By Todd Lewys
As an avid golfer, it’s long been a dream of yours: to own a home on a golf course.
And now that one — in an ideal spot, no less — has come up for sale, you’re seriously considering purchasing it.
After all, what could be better: living in a beautiful, quiet setting just minutes from the first tee of one of your favourite golf courses.
Well — as it should always be with any major purchase — you need to step back and consider the pros and cons of that purchase.
Take a look at the positives and negatives below; you might be surprised at what you’ll find.
Pros
• You can literally walk to the first tee in 10 minutes. It doesn’t get any better than that!
• You’re living in a beautiful setting surrounded by trees, and with a golf course view from your living room and master bedroom. What a great view to wake up to in the morning!
• Because you don’t have neighbours on all sides of you, the potential of having to deal with an annoying neighbour (or two) is negligible.
• The prestige that comes with owning a gorgeous home in an upscale community — and a great home to entertain family and friends in, in style — after playing a round of golf.
• A supposedly serene atmosphere.
• The ability to walk over to the course’s clubhouse for breakfast, lunch or dinner on a whim.
• Great views!
Cons
• Possible pesticide runoff. Many golf courses use pesticides to maintain fairways, greens and tee boxes. As a consequence, those pesticides can be hazardous to both people and their pets. Before buying, find out if the golf course uses organic pesticides, or utilizes pesticide-free zones.
• Stray golf balls. Depending on where your home is relative to the golf course, wayward shots could pose a problem. For example, if you’re half or three-quarters of the way down the fairway of a long par-5, you could get bombarded with wild tee shots and/or approach shots.
• Cart path noise. Prior to purchasing the home, walk around the home to see how close power cart paths come to the home. If they’re nearby, you’ll hear carts zipping by all day long.
• Maintenance noise. Noise from mowers and green cutting machines can be significant, especially if your home is next to a tee box or green. For example, if your master suite faces out onto the course, tee box mowing or green cutting could put a dent in your sleep early in the morning – unless you’re a deep sleeper. Solution: make sure the home is located on a fairway, well away from tees and greens.
• Lack of privacy. During the course of a round, golfers will be parking their power carts by tee boxes in greens. Then, they will be hitting shots and trying to make putts. While most golfers are well-behaved, there will be those boors who curse after every bad tee shot and missed putt – LOUDLY.
• Unwelcome visitors. If your home is next to a fairway, there’s the very real possibility that errant shots will land in your front yard. It’s guaranteed that most golfers will walk into the yard to retrieve their ball. This gets annoying after the fifth or sixth golfer.
• Property damage. If your home is close to a fairway and in tee shot range, wild drives could come through a window at some point.
• Potential difficulty selling the home. Not everyone wants to live on a golf course, so it may take longer than normal to sell the home.
While the pros of owning a home on a golf course outweigh the cons — many of the negatives are potential negatives, and thus must be investigated — it always pays to take an objective look at any major purchase.
A home is the biggest purchase you’ll ever make, so it just makes sense to do your due diligence before taking the plunge, even if the home is on a golf course, and is your ultimate dream home.