January, 2011

Property Owners, here's another reminder not to miss our Annual Meeting on Monday, January 31st, at 3:00 pm at the Sunset Terrace at Cochise/Geronimo Clubhouse.

This will be your best opportunity of the year to find out how we help you stay safe and get help when you need it by listening to the stories about real life experiences on the Mountain. You'll also find out about what we are doing to keep this place looking great, which is essential to supporting our home values. Find out what we are doing to expand our lifestyle options with the Northern Properties we just acquired and take a tour from an expert. (You don't have to climb up there because he has!)

You'll meet Deputy Chief/Fire Marshall Jim Ford of the Scottsdale Fire Department. Jim was on the front lines protecting Desert Mountain during the famous 2005 Cave Creek fire and still supports us today. Find out how the fire defense teams manage these events, and what we can do at our own homes to maximize our own fire safety. Jim will field your questions in a Q&A and at the reception following the meeting.

The reason why Desert Mountain is so beautiful is that, except for your building envelope and streets, we are still sitting on the equivalent of a wildlife park with desert animals roaming by as they have for a thousand years! It's spectacular and not terribly dangerous, but it can be challenging. Who is going to get the rattlesnake out of your garage or chase the bobcat off the patio when your little dogs need to go out? Who is going to call the exterminator to get that beehive out of your tree? While these may not be 911 situations, that doesn't mean they are not important or need immediate attention. We can help and will tell you how.

If it sounds like we are working hard to get you to come to this Annual Meeting, we are! We are sure your life experience at Desert Mountain will be better if you do, and you will be safer and better informed.

There will be beverages and some light food at the reception after the discussions where you can meet the people who can answer your specific questions and spend some time chatting with your neighbors. See you on the Sunset Terrace at 3:00pm on the 31st.

Regards,
Bob Borsch
Desert Mountain Master Board President on Behalf of Master Board Members:
Bill Dorr, John Gevlin, Ron Matricaria, Ann Melsheimer, Wayne Safka, Jack Swonson, Harley Wood
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November, 2010

Hi, Property Owners –

We have some important and good news to talk about and want to bring you up-to-date on some things.

Club Turnover
The big news of course is the Global Turnover Deal the Desert Mountain Advisory Board has successfully negotiated for us, and it’s terrific. Never mind that the Global Deal is less costly and gives our Club Members a lot more assets than the “scheduled” turnover, although that alone is totally compelling. Or that we get the place early enough (12/31/10) to put the big revenue months of January and February in our own pockets.  Or that the assessment to members is a fraction of what we all thought we could be paying just a few years ago.

All these are great, but I have two other favorites I am also excited about and they are not directly financial. The first is the one I talked about at the October Advisory Board Town Hall Meeting: having space to expand in the future. This means for us that we will get enough great property to always be able to build and offer terrific new stuff.  That includes new amenities both for current members, and perhaps more family-oriented amenities to get new, younger members into the Club to help grow this great place and to keep it vibrant.

My other favorite is getting full control of the Club. Imagine buying a new car and signing an agreement with the dealer that you can only drive it three days a week and not south of Pinnacle Peak! Under the old deal, we could not change the highly restrictive governing documents of the Club without the Developer’s (Crescent’s) say-so. The Global Deal gets rid of that so we can vote in whatever our members want. On our travels for the Community Business Model Project, we spoke to a number of communities that did NOT get that done at turnover and have lived to “rue the day.”

The tag line “Securing our Future” is for real. Please Vote “Yes” and as soon as you can!

Non-Member Property Owners
We recognize that some of you own property in Desert Mountain and are not currently members of the Club. With all the publicity about getting out the vote and assessment payments, some non-Club Members are confused about whether they are included in it.  You most definitely are not included in the vote if you own a lot or home in Desert Mountain, but are not a member of the Club. No assessment is due from you and you will not need to vote.

If that is your situation, you might not feel that this turnover does anything for you. But actually there may be many new opportunities for you to get value from the turnover of the Club to the members.

First, a great amount of uncertainty that our realtors say may be keeping buyers out is gone. That uncertainty was primarily focused on concerns that a BIG assessment was coming, so don’t buy here now. As you have probably heard by now, for Deferred Equity Golf Members, the assessment is $16,500 and for Deferred Equity Club Members, it’s $5,077. Not so big was it? And the strong threat of costly and time-consuming litigation with Crescent has greatly lessened. These two factors, we are told, will have a very positive affect on buyers, and that means our home values should improve over time. This is great news for all residents of Desert Mountain.

Second, some of you have told me that you would be interested in becoming a member of the Club if there were a variety of memberships that fit your needs. Since you already are our neighbors and friends, you are the Club’s most attractive market! Part of the assets we are getting in the Global Deal are a significant number of memberships, which the Club can sell at its discretion. And having control over our bylaws, as we described above, means the Club can issue new classes of memberships, which may be better suited for different lifestyles.

And finally, because in the Global Deal we will obtain property that will give us space to expand and add new amenities, there will be a lot more to enjoy at the Club and in the Master Association (the HOA) in the future.

HOA Today: A Few Brief Points

Here are a few HOA things you should know about:

• The Parkway Road Project is done and we think it may last up to 10 years. We had to redo it earlier than planned, but the new “chip seal” technology was about 1/6 as costly as tearing up the whole thing, and will hold its fresh look indefinitely.

• The Master Board and Village budgets are done and approved, and we believe we are improving service, controlling costs well and reserving for the future. There is a slight increase in dues at the Master and Villages, but only about the cost of a glass of my favorite wine per month, and I drink pretty cheap wine! Budgets, if you want to see them, will be in the Resource Center on our HOA web site at http://www.desert-mountain-hoa.com/as of November 30.

• Elections for the HOA Master Board are this fall and we have four spots open with three incumbents running for second terms. Rob Dorsey recently resigned for personal reasons, and we have decided to put that open spot into the member vote.  John Gevlin, Jack Swonson and I are the incumbents running again, and Ray Herzog is running for the first time.

Here are some early views at a few examples of what we are planning in the future.

• HOA Website: We are upgrading the HOA website and will launch the new version on November 30th. It is more colorful and appealing, easier to use and has a lot more interesting content. Our new Communications Coordinator, Karen Angelo, is spearheading this work. Looking farther out, we will be considering adding online services, possibly by joining with the Club’s website capability.

• Homeowner Services: From our visits to other communities, it is apparent that many of them offer a wide range of homeowner support services: home management, home and landscape maintenance, home security and handyman services to name a few. The benefits seem to be better pricing leverage, faster response times and higher, more consistent quality of service. We are exploring the feasibility of doing this at DM for our homeowners and are interested in your input. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to climb a 12-foot ladder at 3:00 am to replace the battery in a beeping smoke detector? Why do those things always start up in the middle of the night anyway?

• Desert Mountain Trails: We are in the early stages of studying the approximately 3,000 acres called the Northern Properties to see what we can put there for our members and owners. Member Troy Gillenwater and our HOA Design Review Director, Todd Bruen, are bushwhacking their way, with some member volunteers, across this spectacular property to see where we can put walking, hiking and maybe biking trails that we all can enjoy. There may be room for an equestrian facility and other outdoor recreation amenities down the line as well.  Stay tuned as we study this.