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THE MEMBERSHIP TIERS, EXPLAINED IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Dorado Beach Insider · You Have Arrived.

We started asking that question while researching our book, The Dorado Beach Insider. The answer turns out to depend on the neighborhood, the membership type, and whether you’re buying new or resale. So we went straight to the source to make sure we had it right.

Julie emailed Karen Navarro, the club’s Lead Membership Coordinator, with our questions—and honestly, Karen was a delight. Warm, patient, endlessly thorough, and willing to put every answer in writing so we could get the details right, including a same-day exchange on October 2. The club is lucky to have her, and so are we.

We also read the club’s Membership Plan, the 28-page governing document effective September 2023, cover to cover.

What follows is our humble attempt to organize what we learned, current as of October 2026. The membership office has the final word on any specific property. If we’ve gotten anything wrong here, tell us and we’ll correct it.

If you’ve read The Dorado Beach Insider, Chapter 4 introduced branded versus non-branded and the membership question that comes with every purchase. This is the fuller picture, with the details we kept tripping over ourselves.

This was the part that tripped us up first. There isn’t one “branded”—there are two: Dorado Beach Ritz-Carlton Reserve branded and Dorado Beach branded. Similar membership obligations. Not the same benefits.

Ritz-Carlton Reserve branded: The developer’s own site labels East Beach, West Beach, West Point, and Livingston as Ritz-Carlton Reserve residences. La Cala’s residences were announced by the developer as part of the Ritz-Carlton Reserve portfolio.

What the brand brings with it is the Reserve’s service relationship: a dedicated Embajador, in-residence dining, housekeeping, and designated hotel pools and amenities, subject to the arrangements for the particular residence.

Dorado Beach branded: The membership office’s working term for the branded neighborhoods without the Ritz-Carlton label: The Isles, The Enclave, and Plantation Village.

The club doesn’t publish an official split between the two branded types anywhere we’ve seen, which is part of why this stays confusing.

The membership obligation is the same in both: it’s married to the deed. Buy a resale, and you pay the transfer fee—$195,000 plus 11.5% tax, per the membership office—on or before closing. No payment, no membership.

And “mandatory” means mandatory. This isn’t a membership you can politely decline. If you own in a branded neighborhood and don’t activate the required membership, the plan gives the club the right to place a lien on the property. Monthly dues and interest can keep accruing until it’s resolved.

If that $195,000 figure gave you pause, some context: Dorado Beach isn’t alone. Mandatory membership and substantial upfront fees are familiar features of private residential club communities.

Consider the published figures we gathered for comparison:

These are different clubs with different membership structures, and their charges can change. But they provide some perspective on the size of the commitment.

The lien mechanism isn’t unique either. Florida law gives qualifying homeowners’ associations lien rights for unpaid assessments, with foreclosure and additional charges available under the applicable requirements. That’s a separate legal framework, but the practical lesson is familiar: obligations attached to ownership don’t disappear because an owner chooses not to use the amenities.

Among these examples, Dorado Beach’s $195,000 upfront fee sits in the middle of the range.

Here’s the distinction as the membership office explained it to us: in some neighborhoods, the membership obligation is attached to the house. In others, membership is attached to the human.

These branded neighborhoods carry a mandatory Covenant membership obligation, with the $195,000 transfer fee applying to resales:

When the property sells, the seller’s membership ends. The obligation remains attached to the home, and the new buyer must activate the corresponding membership.

These communities are eligible for optional, individual membership:

Sell your home, and you can keep your individual membership by remaining active and continuing to pay the required dues. The new buyer arranges their own membership if they wish to join.

A few naming details matter here.

First, East Beach and Dorado Beach East are different neighborhoods. Easy to mix up, and they sit on opposite sides of this membership distinction.

Second, Dorado Country Estates and Dorado Estates are separate neighborhoods. Both are included above.

Dorado Beach East appears in the club’s 2023 plan under the Associated membership category rather than the Covenant category, which is why it’s on the personal-membership side.

Dorado Country Estates officially joined the community this month. Karen confirmed in writing on October 2 that membership there is optional and tied to the individual: sell your home, keep your membership, provided you remain active. She also confirmed that buyers can purchase through any licensed broker.

One distinction the office gave us concerns new construction purchased directly from Prisa, the developer.

For qualifying developer purchases, membership is incorporated into the purchase price. In a Covenant community, the membership obligation is also tied to the deed. You don’t write a separate $195,000 resale transfer check at closing.

Buy a resale in the same branded neighborhood, and the transfer fee is on you at closing.

That distinction is worth understanding before comparing the asking prices of two otherwise similar homes.

This was Julie’s question to Karen, asked September 19 and answered in writing the same day:

Karen’s answer: The Isles carries a mandatory covenant, so a new membership tied to that specific property must be activated—$195,000 plus tax.

Your existing membership doesn’t vanish. The club places it on dormant status, with no dues on that membership while you own the branded home.

