A Manor for All Seasons
Ski and golf on the same day at Wintergreen;
how cool is that?
At most locations from Virginia north, if it is cold enough to ski, then it is too cold to play golf…except at the Wintergreen Resort. The 40-year-old golf community, located in western Virginia town of Nellysford and abutted by the famed Blue Ridge Highway, features 45 holes of excellent golf and 22 ski slopes, as well as some of the most reasonably priced real estate in any golf community east of the Mississippi. And on a few days in January, typically, its residents or resort guests are able to ski at the top of the mountain in the morning and play golf in the valley in the afternoon.
Real estate values at Wintergreen belie its location just 45 minutes from the university town of Charlottesville and just under three hours from Washington, D.C. In many Southeast mountain communities, stunning long views of the mountains command high-six and seven-figure prices; but in Wintergreen, condo units sell from the mid-five figures and up.
So what’s the deal at Wintergreen with prices as low as $50,000 for one-bedroom condos, less than $100,000 for those with mountain views, and single-family homes on the mountain starting at $200,000?
Let the Professionals Handle It
It is a bit of a long story, but one worth telling for those looking for an extreme bargain in a community that wobbled a bit during its first few decades but has stabilized significantly in the last five years; Wintergreen may be a classic case in which the market hasn’t quite caught up to the inherent values inside the community’s real estate market.
In the wake of the recession, prices dropped at Wintergreen, as they did everywhere else, by about 35%, yet they haven’t rebounded to pre-2007 levels. In fact, the condos that dot the mountainside at Wintergreen are selling at prices 10% lower than they were just five years ago, well after the effects of the recession had worn off in most other golf communities. Only 10% of the residents on the mountain are full-timers, and it is in the second-home market where the biggest bargains are the most obvious.
Two issues have affected prices negatively in the community in recent years, and to understand them is to be in a position to take advantage of market misperceptions. First, is the rotation of ownership of the community. Residents of Wintergreen owned and managed the community from its opening in 1984 to 2012, when their unwillingness to invest enough in infrastructure improvements finally caught up with them. Although the golf courses pretty much had maintained their reputations, the ski area and many of the public buildings at the top of the mountain were suffering from deferred maintenance issues. Resort revenue and real estate sales naturally slipped.
It’s All Yours, Guv
In rode a white knight in the ample form of Jim Justice, the West Virginia billionaire and current governor of that state who had rescued the floundering but renowned Greenbrier Resort from similar problems a decade earlier. Justice purchased Wintergreen for a pittance, plowed millions of dollars into refreshing its infrastructure, especially snowmaking capacity, and then flipped the resort in early 2015 to a real estate investment trust. The market never likes ownership turnover stories, and despite the fact Justice invested $12 million in snowmaking, renovating buildings and the golf courses, prices stayed depressed through the ownership saga and almost to this day. Most Wintergreen residents and officials acknowledge that Justice “stabilized” the community, and the Pacific Group, which is running the resort for the real estate investment trust, has long-term experience operating ski and golf resorts. In just their first couple of years, they have continued to make investments in the golf courses and ski areas. Wintergreen is not their first combined ski and golf resort/community; they also run the Wisp Resort in McHenry, MD which features 36 holes of golf and a ski area, as well as others.
To entice Washingtonians to make the three-hour trip to stay and ski during the winter months, Justice eliminated the puny 10,000-gallon water tank and replaced it with a 100,000-gallon tank. What that means is that on any day in winter that temperatures rise above freezing, Wintergreen can dump a lot of snow on their 22 ski slopes and never disappoint residents and guests who count on continuous activity. Compare that with some of the northern New England ski areas with minimum capacity to make snow because they depend mostly on cold weather and natural snow in winter. But in recent years, the hopes for snowy winters in some Vermont and New Hampshire ski areas have been too often dashed. No such worries when you have a 100,000-gallon water tank for snowmaking.
A Pipeline to Lower Prices?
