You’re going to have hard time buying house, some resales have been sold several times. No knowing what other home owners did or didn’t do right. I would how ever look at add ons like garage’s, landscaping, driveway extensions, and bird cages in CYVs that may be in rear easements. Those areas could to be problem?

Your first step should be to read the rules for the neighborhood that interests you. (Various districts may have slightly different codes, and the rules for a villa neighborhood and a courtyard villa neighborhood and a regular neighborhood and a luxury home neighborhood vary a bit. (For example, in my courtyard villa neighborhood we all have to use the same color of roof shingles when our shingles are replaced.) These codes show that acceptable range of home colors and trim colors, etc. They specify the distance from the street to where you can plant anything. Study these rules. Measure everything! This information is available online.

When I bought my first home in The Villages, I knew it was out of compliance because of some decorations in the front of the house, but I also knew that if anyone complained, I could remove them in five minutes. Everything I added to the outside of the house, like a heat pump for the pool and Hurricane shutters, I got ARC approval.

It's mostly "caveat emptor" buyer beware.

That said, buyers should always get a home inspection if the sellers don't provide one ahead of time.

Exterior modifications always required an ARC permit in The Villages.

Be sure to get your areas CDD deed restrictions and read them carefully.

Every preowned home has had unapproved changes made to it. If you buy a new home you too will have unapproved changes made to it within a year or two. Did you install a ceiling fan yourself or have a handyman do it? Did you change a light switch without a licensed electrician, was his license date still valid? Did you put in a ring doorbell? There are many degrees of unapproved changes. You’re buying a house, you’ve got enough to worry about without worrying about non consequential trivia. Do you like the house? Does the outside fit in with the neighborhood? Stop fretting and buy it, then start doing your own updates.

Of course there will be some to respond here that I should be shot for saying this, but those that respond have unapproved changes that they don’t even realize they have.

As far as I know there is no approval required to replace a ceiling fan, change a light switch, or install a ring doorbell. Those are not the unapproved changes that will come back to bite a homebuyer.

I can say with 100% certainty that there have been no unapproved changes to my home in the seven years I have owned it.

I didn't pull the issues I mentioned in post #3 out of thin air, they have all been subjects of compliance hearings and fines in the past. Correcting those, or paying the fines are hardly non-consequential, trivial issues.