Buyer Guides · 13 Min Read

Buying a Scottsdale Golf or Country-Club Home — Memberships, HOAs, and What to Check

When you buy a golf home in Scottsdale, you are buying a house, an HOA, and often a club, each with its own costs and rules. This guide shows you how to price all three before you write an offer.

Scottsdale's golf and country-club communities: an overview

Scottsdale has more golf frontage than almost any city its size. Buyers tend to treat that frontage as one product, but the course behind the patio can sit under several kinds of ownership. Some courses are public and run on daily fees. Some are private clubs that any qualified applicant may join, whether or not they live nearby. A few are private clubs where buying the home makes you a member. The fairway view can look the same in all three. The monthly bill does not.

Here is how that plays out on the ground. In Grayhawk, the Raptor and Talon courses are daily-fee and open to everyone, so a fairway home there carries no club obligation. In Troon, homeowners may join Troon Country Club but are not required to, and the club takes non-resident members too. In DC Ranch, the Country Club is member-owned, and joining it is a separate purchase from the house. Ancala's private club is likewise separate from owning a home there. Desert Highlands is different: buying the home makes you a member, and the membership fee is paid when the property transfers.

Prices vary just as widely. As of 2026, Redfin puts the Scottsdale citywide median near $906,900, Grayhawk near $955,000, and DC Ranch near $1,500,000. ZIP code 85262, which takes in Troon North and much of Troon, sits near $1,584,314. Homes.com puts the Desert Highlands median over the trailing year at $3,110,000.

So the first question on any golf home is not the price per square foot. It is who owns the course, and on what terms you could play it. Our buyer representation starts every golf-community search with exactly that question.

Golf community membership in Scottsdale: equity, non-equity, mandatory, and optional

Membership terms describe two separate things, and most confusion comes from mixing them up. The first is ownership: equity or non-equity. The second is obligation: mandatory or optional. A club can be any combination of the two.

Equity. You buy an ownership interest in a member-owned club, usually with voting rights. When you resign, part or all of the initiation may come back to you, but often only after a new member takes your place. The Country Club at DC Ranch is member-owned. If you buy into a club like that, read the bylaws for three things: how the resale queue works, what share of the initiation is refundable, and whether you keep paying dues until your spot is filled.

Non-equity. You buy access, not ownership. The initiation fee is generally not refundable, and the club's owner sets dues and policy. Troon Country Club's two published categories, Premier Full Golf and Signature Sport/Social, are both non-equity. Non-equity is not a lesser product. It is a different deal, and you should model it as a sunk cost rather than an asset.

Mandatory. Buying the home makes you a member, so the membership is effectively part of the price. In Desert Highlands, the fee is paid when the property transfers, and it can approach $200,000. Homes.com has carried a Desert Highlands listing in which the seller offered to pay a $190,000 membership fee, a reminder that this cost can be negotiated like any other.

Optional. The more common Scottsdale model. Owning the home gives you no right to play, so you apply, pay, and sometimes wait in line like anyone else. Ask whether the club has a waitlist, and whether residents get priority on it.

Membership and community models compared

Club terms change, sometimes every season. This table describes structure, not current pricing. Always get the club's current fee sheet in writing.

The full carrying cost: dues, HOA, taxes, and insurance

A golf home has more monthly lines than most homes, and buyers tend to count only the ones on the listing. Here are the ones to count.

HOA layers. Large Scottsdale communities often have a master association plus a sub-association for your village or enclave, and some add a community council on top. Each layer has its own dues, its own reserves, and its own transfer charges.

Club charges. Monthly dues are the visible part. Many clubs also charge capital dues or assessments, require a minimum spend on food and beverage, and bill cart, locker, and trail fees separately. Ask for the club's full fee sheet, and ask how much dues have risen over the past few years.

Property taxes. Arizona taxes are calculated on the Limited Property Value, which the Maricopa County Assessor says can rise no more than 5% a year under Proposition 117. That generally keeps bills modest. For many North Scottsdale homes, the bill has run around half a percent of market value. Pull the parcel's actual bill from the Maricopa County Treasurer, and ask how it would change if the home becomes your second residence. Primary residences qualify for a homeowner rebate on school taxes, and second homes do not.

Insurance. Desert-edge golf communities face real wildfire exposure. Redfin's climate data flags major wildfire risk for every property in Desert Highlands, for example. Fairway lots also bring stray-ball claims. Get a binding quote before your inspection period ends, not after.

Financing. At these prices, most loans are jumbo loans with their own reserve requirements. Freddie Mac's weekly survey has recently put the 30-year average a little above 7%. Ask your lender early whether mandatory club dues will count against your debt-to-income ratio. Like HOA dues, they often do.

