A feature in the Wall Street Journal today is an ironic reminder why, no matter how much research you do on a choice of a community, you should still try to live there for a month or two at least before you make the purchase.  By living in the nabes, playing the golf course, dining at the clubhouse, driving the local roads and absorbing the local culture, you will find out a lot more than they tell you in the marketing brochure or in the sales office.

    Now, according to the Journal, there is another good reason to rent before you buy -- because many of your neighbors might be full-time renters.  If you have ever had tenants, you know that they rarely take better care of your property than you do.  Many renters are respectful of their obligations -- and sometimes fearful of losing their security deposits -- but don't ever expect to get your property back in better shape than when you rented it.  With a stinky housing market now putting financial pressure on those who are unable to find buyers for their second homes, many of those second homes are being turned into long-term rentals to help pay the carrying costs.

    In some communities, 30 percent of residents fall into the full-time-renter category.  The Journal quotes a homeowner In one such Lennar-developed community in Florida complaining about "overgrown lawns, drug deals in the park and loud parties in the 'frat houses' down the street."

    This phenomenon of renting is strongest in those markets that were previously the most speculative, like Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix.  If you are looking to purchase property in those areas, you are likely to find deals that seem too good to be true.  You know what they say about such deals.  Before you make the leap, hang out in the community for awhile.  The irony is that renting a place might protect you from eventually living among too many renters.

    From time to time, we will share a stretch of three memorable holes from our visits.  Here are three that impressed us at the relentlessly challenging Colonial Heritage Golf Club in Williamsburg, VA.  We played it in early spring when some of the grasses were still dormant.

Our stretch starts with the 404 yard par 4 7th hole at Colonial Heritage (above).  The tee shot has to fly a ravine -- one of many on the course -- and find an ideal position at right center of the fairway that runs a little left to right.  The approach on the dogleg right must negotiate another ravine to a slighly elevated green that is not as deep as it appears from the fairway.  From behind the pin, the approach looks easier than it is; but designer Arthur Hills has built three traps into the hill in front of the putting surface.  Short, left and right are pretty dead, and long is no bargain either.

What a marvelous par 3, one of four really good ones at Colonial Heritage.   The two-tiered green offers all sorts of devilish pin positions.  The one here, just above the false front, may be among the easiest as the green narrows and swoops upward at its midpoint (about 160 yards from the tee box), and although the back of the putting surface is a little more generous, it is another club or two off the tee.

The 9th at Colonial Heritage is a par 5 that zig zags its way back toward the clubhouse more than 500 yards away.  Like most fairways on the course, this one is narrow and tilts left.  Those tempted to go for the green in two should be wary.  A slightly hooked fairway wood will skitter down toward the lake that guards the entire left front side of the green (and most of the fairway too).  

Colonial Heritage, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1-866-456-1776, www.colonialheritageclub.com. Greens fees $65 weekdays, $75 weekend.  For map location, click here.

The 18th at the Melrose course on Daufuskie Island is directly across the Calibogue Sound from the famed finishing hole at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island.  Note the lighthouse.

    I am on the mailing lists for many golf course communities and real estate agencies throughout the southern U.S.  Scan enough of these communications and you get a pretty good picture of how the housing market problems are trickling down.

    Take today's email from an agent selling real estate on Daufuskie Island, off the coast where Georgia and South Carolina meet, not far from Savannah.  For a relatively small island reached, by the way, only by ferry or other water conveyance, the list of homes and properties is long.  The prices are also lower than comparable prices a year ago.

    Properties at Haig Point, for example, an exclusive, gated community with 27 holes of splendid Rees Jones marsh and ocean side golf, begin at just $100,000, and that includes required membership in the $60,000 club. (Note, however, that dues top $12,000 a year, but still, the lot prices seem extraordinarily low for a high-end community).  Lots with views of the Calibogue Sound begin in the mid $100s, with lots two rows from the ocean beginning at under $500,000, and ocean view lots at $1.35 million.   That may sound like a lot of money, but up and down the east coast, oceanfront lots were going for $2 million and up a year ago.

    Besides the Haig Point course, the island is also home to two other outstanding courses at the Daufuskie Island Resort on the other side of the island.  The Melrose course is a challenging early Nicklaus design with three finishing holes where the sound and ocean meet.  Wind is a big factor in course management at Melrose.  Bloody Point is a Tom Weiskopf/Jay Moorish layout that isn't quite as tough as Melrose but features a number of nice water-view holes.  Members of Haig Point can play the resort courses for a fee, but Haig Point is very private.

    If pure island living is in your blood, we have agents in our network who can provide much more information about living on Daufuskie Island, as well as neighboring Hilton Head.  Contact us if you would like a no-cost, no-obligation referral.

The 6th hole at Rock Barn, a long par 4, brings a creek into play in front of the green.

    R.W. Eaks won the Champions Tour event at Rock Barn this past weekend.  I had the opportunity to visit the community and play the course in 2006.  Part of the experience was good, another part not so good.

    First the bad.  The woman in the real estate office blew me off after promising to be there to answer my questions and show me around.  The receptionist greeted me with "Oh, she's not here, and she won't be coming back today."  Since Hickory is fairly rural, about 90 minutes from Asheville, Winston-Salem and Charlotte, I was ticked off, but a round of golf on the Hickory, NC, course, which is open to the public, assuaged my anger.

    I played the Robert Trent Jones Jr., 18 holes and left the shorter Tom Jackson course for another day.  I liked the Jones course from the first hole which was what an opener should be, a fair driving hole where you can let out a little shaft if you want, clearing the bunker on the left for a mid iron approach.  Choose the right side, and fairway bunkers come into play and you could be faced with a long iron over bunkers at greenside.  Nice opener.

     The risk reward formula was characteristic of the rest of the driving holes at Rock Barn, with fairway bunkers generally in play where approaches were shortest to the greens, but sometimes covering the edges of the "safer" landing zones.  Water, in the form of ponds and a stream that runs throughout a good part of the course, come into play on significantly offline shots and on a few of the par 5 approach shots.  Overall, the most compelling featue of the well conditioned and beautifully designed classic course is the bunkering.  Jones ran up the bill on sand, and to good visual and playable effects.

    Rock Barn, whose homes are generally in the mid six-figure range with some impressive views of the golf course, also maintains a world class spa, as well as the customary amenities of country club living.  But the place is serious about golf.  Not only do they offer 36 holes of excellent golf, but also most of the street names honor legendary golfers.  Now if they can only improve the sales office.

    If you would like a local real estate agent to show you around Rock Barn, please let us know and we will arrange it without any cost or obligation whatsoever to you (all we ask is that you register here at GolfCommunityReviews, which is also free and without hassle).  We will never share your personal information with anyone.

    Rock Barn Golf Club, 3791 Rock Barn Club Drive, Hickory, NC.  Tel:  (828) 459-9279.   Web:  www.rockbarn.com

The par 3 17th at Rock Barn is vintage Jones Jr, water kind of in play, bunkers definitely so.