If you thought you could get anything you wanted at Alice’s Restaurant, the current market of golf homes for sale is an even grander buffet.  At one end of the groaning board are golf home sites that start as low as $1 (more about that in a minute) and at the other end are the golf McMansions, still priced in the millions but millions lower than they were just five years ago.  In between is an endless array of choices to satisfy every appetite, and pocketbook.

        You are probably wondering about that $1 lot.  It is located at 1 Troon Lane in the well-regarded Colleton River Plantation community in Bluffton, SC, just off the bridge from Hilton Head Island.  I have seen lots for sale in other golf communities priced at under $1,000, but $1 does not leave a lot of room for price negotiation.

        Colleton River, which is one of the communities currently offering golf homes for sale at our new web site, GolfHomesListed, is beautifully landscaped and features 36 holes of Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye golf, with homes that range up into the millions.  The house across the street from 1 Troon Lane is valued at $685,000, according to Zillow.com.  The lot

A home site for $1 in a fine golf community?  Sure, if you'd like to pick up annual homeowner and club dues.

adjacent to it is valued at $125,000.  The owners of 1 Troon are selling because they “do not use the amenities enough” at Colleton River, according to one local Realtor’s web site.  Translated, that means the owners are paying property owners association dues and club membership dues well over $10,000 per year, and getting no benefits from their outlay.  They clearly have decided not to build on the lot, if indeed they ever planned to. (In the early 2000s, when golf community prices were a rocket ship upward, many folks strapped themselves to lots they thought would appreciate, and didn’t care about the annual fees because they were going to flip the property in a few years. We know how that turned out.)

        At the other end of the spectrum are the lavish and large estate homes that, in many cases, were second or third homes for those who made it big in the pre-recession boom years.  I recall a Realtor pointing out to me a new six-bedroom mansion at one of The Cliffs Communities that was being built for around $3 million.  “The owners plan to use it a few weeks a year,” the Realtor told me.

        With the 2008 plummet in the stock market and the lingering consequences to many formerly wealthy people, a good number of those multi-million dollar homes are on the market.  Some are still priced above $1 million but well below their original cost.  At GolfHomesListed, our Realtor clients have posted a few of these estate golf homes for sale, along with substantially lower priced properties.  For example, at Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, GA, just south of Savannah, a 4,600-square-foot Charleston Style home near the Pete Dye golf course and overlooking two rivers is priced at $3.25 million; a nice "Cottage Retreat" home is listed for $750,000.  On the other side of Savannah, at The Landings golf community, a 6,600-square foot home that overlooks one of the community’s six golf courses and a lagoon is on the market for $2.95 million; The Landings lists a patio home of 2,400 square feet for $479,000.  And up the coast at Landfall, in Wilmington, NC, $2.75 million will buy a 5,300 square foot home with a view of the 2nd hole on the Jack Nicklaus golf course, and privileges at the Pete Dye golf course as well; for just $409,000, Landfall Realty offers a 2,025 square foot home with a golf view.

        These homes are all featured at GolfHomesListed, but there are many more properties at the new web site priced in the low-to-mid-six-figure range.  We will be discussing those more typically priced properties here in coming days.  I encourage all our readers to take the new site for a test drive and let me know your comments.  Many thanks.

--  Larry Gavrich, Editor

Dear Golf Community Reviews reader,

        I wanted to share a bit of good news with you before we tell the world.  Today we are launching a new web site, GolfHomesListed.com, where we will initially list properties for sale in 20 of the southeast's most prominent golf communities.  Each community will have its own dedicated page, making the search for a golf community home –- or just some casual browsing –- an easy, one-stop-shopping exercise.

        The following announcement will be released soon:

 

HOME ON THE COURSE, LLC UNVEILS

GOLFHOMESLISTED.COM

     New Website Makes Golf Home Searches Easier;

     Top Golf Community Properties Listed In One Place

 

April 10, 2012, Avon, Conn.— Blog and newsletter publisher Home On The Course, LLC has launched www.GolfHomesListed, a new online service that makes it easy for golf-home buyers to browse, qualify, visit and purchase golf-oriented properties that best match their search

Our goal is to make those best-in-class communities available for our readers' consideration in an easy-to-browse format.

requirements.  The new site is a companion to the successful www.GolfCommunityReviews.com, where objective, unbiased reviews of golf developments and observations about golf real estate attract more than 12,000 visits each month from potential golf-home buyers.

        "People looking to purchase a golf home find it cumbersome to search for properties by individual community once they target a particular area," said Larry Gavrich, founder of the two sites and a real estate agent who works with clients to identify golf homes that match their requirements.  "GolfHomesListed.com provides a one-stop-shopping experience for our clients and links them with real estate professionals who specialize in golf community properties."

        Some of the most successful golf communities in the southern U.S. are participating in the launch, including well-known developments in Savannah, Ga., the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area, Wilmington, N.C., Charlottesville, Va., Asheville, N.C., Charleston, and the Bluffton/Hilton Head Island area.  In all, 20 golf communities will be listed at the site initially with dozens more expected to sign up with GolfHomesListed.com, according to Gavrich.

        "Virtually all retirement and second-home buyers research available properties on the Web prior to determining where to visit," said Ken Kirkman, developer of the Carolina Colours community in New Bern, N.C., and general manager of Landfall Realty in Wilmington, who is advertising properties for both communities at GolfHomesListed.com. "Larry's audience at his original blog site has been growing, and his new site has nice potential upside with little cost.  Even in this time of limited budgets, this commitment to GolfHomesListed was easy to make."

        The new site includes a summary of each community, details about its location, real estate offerings and golf course(s), a location map and up to 16 individual listings per community.   Initial properties listed for sale at the site range in price from the $100s to more than $3 million for homes and from below $100,000 to over $1 million for lots.

        Communities that Gavrich has visited personally and reviewed favorably receive a "Visited & Recommend" designation attached to their listings.

        "No golf community is paradise," says Gavrich, "but on a comparative basis, some shine.  Our goal is to make those best-in-class communities available for our readers' consideration in an easy-to-browse format."

        For more information or to list homes on www.GolfHomesListed.com, contact Gavrich at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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About Home On The Course, LLC

        Founded in 2005 by longtime corporate communications executive Larry Gavrich, Home On The Course, LLC visits and reviews golf communities and puts prospective real estate buyers in contact with realtors who represent the communities that best match their needs. Home On The Course operates www.GolfCommunityReviews.com, a well-respected blog site that reports regularly on individual communities, golf courses, as well as breaking news and trends in real estate. Home On The Course also operates www.GolfHomesListed.com, where Realtors list current properties for sale in some of the most respected golf communities in the nation.