Monday, October 18, 2010

A whole lot of amenities and services for your dollar!


When you purchase a home at On Top of the World Communities, you’re not just buying a home, you’re getting a “world” of amenities, activities and services. Just take a look at the MANY things On Top of the World offers…all within the community! Just a golf cart ride away from your front door, you will find well over 250,000 square feet of fun:

Indoor and outdoor swimming pools, craft center, library, woodworking shop, golf courses, fitness centers with locker room facilities including showers, steam room, sauna, and whirlpool, full-time fitness director and cutting edge, age-specific fitness programming, conference rooms, over 200 resident clubs and organizations, full-time tennis pro, remote control flying field, auditorium/ballroom for resident dances and theatrical productions, ceramics studio, billiards room, card rooms, shuffle board, miniature golf, horseshoes, lighted tennis courts with Plexi-cushion surface, slow pitch softball, pickleball, indoor racquetball courts, open-air town square offering a farmer’s market, weekend entertainment and festivals, walking trails, dog parks, restaurants, community centers, full time social director organizing events throughout the year, cultural center presenting top name performers, life long education with over 700 classes each year, monthly community newspaper, home design studio with professional design consultants, meeting halls, recreation centers, world class day spa, AND MORE! Does the active adult community you are considering include all of this?

And that’s just the fun stuff! On Top of the World provides many services, too. Services offered include curbside trash pickup or central refuse disposal, recycling centers or curbside recycling pick-up, homeowner’s structural insurance (excluding contents and improvements), street maintenance, bus service to major shopping centers and malls, basic cable and internet connection, professional landscaping of community common areas, staffed or video-monitored gate operations, fire hydrants, street and community lighting, home exterior maintenance, lawn maintenance and more! Does the active adult community you are considering provide all of these services?

The level of amenities and services you receive at On Top of the World is based on the neighborhood in which you live. Two of our neighborhoods, Windsor and Renaissance Park, are considered “full-service” because they offer the largest number of services and amenities. Candler Hills and Indigo East each provide a different mix of services and amenities.
If you are moving to a community that offers amenities and services, chances are that you will be charged a monthly community service fee (CSF), or a homeowners’ association fee. The amount of this fee will be based on the level of services and amenities provided. When considering one active adult community over another, it is best to discover which amenities and services are included in the CSF of each community. Attached is a worksheet which you can use to compare communities as you “shop”. View it here! The worksheet lists the amenities and services provided at On Top of the World (by neighborhood) and provides space for comparing these amenities and services side by side with other communities you are considering.
The community service fee at On Top of the World is subject to annual adjustments based on increases in operational expenses only, not arbitrarily based on the rate of inflation. Can any of the other communities you visit say that?

No matter where you choose to spend your retirement, you are going to incur monthly expenses. It is wise to compare communities by reviewing which services are included in the CSF and which you will pay for separately. Just because a community offers a low CSF, does not mean that your monthly expenses will be low, especially if you have to go outside the community for the amenities and services you want. For instance, if your community does not include life long education but you take courses at a local college, what are the costs of those courses? Add that amount to your CSF amount. If your community does not have a full service fitness facility and you get a membership at a fitness center in town, what is the monthly cost? Add that amount to your CSF amount. Are basic cable and internet included in your CSF? If not, then add their cost to your CSF amount. Be sure to include ALL the costs in order to achieve an accurate comparison.