[harbor53]

I will be divorced this spring.

My wife is buying me out our home - I expect to clear 160,000 to 164,000.

I am currently 57 years old and will turn 58 in May.

I expect to retire in 1/2012. My pension - after federal taxes and health insurance will be 3850/month. Investments will provide another 450 - 500/month. This will total 4300 - more or less per month.

I would like to put at least 100,000 down on a pre-owned home and use the balance for furnishings and unexpected expenses. I expect my mortgage to be in the range of $350 - $400/month (30/fixed).

Can I find a solid home in the Villages given these financial constraints? If so - any advice on how to achieve this would be appreciated.

I will come to the Villages to visit in March. If I retire in January - what's the best plan to purchase a home so I don't have to camp out while looking???

You are all so kind - given my current situation, any kindness is much appreciated. Over the past 6 years - life has been hard. I have lost any reservation related to accepting advice.

I'm not a golfer - but, am willing to learn. I have performed music and taken photographs for money and may wish to pursue this.

Access to cutting edge technology is important. I am a good teacher and can help others adapt.

I love to swim and long for taking nature photographs. I excel at portraits - brides like me.

I have been known to tease gators and have had to run off in utter shame while chased by a really annoyed reptile.

I am rather rootless at this moment...any advice or encouragement will be valued.

Lord, I want to find a home - a place to lay my head - could The Villages be it?

I want to find new friends and would love to find a final love. I am extremely silly and occasionally extremely smart. I certainly am the annoying artist.

Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Gary

[redwitch]

Niot sure if you're posting to find a relationship or whatever, but here goes.

Divorce stinks. Even friendly divorces stink. They hurt all involved, so my sympathies.

You should have little problem finding a nice home given your financial stituation, provided your credit rating is good. I wouldn't worry about the timing that much. You can easily rent a place for 2-3 months, which would give you time to find what you are looking for, rather than just taking what's available. Your biggest risk would be that housing market starts to climb, which doesn't seem likely at this time, but who knows a year from now?

You'll find a great photography club here with many talented photographers. Whether you decide to take up golf is pretty much up to you. There are so many activities, that the hard part is deciding exactly what to join/try and when to stop. lol

As to finding a relationship, take your time. Don't try to jump into finding a lifemate. Make friends, get to know TV, your neighbors, you. Love will come in its own good time and, fortunately, you're young enough to have the time.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Gary -

Re: your financial/house stuff - - -

Based on what you're wanting to have for a monthly mortgage - using a 4.8% rate (just picking what seems to be a reasonable average nowadays - actual rate can obviously differ), you should be looking for around a $65-75K mortgage which, given your down payment, would have you looking for a home in the $165-175k range. Very doable in TV. You won't get the biggest or the most grandiose place in the neighborhood but you'll find a number of nice homes well within that price range.

Fair guestimate for your monthly overhead for taxes, H.O. insurance, all utilities, amenitity fee, lawn and landscaping care, a reasonable bond amount, and so on should be around $1k plus or minus. That's just a ballpark - others will have specifics to offer, I'm sure. A lot of your monthly expense can be influenced by whether or not you do your own lawn and landscaping care, how much you decide to pay for things like phone, internet access, cable/satellite service, and the like.

So those two numbers add up to a monthly outlay of around $1,400. Given your projected monthly gross income of around $4,300, I'd say you'd be in great shape........unless, of course, you've got a number of other regular monthly financial commitments like a car payment, credit card balances, and so on.

Sounds like you should be in a real positive financial position to me! JMHO

Bill

[graciegirl]

I think Bill gave you good advice and so did Redwitch. I think you should be fine financially. We have found lots of friendly people here who let us right in.

I hope you find happiness and your safe harbor here. I think you will.

[skyguy79]

I just closed on our home on Tuesday and in regards to what you can afford I offer you suggestion from my experience. This will only reflect my experience with Citizens First Bank, but you could do similarly with many mortgaging companies:

I went to https://www.cfwmortgage.com/applicationchecklist.html and reviewed the list of what I would basicly need for the process.

I next contacted CFM's Loan Officer Glenda Adams at 1-(800)-477-1086 0r (352)-259-3249 (Ext 1139)and asked about obtaining a Pre-Approval certificate that would not only tell me what I could afford in a house, but would also show sellers that you are serious and have reasonable assurance that you are a good candidate for a purchase. (no mortgage guarantee though at this point) There is no obligation made in getting the pre-approval letter.

Glenda did an excellent job of guiding me through this process and in deciding to obtain the mortgage through CF the others at CF were equally helpful and made the process easy for me.

One thing to note though is that don't necessarily expect the interest rate that you initially find out to necessarily be the one you wind up with. That rate could change, but when it first happened Glenda automatically locked me in on the current rate before it went up again and immediately notified me of what she done and why. Also, the rate can be effected by you're credit scores. This happened to me, despite my wife and I having excellent scores and .5% was added because it wasn't beyond excellent. I'm talkn' an average of around 750 or so and that wasn't high enough for the published rate. However, this could happen at any lender selected.

Use this information or not, good luck on your future plans!

