When Do You Buy Your Home?

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Old 07-09-2019, 02:52 PM
Jetakai Jetakai is offline
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Default When Do You Buy Your Home?

I know most people say come down and try it out, but basically when I retire I must leave Alaska. Winters are getting too hard. 3 years, 9 months, 21 days.

So when would you buy a house? The end of 2022? I don't want to have to fly back and forth. Can you just come down once, pick out everything and then just do paperwork by mail? How long does it take to build a home? When does the loan close? After you take possession?

I retire in about April of 2023 but I want to drive from Alaska to Florida with a lot of meandering so I may not be there until June. I am looking at a small house, with the Vineyard floor plan (I don't want to retire to clean). Can you hire a management company to take care of the place. I have heard that there are issues with squatters and you can't kick them out, or is that just something for myth busters?

One final question, where is the best place to be for 1gb Broadband and who is the best provider?

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Old 07-09-2019, 03:09 PM
manaboutown manaboutown is offline
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Why don't you arrange to rent a house short or long term before buying one?
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Old 07-09-2019, 08:27 PM
Dond1959 Dond1959 is offline
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I agree that you should seriously think about renting for 6 to 12 months. That way you can answer all your questions and make sure this is a good fit for what you’re looking for in retirement. Do you want to build, buy a spec house or buy a existing home? What area do you want to be in? Can you take the heat if you are going to be full time? These and many more questions that will come up can be answered if you rent before taking the leap. Good luck!
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Old 07-09-2019, 08:39 PM
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Rent and get to know the Villages. Look at lots of homes and sort out things up north. When things feel right and you have experienced different areas of the Villages, you will know when/if you found the right place. Don't hurry and make a hasty decision you might come to regret. We still are going back and forth from our Northern home to our Villages home, but we are in the Northeast. I would not want to do that from Alaska.
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Old 07-09-2019, 09:49 PM
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Rent and take your time. VH4R Home Rentals in The Villages
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Old 07-09-2019, 09:59 PM
VApeople VApeople is offline
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I agree with the other comments.

Keep it simple. Finish up in Alaska, get the money in the bank, then come to Florida and rent. Then decide what you want to do.
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Old 07-10-2019, 12:48 AM
queasy27 queasy27 is offline
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You may be feeling some pressure to buy before prices rise and rise, but measure those possible increases against the cost of maintaining a vacant house for three years, or even the hassle of renting it from so far away. It's doable and there are some wonderful rental management companies, but perhaps not ideal.

I think we'd all be willing to bet there will be still be new villages and of course plenty of pre-owned homes in the coming years. Final build-out still seems to be but a gleam in the developer's eye, and newer villages are getting some lovely amenities.

This may also change, but currently 1gb Broadband is not readily available.
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Old 07-10-2019, 02:44 AM
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We bought our first home a patio villa 7 years prior to retirement. Originally we bought for our parents, sadly for health reasons they never used the home.
We Found a good home watch, and rented on our own unfinished for four years.
Long term unfurnished rentals are hard to come by and you have many people to choose from. You can also use a well established agency to do the same thing. If there was a problem, it not like we were going to drive 18 hours to fixit, that’s why you use a good home watch.
When one of us retired we found our current home, and sold our villa in 3 days.
Going to rental web sites for TV you will find many who do the same with little to no effort.
As far as renting before you buy, you should at least visit not just TV, but other retirement communities.
TVs winter weather can get chilly compared to southern parts of Florida. But you are coming from Alaska and this will be a heatwave even on the coldest days.
However no one on this site can give you advice better than your financial advisor, and personal experience as to where you want to live.
TV is a large community, still growing, with many things to offer, for some that is the biggest drawback. Too Large.
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Old 07-10-2019, 06:54 AM
charmed59 charmed59 is offline
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You could come down here and rent for a few months while you have your house built. It is pretty easy to get a 6 month rental from June to Dec if you are reasonably sure of the dates. Three years is a long time in Village building years. We have no idea what home models and villages will be added by then.
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Old 07-10-2019, 07:11 AM
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If you have never been to The Villages, if possible, I would suggest doing a Lifestyle Preview Visit for 6 or 7 days. These visits are arranged by contacting The Villages sales office. You won't be able to see or do everything during that time, but it might be a helpful "dipping your toe in the water" for you. Maybe coming during the summer months to get a taste of what a central Florida summer is like. And I agree with the others, if possible rent a home in The Villages for at least 6 months once you retire to see what area of The Villages you like the best.
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Old 07-10-2019, 08:39 AM
Dan9871 Dan9871 is offline
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Right now it looks like it is about six months to build a house. That's 3 or 4 months after you buy a lot to get a design appointment and 2 or so more for the build. But that timing changes all the time.

