[Medtrans]

I too would stay the 6 pr 7 days. It goes by so fast and there is so much to do.

[graciegirl]

You won't want to leave after three days.

And you will be back.

Welcome home. This is in every way the most beautiful and wonderful place on earth.

[2BNTV]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

You won't want to leave after three days.

And you will be back.

Welcome home. This is in every way the most beautiful and wonderful place on earth.

And you will leave with an overwhelming desire, to put your house up for sale.

[stings]

Thank you one and all. We are looking forward to our stay even more now as the welcoming replies we have received have made it seem like we're going home. We hope to speak with some of you during our stay. Please feel free to give us any additional information about TV you think would be helpful.

[coconutmama]

I think you can still do the Life Style Visit more than once, but the length of time offered changes. At least that is how it was for us a few years ago. "Come On Down", you will be so glad you did.

[Richard1366]

Call property of the Villages, ask for Beth Pope. a fantastic agent...she's patient, thorough and not at all pushy, you absolutely wont be sorry about using her. I bought a house, my daughter bought a house and is now moving to a larger house here all through Beth

[Wandatime]

We did it both ways as well. The first visit was a "lifestyle visit" and lasted four days. It went by incredibly fast and we were mostly lost. The second time our fabulous estate agent, Colleen Ginn-Wotring, lent us her rental villa and we stayed a week. Between visits one and two, I absolutely memorized the map from top to bottom and front to back. I also memorized all the house plans. My husband and I got on the website every night checking the models and houses for sale. Hey, it was a fun way to spend winter evenings! That second visit really jelled things for us. We looked at quite a few homes, and narrowed in on what we really wanted. Colleen called us a few months later and told us "our perfect house in our perfect location" was going on the market the next day. We bought it sight unseen.

PS -- I agree with everything Tomwed said. I didn't do all that but I have superpowers. Just kidding. I wish I'd done all that.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Wandatime

We did it both ways as well. The first visit was a "lifestyle visit" and lasted four days. It went by incredibly fast and we were mostly lost. The second time our fabulous estate agent, Colleen Ginn-Wotring, lent us her rental villa and we stayed a week. Between visits one and two, I absolutely memorized the map from top to bottom and front to back. I also memorized all the house plans. My husband and I got on the website every night checking the models and houses for sale. Hey, it was a fun way to spend winter evenings! That second visit really jelled things for us. We looked at quite a few homes, and narrowed in on what we really wanted. Colleen called us a few months later and told us "our perfect house in our perfect location" was going on the market the next day. We bought it sight unseen.

PS -- I agree with everything Tomwed said. I didn't do all that but I have superpowers. Just kidding. I wish I'd done all that.

thank-you
I didn't do all that either. I'm just monday morning quarterbacking.

[joldnol]

do the lifestyle! They throw in some nice things like a golf cart, bicycles, full kitchen, not sure if you still get a free movie and golf. After you are acclimated cruise around on your own. Go on a tour with a Village Realtor. The one that took us around four years ago is the one we bought from in October. Go online and look at properties from the villages.com site, zillow and foxfire. Also become familiar with the bond and maintenance fees. Also read reviews from various online sources. A book called Leisureville will give you a glimpse at some of the warts associated with the Villages. It is a biased view but most of the authors negative points were not negative to me. We looked and researched for four years before buying....have loved it now for four months even with all the damn snowbirds.

[joldnol]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

You only get the life style visit once, why waste it with three days, which IMO not enough time to get it all in. I would stay or plan trip when I could stay the full 6 or 7 days offered.

yes one lifestyle but we stayed two more times at the villas through our Realtor. we just didn't get the movie and golf the second and third time.

[LeeM]

We did the lifestyle twice and it was wonderful. The second time we got the villa but not the golf or movies...no biggie.

Now we are looking to move there!

[DebbieM]

We booked the lifestyle plan for Dec 2014. We never made it down because we bought a house online in Oct 2014. I have no regrets!

[VT2TV]

This place will sell itself, and I am so happy we are here. But a little advice that is meant to be helpful, because I wish someone had advised me to do the same--if at all possible, before you buy, try to spend some time here during the months of Jan-March. It is a totally different world here during that time than in May. In May, the crowd has dropped A LOT, less trafic and easier to get tee times if you golf. Make sure to visit the new Fruitland Park area that they are building. There will be 2000 more houses there when completed, and you may find something there that is worth the wait. Just some things to consider. If you are not quite ready to buy, don't bring your checkbook, because it is very hard to say no to a place like this.

[Walt.]

If you have a specific price limit on a house make that very clear to your Villages rep. You don't want to be shown a house priced at your limit and then after you've fallen in love with and are ready to close the deal hear "oh... and then with the bond added..."
If the rep says "Publix is just down the block" ask how big the "block" is. Some of the flyers at the open houses imply you could walk when Publix could actually be 3 miles away.
That said... there's nothing not to like here. My second day of the life style visit my thought was "this is nice... but..." The third day the Kool-Aid kicked in and we bought on the 4th day.

Like everyone has said, I did the lifestyle for a week and loved it. I'm going down again in May for a week and staying at a furnished house. We're putting our house here in Maryland on the market at the end of March and with any luck will move permanently by September. We're planning to sell everything we have here so we don't have to move it and pay storage, rent a furnished house for a year and then decide if we want to buy. We'll buy new stuff on the that end because our furniture just wouldn't look good in a Florida home. Many others have done the same thing.