Golf Digest/Index is just out with a short piece about troubled golf communities, including the huge headache called Yellowstone Club in Montana, which declared bankruptcy in November. Yellowstone features a private ski area and Tom Weiskopf golf course that plays at elevations up to 8,000 feet. The club's promise began to unravel, as such empires sometimes do, during the divorce proceedings of its co-owners. The complicated case of Yellowstone is now in the hands of the courts.
The thin air at Yellowstone can add as much as 50 yards to well-struck tee shots but Yellowstone has not added much to the
If a club stops charging initiation fees, that could be a warning sign of trouble. And if construction has stopped on the promised amenities, that is a definite maybe that the developer is in trouble.
expectations of its elite residents, many of them recognizable names, like Bill Gates, Dan Quayle, Greg Lemond and Jack Kemp, who dropped deposits of $1.5 million on the promise of an ultra-private, ultra-luxe lifestyle. Such a rarified lifestyle may be beyond the grasp of most of us, but lessons learned in high-end bankrupt communities can be applied even to purchasing a $300,000 property in a Carolinas golf community.
Golf Digest/Index includes some obvious ones, including: Sales appear to have stopped dead before ¾ of the community properties are sold; the golf club has stopped charging for new memberships; construction has stopped on the promised amenities; and the neighborhoods and golf course have started to look a little rundown.
In the current environment, there is no reason for a buyer to take a chance on a community that has not sold all or almost all of its properties. There are just too many bargains in re-sale properties throughout the southern U.S. to take a chance on one that has not reached its point of maturity. I have seen lots with good views of the golf course for well under $100,000 in communities that are well managed (by the residents) and clubs that are well maintained and reasonably priced (again, by the resident members). Members who own property in the community have a much more vested interest in the long-term health of the club and community than do developers who are fighting for every last nickel, and for their survival. Prices in unproven communities cannot be so low as to justify the extra risks.
If the price of a lot or home in an in-development community seems too good to be true, it very likely is.
*
Looking for a home in a golf community? I am happy to help, and at no cost or obligation. Just
contact me and I will get to work in your behalf. The process starts with an in-depth phone interview during which we discuss your real estate preferences, the kinds of golf courses you like to play, your interests off the golf course (theater, shopping, travel, dining) and any specific parts of the country you have in mind for your vacation or retirement home on the course. I will come back to you within a day or two with a report that summarizes our discussion, then you review it and we modify if necessary. When you are ready to start looking for a golf community home, I gather specific information for you, ask the hard questions in your behalf and, if you would like, arrange for your visits. Again, there is no charge for this; I am compensated by the real estate agent or community you work with in the event you purchase a property. But there is no obligation on your part whatsoever...other than to help me help you find the communtiy that best fits your lifestyle, interests and golf game.
