Margaritaville
Hi, John Weber from Charter One Realty here in the Lowcountry. I am at Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head and Sun City Hilton Head today explaining the differences between the two and which one is the best one for you. I’m going to go through these different amenities, homes, pricing, HOA fees, activities – all this kind of stuff. So stay tuned because at the end, I’ll summarize it. If you’re new here it would be really a great idea if you would subscribe or make a comment. I do answer all the comments myself and you could always give a thumbs up and feel free to share this video and post with your friends because a lot of people ask me, “Which one? Latitude or Sun City?” So I hope to break that down for you today. Stick with it and we’re gonna cover all the things that are important when you’re finding your dream home in the Lowcountry.
Okay so talking about amenities, comparing Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head with Sun City Hilton Head. I’m here on the big stage actually which is amazing in Latitude. They were really, really smart when they put this together because they put 25 million dollars down to build what they have here (which is the Fins Up Fitness Center, the Latitude bar and chill, the beautiful swimming pool here, and this giant stage). What they can do if they want to, if Jimmy Buffett is videoing or a concert is happening anywhere in the world, they can live stream it here which is pretty cool. They do have entertainment here all the time and they have entertainment in the restaurant as well. So, the two buildings that they’re going to build (I can show you a little later) are the Last Mango Theater which has a 500 seat auditorium, and a work and play center which is going to be built when they have more homes in here. I’ve heard the sales professionals say maybe 700 homes – but don’t quote me on that. There’ll be more usage for it because, let’s face it, when you have the amenities here for such a new community I’m sure they’re in the red a little bit, but Minto Communities is building this and they understand how it all works.
When you’re comparing amenities, Latitude is really cool, very island-y while Sun City on the other hand is a little bit more traditional and they have their amenities in. So you have to envision yourself out there listening to a cool concert with this in the background on a Saturday night with your friends, and afterwards you get in your golf cart and you go home. It’s a pretty sweet setup.
Here we go, 540 seat performing arts center here in Sun City Hilton Head (absolutely gorgeous), six pools, and three golf courses. The POA fees on the Beaufort side of Sun City are the resale homes and it’s $2268 per year, giving you access to all of the amenities and also pays security, maintains the roads in the common areas, it’s quite a deal. 100 million dollars worth of amenities in here. So $2268 on the resale home side, but on the newer side (which is Jasper County) there are a little bit higher taxes so it’s $3036 a year. They maintain your landscaping on that side over there, so that’s the difference between the two POAs. So continuing on! $100,000,000 worth of amenities, six pools, three golf courses (hop on your golf cart and go play golf anywhere), unbelievable woodworking shop – I do have a video on that you can check that out on my channel. They also have tennis, pickleball, and bocce ball courts, a 20 acre lake (Lake Somerset actually, had a client buy over there and she loves it), and a softball field. You can bring your softball game down here, they have a major team. More amenities include three clubhouses, fitness centers, we already talked about the performing arts center, craft center, more than 150 clubs and groups organizations, and lots of different neighborhoods. There are strict guidelines so everything looks so nice and Latitude has that as well, but that’s why everything looks so beautiful. I mean, this community is 25 years old and it looks great. I’ve brought people in here and they say, “This is gorgeous!” and it is – it’s beautiful and super successful.
That is a breakdown of the amenities of Sun City Hilton Head, everything you’d ever want to do. It’s funny, I’ve gone into one of these amenity areas and I’ve had Sun City residents walk up to my clients and just say, “If you’re bored, it’s your own fault.” I just say, “Step back sir, step back.” Anyway, people love it! That’s the amenities.
Okay I’m at Sun City Hilton Head. Model center right here, renowned model right there. (You can refer to my other videos for more information and pricing on these new Sun City models.) Right here we’re about 12 miles from the bridge to Hilton Head. Latitude Margaritaville is another three miles west from here. The Sun City acreage I wrote down is 5,700 acres but I believe it’s more than that as they have purchased additional land because business is so good. They are building new homes in the new land that they purchased! I have written down 8,600 homes total built out, but I believe it’s going to be a little bit more than that because of the new property that they’ve purchased to build these brand new models on. So it’s much bigger here than Latitude Margaritaville.
So let’s move onto model home pricing. This really includes the resales which are across the street in Beaufort County (we are in Jasper County right now). Jasper County has a higher tax rate – it’s about 1% of the purchase price, and Beaufort County is about six tenths of a percent. So you can figure out taxes, either way it’s very low. $180,000 all the way up to $800,000. Now, that’s a big number, $800,000. There is a part of Sun City Hilton Head called River Bend and it’s across the street. People can take their golf carts and use all the amenities over here in Sun City, but it’s a little bit higher price. It’s more of a river community, much smaller, but it is part of Sun City Hilton Head so if you take Riverbend out of the equation you really can buy a home in Sun City for $180,000 all the way up to about $540,000 (those are MLS numbers). They don’t sell home sites here, they sell a house/lot package just like they do in Latitude Margaritaville. As you can see, a much more traditional home here than in Latitude Margaritaville, it just depends on what you’re looking for.