One other controversy of more recent vintage roiled the community and pitted some residents against others, generating news stories that also affected market perceptions and real estate pricing in Wintergreen. Dominion Energy had received preliminary permission to build a pipeline to carry oil from West Virginia through Virginia and then south through the Carolinas. The path of the pipeline was to run just past the Wintergreen gatehouse at the mountainside (west) entrance to the resort. Those who thought the pipeline would have no environmental impact pointed to its location at 1,000 feet in the 3,000-foot high community and argued that few would even notice it. On the other side were those who thought it would be an eyesore and might despoil the landscape if there were an accident; they vowed to fight the pipeline and posted signs to that effect. The project has been halted pending a resolution in the courts, but the protests and the signs near the Wintergreen entrance have contributed to the soft real estate prices and dawdling sales in the community.
For those buyers who won’t fret about a pipeline they probably won’t notice, bargains at Wintergreen are waiting for them, especially in the second-home market. Two-bedroom condos along the ridgeline at the top of the mountain start in the low $100s for units in need of some cosmetic work and range up to the low $200s for move-in ready units. (That is about $100,000 less than similar condos in other mountain communities we follow.) Steve Marianella, the a golf real estate specialist at Wintergreen’s on-site agency, sold one occupant-ready unit recently for $180,000.
“These units can generate between $18,000 and $22,000 in gross rental income for those couples who don’t plan to be at Wintergreen for more than a few weeks a year,” Steve says. (More on the idiosyncrasies of rental income later.) Wolf Laurel, a similar ski and golf community located north of Asheville, NC, lists similarly sized condos starting in the $300s.
Big Bargains on the Mountain
At the bottom of the mountain and around Stoney Creek Country Club’s 27 holes, where most of the Wintergreen community’s single-family homes are located, prices are pretty much at par with where they were before the recession; the sweet spot for three-bedroom homes is around $350,000, and a select group of similar homes located up on the mountain range in price from the low $200s. Typically, mountain real estate would be higher priced than valley real estate, but in the winter, it can be a chore coming down a 3,000-foot high mountain. In any case, Steve told me the biggest bargains are at the highest priced end of the market, both on and off the mountain.
“You can buy a nice single-family home with a year-round mountain view for around $600,000,” he says. “That home would have gone for $1 million five years ago.” That price compares to homes going for between $1 million and $2 million in places like the Cliffs communities in the Carolinas and other high-end mountain communities that offer similar mountain views. And they don’t offer skiing on site or anywhere nearby.
Excellent Golf High and Low
I have played all 45 holes, at Wintergreen and they are excellent and, as a bonus, the layouts are entirely different -- one mountain, the other basically a parkland course. The first tee at Devil’s Knob is a short walk from where the ski gondolas make their drop offs at the top of the mountain. That gives you an idea of what the views are like from around the Devil’s Knob course. Originally designed by the famed southern architect Ellis Maples, Devil’s Knob opened as a publicly accessible course in 1977 and pretty much stayed that way until Jim Justice decided to make it a bit more exclusive, turning it private in 2013 with privileges for both members and golfers staying in a property managed by the resort. Pacific Group plans to keep it private and, according to Steve Marianella, has a strategy to increase membership. Devil’s Knob’s bent grass greens love the altitude and are typically in excellent shape. Members have access to private tennis courts and a spa (more membership information at the end of this article).
Stoney Creek, down in the Rockfish Valley at the base of the mountain, features 27 excellent holes by Rees Jones and has hosted important state and college golf tournaments. (My son Tim was low medalist at a college event there in 2010 on his 21st birthday when he played for Washington & Lee University.) Whereas Devil’s Knob is all about the mountain views, with wood-lined and tilted fairways, Stoney Creek features streams, more subtle but significant elevation changes and its own share of sloping fairways. The Stoney Creek golf course is open year-round, and snow on the fairways in the dead of winter is rare.
There is a dynamic at Wintergreen that is shared in most residential resort communities. Year rounders and second-home owners have different levels of expectations and patience.
