HOA BATTLE WITH THE DYING GOLF COURSE

“In the RED corner, representing 90% of the community who are non-golfers - the HOA that wants to kill the golf course. In the BLUE corner, the 10% who are golfers who want to save the golf course.”

THERE IS ONE THING THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOLFERS AND NON-GOLFERS HAVE IN COMMON

I receive calls almost every week from a home owner’s association (HOA) board member about the dilemma facing the community’s failing golf course. In every case the classic confrontation between the golfers and non-golfers develops. Unfortunately the non-golfers outnumber the golfers as high as ten to one. In essence, if the golf course cannot pay its way and the non-golfer group prevails the golf course is doomed! But there will be consequences.

The battle often obscures the economics that goes right to the core of the individual household: Its Market Value! The Golfer feels if the golf course closes part of the beauty of the neighborhood is lost. The non-golfers, especially the home owners on the other side of the street, say they don't give a damn about golf, because they don’t play golf. They (non-golfers) call golf a waste of time, money, and real estate. “Why should I pay so clowns in pink shirts can chase a little white ball around a field and curse like truck drivers?”

ARGUMENT ON BOTH SIDES

The writer agrees, somewhat, with both sides in the debate. I do feel a person who is not a golfer should not be required to subsidize a person to play golf. After all, golf is probably one of the greatest wastes of time, money and real estate ever devised! I mean, golf was illegal in Russia till very recently. On the other hand, however, a golf course is permanent open space or green space. Managed, yes, but 99% of golf courses built since the early 80’ are on designated green space land and likely cannot be used for any other (commercial) purpose. So, the non-golfers just say, “Let it grown in.” Grow in? Have a look:

MY POINT…

THE ONE THING GOLFERS AND NON-GOLFERS HAVE IN COMMON – THE VALUE OF THEIR PROPERTIES.

First of all, while the debate goes on the one thing that hurts the neighborhood is uncertainty. Let’s make it simple: If you want to sell your house, what do you say to a potential buyer when you don’t know whether the golf course will survive or not? Wait! You be the buyer. Would you buy a home not knowing whether the golf course behind you will survive or not? Would you buy a home in a neighborhood with an HOA in full battle over the plight of the number-one amenity? Which adds another question: 

What is your home worth if nobody will buy it? Ask the residents at Turkey Creek in Alachua, Florida. The golf course has been closed since May, 2010. Check this aricle: http://www.golfmak.com/residential%20golf%20course%20dilemma.html. Also, this article:  http://www.golfmak.com/HOA%20Golf%20Course%20Home%20Facts%20learned%20january%2017%202012.html

So, both sides have the value of their property at stake – especially during the uncertainty period. In my experience I believe higher end golf course residences have far more to lose than more numerous lower priced residences. Sorry, but nobody seems to have useful data to back up my assumption. 

First of all, I believe the higher the price of homes in a golf course development the more they have to lose both percentage (%) wise, and in real dollars ($) if the golf course closes. A $1 million dollar home could drop 50% or more if its community golf course fails. However, I don’t believe a $200,000 home will lose more than 20% if the course closes. In fact, homes that do not have golf course exposure in a lower priced golf neighborhood may actually become more valuable than those backing up to a weed patch that was once a pretty green golf course fairway. I believe too, since there are many more lower priced golf course residential properties around a community golf course than upscale developments, individual homes would be less vulnerable, collectively, by the loss of the golf course. Based on my assumptions, I believe saving a golf course may be more important for home values in high-end neighborhoods than ‘average’ priced golf course neighborhoods. 

Then, I have further for arguments or a question for the high priced home owners who say they don't care about the golf course: If you don’t play golf and don’t care about the golf course, why would you buy a home in a golf course community? Secondly, if you can afford to own a home in an upscale golf course community you’d better be prepared to pay whatever it takes to maintain the full integrity of the neighborhood, whether you play golf or not. Unfortunately, golf course communities that do not have covenants that protect the golf course via HOA financial support have a tough road to haul. Attorneys will line up for that fight all day long! Nobody win but the attorneys - believe me!

