jgbama, :agree:
Thanks on behalf of us gonnabees! We do appreciate the knowledge and willingness to share!

Our only surprise

We only visit 4-6 weeks a year and rent out during the busy season for 2 to 3 months. The only surprise during the whole process was the 9% tax due to the State of Florida on the rental fees, not a deal breaker but 8,000 rent for 3 months @ 9% tax is 720.00.

Nothing of consequence, John. We had already looked into what all was going to be involved with the closing up-front and nothing at all changed with what we'd found out when we went through the closing process. We had ballpark ideas about what homeowner's insurance was going to run, utilities, etc. There are fees for your mailbox, pro-rated taxes, bond, amenity fee, annual maintenance fee, etc. at closing - again, these were all expected.

I did get a few minor surprises of sorts. Found that:
- State Farm is no longer writing new homeowner's policies in FL. So I had to spent more time than planned finding a company/policy that made sense to me. Also learned about things like hurricane coverage and sinkhole coverage that we don't have to deal with in OH!!
- The home we bought was a resale and has natural gas service. Turns out TECO required a minor deposit up-front - no big deal. Easy enough to get it credited back to the account afterwards - they tell you how.
- If you have a 'personal liability policy' (an umbrella policy) through your insurance company and you get your homeowner's insurance and/of golf cart coverage via other carriers, make sure the underlying coverages on those policies satisfy what's required for them to also fall under your umbrella policy. This actually turned out to be the biggest 'time consumer' I had to deal with in the entire home purchase process. Once everyone got on the same page, it all worked out fine. It did make the cost of insurance for the golf cart go up more than I'd originally anticipated, though. But again, not all that big a deal.

Hope that helps!

Bill :)

I know in Mn. our taxes are payed twice yearly if it's not on your house payment. I think in Florida it's once a year? Also the city of Hugo where we live now wanted to asess the home owners for water and new roads this year since we all have wells and the roads are falling apart. Lucky for us the economy is bad and the neighborhoods voted it down, but with in the next couple of years our neighbors will be paying about $23,000 apiece for this. We'll be in TV. paying our Bond. It all equals out.

Yes, it's annually - speaking for a home in Sumter County at least! :)

Bill

My biggest surprise with respect to eating out was how inexpensive it is relative to where we were from. As long as you stay away from the national chains which tend to have uniform pricing, eating and drinking out is quite affordable. The other day we were eating at a place that had happy hour prices: two beers for the price of one. The price of one beer was only $2.10 so each beer during happy hour (which appeared to run most of the day) was $1.05. I can't even buy it in a liquor store that cheaply.

A negative surprise was the lack of quality produce. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I had assumed that since much of the nation's produce comes from Florida, that when you were actually in Florida that it would be that much better. Not true.

Quality Produce
 

If you are looking for good produce visit visit the Market of Marion(27-441N).Open Friday and Saturday.Just returned from our monthy visit,Peppers,onions,sweet potatos,tomatos Yum.

My biggest surprise was the friendliness of all Villagers! Coming from a neighborhood where we all knew who everyone was, but had minimal contact with each other, the immediate bonding of folks from all over was exciting as well as unexpected!

Due diligence should reveal the unexpected fees, charges, one might suddenly run across.

Overall cost-of-living depends, mostly, on how you actually live! If you're in the habit of eating out almost every night, you probably won't change when you come to TV, but you may very well have to adapt to when one eats here! :D

SWR
:beer3:

I was surprised about the cost of the license plates for the cars. More expensive than I had paid in any other state. From the numerous postings in the forum I knew electric and water would be higher here. Really pleased with the quality of Publics and Fresh Market for the things we buy. Golf carts are expensive. We made sure we got multiple quotes for any work we were having done on the house. None of that is bad and we love it here. Worth it.

I knew about the overwhelming friendliness from my visits. What surprised me most during our visits to TV was how, every single time we got lost in our golf carts (and you will), someone stopped as soon as we so much as looked lost to help us find our way.

