Gated communities: what the gate buys, and what it does not.

Quiet, a schedule, and a set of rules you agree to live inside. It buys the absence of traffic and the absence of certain conversations with strangers.

It does not buy exemption from dues, from a thin reserve, or from a special assessment arriving in your third year. The gate is the amenity. The books are the purchase.

Dues and what they actually cover. The reserve study. Any litigation. The rental rules in writing, if you will ever leave the house empty or let it earn. [VERIFY the current documents for that community.]

We ask for all of it before you are emotionally committed. A packet is far easier to read in the first week than in the last days of a contingency period.

By the numbers, not the landscaping. Two communities can look identical from the guardhouse and differ by thousands a month once you add dues, assessments, and whatever the association has been deferring.

We put them side by side on paper. One of the two is usually the cheaper house, and it is rarely the one with the better entrance.