DC Ranch Announces Market Pricing – Should Desert Mountain Do the Same?

There has been a lot of discussion during the past few years about the TRUE value or cost of a Desert Mountain Membership.

The Country Club at DC Ranch just announced that they are switching to a market based pricing for the sales of their golf memberships. Each member who wants to sell their membership can name their own price. The value of the membership is ultimately determined by what a member is willing to sell his membership for and what a buyer is willing to pay. DC Ranch is the second high-end golf club in Scottsdale to establish market based pricing. Estancia Golf Club in Scottsdale changed to a market based pricing system last year.  Each member who wanted to sell could name their price and the membership office would handle the transaction on their behalf. The program has been wildly successful. It allowed a large number of members who wanted out to sell their memberships quickly. The club benefited financially because many more memberships were sold than normal and the club picked up their usual transfer fee from each transaction.

Estancia was able to create a large capital fund from the high number of sales. It also helped the morale at the club by reducing the number of members on the “out list”. As we all know, a large out list at a club can be very toxic. It creates a lot of negativity in a club when you force people who don’t want to be members to continue to be a member. It is better for morale to just get those people out of the club.

Should Desert Mountain change to Market Pricing? In my opinion, yes, it should officially change to market pricing because that is exactly what has ALREADY happened on an unofficial level. The current price of a Desert Mountain membership is $325,000 if purchased directly from the membership office. However, is that the true market value? Absolutely not.  There are plenty of memberships for sale on the black market for between $75,000-100,000, including the $65,000 transfer fee. I see little point in having the “official price” so much different from the “market price”. I have not heard of anyone actually paying $325,000 in years. I make sure my clients who purchase memberships pay the lowest market price, not the official price.

It will be interesting to see what happens after the turnover. I am sure that once the members take control of the club the price of memberships will be reduced significantly or market pricing will be instituted.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Desert Mountain or other Scottsdale communities.