Leland's HOA Fee Isn't One Number, and You Can't See the Real One Until You're Under Contract

Two words, printed on the state's official disclosure form, are legal to write next to every single question about a homeowners association: "No Representation." A Leland seller can check that box on the dues amount, the special assessments, the pending lawsuits, all of it, and still close on schedule. It is not a loophole. It is written into North Carolina law.

That matters more in Leland than almost anywhere else in the Cape Fear region, because Leland's housing stock runs through master-planned communities where "HOA fee" rarely means one number. Brunswick Forest, Compass Pointe, Waterford, Magnolia Greens, Mallory Creek, Grayson Park, and the newly opened Terrapin each stack dues, sub-dues, and club memberships in different combinations. A buyer comparing listing sheets across these communities is often comparing numbers that were never designed to be compared, and the documents that would let them compare accurately are the ones state law lets a seller decline to hand over before an offer is written.

The same community can carry four different dues numbers

Compass Pointe is the clearest example. It reads on paper as one gated, resort-style community, and it is, in the sense that every resident shares a single master association. But that association governs 19 separate gated neighborhoods, and annual dues across those neighborhoods run from roughly $2,500 to more than $7,000. The spread is not random. Custom estate sections carry lower dues because owners handle their own landscaping. Villa and patio-home sections carry higher dues because the fee bundles lawn care, irrigation, and in some cases exterior insurance, which matters if you are the kind of owner who wants to lock the door and travel for three months without thinking about the yard.

Waterford follows a similar split. Its Reserve section of patio homes and townhomes folds yard maintenance directly into the dues, while other sections in the same community do not. On a spreadsheet, the Reserve home looks like it costs more to carry every month. In practice, it may cost less once you subtract what a standalone lawn service would run you elsewhere.

Brunswick Forest complicates the comparison further just by its size. The community spans roughly 4,500 acres with homes, land-and-home packages, and homesites priced from the mid-$300s past $1 million, plus integrated retail and medical space built into the plan. A dues figure quoted for a townhome section says almost nothing about what a custom home three neighborhoods away is paying, because the amenity load and maintenance responsibility differ by product type, not by community name.

Golf is never included in what you think it is

If a listing agent describes a home as being in a "golf community," most buyers assume the course is part of the HOA package. In Leland's master-planned communities, it almost never is. Compass Pointe Golf Club, the course that gives the community its country-club feel, is privately owned and operated by Heritage Golf Group, not by the homeowners association. The course was designed by North Carolina native Rick Robbins and stretches to 7,228 yards, and membership is sold in three separate tiers: Golf, Club, and Social. Golf membership also carries privileges at Magnolia Greens Golf Club, the sister course a few miles away, which tells you these two well-known Leland communities share a golf operator behind the scenes even though they market themselves as competitors.

The practical point: your HOA dues get you the gate, the grounds crew, the pool, the pickleball courts, and the security patrol. They do not get you a tee time. If golf is part of why you are buying in Leland, budget for it as a completely separate line item, because that is exactly how the two organizations bill it.

What the major Leland communities actually stack

None of these dues figures include your county and town property tax bill, which for a Leland address is collected as one combined statement through Brunswick County. The HOA due sits on top of that bill, not inside it.

The friction that surfaces after you've already made an offer

North Carolina requires sellers to deliver an Owners' Association and Mandatory Covenants Disclosure Statement no later than the time you make an offer. That form asks whether the property carries a mandatory association, what the regular assessment is, what it covers, whether any special assessment is pending, and whether there are unsatisfied judgments or lawsuits involving the association. It is a genuinely useful form when a seller fills it in.

The catch is that the statute lets a seller answer "No Representation" to any or every question, and that answer carries no penalty. A blank or waived disclosure is not automatically a warning sign, but it does mean the number on the listing sheet has not actually been verified by anyone yet.

Here is the part that catches even careful buyers off guard: the documents that would let you verify that number yourself are not available to you before you write an offer. Under North Carolina's Planned Community Act and Condominium Act, an association's internal records, meaning its operating budget, its reserve study, and its board meeting minutes, are only available to owners and their authorized agents. You are not an owner yet. Those records reach you after your offer is accepted, delivered through the resale package on whatever timeline your contract's owners' association addendum sets.

In other words, the number you are underwriting your monthly budget around is a placeholder until you are already under contract. The real information, the trend of the last three years' budgets, whether the reserve study shows the community saving enough for a clubhouse roof or a pool resurfacing five years out, and what residents were actually raising in meeting minutes, only shows up after you have committed.

What this means for your offer

A few habits close most of that gap:

1. Negotiate the delivery window, not just the price. Your contract's owners' association addendum sets how many days after acceptance the seller has to deliver the resale package. A longer window gives you real time to read the documents rather than skim them the night before your due diligence period closes.
2. Read the trend, not the snapshot. A single year's budget tells you what the association spent once. Three years side by side tells you whether dues have been climbing and why. Most increases in coastal North Carolina communities trace back to one of two causes: a master insurance policy renewal or a reserve study that flagged an underfunded repair.
3. Ask what the reserve study actually says. A community with strong reserves can absorb a bad storm season or a clubhouse repair without a special assessment. A community without one usually cannot, and the bill lands on current owners, including you, shortly after closing.
4. Treat a new community differently than an established one. Terrapin, Logan Developers' newest project and the same team behind Compass Pointe, held its Discovery Center grand opening in June 2026 with six builders on site. It is a genuinely promising addition to Leland's inventory, but it has not yet built the multi-year budget and reserve history that Brunswick Forest, Compass Pointe, and Magnolia Greens can now show. Early buyers there are underwriting a promise more than a track record, which is not a reason to avoid it, only a reason to ask sharper questions.

A few direct answers

Can I request the HOA budget before I write an offer? You can ask, and some sellers will share it informally, but North Carolina law does not require it before an accepted offer. Build your review window into the contract instead of counting on early access.

Does a higher HOA fee always mean better amenities? Not necessarily. It often means more is bundled into that fee, such as lawn maintenance or building insurance, rather than more amenities existing at all. Compare what is bundled, not just the total.

Do golf memberships transfer when I buy a home? No. In Compass Pointe and Magnolia Greens, golf and club memberships are sold separately by the golf operator and are not conveyed with the property or included in HOA dues.

If you are comparing dues sheets across two or three of these communities and the numbers are not adding up the way you expected, that is worth a conversation before you write an offer, not after. The Jennifer Bullock Team works these Leland communities regularly and can walk through a specific resale package with you line by line. Reach out for a free home valuation and we will help you read the whole picture, dues included.