The Villages upcoming visit

[Tailgate]

Greetings.. is it Monday?

DW and I are visiting friends in Fla in March... considering a side visit of 4 days at the Villages to check out the place. We most likely will not move there, but will find a community closer to home (Texas). The visit to The Villages would serve to gather information about questions and issues we would need to consider when we do consider the move to Sun City or similar.

Any advice about the visit? Booking tips or ideas, must-dos, what to expect? Thanks for any insight!

Go Seahawks!!!

 

[Jack_Pine]

We did the life style visit there 3 years ago. They rent you a place and give you a golf cart. they give you an orientation and then want to do some showings of homes. We knew we were not going to buy there but went on the showings to get a feel for the area.

I would suggest to be VERY active. Use their facilities, go to the 3 town square during the day and at night. Use the heck out of that golf cart. Use it to get groceries and such.n It will give you a good feel for a very structured place with a TON of stuff to do by cart.

We did not like it and bought south of there in a gated much calmer place and we love it. There are times I wish we could do as much by cart as we could in the villages, just too structured for my taste up there... We do go up to the town squares once in awhile though.

 

[Revlefty]

My son (who works at the library)found a book he thought I'd like to read. It is called "Leisureville". It is the history and story of The Villages and the Del Webb Sun City developments. It was really very
Interesting even though I do not plan to move there.


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[Bamaman]

The Villages would be nice for some, but it's hard to take Texas out of a Texan.

Texas is a big place, and fortunately South Texas has pretty good weather too.

 

[imoldernu]

Greetings.. is it Monday?

DW and I are visiting friends in Fla in March... considering a side visit of 4 days at the Villages to check out the place. We most likely will not move there, but will find a community closer to home (Texas). The visit to The Villages would serve to gather information about questions and issues we would need to consider when we do consider the move to Sun City or similar.

Any advice about the visit? Booking tips or ideas, must-dos, what to expect? Thanks for any insight!

Go Seahawks!!!

Do a search here in ER... At least 8 fairly recent discussions on different aspects. Also, of course, The Villages Website to receive a DVD and some of the visit "deals"...

 

[Clone]

Too expensive, too social, and too structured for this crowd.

We looked into it a few years back. It seemed a bit too 'Disney World' for us. A bit too much show. And, true this board, we are probably not the most social creatures on the planet. There is at least one Villages forum. Seemed like a number of petty landscaping patrols and a few folks who took it upon themselves to police the neighborhood for compliance checks. I suspect that there are a few retired folks who feel it necessary to continue their management careers into the neighborhoods. Sorta small-town stuff for a big place.

A coworker's parents were moving there. Golf is their thing. 5 times a week unless they don't have company on the weekends. Maybe it makes sense for them.

We never ruled it out completely, but I would rent a place for a year before buying into it.

 

[beltonr]

Made the decision to retire and move to Florida last summer. Decided generally on central Florida. Went to Florida Retirement Communities & Active Adult Communities | 55 Places to check out the over-55 communities in central Florida - there are 45, at last count. Used the 55places.com website to start our search, went to the individual sites, blogs, discussion groups, etc. and started whittling the number down. Had it down to the top three by early November, plus wanted to see The Villages although expected it to be too big/crowded for our taste. Visited Stone Creek, the Del Webb community near Ocala (VERY nice, especially if you golf), Legacy of Leesburg, The Villages and Lakes of Mount Dora. Lakes of Mount Dora was our unanimous choice. Looked into new construction as well as resales. The "perfect" three year old home had just hit the market. We were told two competing offers were already in the works and we wouldn't have a chance. Two days later neither offer had materialized, we jumped on it, offer was accepted that day. We closed on it 14 January. Current home just sold, close in February. Retirement date is 30 January. 16 February we will make the one-way drive south!

 

[boog]

beltonr, a timely post. We're traveling to Ocala this weekend to look at a potential move to a 55+ community. We visited The Villages last summer, as well as a few other places. The Villages wasn't for us. We briefly visited Stone Creek on the way home and liked (what little) we saw. We're going back this weekend to get a better look. What made you pick Lakes of Mount Dora over Stone Creek?

 

[beltonr]

boog, we like the "feel" of LOMD better than Stone Creek. Not a knock on Stone Creek, but LOMD had more of a "community" feel. We're not golfers so that didn't matter. LOMD doesn't have its own golf course although there are several near by. I am a boater and LOMD has its own "chain-of-lakes" with 70% water view (no power boats in these waters). Lake County has 1400 lakes and LOMD has free boat/RV storage. Really like the looks of the town of Mount Dora, 12,000 occupants, very quaint, artsy/craftsy. LOMD is in the city limits but feels like it's outside, surrounded by fields and horse farms. 30 miles north of Orlando, far enough away to not be "in" Orlando but close enough to run to the airport, shopping, Disney, etc. We're making a trip down this weekend to tow the boat down, "camp out" in the new house over the weekend prior to the final move mid-February.

 

[Amethyst]

Spent my young adult years in south Florida. Seem to recall that central Florida has all the heat and humidity, without any ocean or Gulf breezes. Strange that it has become so popular.