Total cost of golf ownership calculator

Enter the home's price, your financing, and the club's actual terms. The membership presets are illustrative starting points, not any club's current pricing, so replace them with the numbers on the fee sheet you are given. The calculator spreads the initiation over the years you expect to own the home, minus any share you expect to get back when you leave.

With the defaults — $1,500,000 at 20% down and 7%, a non-equity golf membership, and a 10-year hold — the all-in comes to about $11,525 a month, against about $9,375 for the same home without the club. Cash due at close, beyond ordinary closing costs, is about $382,500.

What a Scottsdale country club home buyer should check: transfer fees, waitlists, and rules

Arizona's residential purchase contract gives you an inspection period and an HOA disclosure review period. In a golf community, use both for more than the house itself.

Transfer and capital fees. Under A.R.S. § 33-1806, an association can charge no more than $400 in total for the resale disclosure and related services. Fees that the association's own documents authorize, such as transfer, capital improvement, and working-capital fees, fall outside that cap. They can be a flat amount, a multiple of the monthly dues, or a percentage of the price. The DC Ranch Community Council fee is one-half of 1% of the gross sale price, or $7,500 on a $1,500,000 home. The HOA addendum assigns these fees to buyer or seller with a checkbox, so read it before you sign.

Membership terms, in writing. If membership comes with the home, get the current fee and the date of the next increase, and write into the contract who pays the fee. If membership is optional, ask whether there is a waitlist, whether residents get priority, and whether the seller's membership can transfer to you. A seller's membership almost never transfers automatically.

The club's finances. For an equity club, ask for the most recent audited financials, the reserve study, and any planned assessments. A clubhouse renovation shows up as a capital assessment sooner or later, and it is better to know about it before you join.

Rules that touch daily life. Read the CC&Rs for rental minimums, golf-course easements, landscape and view-fence rules, and architectural review. These matter more if the home will be a seasonal residence you plan to rent out in the off-season.

The lot itself. Stand on the patio during tee times. Check the walls and windows for ball strikes, notice how close the cart path runs, and watch where the course's evening light falls. In Troon North and Troon, elevation and the boulder setting shape the view as much as the hole you face.

Troon, Grayhawk, DC Ranch, and Desert Highlands by the numbers

The same membership can weigh very differently depending on the price of the home. At Grayhawk's median of about $955,000, the illustrative non-equity membership from the calculator, about $1,525 a month before initiation, is a meaningful share of what you will spend each month. At DC Ranch's $1,500,000 median, it is a smaller share. In Desert Highlands, where the median is around $3,110,000, the cost of membership is bundled into the purchase itself.

That changes how you should negotiate. In Grayhawk, where you can play without joining, a fairway home's price should reflect the view and nothing else. In Troon, a buyer who plans to join Troon Country Club should price the house and the membership as one budget. In Ancala, where homes in the 85259 ZIP code have run near $1,536,000, the club is optional, so the house has to stand on its own merits.

Think about the sale at the other end, too. Every one of these homes will be sold again someday, and the listing fee is part of what it costs to own one. At $1,500,000, our 1% listing fee is $15,000, against $45,000 at 3%. At the Desert Highlands median, the difference grows to $62,200. Our Paradise Valley and North Scottsdale luxury analysis walks through that math in more detail. The fee is 1% with a $5,500 minimum, so the straight 1% applies from $550,000 up, and there are no upfront costs.

How buyer's agent compensation works after the NAR settlement

Since the 2024 practice changes, you sign a written agreement with your agent before touring homes, whether in person or by live video. Under the NAR settlement, that agreement must say plainly that broker fees are fully negotiable and not set by law. The agreement sets out what your agent will be paid and how.

Sellers are not required to offer compensation to a buyer's agent. Some choose to, as part of their own pricing strategy. You can also ask for it, or for a concession, in your offer, the same way a club membership fee can be negotiated. Either way, it is a negotiated term, not a fixed one.

We have spent 22 years in this market, with more than 3,000 homes sold, over $900M in closed transactions, and more than 500 five-star reviews. We are brokered by HomeSmart, and our buyer terms are in writing from the first conversation. If you are also selling a home to make this move, our seller services cover that side at a 1% listing fee.

Questions Scottsdale golf-home buyers ask

Sources and further reading: Redfin — Scottsdale housing market · Homes.com — Desert Highlands market and listings · Troon Country Club — membership categories · DC Ranch — resale fees · A.R.S. § 33-1806 — HOA resale disclosure fees · Maricopa County Assessor — Proposition 117 and limited property value · Freddie Mac — mortgage rate survey · National Association of REALTORS® — what the settlement means for homebuyers.