I am a new home partner with Sun City, which means that I work closely with the sales department, I refer clients over, and I take educational courses that bring me up to speed on construction, pricing, and things like that. So it’s a pretty nice little setup! I’m also certified at Latitude Margaritaville and I work closely with them, so it’s like which of your children do you really like the best? I love all my children. “I wonder if you can get a margarita here…” Of COURSE you can get a margarita here! You can get one anywhere!
Anyway, onto the next place. So I’m here in Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head right now just talking about the home pricing. A little bit different than Sun City because here it’s all new, so I’m going to be quoting you base price homes. When you come here, you’re going to have a home site premium to add onto that and you’re going to have an option to add onto that. You know, your upgrades, your quartz countertops, cabinets, flooring, things like that; there might be an upgrade. Base prices for single family homes in Latitude are $300,000 to $365,000. Now, base price only, that number is going to expand but it’s also important to note that prices are subject to change. You’re looking at this video in the summer of 2020, so all of this can change in pricing. I’m not sure it’ll change that much, but it could change. So the villas, which are two homes connected by a common wall, are priced at $250,000 to $275,000. The conch cottages (which are brand new) are also attached but a little bit smaller in size and are priced at $210,000 to $230,000. Remember base pricing only, but you can get a real good idea on the pricing here. Your HOA fees for projected HOA when they have more homes here is going to be about $3,066 a year. They maintain all of your landscaping on the single family homes. On the villas, it’s going to be about $3,634. This is the villa right here, the Nevis actually right in back of me, there are some other things that they do to the building that are not included in a single-family home. I’m going to defer to one of the sales professionals as far as possible pest controls in there, but that’s going to be your number. The conch cottages’ HOA are $3,336 dollars a year with the HOA fees, remember landscaping is included in all of this. In Sun City those numbers do not reflect landscaping on resale homes, but on the new homes it’s included.
We are in Jasper County – the address for Latitude Margaritaville is Hardeeville and you are about 15 miles from the bridge that goes over to Hilton Head. The acreage in Latitude is about 2,965 yards of acres. That’s not the exact number, but it’s around 3,000 – maybe slightly less on your acreage. They’ll have about 2,900 homes, give or take a home or two, so it’s quite a bit smaller than Sun City. The taxes if you live in South Carolina and you own a home in Latitude Margaritaville are going to be 4% times an assessed value. If you live in Pennsylvania, you own a home down here, and it’s not your residence, it’ll be 6% times an assessed value. You’re thinking, “Well, that doesn’t seem like much?” They put the school taxes in the 6% so it jacks it up a little bit higher, but still pretty low taxes all around. I do have several videos about the models in Latitude, the home pricing, all the options, things like that, so you can check my channel further to see the pricing. I think that wraps up our pricing discussion here in Latitude!
So I’m wearing my mask – are you wearing your mask? You’ve got to wear the mask, don’t pay attention to what some of our elected officials say. Wearing a mask is really important and when I show real estate everyone wears a mask, we use gel sanitizers, and we’re careful about everything. But just to wrap up, I’m here at the Latitude margarita bar and I don’t think I’m leaving… just kidding! Anyway, I thought I’d wrap this up because you’ve seen a lot of different things in the video and here’s your bottom line. The bottom line is at Sun City Hilton Head everything is in; all the amenities, most of the homes are built, they are selling new homes over on the north side of the property, but everything’s in and the homes are traditional homes which are very nice. You have a nice selection of resale homes and you have a nice selection of new homes to choose from. The Latitude Margaritaville is a whole different ball of wax because it’s an island-y theme here, it’s really different, the models are different, the whole theme is throughout the entire community, and I think it attracts a certain type of individual. People ask me, “Who is the individual?” It’s really kind of a gut feel when you go through either community and what feels good to you because you’re looking for your dream home and you want to make the right choice. Today’s client is not that interested in golf at Sun City (hop in your golf cart just go to the golf course) – here you can hop in your golf cart but you’re not really going to go to the golf course. There are a lot of golfers in here and they kind of get together and they go play golf or wherever. One other thing that’s really important, at least with Latitude and my wife and I have lived in communities through the years, when you’re in on the ground floor of a community there’s a certain camaraderie that you do develop with these residents that are in on the ground floor of a community. You really get to be tight with them because you’re the first ones in. So let that be something to think about. The other is when you typically buy in Latitude now you’re going to select a model and a home site and you’re going to be in an area where they’re going to build that area – they’re going to build the roads and they’re going to build the houses. Sun City does have resale homes so you have established neighborhoods right away. So, Sun City is much bigger and Latitude a lot smaller (less than half the size). People say, “Well, gee, which one should I go to?” It’s really up to you! I never push people one way or another because it’s their life. I just try to figure what’s the best thing for them and then I might gently push a little bit.
I hope you enjoyed the video, hope you learned a lot. There’s a lot to these two great communities and I think the best thing to do is figure out a way to get down here with COVID the best you can. Wear your mask, come down, and you can use a discovery package when they’re operating. I don’t think they’re operating as of this date, but this is summer of 2020. They do have great packages that you can take advantage of, or I can recommend hotels to stay in. So that’s it for now – John Weber signing off. Remember to subscribe to my channel if you want to see a new video each week about all this. We’ll see you in the Lowcountry with your mask on to find your dream home.