Sun City Ctr - Non HOA Homes (Ocala, The Villages: condo, houses)

[karenfonseca]

We are looking to retire in Florida. We have also looked at and visited Ocala retirement communities. We may want to add Sun City Center to our look see this fall.


Since I have 4 senior dogs, a very nice realtor recommended the Non HOA area of Sun City Center.


Love older Florida homes, so that is not an issue. The prices for these homes is excellent. I have no problem do a total reno and making it my own.


I need comments, please, from anyone who is familiar with this area of Sun City, or even better happens to live there, or has lived there.




Thank very much in advance.

[TBMorgan]

Search the forum for past threads. There have got to be several.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by karenfonseca

We are looking to retire in Florida. We have also looked at and visited Ocala retirement communities. We may want to add Sun City Center to our look see this fall.


Since I have 4 senior dogs, a very nice realtor recommended the Non HOA area of Sun City Center.


Love older Florida homes, so that is not an issue. The prices for these homes is excellent. I have no problem do a total reno and making it my own.


I need comments, please, from anyone who is familiar with this area of Sun City, or even better happens to live there, or has lived there.




Thank very much in advance.

Highly recommend. The only negative I would have is that the 301/674 roadways get very congested these days, unfortunately. And some (not all) of the surrounding areas are problematic, resulting in a rise in theft and break-ins at residences on the outer parts of the community. Mostly Del Webb Blvd, as I understand it. However, since you have dogs, you should be OK. Check the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office website for stats and locations of criminal activity.

Overall it is safe and you don't have to worry about evacuating in the event of a hurricane. And you couldn't ask for a more convenient place to live, just about everything you need is within a five mile radius. You can get to almost everything by golf cart if you want to, even Home Depot.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by TBMorgan

Search the forum for past threads. There have got to be several.

Oh, yes, that's a good suggestion. There are a number of threads. The OP is trying to decide between Sun City Center in Hillsborough or choosing a retirement community in Marion County. Having lived in both places, I don't envy her. It's a tough choice. If there was a community like Sun City Center in Marion County, that would be a no-brainer. But there isn't. Marion's 55+ communities have no middle ground community like Sun City Center. It's either high price/high fee rip-off or lower end frame and siding homes for 55+.

With Sun City Center, you have to contend with the brutal summer heat and the congestion and some of the criminality surrounding the community.

[kmarc]

Also with Sun City Center, finding good, reliable, reasonably priced home services/repair people or companies is not easy. There's more competition in the Ocala area, so prices, workmanship and reliability are better. You're also less likely to have to deal with illegal immigrants in the Ocala area. If you are lucky enough to find a reasonably priced home in the SECO electric service area in Marion County, that's awesome. My power bills dropped 30% when we moved.

[karenfonseca]

Originally Posted by TBMorgan

Search the forum for past threads. There have got to be several.

Thanks. I did do a search and found a good deal of info. My request was more specific referring to the non HOA areas.


Thanks again

[karenfonseca]

Originally Posted by kmarc

Highly recommend. The only negative I would have is that the 301/674 roadways get very congested these days, unfortunately. And some (not all) of the surrounding areas are problematic, resulting in a rise in theft and break-ins at residences on the outer parts of the community. Mostly Del Webb Blvd, as I understand it. However, since you have dogs, you should be OK. Check the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office website for stats and locations of criminal activity.

Overall it is safe and you don't have to worry about evacuating in the event of a hurricane. And you couldn't ask for a more convenient place to live, just about everything you need is within a five mile radius. You can get to almost everything by golf cart if you want to, even Home Depot.

I appreciate your comments. The more I research, the more I am leaning to Sun City. I love not having to drive most of the time.


You are certainly right about having dogs. They are an awesome alarm system


Thanks very much

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by karenfonseca

I appreciate your comments. The more I research, the more I am leaning to Sun City. I love not having to drive most of the time.


You are certainly right about having dogs. They are an awesome alarm system


Thanks very much

Bear in mind that even if you are in a non-HOA part of Sun City Center, there are still fees to pay to the Community Association (or CA, as it is called). All of Sun City Center, whether HOA or non-HOA, is still governed by the master Community Association, which provides all the amenities such as the pools, fitness center, clubhouses, meeting areas, and maintains common landscape areas and I think roadways within the communities. I'm not sure what the fees are as of this moment, but as I recall I think it was $300 per year per resident. And there's also a transfer fee of $1,500 when a house is sold, I think that's paid by the seller, but of course it is factored in to the selling price. The CA has their own rules, so I suggest giving them a call or going to the website to see if the CA itself has any restrictions on pets or pet size.

