Tellico Village vs Rarity Bay: Two Different Ways to Buy Into Tellico Lake Golf

Tellico Village bundles golf-membership RIGHTS to every property automatically: the mandatory ~$189/month TVPOA assessment every owner pays includes rights to all three courses (Tanasi, Toqua, Kahite) and the Yacht Club, with no separate club initiation fee. Playing golf is then pay-as-you-play on top (roughly $41/round or 2026-reported unlimited packages of ~$3,325-$4,970/year). Rarity Bay works the opposite way: a mandatory Social club membership (reported ~$50,000 one-time initiation) is required of every resident regardless of whether they golf, and an optional Golf add-on (reported ~$75,000 net initiation) is available on top of that. In other words, Tellico Village asks for no golf-specific buy-in but does not include free golf; Rarity Bay asks for a real five-figure buy-in even for non-golfers, with golf itself a further add-on.

Tellico Village is far larger: ~5,000 acres, multiple named neighborhoods, and three 18-hole courses (54 holes total) under one property-owners' association. Rarity Bay is a single, self-contained 960-acre peninsula with one 18-hole course, but offers a broader non-golf amenity mix in some respects, notably a full equestrian center with roughly 10 miles of riding trails that Tellico Village does not have.

Tellico Village is not gated at the village level (though its roads are private, and Kahite has an unstaffed gatehouse); Rarity Bay is gated. Tellico Village has been continuously developed and managed under Cooper Communities/TVPOA since 1986. Rarity Bay's history is more turbulent: original developer Rarity Communities (Michael Ross) collapsed into bankruptcy and fraud litigation in the late 2000s, residents took over self-governance in 2012, and current owner Salem Pointe Capital later acquired the remaining developer assets -- worth knowing before assuming continuity with original marketing.

A buyer who wants guaranteed, no-initiation-fee golf access built into every property, at the cost of paying per round or per season, fits Tellico Village's model better. A buyer who wants a smaller, more contained community with equestrian amenities and is prepared for a real five-figure mandatory club buy-in even before adding golf fits Rarity Bay's model better. Neither is more 'included' in an absolute sense -- they trade off differently between upfront cost, ongoing cost, and what's guaranteed. Confirm current pricing directly with each community before deciding, since both this record's sourcing noted real (if honest) gaps in fully current, first-party fee schedules.