6. Where Privacy and Promotion
Clash
The people who eventually
buy the property down the road from you
will have to be exposed to the community
somehow, which is why outside
play, whether in the form of Monday outings, state
tournaments or
professional events, is often a necessary evil for all-important
community exposure. It can also be a source of revenue to help operate
the club
more affordably and efficiently. Find out how much outside
play the sales group
is planning to allow. On the flip side, if you are
the type who would tend to
bring clients or charitable groups to the
community’s course, find out how much
resistance you will likely incur
and what sort of fees and rules will govern
your hosting
activities.
7. When an Enclave Isn’t
With more young affluent
families buying a piece of golf course
developments, developers are building
“neo-urban,” fully amenitized
town centers into their master plans. Rather
than just houses,
roads and recreational amenities, you’ll have your own
pre-planned
town, replete with schools, medical offices and other commercial and
retail mainstays, from banks to restaurants and grocery stores. Before
you buy
into one of these communities, make sure this hub of activity
and lifestyle is
indeed what you want with your new home.
8. Study the Fine Print
If you love the golf
course at a community down the road but prefer
the overall community where you
now live, you may opt for a
less-expensive sports membership or house membership
rather than pay
for full golf privileges. This sounds fine—until it’s time to
sell your
home and you can’t guarantee a golf membership because the club’s sold
out. Other important matters to keep in mind are the policies regarding
your
deposit or initiation fee in the event you decide to sell or
transfer your
membership. Most significantly, how long will it take to
get your initiation
money back and what percentage of it will be
rebated?
9.Non-equity vs. Equity
A fundamental
consideration of any private club is the structure of
its ownership. What it
comes down to is whether you want to have an
ownership stake in the club’s
assets and operations. There are pluses
and minuses to both models. On the
non-equity side, the developer of
the community has control of the club and will
tend to hire seasoned
experts to run all aspects of the golf and associated
amenities. In
return, homeowners and members pay initiation fees and monthly
dues to
support the facilities. Conversely, some people prefer having an equity
stake in a club, or more importantly, a say in all matters of the
operation.
Though this might have its benefits, be prepared to pay for
that power through
sizable assessments and the inevitable controversies
within the membership on
important issues.
10. The Right Rep
There are a number of
resources to help you pick out a golf course
community, but shopping for a home
is best done through the developer’s
inside sales team. Though many local
brokers and real estate agents can
sell property, no one knows the property, its
history and all that it
offers better than the developer’s own sales and
marketing team. Not to
mention, going through the developer’s “discovery
center,” as some
describe it, could mean additional incentives that an outside
broker
might not be able to offer.
