Spanish Wells Country Club

Spanish Wells is gated, in Bonita Springs, which is Lee County, not Collier. The main gate is at 28001 Spanish Wells Blvd, right off Bonita Beach Blvd. Inside are single-family homes, condominiums and villas, 27 holes of golf and a country club.

Which subdivision a house sits in decides whether club membership is required, so establish that before the price. The club states the rule both ways: "If you buy a house in Cordova you are required to have a membership to the Club. If you buy a house in any other subdivision other than Cordova, you are not required to obtain a membership to the Club." Cordova is the one address where joining is not a choice.

What kind of club is it?

Semi-private, in its own words: "No, Spanish Wells is not an Equity Club. We are a Semi-Private Club with our golf course open to the public and the rest of our amenities are reserved for our members." So you can play the golf before deciding anything about a house. The clubhouse, the courts, the pool and the fitness center are for members.

"Our Full Golf, Sports and Social Memberships are open to anyone that do not live in Spanish Wells." So joining is not a privilege of owning here, and an owner outside Cordova joins on the same footing as anyone else.

Who owns the golf club?

The homeowners association does: "In January of 2018, Spanish Wells Golf & Country Club was purchased by the Home Owner's Association". Read that narrowly, because it doesn't mean a membership comes with a house, it doesn't make an owner an equity holder, and it doesn't put club dues inside the association assessment. The club sends association fee questions over to the association.

What do the memberships open up?

Three categories, and the club publishes what each opens and a price for none of them.

• Social. Tee times 21 days ahead, dining privileges, a discount on a la carte food at the Crow's Nest, discounted golf, member events and pool access.
• Sports. Everything in Social, plus the driving range and practice greens, the tennis, bocce and pickleball courts, reciprocal privileges from May to October and discounted golf rates.
• Full Golf. Everything in the other two, plus tournaments and leagues, pro shop discounts and discounted guest golf.

That unpublished price is not optional spending at a Cordova house.

What is the golf like?

The club calls it "27-holes of Championship Golf in three different 18-hole combinations". Gordon Lewis designed the North and South, Bruce Howard the East. "Play ranges from 4,800 to 6,800 yards from multiple tee locations." Practice is on site: an aqua driving range, a chipping area and two putting green areas.

The clubhouse runs to 32,000 square feet and has been renovated, and a separate fitness center holds 5,000 square feet of cardio and strength equipment. There are 3 Har-Tru tennis courts, 3 Har-Tru bocce courts, 4 pickleball courts and a heated pool.

Who do you pay?

Two layers of association sit on every address. Spanish Wells Community Association is the master, and beneath it are separate sub-associations, each with its own management company and several self-managed. The master will not quote one figure: "Maintenance fees differ by sub-association." It points people at the individual sub-association for the figure, and no one number describes this community.

A lease takes the same route, and the master comes second, registering the tenant for gate access. "All lease applications must first be submitted to the appropriate sub-association for approval." How short a lease may be, and how many are allowed in a year, are the sub-association's business.

One payment lands only at a resale, over and above the price. The master association publishes a capital contribution that applies to each real estate transaction. It carries an effective date, so the amount can change, and the schedule does not say who pays. Get the figure from the association before you write an offer.

What kind of homes are here?

Three in five are detached houses, with low-rise condominiums at 34% and a few villas. Bedroom counts run 2 to 4, and interiors from about 1150 to about 3250 square feet. Sales run from the $180,000s and top out around $1.5 million, with the oldest homes dating from 1980.

That last date is what a condominium listing cannot answer for you. Florida requires buildings old enough and tall enough to prove they are structurally sound, and to hold money against what the check finds. Whether a building is in scope is a question for its sub-association, along with what the last check turned up and what has been set aside against it. A building with work to do and nothing behind it bills its owners in one go. A detached house carries none of this.

How far is the beach?

Bonita Beach is about 3.7 miles west on the Gulf, straight-line, and downtown Bonita Springs about 1.5 miles. Straight-line as well: Coconut Point in Estero about 7.5 miles north and Southwest Florida International about 14.9 miles north. Mercato is about 4.4 miles south and Fifth Avenue South about 12.5 miles, and each is longer by road.

Two layers of association govern every address here, and a third obligation sits on one subdivision. Cordova comes with a club membership, and everywhere else inside the gate joining is the owner's decision.