[diskman]

My wife and I have been thinking about TV for about a year now. we visited in february are not ready to retire yet but, dreaming and looking. When i look thru website listings there are a lot mentioning barely lived in or almost new. Do many people come and buy and then leave unhappy?
I am originally a brooklyn boy who lived on long island many years/ my wife is from Baldwin and right now we reside in southern california. Too expensive to retire here however my wife thinks i am nuts to come back to humidity?

As we sat in the spanish springs square i could see in her eyes that she was loving it but, do not want to be one of those to advertise my home barely lived in.
yesterday i read a posting that stated people who purchase a moderately priced resale on the north side are looked down upon?

can anybody give me some insight to the above?

[sweetana3]

1. regret quick purchase
2. snowbird who only uses it a few months a year
3. change in health of self or family member changes use pattern of unit
4. bought for a more "timeshare" type use and got tired of it
5. bought for a rental
6. sales tactic
7. wife or husband no longer wants to deal with hurricanes
8. etc.

It is really hard to generalize. The overall Florida market is suffering from a perfect storm of issues all hitting at once.

[diskman]

thanks for your comments. so in general you don't think that it is a matter of something to do with the villages it self.
how about the comments we read yesterday that people who purchase a reasonably priced resale are looked down upon. We don't want to not fit in because we spent an amount which is affordable for a house 'not talking about mobile homes we would only purchase a house' after we saw what happened to them in the tornado.

[REDCART]

Some are "barely-lived in" but let's not overlook the obvious, this is real estate sales-speak designed to have you believe that you're buying an almost new home. Cars have odometers which speak for themselves but a home in nice condition may be described as "barely lived-in."

I can't speak for the other two counties, Marion and Lake, but Sumter County Property Appraiser's Office has a web site
http://qpublic.net/sumter/ where you can search on-line for the date a home was built, the selling price, the name of the owners, square footage, etc. You can search by owner's name or property address. It's a great way to see how much homes have appreciated over time and what similar properties in that immediate area have sold for recently.

When you do the math, don't forget to factor in closing costs. For example, if someone bought a home in July 2006 for $170,000. Their closing costs would have been approximately $13,000. If they had a professional decorator furnish the home, roughly $15,000, they're not going to reasonably sell that home for less than $200 to $205K. At a minimum, they will reasonably expect to get their initial investment back. Keep in mind, if the Villages lists a re-sale, there's some wiggle room but not much. They're quite attuned to local market conditions and they price homes to sell.

[diskman]

well that is really interesting info you gave me, thank you
knowing what previous purchase price was helps in negotiations.
how long have you lived in TV, where are you from and are you happy with your choice
what village do u live in?
thanks again
larry

[F16 1UB]

Thanks gryong. :bigthumbsup:

[villages07]

Another scenario that I have heard is folks bought here on impulse then were unable to sell their other home and are now in a financial bind.

Have also heard situations where the home they bought was either too small or too big for their real needs and they simply want to buy another house within TV that better suits their needs.

There are rare instances of people buying into TV and then finding the lifestyle doesn't suit them. If you are someone happy to live in a cabin in the woods by yourself with no neighbors, this may not be the place for you. There is a lot of social friendliness here and houses that are fairly close together.

[lm01]

In general You need to think about how the Villages are being developed. Folks to the North paid a much lower price for their homes and the Bonds are very low. As a general rule The neighborhoods were being built differently in the North. For example many Premier homes in the north are mixed in with designer homes. or you drive through a designer neighborhood to get to a premier neighborhood. Also, The Villages use to put the Premier homes at the end of courts where the backs of the homes face the golf courses and everything else is a designer.

Now in the south bonds are crazy there. and the neighborhoods are better defined. People paying more money for newer homes may have a different opinion on this subject but it is just like everyone else who bought their home new..... they just wanted new. Folks in New homes are different than folks in older homes. New home people are all going through the same stuff together. They grow relationships together as a group. When you move into an older neighborhood its just harder to fit in because you go through stuff on your own. Lastly the homes in the north are 8 to 15 years old.

Now for my opinion I'm currently looking for a home in the North. The congestion is not the same as in the south. I love the mixed neighborhoods, and the people are very nice. I would rather get a better deal on a home than need something new. I guess you would say its the quiet end of the Villages which is great by me. Thats a hidden asset for those folks up in the North.

