Lakes of Mount Dora (Tampa, Ocala: sales, foreclosures, crime)

[besmart]

Interested in Lakes Of Mount Dora adult community. Prices seem high for
this time, $350,000 for a 3bm/2bh home, cinder block construction with lake
view incls. land. Anyone can give info on this development? Pringle is
developer. Is this a good deal, good developer, and nice place to live?? Any info will be greatly apprciated. Thanks,

[Penelope55]

Hi besmart,
This isn't really an answer, but I'm interested in Lakes of Mt. Dora too. from what I hear, the town of Mt. Dora is nice. We're going to take a look in Oct. The prices seem ok compared with Solivita in Poinciana. Good luck with your search!

[Viv Katz]

You will get much more bang for your buck in Mount Dora vs. Poinciana! I would need to research 55+ market, but $350K does seem very high ... you can e-mail me your contact info & i will run a Comparative Market Analysis for you this weekend ... thanks!

[besmart]

Hi, did you go to Lakes of Mt. Dora, and if so what did you think? Did you purchase?
We are planning a trip end of August so your input would be appreciated.

[Joe S]

Lakes of mount Dora is a beautiful 55 or older comnunity. Prices in this development have always been way out of line for the area. Lots are very over priced. Look into other pringle communities such as Legacy, Royal Harbor for attractive resale prices. Many resales and foreclosures in Lakes of mount Dora also selling below market value.

[besmart]

Hi, my husband and I visited both Lakes of Mt. Dora and Summer Glen recently. I must say that
we fell in love with Summer Glen. The place is beautiful, the people are friendly, and all around
great feeling of good will. Unfortunately, we did not feel the same about Lakes of Mt. Dora. First
of all Mt. Dora is not a golf community, and although we DO NOT play golf, the fact that Summer
Glen is a golf community gives the place a beautiful look- very green, very neat, etc. Mt. Dora
has a lot of private lots that have not been built on, the owners are trying to get out and the
lots are scattered all over. This gives Mt. Dora an unattractive look. Also, Mt. Dora is owned by
the employees. To us this was a negative. They sell you the home and lot separately, so really
you end up paying much more then you should for the home. Everyone we saw at Mt. Dora
were sad looking I hate to say it, but although I am sure there are many, many happy owners,
we did NOT get a positive feeling. On the other hand, the prices at Summer Glen, although not
really cheap, were more affordable. Don't forget that by the time you finish adding in the "upgrades" which you will surely need, the price goes up. This is true for both places. We stayed
at each place on the visitors program. Mt. Dora did not allow you to use the garage in the
guest house! You had to park in the driveway and it rained when we were there, so you guessed
it, we got wet. At SummerGlen, we had use of the garage, and they give you use of a golf cart
which enables you to drive around and talk with people that you encounter. Great Fun. Although
we did not purchase this time around, we surely feel that we will end up in Summer Glen. Loved It.

[Penelope55]

We have just returned from visiting Lakes of Mount Dora, Citrus Hills and Solivita.
We met the people of Mount Dora and loved them. The sales people were accommodating and even had us sit with a designer to customize a home to help with our decision. What bothered us was the amount of empty lots and the beautiful clubhouse was always empty. We saw no activities director or even card games going on. When we got to making a decision, the sales director informed us of a foreclosure problem with phases 3 & 4, which we should not be concerned about. We were.

We proceeded to Citrus Hills, located above Tampa. Beautiful, but not a dedicated 55+ community. Once you drive out of the gates, there was nothing so we left there.

Our last stop was Solivita. The complex is beautiful. It had all the amenities we wanted and we did put in a proposal for one of the homes already built. The only down side seems to be the crime problem in Poinciana. Although Solivita seems secure in itself, I was looking for some feedback on the problem. Everyone we spoke with assured us Solivita was safe, but I would be grateful for any input so we can make a sound decision before we hear back with a counter offer. Thanks for your help- Penelope

[Honeycrisp]

Would also be concerned about empty lots, sad faces and an empty clubhouse. Stone Creek is supposed to be very nice too (in the Ocala forum), also The Villages. They're not near the ocean but have other perks. Might be worth a trip there to check them out.