Most of the lots on which the houses in Sun City Center sit are small, many don't have fences around them and in some cases you may be restricted from putting one up if one doesn't already exist. So that's always something to be aware of. Not all realtors will be gracious enough to clue you in about any pitfalls or gotcha's. Another thing to be aware of is flooding due to poor drainage in some parts of the community, especially the parts that border abandoned golf course area. This is because the companies that used to maintain the gold courses are now only doing the minimum maintenance and they don't clear the drainage lines anymore, all they do is mow the grass. Generally this doesn't affect the houses, but can affect the yards, the lanai or the driveways. Everything looks nice and dry as a bone during the winter and spring, but come summer the area gets heavy downpours and thunderstorms. And there's the occasional power outage.

Sun City Center didn't used to have these problems, but there have been changes in drainage patterns due to increased construction in the area and as I mentioned, the abandoned golf courses.

[karenfonseca]

Originally Posted by kmarc

Bear in mind that even if you are in a non-HOA part of Sun City Center, there are still fees to pay to the Community Association (or CA, as it is called). All of Sun City Center, whether HOA or non-HOA, is still governed by the master Community Association, which provides all the amenities such as the pools, fitness center, clubhouses, meeting areas, and maintains common landscape areas and I think roadways within the communities. I'm not sure what the fees are as of this moment, but as I recall I think it was $300 per year per resident. And there's also a transfer fee of $1,500 when a house is sold, I think that's paid by the seller, but of course it is factored in to the selling price. The CA has their own rules, so I suggest giving them a call or going to the website to see if the CA itself has any restrictions on pets or pet size.

Most of the lots on which the houses in Sun City Center sit are small, many don't have fences around them and in some cases you may be restricted from putting one up if one doesn't already exist. So that's always something to be aware of. Not all realtors will be gracious enough to clue you in about any pitfalls or gotcha's. Another thing to be aware of is flooding due to poor drainage in some parts of the community, especially the parts that border abandoned golf course area. This is because the companies that used to maintain the gold courses are now only doing the minimum maintenance and they don't clear the drainage lines anymore, all they do is mow the grass. Generally this doesn't affect the houses, but can affect the yards, the lanai or the driveways. Everything looks nice and dry as a bone during the winter and spring, but come summer the area gets heavy downpours and thunderstorms. And there's the occasional power outage.

Sun City Center didn't used to have these problems, but there have been changes in drainage patterns due to increased construction in the area and as I mentioned, the abandoned golf courses.

Thanks again for your help, Kmarc. Very informative, as always.


The fees we would be looking at are now $1800 one time fee, and $288 for each resident for the amenities. Still looks real good.


Will keep the drainage issues in mind. From what I understand, the non HOA areas can have fences without approval. All you need is a county permit.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by karenfonseca

Thanks again for your help, Kmarc. Very informative, as always.


The fees we would be looking at are now $1800 one time fee, and $288 for each resident for the amenities. Still looks real good.


Will keep the drainage issues in mind. From what I understand, the non HOA areas can have fences without approval. All you need is a county permit.

Thanks, karen, and I appreciate the clarification on the fees. Sun City Center was very smart to do that one time transfer fee, rather than raising the annual too high. It used to be $250.00 until fairly recently.

The best thing to do, if you can arrange it, is to see the outside of house you're planning on buying after a heavy rain. That will tell you how good or bad the drainage is.

It's really too bad there's nothing like Sun City Center in the Ocala area. The closest is the Del Webb Spruce Creek development on 441 north of The Villages.

I think I counted something like thirty five 55+ communities in and around Marion County, and you'd think there would be more choice, but there's not. Many of them are developer controlled or condo and the ones that aren't seem to be either cheap frame and siding construction or expensive stucco over concrete. Or stucco over frame, which is a joke in my opinion. And the prices of even the frame and siding homes have skyrocketed to where they're as much or more than an older block home in Sun City Center. However, we prefer the weather here, so we're determined to make it work somehow.