[misky]

I have been to TV twice within the last 18 months. I do see the prices going down. Is there more motivation by sellers in the summer to sell? I would think that less people are buying in the summer.

Also, I had to meet two different real estate agents on pre-ownes. One for Village property and a regular realtor for other properties in TV. Any advantages in either?

[jeffy]

According to our agent, they sell more houses in the summer. Her rational was that people here in the summer are here to buy. People here in the winter are here to vacation and be look e loos.

I think your best values are in this order:
New homes
Preowned homes by TV
Preowned homes be outside agents

My rational: New homes are extremely affordable right now assuming you like the area where the new home is located and you dont need immediate large landscaping (even taking the bond into account).

If I were going to list my home I would list with an outside agent. They cannot show any new homes. When you compare what you get new vs preowned it is hard to buy preowned. Thus the homes listed by non villages agents seem to be higher priced.

jeffy

[Sidney Lanier]

I would have to disagree based on our experience. As snowbirds we were looking for a preowned Patio Villa; we bought a little over a year ago and ended up with a preowned Designer for minimally more than the Patio Villas we had been looking at. Why? Because the sellers were, in real estate parlance, 'highly motivated.' We bought a house in a great central location and a lovely neighborhood with beautiful landscaping including large fruit-bearing trees, bond fully paid, water purification system and lots more extras installed, plus a garage full of tools and much more left in the house as well as furnished lanai and screened front porch, virtually all closing costs paid by the seller, and have yet to see, even with prices of new construction down so much, anything comparable....

[barb1191]

Have to agree with you, Sidney. The pre-owned home definitely gives you more bang for your buck.

I bought an unfurnished pre-owned home that not only had the best lot on the street, but had many many upgrades that one would have to pay extra for each item on a new home. Also, the ground plantings are just beautiful and no doubt were very costly for which I saved money there. It seemed that at the time I looked at new homes, all of the upgrades/extras cost at least $1,000 each item.

Then of course, the tremendous savings on a pre-owned home if the bond has been paid in full....huge savings!!

Some of the extras/upgrades included in the purchase of my home:

Ceiling fan in every room, including the lanai and garage.
Extra insulation (even the garage door is insulated).
Upgraded appliances.
Plantings on our large lot are a big plus.
shelving built in the garage.
Clothes closets with added shelving.
Solar tubes in kitchen and guest bathroom.
Outside blinds on the window trim.
Garage code entry.
Phone and television outlets in every room, including the kitchen & garage.

These are just "some" of the extras and in some cases, one can buy a pre-owned home totally "turnkey" with all of the furniture and kitchen utensils complete.

Highly recommend "pre-owned."

[jeffy]

Originally Posted by Sidney Lanier

I would have to disagree based on our experience. As snowbirds we were looking for a preowned Patio Villa; we bought a little over a year ago and ended up with a preowned Designer for minimally more than the Patio Villas we had been looking at. Why? Because the sellers were, in real estate parlance, 'highly motivated.' We bought a house in a great central location and a lovely neighborhood with beautiful landscaping including large fruit-bearing trees, bond fully paid, water purification system and lots more extras installed, plus a garage full of tools and much more left in the house as well as furnished lanai and screened front porch, virtually all closing costs paid by the seller, and have yet to see, even with prices of new construction down so much, anything comparable....

I keep hearing others say that they thought that the value in the preowned was better , but that certainly was not our experience. We just settled last month on a brand new Wisteria in Bonita for the in-laws. I used to be in real estate , both as an agent and as a investor. I track the market pretty close down here. We got the Wisteria for 183000 with a 20k bond (every single closing cost was covered by TV) . We looked at many preowned both with the villages and outside agents. We saw nothing that could come close.

Of course if the preowned homes that we looked at ended up accepting 25k less than they were asking , then that is a different story. I am going by the listing price.

misky, I would try and track the homes for sale on realtor.com and thevillages.com. You can get more info on a particular home by looking it up on www.propertyappraiser.com (year built, how much the current owner paid, a ground sketch of the home, tax info, a plat of the home and surrounding areas, what other homes in the neighborhood have sold for, etc) Realtor Sally Love also has a good website with one of the topics, 20 Latest Price Reductions in TV. Her web is sallylovesells.com

Today, I just golfed with a neighbor that works for the villages in constructiion. He says they have laid off several builders and are dropping to 50 new homes a month. He says they have about 750 new homes in inventory.

jeffy

[TomW]

If they have 750 new homes in inventory, I wonder why less than 200 show up on their web site??

[rsetterlund]

The number of homes on the web site is a good question. We just purchased in October and while we were looking our sales rep sent a list of the types of houses available in our price range. Then we would look up the inventory number on the web site. The house would come up even though it was not initally listed.

Our problem with pre-owned was prices, even when we added in the Bond and the cost of furniture, we still saved money and got newer roof. I know I have started a saving account for when the roof needs replacing. The roofs are so large I am figuring the cost will be really high.

[jeffy]

Originally Posted by TomW

If they have 750 new homes in inventory, I wonder why less than 200 show up on their web site??

If you were the developer and had 700 new homes in inventory would you want all your buyers to know this info?????

Would it not be better marketing for your buyers to think that inventory is low and they had better buy quick?

Kind of the same idea of not allowing for sale signs in the yards. When we visit a neighboring community near TV it seems like every 5th house has a for sale sign in the yard. It does not really promote a warm and fuzzy feeling for buyers.

jeffy