Qualty vs price of house

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  #31  
Old 03-25-2019, 06:14 PM
HIgolfers HIgolfers is offline
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JoeBoroden- are you Carolyn's brother? I went to Cure of Ars with her. Moved to TV in May 2017. Love it here.
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Old 03-25-2019, 06:22 PM
JoeBoroden JoeBoroden is offline
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Again, thanks to everyone for your incites. I am a newbie checking out The Villages. In fact it took me awhile to figure out why everyone was talking about their TV’s! LOL

For the most part, I think we need to be more in the $400K region to get what we are used to and decide if we can pay that much or go more in the $250 to 300k range. Or move elsewhere. My wife is not as interested in the lifestyle but she hasnt tried it yet. I think I would enjoy it and I think she will too once she tries it. Either that or buy a house outside TV with a nice pool in the backyard.

Thanks for your input that you probably all have answered 1000 times from newbies like me.
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Old 03-25-2019, 06:26 PM
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Originally Posted by HIgolfers View Post
JoeBoroden- are you Carolyn's brother? I went to Cure of Ars with her. Moved to TV in May 2017. Love it here.
Ahh yes, Cure of Ars! I am the oldest and one year older than Carolyn. Then there is John, Paul, Dorothy, Mary, Michael, Teresa.

You can check Carolyn’s website www.fibinacciqueen.com or something close to that. She is on Jim Cramer’s show on MSNBC regularly as a stock charting technician. She wrote a book, does seminars, has an online advisory service, etc. I simply run an oil refinery. LOL
  #34  
Old 03-25-2019, 07:12 PM
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Originally Posted by Tom C View Post
I am still watching...looking ... and doing a lot of comparisons. Just had a major life change moment this past week (my mother passed away at the age of 97).... making the move time frame more variable (sooner?).

Meeting with my financial planner next week to go thru about 4 hours of "What If's" and updating our (me and my beautiful bride of 25 years) future planning.

For a well outfitted home (2.5+ garage, ~2500 SF, Pool, Privacy/view), looking at the range of $240-260 /SF. That would include any bond remaining - ALWAYS ASK about that.

Good luck
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Old 03-25-2019, 07:16 PM
valuemkt valuemkt is offline
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It's a difficult thing to get used to. If you;re looking for something larger than 2100 sq ft, or more than a 3/2, the pickings are slim until you get in the premier category.. and that will cost you substantially more than the 400's. You may get lucky and find a "stretched" designer that has bigger rooms or a bigger lanai, but most homes in the 400s and early 500s will be designers with a "premium" lot. Frankly, with the exception of some "gingerbread", I haven't found the finishings of premier homes to be that much better than late model designers. You will probably have a much nicer lanai area, possibly a pool/ spa there (if you consider that a plus), and some crown molding. We would prefer something in the 2800-3500 sf size, but the price / sf in that platform is significantly more than the already pricey designers. And, if you;re truly looking for a gourmet kitchen with high end appliances .. best of luck. And remember, gas is limited to non existent in most of the Villages. These arent complaints, just facts. If it weren;t for the amenities, we would not have made the purchase. It's a pretty binary decision. We sampled the Villages and like the lifestyles and amenities. The home prices are at least $ 50-60 /ft more than Atlanta and many Southeast cities.. but cheaper than many in Northeast. The amenity costs are a bargain, whether you golf or not. My pool cost alone in Atlanta is more than twice the amenity fee. So you make the tradeoffs and decided whether its worthwhile.
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Old 03-25-2019, 09:25 PM
queasy27 queasy27 is offline
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In all honesty, the majority of people who chose to live here downsized in order to do so, most of them happy to divest. If having a spacious, well appointed house is an important consideration, you will need to pay a premium price.
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Old 03-26-2019, 06:28 AM
charmed59 charmed59 is offline
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If you go to Realtor.com and put in filters there are lots of homes for sale under $400K over 2100 square feet. Most stretched designers fall into that category. There are most likely even more choices if you look at homes sold by the villages, but I don’t know how to search by size there.

