place. See y'all on April 1.

[keithwand]

No one was more negative to 55+ communities in general more than my wife and I based on our experiences of my parents being in Sun City. Not for us we thought.

We could not believe it when our friends said they were renting for a month in January 2012 and asked us to visit. What were they thinking by renting in TV?

We visited for 2 nights and 3 days; met friends of theirs for brunch; visited the clubs and rec centers and were BLOWN AWAY.

We came back in Feb. on the LSV and purchased a lot to build on.

March 2012 (last week) picked out everything for our house and the closing date is 6/26/2012.

Up and until our visit 3 months ago we had no idea we would be moving to TV.

Hows that for visitng and drinking the "koolaid" everyonr talks about?

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Originally Posted by keithwand

...............Hows that for visitng and drinking the "koolaid" everyonr talks about?

Anotehr resicual eeffect of drukning the koolaidd is yu strat slurring youre typing!!!



Bill