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THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST · EPISODE 2

Dorado Beach Insider · You Have Arrived.

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First, thank you. Since our first episode, so many of you have stopped us at the gym, at dinner and on the paths with ideas, questions and suggestions. That is exactly what we hoped for. Dorado Beach Insider isn't a Tim and Julie project. It's a neighborhood project, and the insiders are all of us.

This week, we sat down to talk through the question we hear more than any other: does your club membership go with the house, or with the human? The full written guide went out in last week's issue. Below are the moments from our conversation that are worth keeping, plus a few things we didn't put in writing.

There are now two kinds of "branded" here, and that's where most of the confusion starts. Ritz-Carlton Reserve branded (East Beach, West Beach, West Point, Livingston and La Cala) and Dorado Beach branded (The Isles, The Enclave and Plantation Village) both carry a mandatory membership that is married to the deed. Everywhere else, membership is optional and personal.

So before you fall in love with a home, ask which side of the line it sits on. Here's how it plays out when you move:

Tim put it to Julie on the show: say she gets a wild hair and we buy in La Cala. Our longtime membership from The Greens would go dormant, and we'd stop paying dues on it. The new La Cala home would come with its own membership. And if we ever moved back to a non-branded home, our old membership could be reactivated. The rules sound complicated until you trace your own move through them.

One nuance from the conversation: if you're buying a resale and facing a new membership, that cost can be part of the negotiation. Like everything in real estate, ask.

When we moved here almost ten years ago, the club sold memberships to people in a number of surrounding communities. You didn't have to live inside the gates. That changed several years ago. None of this is new, but many people weren't paying attention at the time, and they're discovering the new rules now, as they buy, sell or help friends move here.

If a previous owner in a branded home never activated the membership or fell behind on dues, the club has the right to place a lien on the property, and dues and interest keep accruing. As the buyer, you don't want to inherit that.

Our advice: before you close, visit the membership office and ask for the official certification that the property has no outstanding dues. Karen Navarro and the team there are wonderful. They have helped us get set up with just about everything. Bring cookies or flowers and make friends. (We're not attorneys, so loop in yours too.)

The two branded types share the same membership obligation but not the same benefits. Ritz-Carlton Reserve branded homes come with the Reserve service relationship and access to hotel amenities, including the new Beach Club between West Beach and West Point. Dorado Beach branded homes get the same club benefits as non-branded homes. The difference is that the membership is mandatory.

A surprise from our research: the HOA fees at West Beach and West Point were lower than we expected for oceanfront living with those amenities. With three decades in real estate and agents in markets like Palm Beach and Greenwich, we'd say comparable oceanfront in Miami could easily run twice as much. A full breakdown of HOA fees across every neighborhood is coming in a future episode, once we've finished triple-checking it.

On the western side of the property, past the service gate off Route 693, a new neighborhood is taking shape, and it looks spectacular. It's neither type of branded. Friends who are building there have memberships that follow them, and the neighborhood shares a gate with The Cottages. The word around the neighborhood is that it may follow Dorado Country Estates' lead and become a non-branded community where future owners can choose a membership. We'll report back as we learn more.

We ended the episode with a question for the neighborhood: now that membership is mandatory in branded homes and optional elsewhere, does that make non-branded homes more valuable, less valuable, or neither?

Julie's take: in some ways, optional is more valuable. Many people arrive before they've sold back home, or while they're still learning what they love here. Not having to add roughly $217,000 on day one ($195,000 plus 11.5% tax) gives them room to breathe. On the other hand, if you know you'll join anyway, a branded home simply settles the question.

What do you think? Hit reply and tell us.

When we arrived, the advice was to rent for a year and get the lay of the land. We spent our first three months driving to the gym before discovering the Rockefeller nature trail loops around the whole property.

Today we'd do it differently: arrive with 95% of your homework done. This is a micro-market with limited inventory at every price point, so if you've decided Dorado is home, rent for 90 days rather than a year. Sorting it all out while you're living out of boxes is far more stressful. That's why we wrote the book, built the website and started this podcast.

Confused? That's normal. It took us hours of research, and then researching our research, to get this straight. Stop by the membership office, find us at the gym, or simply reply to this email. We read every one, and if we've gotten anything wrong, we'll correct it.

And please share this with a neighbor or a friend who's thinking about moving here. The more of us who know, the stronger the community.

— Tim & Julie

P.S. Want every detail in writing, including adult children, legacy memberships, trusts and LLCs? Read last week's guide, Does your Dorado Beach membership stay with the house, or with you?, and Chapter 4 of The Dorado Beach Insider.

Membership terms, fees and neighborhood plans can change. Confirm the current requirements for your property and transaction directly with the membership office. This newsletter is not legal, tax or investment advice.