Divide and conquer: second-home sales are sliding, but elite retreats get creative to spark new interest.

AuthorKing, Brad
PositionNC TREND: August 2017

Twice a year for more than three decades, Tim Cooper visited Grandfather Golf & Country Club for a weekend of golf competition and camaraderie with friends.

"I fell in love with the place a long, long time ago," says the Winston-Salem native who is general manager of two Triad Mercedes-Benz dealerships. But it was only recently that Cooper and his wife, Kate, considered buying a second home there.

In the shadow of Linville's iconic Grandfather Mountain, the gated, private community is surrounded by mile-high peaks, waterfalls and the forested slopes of Pisgah National Forest. Since the 1960s, it has served as a cool escape from sweltering Carolina summers for its members--who today number more than 400 and also own the club --hailing from Charlotte, the Triad and beyond.

Grandfather is a success story amid rising second-home prices and falling sales. For the second year in a row, vacation sales tumbled in 2016, down 36% from its recent peak in 2014, according to the National Association of Realtors. A bright spot in the group's annual survey is the popularity of Southern destinations. Sunset Beach was named the country's second-hottest vacation home market last year by Trulia.

In the mountains, Grandfather decided to make it easier for families to own a second home by launching its joint property ownership program as part of a three-year $9 million improvement project that culminated this year. That was around the time the Coopers fell in love with a five-bedroom Grandfather cottage on the market for $849,000. But with two recent college graduates and another son still in school, the couple didn't want to bite off more than they could chew. When they learned that friends John Reece, a Winston-Salem developer, and his wife, Libby, also were interested in the home, they were able to reach an ideal arrangement: The two families utilized Grandfather's program, pooling their investment assets. They split the cost of the club's initiation fees. The club collects village fees plus operating and capital dues from both families, who enjoy the same access to club amenities as other members.

Families have been sharing beach houses and mountain cottages for generations--and the ups and downs that come with splitting expenses, not to mention desirable summer weeks at the coast or fall leaf season in the mountains.

"Shared ownership is nothing new on the Outer Banks," says Tim Cafferty, president of Outer Banks Blue Realty Services. "Typically, such an...

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