Originally Posted by Karmanng (Post 2328364)

coming from Scottsdale AZ otherwise known as Snottsdale the villages to me are very over rated........my opinion and not being snarky either

Originally Posted by Lottoguy (Post 2328463)

If your leaning to buying a new house, first look at the Tuesday pullout edition for real estate in the Villages newspaper. In the back section for homes south of 44 are 17 PAGES of homes that are basically just about a year or two old. Why are there so many? Each month another page is added it seems. In February there was 12 pages. What gives? I think some of these have to do with buyer remorse on the isolated location. But, that will change but it will take time. These homes also come with big bonds too.
For those reasons make sure you look at previously owned homes. Remember the old saying LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC (Post 2328468)

So why stay?

Originally Posted by George1964 (Post 2327891)

Hi! I'm George and my wife, Vicky, and I will be doing a 2nd lifestyle visit in July, with plans (if I can take the heat) to move to The Villages around the end of the year. We will be coming down from Delaware.

We just wanted to say hi.

-George

Originally Posted by George1964 (Post 2327891)

Hi! I'm George and my wife, Vicky, and I will be doing a 2nd lifestyle visit in July, with plans (if I can take the heat) to move to The Villages around the end of the year. We will be coming down from Delaware.

We just wanted to say hi.

-George

Originally Posted by bsloan1960 (Post 2328111)

One piece of advice I'll give you: Be aware that online forums such as this one, Facebook etc. tend to attract bitter, snarky, unhappy people. If you see answers to your questions like, "Don't move here", or "Why don't you just look it up on Google", these are people who thrive on anger. The vast majority of Villagers are happy, enthusiastic people who consider The Villages to be Paradise. I haven't read the comments generated by your post, so they all may be positive. I'm simply urging you to not draw negative opinions about The Villages from snarky, unhappy people. Float around in the pool and mention you are new- people will embrace you and tell you about the place- it's called, "Pool School". Welcome!

Originally Posted by tophcfa (Post 2328144)

Every home we visited we began our tour outside, and we never went inside almost half the homes after going into the back yard and seeing no privacy, hearing traffic, or hearing/seeing someone we found undesirable.

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2328428)

Cut & Paste much? It's becoming monotonous...

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2328519)

There is one other thing that you should know and your real estate salesperson will definitely NOT tell you. Many people will simply NOT believe that the whole world is getting warmer, but it is. Check out real scientific evidence on that subject and find a graph of the Gulf of Mexico's water temperature (which has been steadily increasing for at least 10 years) ......That water temperature is IMPORTANT because that is the engine for increasing HURRICANES. Which is another reason for traveling away from Florida for the summer. And each year the summers will get hotter until people start buying more ELECTRIC vehicles, which they are NOT doing in the US despite US government rebates. I am sorry that I am being such a downer, but I felt obligated to tell the truth. And you will find some people that disagree with me. Just do some basic research because it is important to know when deciding about living year around in Florida.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2328530)

"Pool school" will tend toward the positive comments about The Villages. Very few people will have the character and honesty to tell you about the great things that go on here like a mired of activities, while also pointing out any negatives either small or large. Maybe at a bar an "old timer" that is heavily lubricated with "truth serum" would give you the "down low" skinneys.

Originally Posted by tophcfa (Post 2328144)

I am very analytical and we had a spreadsheet with our list, but our list was prioritized differently. FYI, when we bought they were still building houses north of 44, most, if not all Villages residents, had no idea anything would ever be built south of 44, much of the commercial space in Brownwood was still vacant, and Rocky and the Rollers weren’t yet Rocky and the Olders. Also, we were already fairly familiar with the Villages because we have friends who had already been living there for several years who graciously invited us to stay at their home several times.

Our list looked like this.

...

Based on both our timing and criteria we were pretty much limited to pre owned homes. We rented long term in the fall, retained the services of both a VLS agent and MLS realtor, and identified every home on the market that appeared to fit within our criteria (including a few homes for sale by owner). Very few of the homes that fit our criteria had a pool because of our price constraint. During the next three weeks we saw a few homes almost daily until we saw a total of close to 50 homes. Every home we visited we began our tour outside, and we never went inside almost half the homes after going into the back yard and seeing no privacy, hearing traffic, or hearing/seeing someone we found undesirable.

Originally Posted by Karmanng (Post 2328360)

So far I dont get what all the heat is about as i am from arizona and that is bad..........93 is not hot to me.........2nd villages are over rated

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2328482)

Maybe some have buyer's remorse. But I'd wager more are investors, trying to flip for a profit...