Tough talk: Don't buy without a chat with homeowner's president

    In choosing the right home on the course for you, the most important person to talk with is not your real estate agent, or the seller's agent, or the golf pro at the community course or your potential next-door neighbor (or any of the other residents for that matter).  The key contacts for your research are the president of the community's homeowner's association and the president of the golf club (if the club is member run).
    Nothing can ruin life in a community like an association or club board that is either contentious with residents, contentious among themselves, confused about the priorities of the community, spendthrift in their ways because they don't understand the priorities of the folks they represent or, on the contrary, cheap in the extreme, thereby letting the facilities run down and everyone's investment erode. 

This last case showed its most classic consequences at Snee Farm near Charleston, which we visited recently.  The course and community presented themselves very nicely and were characterized by nice landscaping.  But the clubhouse was a disaster; to say it was a throwback to the 1950s would be to give it more credit than it deserved.  According to local real estate agents, Snee Farm's members simply have not been willing to invest anything in the clubhouse.  Now they have an offer they should not refuse from a reputable developer who is willing to pay for a new clubhouse if members will let him build condos where the current clubhouse sits.  Some residents are fighting this, afraid of the consequences of increased traffic from the new residences.  
    I recall a round of golf on Bald Head Island some years ago with a few of their residents.  One of them, a member of the homeowner's association, carried on to me about the "idiots" he served with in the association, all of them his fellow residents.  I don't recall the issues - there were many he raised - but I do recall thinking to myself, "Would I want to live in a community where no one agrees about the right courses of action and where they talk about each other with such disrespect?"  Leaving personalilties and politics aside helps community governing bodies work most effectively.  When we visited Champion Hills a few years ago, their association members were focused on a strategic plan, a process that left no room for pettiness.   

    Homeowners associations are typically responsible for assessing and collecting dues to run the community's operations, including hiring outside agents to manage the community's affairs.  The association also enforces the community's covenants and bylaws and can amend the bylaws within the guidelines of proper governance.  Typically, though, it is the decisions of the association on seemingly small things that raise the ire of residents, such as additions to existing homes, tree removal, the style of mailboxes and the placement of satellite dishes.
    Bylaws and covenant restrictions don't provide the most scintillating reading, but pouring through them before you buy in a specific community could save you a lot of grief later.  So can an honest conversation with the head of the homeowner's association and/or club president.

 

The club board and homeowner's association at Champion Hills in Hendersonville, NC, use a businesslike approach to governing, keeping personality and politics out of decisions.  It doesn't hurt to have a fine Fazio layout in which club members are willing to invest.