Marilyn Pickworth was not in the market for a second home when, three years ago, she gave in to her husband Kelly's suggestion and agreed to spend a few days at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Georgia's Reynolds Plantation. The first time Kelly had suggested this, after reading about the place while staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida, Marilyn had balked.

"Absolutely not," she told him. "It's so secluded. There's nothing to do there."

But after reading another story about the Lodge, located an hour's drive east of Atlanta, she agreed to stop for a few days on their way back home to Ohio, after dropping their son off at Auburn University. If it wasn't love at first sight, it was darn close. "We loved the service, the people we talked to, everything," she says. "We got a guest pass and took a boat out through the marina to look at all that beautiful property from the Lake."

They liked what they saw so much they made plans to fly back a month later, for a "discovery visit," as the folks at Reynolds call it. They were given a special "discovery" rate at the Ritz, and although Marilyn says they were too busy looking at homesites to take full advantage of all the Ritz has to offer, they were just about sold. After one more visit, a month later, they bought a lot. They have yet to build on it, but if all goes well with Kelly's dental laboratory business, they plan to do so in about seven years.

In the meantime, they visit Reynolds frequently. "We feel connected to the place," says Marilyn, adding that they've used it to celebrate college graduation, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. They stay either at the Ritz or at one of the Reynolds cottages, depending on how many family members and guests they have invited.

What the Pickworths learned almost by accident—that you can get a great sense of a community by staying at the hotel—savvy real-estate shoppers can make use of quite deliberately, to help narrow their choices. It's a great way to fly under the radar when scouting a community.

"There are a lot of people actively shopping for real estate who kind of sneak in and sneak out without getting on our sales person's data base just by checking in, staying at the Ritz, and seeing what's out there," says Bill Houghton, Reynolds' vice president for marketing, explaining that while the Ritz is technically outside the property gates—you have to give your homeowners some special privileges after all—a network of bike and hiking trails leads through the property, all of it easily accessible from the Ritz. "You get more and more folks doing that who don't really want to be on a traditional real-estate list. So [the hotel] is a big benefit to us as well."

Building the resort was a smart move for Reynolds, which—let's face it—is a bit off the beaten track. A luxury hotel not only boosts the profile of the community, but its meeting facilities guarantee a steady flow of potential buyers. "You don't realize this place is out here until you decide to take a vacation or your company decides to do a retreat or meeting out here," says Houghton."Then it's ‘Wow! We're only an hour from Atlanta and we've got Shangri-La!' You get people who fall in love." Reciprocally, for Reynolds owners, the hotel is a fantastic addition to what was already a wealth of dining and shopping options: Not only was another golf course built to handle the extra traffic—at no cost to the owners—but the presence of a Ritz almost certainly adds real dollar value to their properties.



"The Ritz has been a great amenity for us," says Mary Wojnas, a former New Jersey resident who chose to retire to Reynolds with her husband, Tom, after conducting a search of roughly half a dozen communities that was as systematic as the Pickworths' was instinctive. "We'll take our boat over, a nice 45-minute ride across the water, onspecial occasions to have dinner over there."

It was not so very long ago that there was a fairly clear line between resort communities built around a grand hotel and residential communities that offered the same amenities, but were strictly private. There's always been some overlap, for sure. But most were known primarily as one or the other. That's changed in the last decade or so, as hotels have added villas for sale, fractional ownership or long-term rentals, and at the same time private communities like Reynolds have added hotels.

"Anyone who's got land and is in a resort destination now sees himself as a development company," explains Patrick Ford, president of Lodging Econometrics, which studies lodging and real-estate trends. "The hotel adds the talking piece to the community."

The Homestead in Virginia, for instance, has been a grand old hotel for generations. But until last year you couldn't buy a home anywhere on the property. Now with the opening of the 2,300-acre Homestead Preserve, you can purchase one of the 450 houses to be built there. And since your purchase price includes guaranteed membership at the Homestead and access to its spa, restaurants and three golf courses, it makes sense to stay at the hotel while checking the place out.

Your best access probably comes by roaming the equestrian trails that meander all over the property. The way the deal between ClubCorp, which owns the Homestead, and Celebration Associates, which is building the Homestead Preserve, was originally structured, resort guests and homeowners alike have guaranteed access to those 100 miles of trail.

"Hotel guests have the right to leave the hotel and [using the trails] cross property owners' land," says Steve Schneider, the Preserve's Director of Sales and Marketing. Similarly, Preserve owners "will have the right to go out their back door and go anywhere that 100-mile trail takes them."

Resort Limitations

Obviously, as helpful as those trails are for the real estate shopper willing to hike them, that sort of communal access isn't everyone's idea of peaceful, private living. That's something else to explore: Where exactly are the lines drawn between the privileges you enjoy as an owner and those given to resort guests? Will you be competing for tee times or dinner reservations? Are certain courses open only to resort guests at certain times?