I admit you usually can’t find a premier in that price ranges, but then again the smallest unstretched premiers are around 2600 sq ft. The larger ones are 3800 sq ft before they start stretching and customizing them. I’ve been in a few well over 4000, but those are very pricey.
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Old 04-03-2019, 01:07 PM
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We moved in a little under 2 months ago in DeSoto. We looked at numerous retirement places all over the state and kept coming back to The Villages. There is truly nothing like it in the places we explored. We decided to build because we fell in love with the lot which has a great view from the front. Otherwise we probably would have waited and bought a spec home when the prices reduced or a preowned. 4 days will not be enough to get a true feel for the place and you may come back several times over the next few years. Come back at different times of the year to get a feel for the community. One thing that always amazed us is how much the place grew in the time we were gone. Good luck on your journey.
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Old 04-03-2019, 02:23 PM
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“You are not buying a house, you are buying a Lifestyle.”

Last edited by Velvet; 04-13-2019 at 07:19 PM.
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Old 04-03-2019, 03:45 PM
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Before we decided to move to The Villages from up north, we rented for an entire month in The Villages in the month of May. We picked May because rentals were much less than in the winter months and were much easier to find; we also knew if the heat of May was too much, summer would be worse. We had lived in Georgia and Alabama during military assignments, so we had experienced southern summers. We rented for a month rather than do the "Lifestyle Visit" because we wanted time to explore, time to go to open houses and observe various floorpans, time to acquire all the information we needed to make a well informed decision, time to learn about the requirements of the financial aspects of buying such as time to closing, amount of down payment, mortgages, etc. We wanted to learn everything positive and anything that might be a negative deal breaker. We planned to downsize from our northern home, but still wanted the square footage of a designer (1900 to 2000 sq ft) with two bedrooms and a den or three bedrooms, two baths, a golf cart garage, a Roman shower, an extended lanai, and a slightly extended garage. Our planned budget did not allow a premium lot nor did we want one.

We are very satisfied with our choice of location, lot size, home design, and the multitude of activities we "could" choose to participate in. We do not run ourselves ragged with activities and actually have more time to ourselves than time obligated to "doing something". I now need to go get ready to go to a concert. Good luck on experiencing The Villages and hope you gather the right information to make a decision that will make you both happy.
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  #41  
Old 04-03-2019, 06:24 PM
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I am still looking... but I feel I must chime in here again: “quality” is a very subjective term. I won’t go into all the ins and outs of that, but I think we can agree that what some think is quality, others may not agree. I think what we are really talking about in that respect is finishes that one may expect to have (counter top materials, appliance appearance, flooring type, updated fixtures, etc.) in the home we intend to buy. This looking (like us) should put a value on these. That value should be based on the cost to install our “quality” ( i.e. the cost to install the counter top materials we want should the home not have it, the cost to install the flooring we want if the house does not have it, etc.).

The things that one can not change include: the location, a panaramic view, house orientation, etc.. These things are not changeable and should be show stoppers if they dont meet our (the buyer) needs /desires.

I know this is all very logical and a home purchase should be logical and not emotional, however I bet that far more than 50% of home purchases are emotional.... use my guess.

Ok, I am done... please feel free to comment on my opinion... that is why this forum is here.

Cheers, Tom
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Old 04-03-2019, 06:53 PM
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Last edited by Velvet; 04-13-2019 at 07:20 PM.
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Old 04-03-2019, 09:28 PM
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Came from TX 9 yrs ago and could not believe what we paid for less house not on 10 acres. Also lived in our area for 2 years after retirement. You find out very quick that there are not many people around during the daytime to do a whole lot with. We new from others that had moved to FL, CO and other places that we lived in a housing fairytale land. All that said we would not trade a day we have been here for anything else. Houses to us are not an investment any longer but a place to stay and live our life. Find out what you want to do in retirement and work it from there.
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Old 04-07-2019, 09:03 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photo1902 View Post
So for 20 years you've had absolutely no problem with your shower, yet you found "serious problems with framing" and the drain location?
So, some have no clue how things are constructed IAW standards. Just cause he didn’t have problem don’t mean there wasn’t one.
  #45  
Old 04-08-2019, 01:11 PM
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The houses in TV are mostly basic tract homes. TV's houses are not Palm Beach or even toll Brothers quality. To me choosing to buy in TV is analogous to a family buying a house located in a quality school district versus one in an area having low quality schools. People with school age children will pay more for a basic house in an excellent school district than they will for an expensively constructed house in a district having low quality schools. Similarly, seniors are willing to pay more, even far more, for a house in TV than the same house would cost in an area lacking the amenities and lifestyle TV has to offer for seniors.

So much in real estate boils down to the desirability of a particular location. The Villages is a highly desirable community for active seniors for many, many reasons which is why it continues to grow so rapidly.
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Last edited by manaboutown; 04-08-2019 at 04:46 PM.
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