“Some of our [full-time] residents are a little impatient about improvements to the golf course,” says Steve Marianella, “but the Pacific Group has commissioned work on and around the greens and in the bunkers.” He adds that, next year, Pacific plans to re-turf nine holes on Stoney Creek with Zoysia grass to replace the more finicky Bermuda. Visitors and residents at Wintergreen have all the excellent golf they need without having to stray off property.
Broadway Comes to Wintergreen
Conscious that skiing and golf are not all there is to an active lifestyle, and equally aware that Nelson County, Virginia is not exactly loaded with cultural and entertainment destinations, the Pacific Group is working to add to a nationally recognized music festival with other cultural attractions. In fact, according to Steve Marianella, the number of activities in the community under Pacific’s supervision has risen from 20 to 90. This past summer, a Sound of Music festival that reviewers deemed “Broadway style” attracted a total audience of 7,000. Lake Monacan, beside the Stoney Creek golf course, is a magnet for summer water activities, and the community also maintains a few pools on and off the mountain. Of course, there is probably no better hiking potential than in the Blue Ridge Mountains; and its eponymous highway is not a bad place for a leisurely country ride any time of the year except the dead of winter, when that famous roadway is closed.
A Harris Teeter supermarket is just 10 minutes from the community, with smaller food options closer by. The immediate area has seen a modest upsurge in restaurants and breweries in recent years, but for special nights out, Charlottesville is close enough at 30 minutes.
The Skinny on Costs of Living at Wintergreen
We have summarized real estate prices above, but what about property taxes? As an example, a two-bedroom, two-bath condo sized at 1,248 square feet on a 2,600 square foot lot is currently valued at $190,700. Its 2019 tax bill was just $1,470.
As for membership in the golf clubs, Jim Justice reduced initiation fees from $12,000 to $10,000, the current buy-in figure. Annual dues of $2,569 provides a base membership for a couple and includes the exercise center and pools and pay-as-you-play discounts for golf, tennis and skiing. Unlimited golf for a single player on both courses is an additional $2,440 per year, but that includes a golf cart with each round. (Couples unlimited golf is $4,016.).
Does It Make Sense to Rent Out Your Home?
As in most resorts, Wintergreen is happy to help its homeowners rent their units to visiting golfers, skiers, hikers and others who appreciate the great outdoors, mountain style. Homeowners wishing to generate some rental income have two options at Wintergreen, as they do at similar resorts: They can either ask the resort to handle the rental of their property, or they can hire a local person or agency to manage it.
On the face of it, hiring someone locally rather than engaging the resort will save a lot of money. Local agencies tend to charge a management fee in the 20% to 25% range, and if you were to choose VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) or Airbnb to manage things, you might save another few percentage points. The Wintergreen Resort takes a 50% cut of all rental income it helps a homeowner generate. However — and it is a big “however” — guests in the properties the resort manages gain access to all amenities in the community, including the private Devil’s Knob golf course ($120 per round at the height of the summer season). And by virtue of listing their home in the rental program, owners as well have access to the facilities at Wintergreen. VRBO or Airbnb guests do not have that access unless those who own the units they stay in are club members.
Steve Marianella indicates that an average two-bedroom condo with nice mountain views should generate about $20,000 in rental income annually. Therefore, the owner would pocket 50%, or $10,000, which certainly would pay for taxes and other minor expenses. But, of course, the rental income is taxable and you will pay for utilities and homeowner association dues. It is unlikely that your total net income will be substantial. In the end, your calculation could very well be that real estate prices are low enough that you should forget about renting it out, furnish it the way you want and use it as much as you can any time of the year.
Wintergreen sales agent Steve Marianella has arranged for readers of Home On The Course who are interested in visiting the resort to receive a 25% discount on lodging; and Steve will also throw in a free round of golf. Please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will put things in motion with Steve for your visit.
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
GolfCommunityReviews.com