And there is no credit. The years you’ve already paid as a member don’t reduce the $195,000 fee.

Sell in The Isles, buy a resale in The Enclave: the membership obligation at The Isles stays with that house.

New house, new $195,000 transfer fee.

Own two branded homes at once? That generally means two memberships and two sets of dues. The exception described in the plan concerns legally combining two contiguous residences into one.

Your branded membership doesn’t follow you when you sell. In the new non-branded neighborhood, membership is personal and optional.

If you have a dormant personal membership from before, it can reactivate—but the plan gives you 30 days after the sale to reactivate it and resume paying dues, or it terminates.

No dormant membership waiting in the wings? Then you’ll need to arrange a new personal membership if you want continued club access.

The plan uses formal names, including Covenant, Regular, and Associated.

“House or human” is our way of explaining the practical distinction. Your exact membership classification still matters, especially when discussing a move, a family transfer, or reactivation.

Two extras are worth knowing.

A Long-Term Rental Membership allows someone leasing a member’s home for at least three months to apply as an additional user of that membership. The office quoted a $40,000 initiation fee plus tax and a $20,000 annual renewal.

And a kind touch buried in the plan: senior status.

Add your age to your years of uninterrupted membership. If the total reaches 100 and you meet the requirements, your monthly dues freeze even when others’ dues increase. Say you’re 72 with 28 years of membership—that’s 100.

Reach age 80 with at least 30 years of membership, and the plan describes super senior status, where dues go down.

Longtime members may want to ask about that one.

This surprised us: the plan makes the seller jointly liable for the transfer fee and the buyer jointly liable for dues the seller left unpaid.

Get the negative debt certification from the club before closing. The plan itself recommends it.

You want the balance established and resolved before ownership changes hands.

We did.

Transfer a Covenant residence to your adult child under the plan’s qualifying provisions, and there’s no transfer fee.

You resign as of the transfer date. Your child becomes the member upon approval. The membership follows the house, and now it’s their house.

Keep your residence but extend privileges to eligible parents, adult children, or grandchildren outside your immediate family.

Per the membership office’s quoted terms, designees pay a $30,000 initiation fee plus full monthly dues.

Two catches from the plan: those privileges expire when you sell your residence, and the club can modify or terminate the program at its discretion.

The 2023 plan describes somewhat different designee terms, so confirm the current numbers and requirements with the office in writing before planning around them.

Qualifying unmarried children under 30 who live at home or attend school full-time are covered by immediate-family privileges without additional dues.

No separate Family Legacy paperwork is needed for those who meet the requirements.

The plan provides for a Regular Membership to transfer to a surviving spouse without an additional fee. For memberships described as Legacy, residence ownership remains a condition.

In a divorce, the relevant provisions tie the Legacy membership to the spouse awarded the residence and the Regular Membership to the spouse awarded the membership.

This is where the formal category on your paperwork matters.

Sabanera sits outside the gates—a separate community with its own membership mechanics.

For a brand-new home purchased directly from Prisa, the $195,000 membership initiation fee is included in the purchase price. Ongoing dues still apply.

Once established, membership is personal. An owner can retain it after selling by remaining active and continuing to pay the required dues.

For resales, the distinction explained in our original membership-office correspondence was this: your buyer’s agent does not have to be Dorado Beach Realty.

A licensed agent can represent you on the purchase and request that a membership invitation be extended to you as the new owner. The membership office described a Dorado Beach Realty touchpoint in that invitation process, which your agent should coordinate.

Choosing your own representative and satisfying the club’s invitation requirements are separate questions. Have the office confirm the process for the specific transaction before relying on membership eligibility.

The plan states that club membership grants no rights to the Ritz-Carlton Reserve hotel, its rooms, or its facilities. The hotel-service relationship associated with a Ritz-Carlton Reserve branded residence comes through the property’s separate arrangements.

That’s why the two branded types don’t carry the same benefits.

The plan says memberships “are not and should not be viewed as an investment.” It also reserves the right to terminate membership unilaterally, “for any reason or no reason.”

The $195,000 purchases access under the club’s terms, not equity in the club.

One piece of good news in the fine print: the plan states that members aren’t subject to operating or capital assessments by the club.

HOA and condominium obligations are separate.

A heartfelt thank-you to Karen Navarro and the membership team. They gave our questions their full attention, and this article wouldn’t exist without them.

If anything above doesn’t match your experience or the written terms you’ve received, reply and tell us. We’ll happily follow up and correct it.

Have a Dorado Beach question we should take to the membership office? Reply to this email—we read every one.

And if you’re buying or selling out here, you want someone who knows which membership goes where before you sign anything.

— Tim & Julie

P.S. The full branded versus non-branded breakdown, with the real estate math around it, is in Chapter 4 of The Dorado Beach Insider.

Membership terms and fees can change. Confirm the current requirements for your property and transaction directly with the membership office.