What Nobody Tells You About Owning Up Here Until It's Too Late
I had a buyer call me last winter, a few months after closing, kind of laughing but not really laughing, saying "nobody told me about all this." He wasn't talking about the mortgage. He was talking about everything that shows up after.
So let's just go through it, because I'd rather you hear it from me now than get surprised by it in January.
HOA dues are not a rounding error
Depending on the community, you're looking at HOA fees anywhere from a few hundred a month to well into the thousands, and it scales with what the association is actually maintaining — private roads, ski-in access, a shuttle system, a clubhouse. At Pendry Park City, for example, dues run around $19 per/sf per year which includes the utilities, doorman, parking, concierge etc. People budget for the mortgage and kind of mentally skip this line item, and then it shows up as a real number every single month.
Club membership is its own conversation
A lot of the Deer Valley and Tuhaye area properties come with access to a private club, or the option to join one, and that's usually not baked into the price you saw on the listing. Initiation fees can run up to $500,000, plus annual dues on top of that and some are $24,000 anually. Some buyers want the club for the ski valet and the dining. Some genuinely don't care and would rather skip it. Either way, ask before you assume it's included, because I've had clients find out the hard way that it wasn't.
Insurance in this market isn't what it used to be
Wildfire risk has changed how insurers price mountain properties in the West, full stop. I'm seeing quotes come in higher than buyers expect, and in some cases carriers are more selective about what they'll write at all. This is worth checking before you're under contract, not after, because if it comes in high it can actually change the math on the deal.
Property management, even if you think you don't need it
If this is a second home and you're not up here full-time, something has to check on the pipes when it's negative ten degrees outside. Most owners end up paying for some level of property management whether they planned to or not, because the alternative is a burst pipe you find out about from a neighbor.
None of this is meant to scare anyone off. Ownership up here is still one of the better long-term plays out there. I just think buyers deserve the real numbers, not just the purchase price, before they fall in love with a house. If you want me to walk through what a specific property actually costs to hold, not just to buy, send me a note — [email protected].