Amethyst

 

[boog]

beltonr, sounds like you found the right place for you! Looks like boaters' paradise. We're neither golfers nor boaters, but are looking for a great cycling location. Both Ocala and Mount Dora appear to offer great cycling opportunities. It has become somewhat of a job trying to evaluate all the choices of communities and come to some kind of conclusion. I guess one could be happy in several different places. Congrats on your upcoming move!

 

[boog]

Central Florida is much like southwest Georgia - hot and humid - so not much of a change for us, should we move there. At least we're used to it!

 

[beltonr]

We're not much farther away - moving from Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Jack_Pine]

Spent my young adult years in south Florida. Seem to recall that central Florida has all the heat and humidity, without any ocean or Gulf breezes. Strange that it has become so popular.

Amethyst

Not that strange if you don't want the insurance up charge for higher risk of hurricane damage (living on the coast).

We sought out central FL. Can go to either coast in a reasonable time.

 

[boog]

We're actually evaluating two areas for relocating to - central Florida and Sun City Peachtree just south of Atlanta. We need to stay within reasonable driving distance to DW's parents, which is about halfway between these two areas. We really like SCP, but Florida taxes look better for us, as we're not quite old enough to get Georgia's exemptions. Cost of living appears to be similar. We probably have several more months to decide - just listed our house for sale this week.

 

[mpeirce]

Spent my young adult years in south Florida. Seem to recall that central Florida has all the heat and humidity, without any ocean or Gulf breezes. Strange that it has become so popular.

Amethyst

I have one parent living in Lake County (Tavares) and one living in Fort Lauderdale. Both are fine, but the cost of living in central Florida is significantly lower from what I see.

The summers anywhere in Florida seem brutal to me, but my folks don't seem to mind it too much.

 

[Jack_Pine]

Lakes of Mount Dora was our unanimous choice. Looked into new construction as well as resales. The "perfect" three year old home had just hit the market. We were told two competing offers were already in the works and we wouldn't have a chance. Two days later neither offer had materialized, we jumped on it, offer was accepted that day. We closed on it 14 January. Current home just sold, close in February. Retirement date is 30 January. 16 February we will make the one-way drive south!

We are just south of Legacy and love the area. Mount Dora is so cute. Clermont and Leesburg have all the shopping we need. We love our community. If we were looking now we would also have looked at Lakes of Mount Dora. Ours is also a Pringle community as well. They do a great job of laying out neighborhoods.

 

[THINKER]

Ooooo! I am following this post with great interest! The Villages have been on our radar, but we have several (eight) years until be reach 55. Lakes of Mount Dora looks interesting, too!

 

[MRG]

Spent my young adult years in south Florida. Seem to recall that central Florida has all the heat and humidity, without any ocean or Gulf breezes. Strange that it has become so popular.

Amethyst

Yea, but you're in the Florida mountains. @ 184'.

It is nice, we did a 3 day stay at Lakes of Mt. Dora. Pringle does a nice job and Mt. Dora is nice.
The fear of summer heat was a factor for us, but it's just a fear not a known.

My parents were 10 miles or so from the Atlantic not sure how much breeze they really got. They did have two floods, not from hurricanes, heavy rains and a blocked drainage system a mile away.

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[mpeirce]

The fear of summer heat was a factor for us, but it's just a fear not a known.
[/QUOTE]

When my DM moved to Florida she rented first before buying. She moved down there in July to see if the summer heat was going to be OK with her. It was...

 

[bmcgonig]

I must say I know little about Florida , but I do kinda like hot weather, so it's on my retirement radar. One thing I've noticed when looking at some houses on trulia is that many have pools with glass houses surrounding them. I assume it's for bugs etc., are the bugs that bad that it's preferable to have a glass house over the pool?


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[Jack_Pine]

I must say I know little about Florida , but I do kinda like hot weather, so it's on my retirement radar. One thing I've noticed when looking at some houses on trulia is that many have pools with glass houses surrounding them. I assume it's for bugs etc., are the bugs that bad that it's preferable to have a glass house over the pool?

They are called lanai's and most are screens not glass. We have one around our pool. It keeps blowing stuff out of the pool along with bugs. Some think the bugs are bad I don't think they are that bad (except the love bugs twice a year for a couple of weeks.

However, the wife likes being totally bug free by the pool.

 

[Nunthewiser]

"kinda like hot weather"...HAHAHAHAHA. Do you like hot weather ALL the time. Like even right now? I am over it....when it gets to be 80 routinely in January I am sick of it.

 

[braumeister]

One thing I've noticed when looking at some houses on trulia is that many have pools with glass houses surrounding them. I assume it's for bugs etc., are the bugs that bad that it's preferable to have a glass house over the pool?

My friend who lives on Florida's east coast has that, and he says all their neighbors do as well.

I think it's partly to keep the gators out (they are frequent visitors to his backyard), but also they practically live out in that room. Very nice on cold evenings!

 

[MRG]

My friend who lives on Florida's east coast has that, and he says all their neighbors do as well.

I think it's partly to keep the gators out (they are frequent visitors to his backyard), but also they practically live out in that room. Very nice on cold evenings!

My parents lived on the east coast also, the noseeums could be unpleasant at times.

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