Do We Have To Pay Extra For A Drawbridge And Moat?

Do we have to pay extra for a drawbridge and moat?

Some communities are gated.  Others are not.  Does a gate provide a different perspective for you as to the quality of the community?  Is it a nuisance?  A benefit?  Does it matter?  Do you care?

 Let’s first review the aesthetic impact of having a gate.  Most gated communities will tend to have a gatehouse.  Not all, as some are unmanned gates.  However, in most cases, you will typically find a manned gatehouse (or at least partially manned gatehouse) when you have a gate.  These gatehouses take many forms.  Some are simple, fairly understated structures.  Others are approximations of McMansions.  The funny thing is, I have never seen a large gatehouse that was not meant to impress.  I have, however, seen many smaller, tastefully done gatehouses associated with some very impressive upscale communities, where the community knows what it is and does not need to overstate itself with a monstrous gatehouse.  I know this is a setup for a cheap joke about size matters.  I am not going there.  In general, though, the more elaborate the gatehouse, the more expensive the community.

The funny thing is, outside of aesthetics, why bother having a gatehouse at all?  Most people assume that a gatehouse equates to community security.  In some cases that is true.  There are communities where the guard attendants are armed and there are some communities that even have guard dogs to support the staff as well.  However, most guard attendants are just that, attendants.  This is not meant to detract from their function.  They do a very admirable job of monitoring the comings and goings of guests and visitors and keeping watch over questionable activities.  However, most attendants are not empowered to perform police functions.  This is an important distinction.  They cannot hand out tickets or make arrests.  They can, however, call the police when they suspect suspicious activities.  They do also act as a deterrent to individuals that would rather not state their intentions for entering a community.

OK, so they are watching the entrance and calling the police if necessary.  I can feel safe, right?  Well, yes and no.  (There I go again, refusing to take a position.  I really feel I have a future in politics).  Unfortunately, one of the things I have found over the years is that the greatest abuse in a community does not come from the outside, but rather from the inside.  In a number of gated communities, the gate is not manned 24 hours a day.  In these cases, you will often see a keypad out front to allow off hours access.  Many times, people will give their keypad code to others, such as family, friends, Fed Ex, the pizza delivery man, you get the idea.  It becomes difficult monitoring access when you don’t know who is driving the dry cleaning delivery truck unannounced into your community.

Anyway, many people also feel gated communities add value to a home.  Let’s review those basic economic for a minute.  Let’s assume your community has a 24 hour manned gate at $15/hour.  That comes out to $131,400/year.  If your community has, let’s say, 500 homeowners, that equates to $263/year per home.  In terms of purchasing power, using a 4% interest rate on a 30 year mortgage, that comes out to about a $3,700 value.  Seems pretty affordable for a gated entrance, right?  Well, maybe.  When you have a gated community, the municipality tends to not take ownership of all of the community infrastructure.  In other words, those roads that you drive on past the gate are usually yours and yours alone.  You will want to make sure that your community reserves are sufficient for long term maintenance of these items.  Roads are a funny thing when it comes to reserves.  Most people assume that a community amenity is the most expensive reserve item.  The reality is that it is usually roads.  You will most likely be responsible for street lights as well.  They can prove to be pricey too.  Once again, this is not to say that gated communities are bad.  It is just to make sure you understand the financial impact.

There is another interesting item about gated communities.  They predominantly grew out of the urban sprawl that started in the 1970s and 1980s and have continued to this day.  When you drive through towns and communities that have seen explosive growth over the last 30 years or so, take count of how many gated communities you see off of the main thoroughfares.  Now, drive through an area that has been around for 40, 50, even 100 years or more and tell me how many gated communities that you see.  While now is not the time for a discussion on traditional neighborhoods, new urbanism and the like, I do feel the need to stress that gated versus non-gated is not always a delineating factor between the haves and the have nots.

So, next time you are considering a gated versus non-gated community, please be cognizant of those factors and cost items not always so apparent with your little slice of heaven.  They should never be the reason to choose one area over another, but they should still factor into your decision.

Until next time…

 

Keep kicking the dirt.