Comcast Business offers 1G internet in some places in the Villages; you need a specific location to know for sure. It costs around $300 a month.

If you are going to build, then you are going to have to come down here for the design process and then wait about six months to move in.

There are always lots of resales available though.

As far as closing if you are buying new, The Villages has a tight requirement, but it would be best to talk to a Villages salesperson for all the details of the timing of things.

When we came to the Villages for the first time on a Friday, bought a new, already built, house on Saturday, and moved in a month later. We're still the same house seven years later.

The problem with taking your time is that you can't. Once you see a house or lot that you want if you don't buy it, then it will be gone in a month or maybe a day.

The question you have to answer for yourself is, do you want to move to central Florida or The Villages. A vacation to the area might help you make that decision. If you are sure, then buy it as soon as you are ready.
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Old 07-10-2019, 09:08 AM
JerryLBell JerryLBell is offline
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We lived in North Carolina until we retired and were able to come down and visit The Villages a few times (a luxury I know you don't have). However, we never did the Lifestyle Visit, we never rented a house for a month, we never researched which would be the "right" neighborhood for us and we never bought a "starter" home, thinking we'd move into our "real" home later on. Instead, we picked out a house we really liked in a new neighborhood and bought it essentially over the phone with the realtor we'd met. We didn't have to be here for our closing. We bought about a year and a half before we retired and moved and used a local property management company to find somebody to rent the unfurnished house out to for a year (and did that entirely by phone). Because we weren't here for the closing on the house, we didn't do a walk-through with the builder until almost a year after we bought the house (and did catch a couple of very minor things to have repaired). When we finally moved in, we risked having the house be really beat up by the renters, of not liking our neighbors and of not having chosen the right neighborhood. Instead, the renters had treated the house gently, the property management company's cleaners made the house look like new, our neighbors have turned out to be great friends we simply hadn't met yet and we love the neighborhood. The whole thing worked out well for us. We'd never owned two homes at once before and that was a little scary but the rental income, while not making us any actual money, did give us some tax breaks and allowed us to buy at the prices we first saw rather than the price houses in our category were going for a year and a half later (and prices only go up here). No regrets here.

Right now you can only buy "new" houses in the new areas to the south that are expanding so rapidly. We've thought that we're glad we're in an area with nearby town squares (Brownwood and Lake Sumpter Landing for us) and other established retail. There's just not enough of that in the new areas for us. My niece bought down in Fenney despite our misgivings and absolutely loves it. She revels in the constant growth, bicycling trough ever expanding neighborhoods, golfing in newly opened courses, playing pickelball in new rec centers and swimming in new pools. She knows that retail and dining and such takes a bit more to get to now, but that it's all coming her way.

There are definitely companies who will watch your house if it is empty (our property management company did that before and after the renters lived there), ones that will do your yardwork (if you have a yard) and pretty much any other service you can think of.

As far as 1 Gb broadband, I'm not sure if there are any here yet (I looked initially because I moved from an area where Time Warner offered 700 Mb and both AT&T and Google offered gigabit). I'm getting 130 Mb DL from Spectrum. I download a lot, stream a lot (including 4K video), play games online and I can't come close to hitting my theoretical maximum download speeds. There are some faster vendors than that, but check to see if they have data caps. What good is gigabyte speed if you can hit your data cap in a week? Also, keep in mind the selection of internet providers is predicated on which neighborhood (aka "Village") you live in as The Villages is so big that it is serviced my multiple vendors.
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Old 07-10-2019, 09:44 AM
Chatbrat Chatbrat is offline
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Honestly, time is the most important commodity--man makes plans & God laughs--if you think you can square route your future you are kidding yourself, smell the roses , before its too late--
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Old 07-10-2019, 01:10 PM
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Toymeister Toymeister is offline
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We bought five years early to take advantage of leverage.

Let's say a 300k home, 20% down. 8k in misc costs and 4k annually in costs not covered by renters. Three years advance purchase.

80k all in. 300k with 5% annual housing price increases = 347k home. 47k appreciation on 80k investment in three years.

Yes, yes, yes! There are risks, it can be a hassle, housing costs might not increase 5%, nor am I including the principal reduction. No I am not including opportunity costs of the 80k expenses. The point is leverage can work handsomely for the OP.

It has worked well for us. Renting can be easily handled and does not require hiring a property manager with the associated 17% commission on rent.
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Old 07-10-2019, 01:12 PM
Two Bills Two Bills is offline
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I would hang on where you are.
Listenining to all predictions regarding Climate Change, by 2022 when you are due to retire, Alaska will probably be warmer than Florida.
I know last winter here in TV. we had days when we were colder than Anchorage.
Polar bears were sighted on several golf courses!
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