This approach to scouting a place doesn't always provide complete access to the community. For instance, if you stay at the Greenbrier in West Virginia hoping to get a sense of whether you might like to live at the Greenbrier Sporting Club, which opened five years ago, you won't get access to the new Tom Fazio-designed Snead Golf Course, the private equestrian facility or spa. "Really, the only way to get the full experience is go into the sales office and ask for a tour," says Patti Spaniak, marketing director for the club. "You can be a member for a weekend. We customize the experience."



At a resort like Sea Island in Georgia, your only chance of even getting on the island is to have a reservation at the Lodge, the newly refurbished Cloister or one of the roughly 300 cottages for rent. Once on the island, you'll get full access to all the amenities owners get—three great golf courses, the beach and spa—which should provide a sense of what living in one of its neighborhoods would be like. But even that won't get you a glimpse of the very private Ocean Forest community, a Sea Island enclave, or the even more exclusive Ocean Forest Golf Club, which hosted the 2001 Walker Cup.

Up the coast at Kiawah in South Carolina, the public gets a bit more access. It's a gated community, but some of the restaurants at the Sanctuary at Kiawah are open to the public; so are five layouts, including the famed Ocean Course. What you won't get by staying at the Sanctuary is the chance to play the island's two private courses, Cassique and River. As an owner, though, you'll have no shortage of golf, perhaps at the two private courses (if you buy a home with a membership or if you go on a waiting list). There's also the Governor's Club, open only to residents, which provides reduced green fees at all five public-access courses.

At Barton Creek in Austin, Texas, which has 23 homes available for a one-thirteenth fractional ownership (you get 27 days a year), those fractional owners get full country club privileges and more: They can make tee times 45 days in advance (as opposed to 30 for resort guests) and they are not required to use forecaddies, as hotel guests must. For someone like Wayne Rose, a 55-year-old partner at Deloitte & Touche in Dallas, the fractional ownership concept was a great deal since he's still working and doesn't want to have to pay for a home he's only going to be able to use when he's on vacation. And as part of Barton Creek's Owner's Club, Rose can visit four other vacation sites, including the Homestead.

Building a community Rather than having to play catch up, developers are choosing now to include a full-service hotel and spa along with the homes they're building right from the start. That's true at Suncadia, a new resort on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, about a 75-minute drive east of Seattle, that's projected to open in 2010. Built on 6,300 acres on the Cle Elum River, Suncadia will have three courses—one of them, Tom Doak's Tumble Creek, will be private—expansive swimming and fitness facilities, a spa, plus a 180-room hotel, the Lodge at Suncadia, as part of Suncadia Village.

"The Lodge will make the Village a lot more lively, which in turn makes it that much more attractive for residential home owners to go and have dinner," says Alex Hillinger, Suncadia's director of communications. "It won't feel the way a lot of country clubs feel, which is kind of empty. We're going to have a day life and a night life and we think it will be a really big draw and probably have a big impact on property values."

In the end, your best resource while checking out any one of these resort communities is the residents themselves. That's probably the best reason of all to get out on the golf course or hiking trails. Mary and Tom Wojnas both serve as "property ambassadors" at Reynolds, where they counsel prospective buyers without making them feel the same pressure a salesman might.

They'll also tell you there's very little at Reynolds that you don't get access to when staying at the Ritz. You won't be able to play the new members-only Jim Engh-designed course when it opens in early 2007, and out at the Lake Club, you can only use the tennis courts at the state-of-the-art health club with its incredible views of Lake Oconee.

Otherwise, a stay at the Ritz surely gives a visitor a great taste of what living at Reynolds would be like. When you're making a decision as important as this one, you need to take all the time you can. As Bill Houghton puts it, "You really have to seriously kick tires."

With the right connections, a whole new world of golf vacations can be yours. Just ask Chuck Busse. He has been part of an eight-player group from Richmond, Virginia, that has made numerous trips to the Forest Creek Golf Club, a private golf community near the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. Through a member, Busse and his buddies skip the usual hotel or resort experience, opting instead for a luxury cottage on the property, which boasts 37 holes designed by Tom Fazio.

They bed down in one of 10 four- to eight-bedroom homes, which are owned by members and rented to guests. "The whole experience is incredible," says Busse. "We have great access to the club and course, the cottages are comfortable and spacious and just being on the property is terrific."

Forest Creek is one of a growing number of clubs offering cottages for members and their guests. Some also offer concierge and catering services, even doing grocery shopping and preparing gourmet meals during your stay.

"After 36 holes, we come back to the cottage and the chef is there with a nice selection of heavy hors d'oeuvres," Busse says. "We have a nice meal and great wine and we don't have to run back to a hotel, get cleaned up and worry about dinner reservations. We pop in, take a shower and go back downstairs."

Each cottage at Forest Creek comes with a wide-screen media center, pool table, custom bar and card table. There are even lighted putting greens within a stone's throw. Reservations can be made six months in advance; members can sponsor guests to stay in the cottages but must accompany them to play golf.

At other clubs, like Horseshoe Bay Farms in northeast Wisconsin, you don't even need to know a member to stay in one of the two-bedroom suites overlooking the 10th hole.