Work with your Villages agent. Some on this site think they are there to sell only new.....not true. As one suggested Tony Trussler, and I agree with his choice, they will show you what ever you desire without pressure. The others suggesting using an non Villages Realtor is a little misleading. The non Villages Realtor can only show you homes not listed by The Villages, and vice versa, The Villages agent can not show the MLS listings, unless the two sides have an agreement between them (which some do). If you do some advance due diligence on TheVillages.com (which shows both new and preowned) and compare to MLS, you will see that TheVillages.com has the mass majority of homes available. Becareful, some of the MLS are in areas with a 'village' in the name but are not part of The Villages property and do not come wtih TV amenities.

I think your visit will be a bit different from most of us, due to COVID19. You can still get a good feel for the area, play golf, and maybe go to some of the restaurants that are now opened. If you play tennis or pickleball, and have your own stuff, the courts are opened (except when closed groups are playing, and that's all noted on the weekly activity info). Some of the shops are now opened as well, but none of the town square activities have started back up. I'm not sure if the trolley tours are working. If all was up and running, I would definitely encourage you to do 5-7day, but now, 2-3 nights/3-4 days may be all that you need. There are great maps that can be purchased in the gift shops if they are . If not, I'm sure your rep/tour guide/host person could get some for you. Open houses are now back up and running, and your host person should probably be able to get you in to some homes for sale, if you are ready for that. The Villages agents can only show you homes listed by The Villages, so, if, in riding around, you see a home listed by another group, you have to contact them. (It's perfectly ok to have an agent through The Villages, and MLS). Our Lifestyle was awesome. The villas/bungalos that they use are lovely. Ours was just across the street from Brownwood It was 3/2, 2 car garage, 2 bikes, 1 golf cart, and fenced in yard, so we could bring our dog. I would encourage you to come now, if you have the time, but, if you don't think you are ready to buy yet, 3-4 days may be enough for now, since so much is still not opened. We LOVE IT HERE, and our agent (that we had when we came back to rent, make sure we wanted to buy) was awesome! Please feel free to pm me if you have any other questions!

My wife and I did it twice before we moved here. No pressure and clean home!

As far as agents, if you want a resale home instead of a new home. There are normally about 200 plus homes for sale on MLS (a Realtor database) and about 200 plus homes listed with The Villages Agency (non MLS agents). To see all the used resales you will need two agents. To see new homes, only a Villages Agent can show them.

On your own, you can do just about everything an agent can do as far as some research. Here are the 200 plus homes for sale on MLS, it's called Zillow.

The Villages Real Estate - The Villages FL Homes For Sale | Zillow

Here are the resales listed with The Villages

Homefinder - The Villages(R) Homes and Villas for Sale

The villa that you stayed in sounds perfect. We also have dogs so we will definitely want to buy a house with a fenced in back yard and, in my mind right now, the idea of being within walking distance to the action in one of the town squares sounds nice. It would be great to be able to walk over to one of the restaurants for dinner and drinks. I'm really looking forward to checking TV out and I appreciate your willingness to answer our questions. Thank you.

The CYVs where they hold the LSV now is Alden Bungalows, that's next to Brownwood. Here's a villa in Alden. CYVs all have fenced yards and you can find CYV communities near all three squares. A house with a fenced yard will be much more difficult. They only built a few single family homes with fences in the Pine Ridge area and when they come on the market they go very fast and are 5 miles from Brownwood square. Also in the new area south of 44 they have Veranda Homes, which are homes with a fence, but they have no square. Unlike when we bought our villa, it was very hard to find one with a two car garage, Alden Bungalows will have 2 car garages on almost every unit.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...sizerender-jpg

From Alden Bungalows you could walk to Brownwood Square, but you have to cross Powell Rd, which is 4 lanes with a medium and can be busy. You'll have a golf cart, take that cart through the tunnel to the right when you exit the villas and you'll come out across Powell Rd. The big brown brick building you'll see probably first is MVP Health Club, I usually go there about 3 or 4 days a week. It's actually not owned by TV, but if you have United Health Medicare Advantage through TV your membership is free, otherwise it's $60 a month. I would take a tour while your there, unless you're are totally against working out and gym classes.

A good place for a quick lunch is McAlister's Deli, it's two doors down from MVP. You also have Five Guys Hamburgers right after that, and World of Beer also has hamburgers. On Saturday mornings there is a Farmer's Market at Brownwood, and evey night at 5pm is a live band during normal times. Friday night is market night, so you'll see vendor tents set up around the square selling everything from the lamp post name signs to purses and sunglasses.