I spoke with an HOA board member recently who outlined exactly the above dilemma. The development had only 230 upscale homes trying to support an ultra-high end golf course. Classic: The non-golfers say, “Let it grow in!”

If the upscale neighborhood golf course grows in (fails) I believe home values in that neighborhood could plummet 50% or more (my assumption only). I say that, because with a failed amenity (the golf course) the overall development becomes known as a failed neighborhood. Nobody wants to own a home in a failed neighborhood.  Ask yourself, “Would you?”

I know it can be expensive to keep up an upscale golf course with 12-foot green speed maintenance demands. But if homes in the neighborhood are $1 million plus value with a golf course in the back yard they need to come to grips with it and pay what is needed to keep the golf course alive. It’s an insurance policy on the value of your property. If you have to pay $5,000 a year to belong to the golf club to avoid a $500,000 drop in the value of your home, I would call that a pretty good investment. 

Hey! I say, "If you can afford a $1 million dollar home, you can afford to contribute to the integrity of your neighborhood – golf player or not."

By the way, I get calls from everywhere, like; Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Georgia, Wisconsin, Alabama, California, Florida… well, you get the point. Same dilemma every time! Some described meeting with screaming and hollering - even fist fights!

The key, in my opinion, is for all to agree on one thing: The value of each resident's property. Then the arguments can start making sense.

Remember, your First consultation is always free: mike@golfmak.com, of call me: 941-739-3990. 

Any comments?

Mike        

NEW GOLF COURSE OWNER? READ THIS

MISTAKES FIRST TIME GOLF COURSE OWNERS OFTEN MAKE

I deal with first-time golf course owners often. I refer them to an article on Golfmak.com: http://golfenomics.bizland.com/what-not-to-do.htm.

The article basically says, "Make changes slowly and carefully." I recommend sitting back and observing before making verbal or written commitments to customers, employees and services.

Instead, take your time and find out how the business and the asset behaves. Often, changes you had in mind will have more serious consequences than leaving them alone.  

Mike

GOLF CLUB BOARD OF DIRECTORS - A PUZZLE!

I guess I really need a psychologist to understand the mindset that drives a golf club board of director’s. In my experience, I can only anticipate that a golf club board of directors is almost certain to make a dubious decision – especially when being advised otherwise by experts in the industry.

Here are a few examples (in my experience):

1.       Near Carlton, Ontario the board chose a clubhouse design that looked more like a school than a comfy golf course clubhouse – even though one of the designs they were presented with was an excellent well thought plan by an expert. One (hilarious) result of the final product placed the men’s room such that every time the door swung open there was absolutely no privacy while men were going about their business. Another flaw was that the pro shop was a completely separate building, a cost control issue, which requires additional personnel to manage as a completely separate building – even during the slowest periods. It was also a security issue. The board knew all that, but chose to overlook it.

2.       A board of directors of a club near Hazelton, PA, watched their club’s membership fall from over 350 to fewer than 200. The club was desperate for an experienced general manager with the skill to manage a country club in the marketplace of 2012. With that recommendation clearly advised, the board hired a person with no clubhouse experience, no turf experience, no food service experience, and no knowledge of the game of golf. A decision that made absolutely no sense.

3.       A board of directors at a golf club in upper New York State decided they needed a large clubhouse with 400 men’s lockers (now 90% empty), a full service restaurant and a banquet hall. With an experienced building contractor in their midst, pleading with the board to adopt a sensible clubhouse plan, they went ahead with the ‘palace’ anyway. Five years later the club was bankrupt. The board members who pushed for the monster clubhouse abandoned the club. Soon after, the property was sold at an auction for approximately 40 cents on the dollar.

4.       A board of directors at a Sarasota-Bradenton golf club spent over $1/2 million to re-grass its 18 greens without bidding the job. Instead, the board hired a contractor who set the crew to work. A few greens were re-shaped as was one fairway. However, around the same time, I re-grassed 18 greens with average sizes twice the greens at the Bradenton course for $110,000 complete! We hit with Round Up on June 14. We corrected some drainage issues, tilled, gassed, and sprigged (in Champion Ultra Dwarf). They were ready to play by August 15 - the same summer! Players raved about them too!

