No need to ask they are all on line at Home Page - The Villages Community Development Districts.

How would you factor in the risk of not recovering the bond cost when selling the home?

Well, that is another matter. I believe post #12 covered it pretty well. If one chooses to pay off the bond early one is extremely unlikely to recover that amount on sale over a comparable house selling with bond still in place. The buying public for the most part doesn't know or care about the bond. When I was steered to new spec homes by my first TV agent he did not mention diddly squat about a bond and evaded discussing the matter when I asked him how much the bond would be on the house he was showing me. He never came up with a number! Based on my experience TV agents treat most buyers like mushrooms regarding the bond, keep them in the dark and feed them organic fertilizer.

Me personally, if the sales agent either can't immediately answer the question about the bond amount or is unwilling to take out their cell phone and make a call to their office to find out the amount of the bond right there on the spot (yes if they want to they can find it that quickly), I'd be ending the conversation with "YOU'RE FIRED".

The bond is a significant and integral part of buying a home here in The Villages and can represent an addition 5 to 10% of the cost of a new home's price on top of the cost of the home itself, they know these facts and if they're trying to avoid the issue it's time to find a new sales rep.

As was stated previously, the bond amounts are already available on the districtgov.org website and have been public information since early in the building process for homes in that phase of the CDD. Preliminary bond amounts for CDD15 phase 2 (Oak Hollow, Edenfield, LaGrange, Lake View) have already been published for over a month.

Remember, it's YOUR MONEY that you're spending, you have the right to know how much things are going to cost. While some numbers like utilities costs are rough estimates, the bond and prevailing rate for the Amenity Fee are known fixed costs. With hundreds of Villages sales reps available it's easy to find a new rep. Ensure YOUR MONEY is your primary concern not THEIR FEELINGS. They exist to sell you a product, if you go elsewhere because you're not getting the information you need to protect YOUR MONEY then hurting their feelings isn't your concern, it's their own fault. You have YOUR MONEY because of what you did, they will have HURT FEELINGS because of WHAT THEY DIDN"T DO.

The Villages sales people are licensed real estate agents by the State of Florida, just like MLS agents. Realtor’s are members of a private association that owns the realtor name.

And as others have pointed out, the bond amount varies between areas in The Villages. The reason is, of course, WHEN those areas were built. We all know, prices for materials and labor have risen significantly in the last 20 years. Since the bond amount is determined by how much it cost the developer to put in the infrastructure, those new areas that are built today will cost much more than those that were built 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years ago. So the bond for a resale north of 44 is going to be less than those newer homes south of 44. And I suspect, the bond will be more for those new homes to be built south of the turnpike than those north of the turnpike.

There is no such thing as a licensed realtor. Anyone who sells real estate in Florida for a commission must have a state license. But, they do not need to be a Realtor.

It is nice to know that the "Villages Realtor" will explain it to you. When I bought 15 years ago, the Bond topic was never discussed. Luckily, I spoke to a lot of residents before I bought and they informed me about the bond. (Impact Fees). We are one of the few developments that charges the homeowner a bond, but I'm not complaining because the infrastructure was well planned.

My experience with the Villages agent evading even revealing the existence of much less discussing the bond occurred 15 years ago when I first visited TV on a lifestyle visit. Hopefully things are different now. I had known about the bonds from posts on TOTV. Since the agent had not mentioned them I had to ask him about them. He hemmed and hawed and only begrudgingly admitted they even existed if memory serves me right. I did move on to another TV agent who was more forthcoming.

The Bond and Impact fees, are separate and distinct. The "Bond" is not, in any way, related to Impact Fees.

Nor is The Villages "one of the few developments that charges the Homeowner a bond". Almost all large residential developments in Florida have been developed using the CDD model (& bonds), for over 40 years. There are 1635 "Special Districts" in Florida, of which 575 of them are CDD's.

CDD != Bond


I don’t believe there would be a bond without a CDD but a CDD does not require a bond.

Visit thevha.net for information on Where Does Your Money Go?
 

Go to thevha.net, hover on The Voice, scroll down to VHA news and notes, click on Special Presentation and toward bottom click on Special Presentation, Where Does Your Money Go? Will cover all this stuff.

Bonds can be justified and issued by most any government body in the state, a CDD is one of those types of bodies.
Bonds can be issued for any number of reasons, the bonds most spoken of here in TV are development bonds for the cost of building the infrastructure but there are others in use here. VCCDD is issuing bonds for the purchase fire stations and SLCDD will be issuing additional bonds for the purchase of amenities, Sumter County issued bonds for the construction of the new county service center and fire training center.

Are these CDD bonds tax exempt municipals?

If you were in the market to buy a home and you had a choice of basically two identical homes priced the same. One with the bond paid and one not. Would you choose the home that has the added yearly expense of $1,500+, for example, over the home that doesn't have that extra yearly expense?

Look at the bond being paid as an added feature of your home just like having a pool or an enclosed Lanai or any other feature that will make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Some of the bonds in the newer areas $40-$50K can add a significant yearly cost to owning that home with interest rates the way they are right now.