“If you build it, they will come…” That line, of course, from the movie Field of Dreams, predicted a beautiful baseball field in the middle of nowhere would attract fans from all over. When you build your dream golf home, your family and friends may beg to visit on a constant basis. In some cases, you can build that dream home – with your own layout and accessories -- at a price lower than you will pay for a current re-sale home. What can we say, the market is a bit wacky. Some bargains in home sites are currently available in the highest-quality golf communities. I scoured listings to find a few that might just become your field of dreams.
Shenvalee Resort's 27 holes wind through the valley between the Shenandoah Mountains (in photo) and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west.Shenvalee Resort, New Market, VA
Convenient to Interstate 81 and the vibrant small university town of Harrisonburg (James Madison University), Shenvalee is a bit of a throwback resort, with motel rooms that evoke memories of the 1950s. The 27 holes of golf – nine of them sporting tiny greens reminiscent of the pitch and putt courses of my youth – are quirky, fun and filled with surprising challenges. The views from the valley to the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Mountains east and west add to the drama. The rooms near my own during a recent stay were filled with middle-aged golfing buddies on a late-summer binge. Homes on the course are few and far between, but membership in the golf club is ridiculously inexpensive. Only one lot is available now, but once a huge piece of property adjacent to the course is sold, count on plenty more and on Shenvalee looking more like a regular golf community.
Click here for a lot currently for sale at Shenvalee.
Tom Fazio is an artist with bunkers, and at Belfair in Bluffton, SC, he outdid himself.Belfair, Bluffton, SC
Longtime readers of this blog will recall that, in the wake of the 2008 recession, lots in the upscale Belfair and its sister communities Berkeley Hall and Colleton River were selling as low as $1. (That is not a typo.) Their original list prices were in the six figures. In recent years, the local market has returned to something like normal, which means some homes in Belfair are selling in the high-six-figures but more in the millions. A nice third of an acre lot, perfect for a patio home, priced at just $29,000 AND with a view of one of Belfair’s 36 fairways, is quite a bargain. Understand that club membership is obligatory for you and anyone who buys your home in the future, but unless you are expecting Armageddon anytime soon, come on, it’s just $29,000 with 36 holes that get a beautiful manicure virtually every day. Pitch a tent, pay the club dues and enjoy. (I am kidding about the tent part.)
For a link to that $29,000 lot in Belfair, click here.
Tom Fazio can leave some golfers wondering "What's with all those bunkers?" TPC -- Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, SC
The Covid pandemic improved the health of the Myrtle Beach area real estate market and its golf courses. The Tom-Fazio designed TPC didn’t need a health check; since its opening in early 1999, it has not only hosted thousands of visiting golfers hungry to play one of the few publicly accessible TPC courses anywhere, but it also has served as the site of Senior PGA Tour events – Tom Watson won the Tour Championship there in 2000 -- and major college golf tournaments. The course is high-quality, challenging and fun to play. Prince Creek, the huge subdivision next door to the golf course, has exploded in terms of growth since the pandemic, as have the shopping and medical care that typically sprout just outside the gates of a fast-growing community. I am sure investors wish they had a dime for every penny they might have invested in Prince Creek pre-pandemic, because that is essentially the size of the returns they would have generated. This half-acre lot (see link below) backs up to a wooded area which keeps it quiet and private. Restaurant Row, a two-mile strip of mostly seafood eateries on the marsh in Murrells Inlet, and the Atlantic Ocean beaches are about 10 minutes away.
Click here for the details on the lot available next door to TPC -- Myrtle Beach.