5.       Here’s the most puzzling board behavior: It’s my own board of directors at the club at which I am a member! I live on the fifteenth fairway. Even though I advise golf courses all around the country, which this board knows, they chooses not to ask my advice – even when it is offered completely free. In fact, when I offer to sit in meetings as a ‘fly on the wall’ I am (currently) not even invited.

Those are the board of director puzzles. It seems their apparent intellect evaporates when they meet around a conference table. What comes over them?

In the golf industry everything was fine 30-years ago when golf was still in a seller’s market mode. Private clubs had waiting lists and lots of money to work with. However, about 1995 (yes that early) private clubs began losing their waiting lists, because aging members were resigning (or dying) at greater rate than the waiting list was being absorbed. In a short span boards were suddenly faced with deficit membership rosters and financial problems. They were completely baffled. So, the big fat treasury that could do no wrong was empty – and the clubhouse needs a new roof!

Beyond the tipping point, survival of the golf course required a high level of ‘golf course’ business skill. Boards were completely inept to manage shortfalls. They tried the same strategies: Cut back employee hours, cutback clubhouse service hours, bunkers groomed every ‘other’ day, and the greens mowers will have to make it another year. However, in all they attempt to do, they seem to avoid expert golf course business advice.

I think a board of directors, collectively, is like the man who refuses to ask for directions! He’d rather become hopelessly lost rather than admit he needs help. Does that analogy sound right?

What is your experience? My email: mike@golfmak.com. 

Mike

GOLF COURSE WEB SITE MISTAKES

GOLF COURSE WEB SITES

I am told by Internet marketing experts (I have a close personal relationship with a web site expert) that web sites today need to be designed to get to business - the sale - as quickly as possible. Too much 'razzle-dazzle' slows down load time, which is the cardinal sin of the web sites these days. Slow loading web sites lose impact!

A web site needs to be somewhat the way a newspaper news story reads: It answers the 5-W's in the first paragraph. Who What, Where, When, Why. Then the story follows. I believe the first glimpse of a golf course web site should answer 'What, Where' first - with address and phone number clearly visible at the top of the page (because that's where your eyes look first).  

Read my article at the Golfmak web site: http://golfenomics.bizland.com/golfcoursewebsitemistakes.html.

I know I am adamant that golf courses need to broadcast advertise as well as networking, but a web site is a first impression for many new customers. Fast loading, easy navigation, and easy and fast to make a purchase should be the goal of your web site today.

Mike

FAILING GOLF COURSES AND THE HOA

“In the RED corner, 90% who are non-golfers, the HOA, wants to kill the golf course. In the BLUE corner, the 10%, who are golfers, want to save the golf course.”

THERE IS ONE 1 THING THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOLFERS AND NON-GOLFERS HAVE IN COMMON

I receive calls almost every week from a home owner’s association (HOA) board member about the dilemma facing the community’s failing golf course. In every case the classic confrontation between the golfers and non-golfers develops. Unfortunately the non-golfers outnumber the golfers as high as ten to one. In essence, if the golf course cannot pay its way and the non-golfer group prevail the golf course is doomed! But there will be consequences.

The battle is economics right to the core of the individual household. The Golfer feels if the golf course closes part of the beauty of the neighborhood is lost. The non-golfers, especially the home owners on the other side of the street, say they don’t give a damn about golf, because they don’t play golf. They call golf a waste of time, money, and real estate. “Why should I pay so clowns in pink shirts can chase a little white ball around a field and curse like truck drivers?”

ARGUMENT ON BOTH SIDES

The writer agrees, somewhat, with both sides in the debate. I do feel a person who is not a golfer should not be required to subsidize a person to play golf. After all, golf is probably one of the greatest wastes of time, money and real estate ever devised! I mean, golf was illegal in Russia till very recently. On the other hand, however, a golf course is permanent open space or green space. Managed, yes, but 99% of golf courses built since the early 80’ are on designated green space land and likely cannot be used for any other purpose. So, the non-golfers just say, “Let it grown in.” Grow in? Have a look:

Ravines Golf Resort was a first rate golf course in Middleberg (Jacksonville), Florida. The weeds will just grow taller. It will take many years (generations) before the original forest returns. 

