Solivita Problems

[razor2]

Can anyone add any more to this. I picked this up on City Data website.

We visited a number of places this spring looking for an active adult community. Solivita was by far the nicest and most well planned community of any we visited. Open space lots of room and very quiet. A big feature for us was how close it was Disney and the Orlando attractions as well as being about 30 minutes from Orlando International. Compared to the Villages we fell in love with the place. We felt that our kids would spend more time visiting us in an area with lots of attractions for our grand kids.

We stayed there several days on a promotion they offered and had the chance to talk to residents. They all loved the place and raved about the activities and clubs. We were ready to put down a deposit on a home as we figured that it is a good time to buy but decided to take some time to think about it.

When we returned to New Jersey my wife mentioned the place to several friends. Happened that one of them knew a V.P., or officer, that used to work for the builder but had recently resigned or was let go. She was able to get his phone number and spoke to him. His name was John and he said that he had a major disagreement with upper management which prompted his separation from the company.

He said that he loved the community and was disappointed in the marketing efforts of the builder and he fought with management about it for years. The most astounding thing was that he said that the company had lost patience with the operation and found it hard to compete in the area with falling home prices and lots of Time Shares and resale’s in the Orlando area. He further went on to say the company was looking to build a lot of cheaper multi family apartments’ that would also be sold as Condos. The apartment units could be purchased as complete buildings by individuals or corporations and rented. His opinion was that this would ruin the community, but management felt they had no other choice but to offer less expensive units that would not compete with resales. He also said that the company had lost a lot of money over the past several years and had to complete the build out quickly. Apparently, one of the major problems with these communities is that as the people age the number of resale’s increases, and if they can't expand rapidly or demand drops, then they can't compete with the resale market. He said a community like Solivita has about a 7-10 year window to build out and as more communities are built it will become shorter.

We are heart broken but we are going to wait. Right now we are wondering if buying, as opposed to renting, in one of these communities isn’t the best choice. I think we may look for a rental in the community rather than make a decision to purchase. It would seem to me to be the best choice at the moment. I don't think this problem is exclusive to Solivita. I think that all of these communities are victims of the housing bust. Unfortunately, the reality is that resale’s in these communities are going to increase on a daily basis.

Anyway I think Solivita is worth a look. It is the nicest place we have visited and we asked about crime in the area as we had read several posts on this forum about it. All of the people we met said that crime in the community was non existent and that outside of the gates they had no problems at all - a non issue. In fact several people felt that visiting the Disney complexes concerned them more than Poinciana.

Herb R

[SolivitaRealtor]

I have been actively selling homes in Solivita since 2002. I am also a Solivita homeowner. The developer has changed its management structure in the past 12 months, and much of the old guard (and their old ideas) are gone. The new management team is committed to making Solivita an outstanding 55+ community, and has investigated many different scenarios. The option to build luxury condos on a limited basis is now under discussion. The vast majority of the homes, as outlined in the Master Plan, are single-family, between 1,000 and 3,000 square feet under A/C. The development is permitted to build a very limited number of multi-family (condominium) units. This is a growing trend in many 55+ communities. As a real estate professional, dedicated to helping people retain their homes and (hopefully) enjoy an increase in their home values, I whole-heartedly endorse the direction this developer has taken. There are currently around 3,500 homes completed, and another 2,500+ are planned. This build-out will take between five and ten years, depending on the economy. In fact, although there are a few well-priced resale homes in Solivita, most of the resale homes offered for sale are listed at prices exceeding replacement cost, which means that the builder/developer, for the most part, is in a very competitive position in terms of providing home value. Short sales and foreclosures have been a very minor part of the market here, and we don’t expect to see either having significant market influence. In 2012 resale homes have averaged 7 sales per month in Solivita. At the moment, new homes are an extremely good value, and the lifestyle in Solivita is unbeatable.