[walkingfool]

My husband & I have lived in the Villages for six years. We are previously from White Plains, NY & several towns in Bergen Co. NJ. We absolutely love the Villages & would never want to be anyplace else. A lot of people come to the Villages & are very homesick for their grandchildren & in my opinion....don't give the Villages a chance. My grandchildren LOVE to come to the Villages & drive around in our golf cart, visit the pools....have a day or two at Disney. I think it's all in the mindset. And as far as living on the historical side of the Villages, I have friends on both sides. Some of the homes are elegant and who knows or cares where you are living anyway? It is not that kind of place. Everyone is there for the same reason....to enjoy their retirement.
Hope this helps.

[Frangyomory]

In the last two years the comment I heard the most was that people bought and then couldn't sell the home up North. Tha happened to several peopl that I knew, not personally.

As for where to live, well, I am sold on South of 466. I love Tall Trees. We pretty much all moved in at the same time and are all around the same age. I live in a courtyard villa and we have a separate entrance within Tall Trees. There are only ranch and designer homes in addition to the courtyard and patio villas here. We have no premier homes in Tall Trees. However, if one is looking for a large and beautiful home, many designers are just as beautiful as the premiers.

In a way, the separation of the premiers from others is like being on two sides of the railroad tracks, if you get my meaning. I don't imagine that people who paid $1 million would want their home next to one that sold for $200k.

We love our courtyard villa. We bought a corner lot and our dog has a great backyard. Courtyard villas are the ONLY homes with actual fenced yards. We love the privacy as well.

South of 466 is really being developed and you can go anywhere, even in your golf cart, in less than 30 minutes. We bought a gas golf cart to ensure we wouldn't be stranded if we took a "long" trip on any give day. Also, with gas prices out of sight, the golf cart saves us lots of money on gas. My husband also bought a moped which he uses when he goes places by himself.

This is really a wonderful place to live, regardless of the difficult covenants and regulations....and government. Florida has some unique laws with regard to communities like the Villages and Disney. You just have to get used to them.

I love it here and wish we had retired even sooner and moved.

[santiagobob]

My experience with those that sold their almost new home in my neighborhood was due to the following:
1. One of the couple passed away in the first year of moving to the villages.
2. They had to return to care for a parent.
3. They bought a small house to keep their investment low and then upgraded to a larger home after they were sure of their decision.
4. In some cases that I know about, the company that they retired from went bankrupt and they lost their medical coverage and some of their pension.
5. Some moved here from south Fl. to get away from the hurricanes and many were in their late 70's or early 80's and they had health issues which deteriorated quickly.
6. Lastly, some people lost most of their assets in the stock market downturn and had to sell to reclaim their investment to live on and pay off their expenses.

[Villages Kahuna]

To answer your question, my guess is that many of the quick resales are the result of people buying a Villages house before selling the house they're moving from, finding that they simply can't afford to carry two (or three) houses. Of the seven houses on our cul-de-sac alone, two of our neighbors have had houses for sale for over a year. We feel extremely luck to have sold ours in the Chicago 'burbs after seven months of trying.

I asked our sales rep the same question before we moved to TV. "Is one Village better than another and do people move in and find they don't like it?" Her answers were that she "sits" open houses in every Village and she finds it uniformly common that the neighbors come to the open houses, telling her to get them some "good" new neighbors because their Village is the best in the whole community.

But do some people move after only a short time? Our rep answered, "Sure. There are always grouches who don't like something (or everything) about where they're living." She explained that the difference here is that people are so up beat and happy about their homes, neighbors and TV in general, that they have little tolerance for the grouches, giving them even more to be grouchy about.

I have found the answers provided by our sales rep to be dead on. I would tell you with no hesitance, don't wait even one more day before getting down here and buying a home. It really is "Florida's Friendliest Hometown".

[Indy-Guy]

We have heard that it is not uncommon for people to sell and move to another home in The Villages. I have talked to several people who down sized from the North and then after moving here they decided they wanted a larger home in The Villages. I have a friend who purchased a home here 2 months ago and the people who owned the home purchased a larger home right next door because they liked the neighborhood.

Also heard about a woman who has sisters here and she called her husband and told her she wanted to purchase a second home here and he said he didn't want anything to do with FL. He came down and told her she didn't buy big enough place and they purchased a larger one and he hasn't left yet.

I know several story's like this. I have even heard of people that are on their third home in The Villages.

[Villages Kahuna]

You're right IG. I forgot that reason. Of our six closest neighbors, two couples moved from smaller Villages homes within a few months of moving in. TV will approve that sort of move within the normally prohibited re-sale time. For that matter, the Villages sales rep who sold us our house did the same thing shortly after they moved here.

[diskman]

WOW! We love the enthusiastic replys to our question. Thank you all for your replys and lengthy explanations.
To the people who replied please answer one more question. tell me if you live in TV full time or are snowbirds.
When we come we plan to be full timers.