MY POINT…

THE 1 THING GOLFERS AND NON-GOLFERS HAVE IN COMMON – PROPERTY VALUES

First of all, while the debate goes on the one thing that hurts the neighborhood is uncertainty. Let’s make it simple: If you want to sell your house, what do you say to a potential buyer when you don’t know whether the golf course will survive or not? Wait! You be the buyer. Would you buy a home not knowing whether the golf course behind you will survive or not? Would you buy a home in a development with an HOA in full battle dress over the plight of the number-one amenity? Which adds another question: What is your home worth if nobody will buy it?

So, both sides have the value of their property at stake – especially during the uncertainty period. I believe higher end golf course residences have far more to lose than more numerous lower priced residences. Sorry, but nobody seems to have useful data to back up my assumption.

First of all, I believe the higher the price of the homes in a golf course development, the more they have to lose both percentage wise, and in real dollars if the golf course closes. A $1 million dollar home could drop 50% or more if its upscale golf course amenity fails.  However, I don’t believe a $200,000 home will lose more than 20% if the course closes. In fact, homes that do not have golf course exposure in a lower priced golf neighborhood may actually become more valuable than the ones backing up to a weed patch that was once a pretty green golf course fairway. I believe too, since there are many more lower priced golf course residential properties around a community golf course than upscale developments individual homes would be less vulnerable collectively by the loss of the golf course. Based on my assumptions, I believe saving a golf course is more important for high-end neighborhoods than ‘average’ priced golf neighborhoods.

Then, I have further for arguments with the high priced home owners: If you don’t play golf and don’t care about the golf course, why would you buy a home in a golf course community? Secondly, if you can afford to own a home in an upscale golf course community you’d better be prepared to pay whatever it takes to maintain the full integrity of the neighborhood, whether you play golf or not. Unfortunately, golf course communities that do not have covenants that protect the golf course via HOA financial support have a tough road to haul. Attorneys will line up for that fight all day lng!

I spoke with and HOA board member recently who outlined exactly the above dilemma. Only 230 upscale homes trying to support an ultra-high end golf course. Classic: The non-golfers say, “Let it grow in!”

If the upscale neighborhood golf course grows in (fails) I believe home values in that neighborhood could plummet 50% or more (my assumption only). I say that, because with a failed amenity (the golf course) the overall development becomes known as a failed neighborhood. Nobody wants to own a home in a failed neighborhood.  Ask yourself, “Would you?”

I know it can be expensive to keep up an upscale golf course with 12-foot green speed maintenance demands. But if homes in the neighborhood are $1 million plus value with a golf course in the back yard they need to come to grips and pay what is needed to keep the golf course alive. It’s an insurance policy on the value of your property. If you have to pay $5,000 a year to belong to the golf club to avoid a $500,000 drop in the value of your home, I would call that a pretty good investment.  

Hey! If you can afford a $1 million dollar home, you can afford to contribute to the integrity of your neighborhood – golf player or not.

By the way, I get calls from everywhere, for instance: Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Georgia, Wisconsin, Alabama, California, Florida… well, you get the point. Remember, the first consultation is free. 

Any comments?

Mike        

FLORIDA’S WILD PIGS TEARING UP GOLF COURSES

Have you heard about wild boars (or pigs) running around Florida’s hinterland? This article says there are over ½ million of them in Florida – apparently a perfect environment for feral (wild) boars: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=827155&page=1#.UWK5bZNg-bM. 

I’m seeing quite the damage to golf courses from foraging bands of pigs. They will virtually roto-till patches of fairway from a few square feet to several square yards. I'm told they are digging for worms or grubs that are found within four to six inches from the surface.

Damage to golf courses by wild pigs can be sudden and extensive. The image here shows part of a golf green torn to shreds by pigs on an overnight forage. We were chasing them continually when I was managing a 27-hole golf course east of I-75 in Sarasota County, Florida.