[ilvgolf]

The Villages is a GREAT place to live. I moved here 10 years ago not knowing anyone - no problem! I would also suggest that you perhaps look at foreclosures and short sales - there are, believe me, a lot of them in The Villages. Don't know why but I have seen a lot of them on line. Just a thought! one across the street from me (a patio villa) went recently for $108,300 and the original price in 2005 was $162,000. I also would suggest that you go online to TheVillages.com and look at some of the real estate there - and look at the Daily Sun in the classified section - there are lots there also. Some people die, some people move into another house in The Villages, some move back north - who knows why people move - but they do. Also, inquire as to the Bond. Many of the resales have the bonds paid in full - others have a balance - so you would have to figure that into the equation. Also, if you purchase a house and are in it on January 1, you can apply for homestead - which saves you quite a bit on taxes. Hope this little bit of information helps.

[rjm1cc]

The big unknown will be your medical expense. Other than that you should be ok based on all the budget questions that have been covered here. Look at the Nuts and Bolts section. I would think of renting for maybe 5 or 6 months. Rents go down in the summer so you can probably find something no more expensive than if you owned it. Try http://villages4rent.com/

[gear gal]

Harbor53,theres plenty of single women here that would love to meet a man in your position. I might date you myself. Are you available???

[manaboutown]

Originally Posted by gear gal

Harbor53,theres plenty of single women here that would love to meet a man in your position. I might date you myself. Are you available???

Since I am a divorced male myself I would find this a real plus. Although prior to my LSV I had envisioned TV as being almost exclusively populated by long married couples when I actually visited TV I attended one of the singles meetings and a whole (large) meeting hall was full of people.

[Pturner]

Originally Posted by harbor53

I will be divorced this spring.

My wife is buying me out our home - I expect to clear 160,000 to 164,000.

I am currently 57 years old and will turn 58 in May.

I expect to retire in 1/2012. My pension - after federal taxes and health insurance will be 3850/month. Investments will provide another 450 - 500/month. This will total 4300 - more or less per month.

I would like to put at least 100,000 down on a pre-owned home and use the balance for furnishings and unexpected expenses. I expect my mortgage to be in the range of $350 - $400/month (30/fixed).

Can I find a solid home in the Villages given these financial constraints? If so - any advice on how to achieve this would be appreciated.

I will come to the Villages to visit in March. If I retire in January - what's the best plan to purchase a home so I don't have to camp out while looking???

You are all so kind - given my current situation, any kindness is much appreciated. Over the past 6 years - life has been hard. I have lost any reservation related to accepting advice.

I'm not a golfer - but, am willing to learn. I have performed music and taken photographs for money and may wish to pursue this.

Access to cutting edge technology is important. I am a good teacher and can help others adapt.

I love to swim and long for taking nature photographs. I excel at portraits - brides like me.

I have been known to tease gators and have had to run off in utter shame while chased by a really annoyed reptile.

I am rather rootless at this moment...any advice or encouragement will be valued.

Lord, I want to find a home - a place to lay my head - could The Villages be it?

I want to find new friends and would love to find a final love. I am extremely silly and occasionally extremely smart. I certainly am the annoying artist.

Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Gary

Hi Gary,
I am sorry to hear you are going through a difficult time. It sounds like you are doing the right things in terms of planning and figuring out a budget. Remember to add any remaining bond to the cost of a home in TV.

If you are outgoing, you should have no problem meeting people and enjoying your retirement life in TV. Red, as always, gave you great advice.

[pqrstar]

Here is a link to some of the clubs in The Villages that have their own websites.

http://www.villaescandido.com/looper...s%20Clubs.html

You will find the photography and singles clubs among this list.

[barb1191]

If I were you, I would pay cash for a lovely patio villa for around 100K. The rest of the money from your house sale, $64K could be your satin blanket to buy furniture (if the villa isn't furnished) and you will be in fine shape financially.....and socially too, for sure.

Why pay mortgage payments with all of the interest charges when you can have a real nice villa....PAID FOR?

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by barb1191

If I were you, I would pay cash for a lovely patio villa for around 100K. The rest of the money from your house sale, $64K could be your satin blanket to buy furniture (if the villa isn't furnished) and you will be in fine shape financially.....and socially too, for sure.

Why pay mortgage payments with all of the interest charges when you can have a real nice villa....PAID FOR?

Barb...............that is excellent advice. I wondered the same thing too. Who wants a mortgage payment if it can be avoided? All the homes here are nice..and for one person a patio villa is just the ticket!!

[LisaJ]

The patio villa is the way to go. I always remember Army Guy using the scenerio of a cruise ship. All the fun is happening outside. Remember, it is the "lifesyle" you are purchasing.

[harbor53]

You've given me a bunch of great information - for which, I am very grateful. I was fairly sure that the Villages would be a financially realistic choice - but, there was a posting somewhere else on the forum talking about how expensive it is to live here.

All of a sudden, my pension started looking smaller and smaller.

I know that most Villagers love the lifestyle. I am also aware of criticism that the Villages are not "the real world."

Having spent all my life in "the real world" - I am looking forward to a shared community where the goal is to create the most enjoyable retirement possible.

Again, thank you!

Gary