Most buyers find out about the third fee after they’ve already made an offer.
Reunion is the most sought-after community in this corridor, and for good reason. But it’s also the community where I’ve watched more buyers get surprised by the real cost structure than anywhere else. Here’s what nearly twenty years in this community has taught me.
Talk Through ReunionI’ve had buyers stay a full week and never leave the property.
That’s not an exaggeration — it’s the whole point of Reunion. Three golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson. A water park with a lazy river long enough that kids stop asking about the parks by day three. A gate that’s six miles from Disney but feels like its own world once you’re inside it. When that happens, you realize Reunion isn’t competing with Disney. It’s competing with every other vacation the family could have taken.
I’ve helped more buyers and sellers navigate Reunion than anywhere else in this corridor. Almost twenty years of watching what actually makes a Reunion property perform — and what quietly costs an owner money they never saw coming.
HOA gets you ownership. Membership gets you the Reunion experience.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a buyer sit back in their chair when I explain this part. “Wait — that’s not included?” Nope. Those are two completely different things, and almost nobody tells you that upfront — which is exactly why so many buyers end up frustrated after closing instead of before.
HOA Dues
This covers the landscaping, the roads, the general upkeep that keeps the resort looking like Reunion. It’s the fee most buyers expect. It’s the one that follows that surprises them.
Resort Club Membership
This is the one that catches people off guard, every time. HOA doesn’t touch the golf, the water park, the tennis center, the spa — none of it. That’s a separate Club membership, tied to the property, with its own initiation cost and monthly dues on top of everything else. Membership structures and fees change over time, and I’ve seen that initiation cost negotiated significantly depending on timing and circumstances — exactly the kind of thing a buyer won’t know to ask about unless someone tells them.
The Management Question
You don’t automatically need an approved manager just because you own here — that requirement only kicks in if your guests want access to the resort amenities. If your home itself is the amenity — real theming, a private pool, an entertainment setup nobody wants to leave — you can operate outside that requirement entirely. Either way, going without a qualified, experienced manager is a real decision, not a shortcut. This is usually the first real strategy conversation I have with a Reunion buyer: are you selling access to the resort, or is the house itself the draw?
Why the experience commands the price it does.
Golf on courses built by three of the sport’s biggest names. A water park most hotels can’t match. Enough amenities scattered through the resort that a family genuinely never has to leave. That’s not a checklist — it’s why Reunion consistently supports higher nightly rates than communities without a comparable package, and why the membership question matters so much to your actual return.
A Note On Sub-Communities
Reunion isn’t one neighborhood — it’s several, and they’re not interchangeable. Some sub-communities lean more modern and don’t always fit the traditional Reunion feel — not a reason to avoid them, just something worth knowing. Others, like the condo sections, generally don’t produce the kind of return that makes sense for an investor here. I’ve spent years around Reunion’s top builders, long enough to know which floor plans, layouts, and design decisions consistently perform once a house starts renting — not just how they look on a walkthrough. That’s the kind of thing you can’t Google.
The right fit depends on what you’re building.
Reunion has a select group of preferred management partners whose guests receive full access to the resort’s amenities. The three I recommend most often — because I’ve worked with all three for years and trust all three — are Magical Vacation Homes, Florida Vacation Homes, and Top Tier.
I’ve watched each of them do excellent work for the right owner. None of them is objectively better than the others — the right fit depends entirely on your goals, your property, and the kind of experience you’re trying to create. That’s the actual conversation I have with every owner: understanding what you want first, then matching you to the partner built for that, rather than reciting a list of names.
Reunion buyers aren’t paying for privacy. They’re paying for the experience.
Picture it: the kids race upstairs because they found the themed bedroom. Dad disappears into the golf simulator. Mom pours a glass of wine while everyone else ends up in the pool after dark. Nobody wants to leave, so the family extends the trip another day.
That’s why people pay significantly more for a home that looks similar on paper. Not the countertops. The story the house tells the second you walk in.
Reunion has long attracted professional athletes, entertainers, business leaders, and families who value privacy and the experience of having an entire home to themselves. That standard sets the bar for everyone buying here, whether they realize it or not.
The Highest Sale Patriot Landing Has Ever Seen
A few years ago, a seller called me about a house in Reunion’s Patriot Landing neighborhood. Nothing in that neighborhood had ever sold north of $600,000, and everyone who looked at his numbers before me assumed his house would be no different.
But he’d done things right — not flashy upgrades, just the kind of thoughtful details that make a stay memorable instead of just comfortable. When I ran the real numbers against what similar homes were actually earning, it was clear this house was competing with properties twice its size. I told him what I actually thought: this house could break the record for the neighborhood.
We listed it at $1.3 million. I remember the calls from other agents asking if we’d priced it wrong. We hadn’t. We closed at $1.285 million, and to this day, it’s still the highest sale Patriot Landing has ever recorded. That sale wasn’t about luck. It was about understanding what buyers were actually willing to pay for before everyone else did.
I’ve got a similar one running right now — a home I helped a buyer pick up last year, currently under contract to sell for even more. I’ve been on both sides of that deal, start to finish.
This is a strategy, not a checklist.
Every step in owning a Reunion property affects the one after it. Skip the membership conversation, and you’ve already limited the guest experience. Get the management strategy wrong, and rental performance suffers no matter how good the house is.
That chain is the actual thing I’m managing when I work a Reunion deal — not just a purchase, a whole sequence that ends at your resale value years from now.
Why someone buys here is personal. Why they sell is too.
I don’t put much stock in “best season to buy” advice for Reunion — the real driver is rarely the calendar, it’s the person. Some want a second home. Some are pure investors. Some just want the place to offset its own costs; others want it to actually pay them.
Selling works the same way. Most owners hold five to seven years before a good resale makes sense. Some sell because the numbers never came together. Others sell for reasons that have nothing to do with the house — the kids age out of Disney, and the family redirects to Miami or wherever’s next. Reunion didn’t do anything wrong. Life just moves.
My job is helping you understand this market before you commit.
That’s true whether you’re buying or selling. On the buying side, that’s walking you through the HOA, the membership, the right management fit, and what it actually means for your return — before you fall in love with a pool and a view.
On the selling side, I’ve built a trusted team so buyers and sellers both receive exceptional service, while I focus on where I create the most value: helping clients understand this market before they make one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll make.
Let’s walk through the real numbers before you make an offer.
I’ll show you what ownership actually looks like today, what costs matter, and whether the numbers still make sense for your goals.
Talk Through Reunion