When comparing price of new vs pre owned, you need to consider the after market upgrades the pre owned has. Things like painted/coated driveway.garage, water systems, screening, solar tubes, plantation shutters, etc.
That is one reason why pre owned are listed at a higher price.
Don’t forget to investigate the bond. New home are probably in the $30,000 ranges, pre owned may by in the 10,000 to 15,000 range or may be paid off.

Villages agents are just that they work for the villages as a sales agent - not as a buyers agent. They only show Villages listed preowned and new
MLS agents are real estate agents - when you use them as a buyer they are your agent, not the sellers. They can only sell MLS listed preowned properties. They do not have rights to show the new properties. You can find MLS homes on Zillow, realtor.com, etc.
Do not forget for sale by owner too - that is what we ended up with. It just met our needs, price & timing was perfect.
Work with both (Villages & MLS) as they are separate pools of homes.

Regardless of which sales agent/source you use, be sure to have a home inspection done by an inspector who is NOT associated with the sales agent. Any inspector who is so aligned has a conflict of interest that motivates them to avoid reporting items that might adversely affect the sale. It happened to me.

Agree
 

Same here!

Amenity fees usually between 150 and 160 per month.

We actually went through Redfin and bought a pre owned home. We are in our 50s (early 60s). I wanted to be near my sisters and they are in the older sections. Our bond was paid off so that would be something to consider. I enjoy living on a pond, near Savannah, not too far from Sumter, Spanish Springs, and shopping. I also enjoy remodeling. Location matters of course. With that in mind, I enjoy going to the new sections catering to the younger retirees with trails, open air market, etc. and closer to the airport. They say the average Villager moves 3x… so who knows. Enjoy your stay!

Definitely look at both! Villages realtors work for the Villages, they are NOT realtors and will only show you their homes!! Only if you find a home snd insist will they show you others!! Beware!! Have both a licensed realtor and a villages realtor. Also, they won’t allow a licensed realtor to show their homes!!

This summer we purchased a pre-owned home in the area we wanted. While we had both a MLS Realtor and TV sales person, we had to change the TV sales person because they simply refused to show us enough pre-owned houses and tried to push new houses way down south. The second TV person did a good job, but we found the house we wanted and bought through the MLS realtor.

In my experience working with both, I would never use VLS. You are not offered the protections that an MLS must adhered to. A friend recently bought an older home owned by the villages. They went ahead and hired their own inspector and gave her the report - unethical IMO.

If you want to see every house for sale in TV, then you will need both MLS & TV. TV handle about twice the sales of resales and 100% of new. The “line” about TV agents are not realtors is spun by MLS agents, because TV can not sell MLS and vice versa……BOTH are licensed by the state of Florida. Some of TV agents get along with MLS and can work together. You can only see MLS homes on MLS, and only see TV homes on TV website. As with any transaction, get agents you like and trust, there are good & bad in both organizations.

Very important location! Location! and community travel if you cannot drive.

MLS or Villages realtors
 

When my husband and I moved here, we had no idea that we had a choice between the Villages realtors and MLS realtors. In hindsight, I wish we had slowed down a little bit and looked at all our options for buying. We actually LOVE the home we chose to purchase from our Villages agent, but we didn’t realize The Villages agents couldn’t show homes listed by MLS agents and vice versa. Therefore, we limited our choices of homes to see and possibly purchase. So….my advice is to use both Villages and MLS agents. As far as amenity fees, to my understanding they are all different. We do not pay anything near to $500 a month.

What are they licensed for?

Remember you will have a BOND on new or newer construction. Paid with taxes. Many realtors never mention that important fact!

FYI, if you go onto YouTube, you will find some videos that share what the cost per year are for someone to live in The Villages. They will vary but, at least you will have some idea. Enjoy your adventure while visiting TV.