What surprised me most after we bought a home here was how I felt the first time I stopped instantly to help when I saw someone looking lost on her cart. I was able to help her find her way. It's hard to explain how excited I was, like I had passed my initiation and I was honest to goodness a Real Villager. :pepper2:

I actually cried. That surprised the heck out of me! :thumbup:

My surprises:

The beautiful clouds -- every day. And the wonderful breeze/wind. Mr. K9 and I just finished up two meteorology classes through the Lifelong Learning College, and we learned that both the clouds and wind are caused by the wind direction from the opposing coasts. Breeze comes from one direction for the gulf side, and from the other direction on the ocean side. They meet halfway -- which is where we are in TV! So when they two air masses meet each other you get wind and beautiful clouds.

Another surprise was how much it cost to register your cars for the first time! Wow!

The best surprise was there are no mosquitos or fleas. I've only seen two mosquitos and we've lived here a year now. The payback is the palmetto bugs -- ugh. But as long as you spray, no problems.

And, I'm still surprised every day at how beautifully landscaped TV stays -- flowers in every nook and cranny. Such a beautiful place to live.

We've only scratched the surface when it comes to restaurants. No, I don't think that discovering new places to eat "gets old."

And not having been to the movies in about a hundred years, I was surprised at how much I am enjoying TV's theaters (and popcorn).

Finally, I'm surprised that I still love posting and reading TOTV. I thought that once we got here, that TOTV would be something I no longer needed or wanted to do -- WRONG. I still love TOTV . . can you tell?

I know when we were working with our agent before we built our home, he spelled everything out for us,taxes, bond,etc. We have had no surprises. The only thing was,I found myself getting carried away with buying things for the house,then I realized didn't have to have everything done overnight. Have spaced out painting, landscaping, moldings, granite etc.

I'm not absolutely sure of this, but based on my prior Motor Vehicle experience I believe that Florida registration fees are higher than some other states is because Florida is an Ad Valorem (value added) state. What that means is that taxes are collected on initial registrations and upon renewals in addition to the regular registration fees. In a non-AV state, like NYS where I'm currently a resident, full taxes on a vehicle are collected on initial registration of a motor vehicle and the renewals only have the regular fee without added tax. I believe that most states are not ad valorem!

Surprised!
 

I was absolutely shocked that in a community of this size, TV did not have one inside pool (for those not-so-perfect days). It was ALMOST a deal breaker for me until I saw all the other wonderful features of TV. Within one day, I found a perfect piece of property and voila! .....put a deposit down to build an Iris. I've since learned to turn my head around and will do other activities when I can't swim. I still believe TV needs at least one indoor pool for many reasons...skin cancers among the top. However, ya can't have it all. I think when it comes to retirement communities, TV is about as good as it gets. :thumbup:

Well since I guess I am one of those in the minority about having done a lot of research about TV or having made a lot of trips down (I came for 2 day trips then a 4 day LPP and I was hooked) I am just continually amazed by how great TV really is. People are so friendly, I love my neighbors although we have only known each other for about 7 months, I feel I have known them my entire life (I swear I have the friendliest cul-de-sac in TV). I have found that it's like most people kind of check their egos at the door, it doesn't matter if you were a dr., lawyer, teacher or whatever everyone just focuses on having a great time. I too was surprised there are no mosquitos or bugs. Also if it's below 60 degrees out, it feels pretty chilly (heck I've seen people in their winter coats when it was 50) Most days the weather is perfect, sunny, slight breeze. I was surprised about how beautiful the sunsets are.
Now in the very beginning I was one who thought I will be glad when I can put my checkbook away. But in honesty it wasn't for so many necessary expenses. But in the past when I built a home it was just like I wanted when I moved in. Here it was landscaping, backsplash, gutters, more towel bars, pest control, ladder for attic, add more lights and outlets, birdcage. then let's not forget golf cart and of course new furniture.
I was surprised we don't have a post office in TV (other than the mobile one)
But in closing...I absolutely love it here...there is no place I would rather be.