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Status:
"Octopi tastes like snake"
(set 10 days ago)
Location: in the miseries
3,573 posts, read 4,482,919 times
Reputation: 4400
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Retirement community 'the Villages' in Florida offers a lifestyle
package. It includes many amenities to show you the
life of this retirement area.
Has anyone here tried it?
Any comments did you like it?
Sales push? I did post this
in Florida, but I think here was a
better choice.
I haven't gone to the one in The Villages, but have been to several of these package deals in other communities. FWIW, I found them quite enjoyable.
You do have to be willing to tour the community and amenities with a sales rep and look at a few models--but I enjoy doing that so it was ok by. Most of the time the sales push was relatively low key. They give you lots of coupons to try out the golf course, tennis, etc. but in the places we liked the best we opted to spend our time walking around the gathering spots and talking to a few residents to see if they liked the place. If you're a golfer, I'd suggest hitting the driving range instead of taking up a whole morning doing the links.
The only bad experiences we had were in a few places in WV, and I think that was because they knew people were going there looking for free weekends in the mountains.
We liked it when we went and the saleman was def. not pushy, at the time we had a coupon for a restaurant, discount at a movie etc (not sure if they still do that any more). The area is beautiful and there's tons of activities, lots of friendly ppl but we ended up buying in another area but TV was high on our list. We kind of like the golf cart idea (alth. we don't golf).
I grew up about 1 hour north of The Villages.
Depends on what you want out of life ....
Married, kids, wife ?
Enjoy stability and controlled environment ?
A lot of rules ?
I suppose when I get to be 70, maybe I will be there, not sure but I love being on the ocean in a plush Condo.
Great area, clean, good people, quiet, all white area.
What more could one ask for?
Myself, retired young guy, single, 48, I prefer adventure.
Never heard a bad word about The Villages !!
If I was married for 40 + years, grand kids, yea I might settle there.
If you get bored, you can always move to Miami Beach !!
We actually did a day visit there. It was kind of last minute just to see what all the "hoopla" was about.
We did enjoy the area and was amazed at how huge the place was. We did talk with a sales person and visited a bunch of model homes. I can agree that the sales was very low key, absolutely no pressure at all. But I suspect that a lot of it is because they have no problems selling the homes. We also walked around the Lake Sumter area and enjoyed that. We were told about the lifestyle visit and encouraged to take one at sometime. Our concerns were absolutely not with the community, but with the summers in FL. Our sales person also signed us up for a monthly newsletter, which is very informative.
If you haven't seen it yet, here is a link to the information on the package: The Villages - Lifestyle Preview Plan I'm sure you will enjoy your visit.
Those people look awfully young and active. I saw nary a wheelchair, walker, or even a cane. They made no mention in the video of available nursing sevices or handicapped living. We're all old on this forum and those are the sorts of things likely in our future.
I'd been wondering about buying a place for a winter getaway but with moving animals, books, and all sorts of other things I realized the dream would be a nightmare. Bsides, I won't subject myself to hot summers.
Now, if they were to build a place in Wyoming with forty acre parcels and seek out residents over seventy that could be a winner. There could still be restaurants for resideents only with plenty of items on the menu for the toothlees youthless. But in my opinion the best selling point would be a policy to help residents stay out nursing homes.
Been there, done that and loved it!! The lifestyle preview package is a good way to visit The Villages for the first time. You do get a tour of the place and see homes for sale but little or no pressure from the sales rep. No need for pressure sales the place sells itself. Go to "The Villages Florida Photographs" facebook page which is dedicated to sharing photos of The Villages and check out the Photos!
There are threads in the Florida forum that provide detailed information on the Villages.
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