Foxfire Country Club

Foxfire is 931 homes wrapped around a golf course, gathered off Davis Boulevard east of downtown Naples. The land is unincorporated Collier County, outside the city limits, though mail comes addressed to Naples. Building started in 1984, and about 925 of the homes were standing by 1987. Six more followed on Fox Den Circle and Kings Way in 1996 and 1997. Nothing further is coming, so every home here arrives on the market as a resale. The club's own figure for the property is "385 gated acres".

One fact reshapes everything else here: the club and the association are the same body. Both pieces of golf land, the one at the clubhouse and the one on Foxtail Court, are deeded to Foxfire Community Association. No club corporation exists to hold them or to set terms for using them. The membership questions a buyer cares about are answered in the association's recorded documents.

Is the golf bundled at Foxfire?

The club says it is, and the wording repays a close reading: "As a bundled community, membership at Foxfire Golf & Country Club is included with the purchase of any residence—granting full access to our golf course, Club facilities, and social activities." That sentence describes access, and it doesn't say what is payable, by whom, or when. Whether an owner who never plays still pays, and whether a buyer owes anything at closing, is decided by the recorded declaration. Get both answers from the association before going under contract.

The club calls the course a "27-hole championship golf course, masterfully designed by renowned architect Arthur Hills".

Who bills a Foxfire owner, and how often?

Bills come from two levels. Foxfire Community Association of Collier County, Inc. sits at the top, with the neighborhood associations underneath it, nineteen of them by the club's count. Which of them bill a particular home follows from where that home sits. Billing from the top runs quarterly, not monthly, so any single monthly figure flattens bills that don't even arrive on the same schedule.

What can you buy here?

Two markets, not one. Of the 931 homes, 227 are detached houses and the other 704 are attached. The club describes the range as running "from condominiums and verandas to villas and single-family homes". Homes run from about 840 to about 4,320 square feet. The attached homes stop near 1,520 square feet, and the houses begin around 1,680.

Prices divide along the same line. Condominium sales have topped out around $600,000, with the bottom of that band in the $200,000s. Single-family sales start in the $500,000s and reach around $1.2 million, which is why one price span for Foxfire describes neither. Neighborhood matters as well, since Foxmoor, Foxwood and Fox Hollow each trade in their own band, as do Foxfire Unit 1 and Unit 3.

What should you know about the condominium buildings?

They date from the 1980s, which is old enough for Florida to require periodic structural inspection of the buildings and a properly funded reserve behind it. Twelve of Foxfire's condominium associations have been through that cycle, and 2033 is when the next round falls due. Completing the cycle proves the inspection happened, and that's not the same as saying nothing was found. Get the report itself, and the reserve balance behind it, because repair work a board cannot cover from reserves turns into a special assessment split among the owners.

Can you rent your home out?

Yes, and it's yours to arrange. Rentals at Foxfire are handled by owners and their agents, not by the association. Club privileges are a separate step: moving them to a tenant goes through the Foxfire Community Association on a Transfer Form, signed by both the owner and the renter.

What should you settle before making an offer?

Five things, and none of them show up on a listing sheet:

• Whether membership is mandatory, and whether the obligation follows the title or the person.
• Anything a buyer owes the club or the association beyond the price itself.
• Every bill that reaches the address, master and neighborhood, with the schedule for each.
• How an attached home conveys, as a condominium interest or as fee simple with a homeowners' association.
• The lease terms and pet rules that bind that particular home.

Two gates serve Foxfire and only one of them takes guests. The main gate is on Kings Way off Davis Boulevard, and the club warns that "GPS may incorrectly direct you to the Radio Road gate, which is reserved for members only." About half a mile inside that main gate stands the clubhouse, at 1030 Kings Way, on golf land the association owns outright.