Our crew would report a 60-square foot dig on a fairway that was not there the day before. We placed traps and hunted them with bows. One of our employees was an expert with bow and hunted them daily. A bow makes no noise so he could kill several in a pack before they realized the danger and ran off. A gun only gave him one chance, because the 'bang' sent the pack running, which he said would take them non-stop for miles. One summer he told us he had over 200 kills. He called them good eating, but they had a wild flavor most of us don’t like. Those he trapped he took home and fattened them up.

About a dozen years ago I was doing some work at a golf course called Turtle Hill, in Meunster, Texas. The entire course perimeter was fenced with electric wire - set at about ten inches in height. The owner was protecting the course from boars he said were tearing his golf course to pieces.

If anyone has any comments or have successful preventative measures to keep feral boars from tearing up a golf course please comment here. One solution I suggested is to make sure there are no grubs in greens and fairways to attract foraging boars and pigs.

One thing I believe: There are few businesses out there that address as many different issues as a golf course. Even wild pigs! 

Mike

GOLF COURSE MARKETING TRAP?

DEPENDING SOLELY ON EMAIL AND NETWORK MARKETING I BELIEVE COULD BE A TRAP!

I was one of the very first in golf to utilize email lists to promote tee times. I started the idea as manager of Oak Ford Golf Club in Sarasota, Florida. It was actually my son who told me about a list service known as 'One List' that would send bulk emails. I found it handy, because every day we had an empty period on the tee sheet for about 30 minutes before the mid-day price drop. For instance, on Friday night we would check the tee sheet, then try to sell those empty tee times at a discount. It was an easy 'click-of-a-mouse' to inform thousand of already-customers of the special.

My use of email began away back in the 90's (I think a Tyrannosaurus Rex was on our list). Remember, email addresses were difficult to collect and many were misspelled and never got to their destinations. I remember almost all emails then were AOL. Back then we'd send the emails and wait for the phone to ring (no online tee times back then either).

Anyway. it was so easy to sell a couple more tee times using email. I mean, you could not place an ad in the newspaper that quickly.

Well, that was the beginning of using the Internet to market a golf course. If I wasn't the first for golf, I was damn close to it!

Since about 2005 or so, I noticed everyone was building email lists and ignoring their traditional marketing avenues like newspaper, radio and TV. Marketing budgets went from $60,000 to almost zero by using the network to sell tee times. So here we are in 2013 and it seems the only way to market a golf course is via the Internet. Has this change in marketing golf courses contributed in some way the a decline of golf players? I believe there is at least some connection. My rather crude illustration above tries to make my point:

I believe you need to be clearly visible in the marketplace to get new customers, and to remind occasional customers who are not on your email list to think of your golf course next time they play. I mean, how do they hear about your golf course if they are not on your email list - if that's the only way you advertise?

That's the trap you fall into.

I learned how to market a golf course during my 25-years in Peterborough, Ontario. I never forgot a mistake I made one spring when I figured I could save close to $50,000 by not advertising at all. I figured I could have a great time with $50K to myself (and my family). What a disaster!

In 25-years I only had one single two-month period when my numbers actually went 'south' and that was the year I decided not to advertise. And I am a numbers guy. I watch my receipts almost every hour. As numbers decreased I could see the $50K plans for me and my family were in jeopardy.

I woke up to the power of marketing, and I can tell you, that year would up my best ever.

I engineered a marketing plan that blew the lid off numbers for the rest of that season. Without going into details, hit every media avenue out there. By mid July my number-1 complaint was. "No place to park!" People who know me love to hear me say that!  

I spent the $50K and more in marketing and also earned my $50K to boot! If anyone tells me advertising doesn't work I see a person doomed to a business failure.

From my marketing experience in Peterborough I learned to fully appreciate the power and necessity of broadcast marketing, which brings me back to my point: You cannot depend solely on Internet network marketing to promote your golf course, or any business.

Yes, the Internet should be part of your marketing, but not your only marketing source. I believe those who have depended on network marketing entirely are the ones who's rounds are down the most.

Don't fall into that trap. You still have to advertise.

Mike