[N'awlins Lady]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Our friends who gave us the k.. water to drink on our first visit .

Gracie...you get an A for effort! Good Girl!


Trudy

[kandj]

We worked with "The Twins". We met with Jean when we first looked, although at that time we were "just looking", then we came back over the Christmas holidays and searched around with June. We were back over Labor Day and saw some more with Jean and found one we liked. When we made the offer we had both twins with us. Great team.

Kim

[Rag Bagger]

We bought in 08. When we came here we were still traveling in our RV. It was a five year adventure that was winding down and it was time, for us , to buy a house again and have roots.

We came with the intention to buy a pre-owned. Largely because the older areas really are gorgeous because of all the mature and developed landscaping. We had an RV to live in so we had all the time in the world to look. After tree weeks looking at pre-owned our very patient VLS agent said, lets go on a time trip.

First she took us to new house, the one we really liked but the yard was very barren compared to pre-owned. Then we went to a two year old neighborhood, a four year old. The older neighborhoods were more desirable to us. But her point was in Two years it will look like this in Four even better. Landscaping is installed with relatively mature trees overnight. The rest of your scrubs and plantings will be well developed in two years.

As stated in earlier post's it's not necessarily cheaper to buy new but you do get what you want and in a couple years it will look more developed than what you would expect. Stuff down here grows year round and fast, not like up North so keep that in mind. All those goodies do ad up so pre-owned may be less in the long run.

Watch the bond cost. On new you pay it all/ On older it can be a significant reduction in your home cost.

We used both MLS and VLS agents. The VLS agent, for us, was better, well informed and seemed to have our interest in mind. They are not pushy and will back off if your body language says to. They are skilled at what they do and their success rate proves that. They are truly friendly folks that know how to make money and at the same time make happy customers. A win/win situation.

[armywrestle]

Yesterday I asked a question about closing cost in another thread. Gracie was kind enough to answer.

I was looking at Lyle Gant's website. It showed a comparison for new VS. existing homes and the closing cost for both. It showed 10K for 'impact fees, ect" as a clsoing cost on new. His comparison shows a difference of almost 11K more on a 200k new home. Is this correct?

Thanks for all the information on TOTV, we are trying to sort thru everything and making the correct decision. I am hoping this is the last major decision in life.

[English Ivy]

Originally Posted by armywrestle

Yesterday I asked a question about closing cost in another thread. Gracie was kind enough to answer.

I was looking at Lyle Gant's website. It showed a comparison for new VS. existing homes and the closing cost for both. It showed 10K for 'impact fees, ect" as a clsoing cost on new. His comparison shows a difference of almost 11K more on a 200k new home. Is this correct?

Thanks for all the information on TOTV, we are trying to sort thru everything and making the correct decision. I am hoping this is the last major decision in life.

For new construction "settlement fees" used to be added on to the price of the home, anywhere from $7000 to $10,000 depending upon the style of the home. When we purchased our ranch home in Duval in early 2007 those fees were added (I believe it was around $8,000). So you had the price of the house, the settlement fees and the bond.

Sometime in late 2007 or early 2008 when the market started to tank they did away with the settlement fees and included them into the price of the home. So then you had the price of the home and the bond. When we bought our designer in late 2008 there were no settlement fees.

Regardless of how they're listed the buyers are paying those costs whether they are separate or rolled into the house price.

[armywrestle]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Raen Dear]

Originally Posted by rugbyjohn

Can't thank you all enough for the great information. Now a followup. When we visited TV earlier this year we did the tour with an agent from the Villages. Was just not impressed with the unnamed person, which was proven out by zero followup. Now we wnat to get a Villages agent, but not this one. How would anyone recommend we find a good Villages agent?
Thanks

We recently visited TV and Addam Roma was our assigned agent. We thought he was terrific and he followed up on our requests even though we were in "just looking" mode.