Exercise caution: Fitness centers and other amenities could be harmful to your financial health

     I am constantly amazed at the amenities some golf communities offer, in addition to excellent golf.  It is a veritable groaning buffet, with an assortment of activities and services few short of Superman could have the time or energy to indulge in.  But in hyping sales of land, developers find the all-things-to-all-people style of marketing effective.  
    For those who buy into an amenity-loaded community early in its

development, there are two areas of concern.  First is whether the promised amenities will actually be built.  Many developers fund their clubhouses and pools and fitness centers with land sales.  In a market like the current one, promises sometimes are not kept because the sales do not come as planned.  Second, developers eventually sell out most or all of the land in a community and move on to another project.  When they do, they typically sell the amenities to the homeowners or, in other cases, to outside managers.  
    Either way, there is the risk of sticker shock when, overnight, the fitness centers, pools, tennis courts, spa, equestrian center and maybe even the golf course are no longer subsidized by the developer.  You and your neighbors now own them, and if you are golfers and Sally and Ted next door are horse people, negotiations about maintenance and service could become confrontational.  The safest amenities play is to buy into a community whose residents already own the amenities and have a track record of fiscal responsibility and only modest, if any, dues increases and assessments.  
    If you do buy into a newer community with a developer still on site, ask for a copy of the developer's plan, which could very well indicate at what price he intends to sell the amenities to the homeowners.  Better yet, get yourself an aggressive real estate agent to represent you.  Best of all, ask me.  I know such an agent who has traveled extensively to communities in the southern U.S., has great contacts in the region, and is relentless when it comes to reading the fine print in documents and holding developers' feet to the fire for her clients. 

    You won't pay a thing for her services and she will negotiate the best price in your behalf.  Recent negotiations in behalf of her clients saved them tens of thousands of dollars.
    Click here, send me a note, and I will put you in touch with her.