If you continue east of the square in your car, the next 4 lane divided road that is parallel to Powell Rd. is Buena Vista, that is one of the two north south main roads. If you got on Buena Vista and went north, you could go 15 miles and would be at the opposite end of TV. If you're a veteran, we have a 99,000 sf VA medical center at that end. That area is called Mulberry because the Rec Center and Shopping Center have that name. The maps would handy, they're $5 at the country clubs, the sales office, or best yet, go in the sales office and tell them your salesman said they should give you a map, it worked for me. Something we didn't have as much access nine years ago as they do now when I came, was google maps. Just dial in zip code 32162, which is the center part of TV and pick satellite view and you can see the roads and the landscape. You can check out street view and a lot of other things, although TV builds so quickly, many areas will only be areas of dirt when looked at even through now they're are roads and houses.

Very low pressure experience. Essentially it is a vacation for you to experience several shows, dinners, dances, games, etc. that interest YOU. You can look at several houses or just experience the villages.
We came with our pets, meet with our realtor to discuss interests, things we like to do. We left our fur babies in the nice tiled home near Brownwood while we toured the place by car and with the realtor. We went to the Sharon, Katie Belles, A Christmas dance, and restaurants. There was so much to do. Our golf cart was slow and basic, probably the worst memory of the trip. It needed Geritol.

We highly recommend Lifestyles. You could also rent for a month and make your own plans, but it was nice to have the realtors assistance. They really listen to you.

Our visit was 10 years ago so not sure it is the same. We came with another couple and got a big house with a golf cart and bike. Our sales person Nanette was awesome. She said this place sells itself. We had to ask her to show us some places for sale. They gave us tickets for shows and golf. They gave us coupons for restaurants such as Arnold Palmers. We stayed a week. It was a great experience!

The Life Style Visit
 

My wife and I came for a lifestyle visit last year May 2019. We were treated like royalty. We had a three bedroom villa in the Atwood section which is right next to Brownwood Paddock Square. They give you passes to just about everything imaginable you get a golf cart and two Bicycles. whoever is assigned to you for the week which is usually one of The Villages realtors Who plays both roles as a customer service person who shows you all the exciting things to do in the villages as well as giving you the opportunity to see some beautiful homes that are for sale here in The Villages. My wife and I were just blown away on how well we were treated and how much fun we had we were actually depressed when we had to go back home. But now fast forward one year later we have a beautiful new home here in The Villages and we’ve never been happier.

Looking at The Villages website it appears that they're currently selling the Lifestyle homes in the Alden Bungalows.. Did they move the Lifestyle accommodations farther south near the newer communities?

Judging from the comments by the poster just before yours, Chitown said they stayed in Atwood Bungalows in May 2019. Alden Bungalows were built about 2016 on Powell Rd behind Traverse Shopping Center. In 2018 they decided to build another Bungalow villa section directly next to it, and just south called Atwood. They have a different name and their own entrance. The Villages Brownwood Medical Center also opened in 2018 directly across the street, which is where I see my doctor, and the Brownwood Hotel and Advanced Medical Center just opened, in fact I went to a doctor there last week. They are just west towards Wildwood and Traverse Shopping with Publix is next to that and south of Atwood/Alden.

It looks like the LSV have moved from Alden into Atwood, a move of about 100 yards, this allows them to sell off Alden. Here's a photo when Atwood was under construction January 2018. That's Alden Bungalows the finished units at the top and Atwood below them.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...dji_0152_1-jpg

Here's the location on a map, just zoom out to see the entire area. This satellite photo is probably 6 years old, not even the shopping center is there, Publix opened in October 2014 at Traverse.

Google Maps

Brownwood Hotel & Spa (150 rooms and Wolfgang Puck Restaurant) and Advanced Care Medical Center just opened.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eUpP8stfUJw/maxresdefault.jpg

Traverse Shopping Center (a one minute golf cart ride from Atwood)

https://www.ajc.com/rf/image_lowres/...publix_445.jpg

We went last month for our lifestyle visit for 6 nights. We played golf and lots of golf cart rides. But mostly we were super busy with out two agents looking at homes. This was the sole purpose of our visit for us. We knew we wanted to buy something as my mom is local and is ailing so I will be staying in new house to help care for her until my husband retires. I move down there in a week. We didn’t even visit a pool. We were pretty busy with the agents.

No one will pressure you

Get ready to drink a big dose of the Kool Aid.

I did a Lifestyle visit last December for 5 days / 4 nights. It was nice to stay in one of the Villa Homes, but I must be honest and say the time I had for my own exploration was not enough. The tour was informative but after about 30 minutes you kind of wish the guide would turn off the canned sales pitch and just provide information, I get it TV is big and beautiful!

Advice.... download the TV phone GPS/Map app to use while you are in the golf cart, EXTREMELY easy to get lost if you are on your own.

One of the things that I immediately noticed was that the people I was able to interact with were not as “friendly” as advertised, I took this observation with a grain of salt since I know more time is needed.

Most people I did speak with who wanted to engage in friendly conversation said RENT first before purchasing and that is exactly what I am doing. As of this month, I have a lease for 6 months with an option to go a year if needed. With COVID19 on everyone mind housing prices should remain stable or show minimal increase over the next year.