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Just half a mile from town and across the way from our 18-hole golf course is this 1/3 of an acre lot with fabulous views. I marked the lot with a red dot and put in the approximate property lines. The lot has TV, electric, natural gas and telephone at site and underground. There is city water and sewer available and curbs and gutters are installed. Such a deal! You can also just build a single family home on it, of course.
Home prices around the golf course are around $ 325,000 and up. There are 10 large multi family lots, intended for condos, patio homes, etc.
Average construction costs in the subdivision vary from $150 to $175 per square foot for single-family homes. There are some very nice custom log homes which cost $210+ per square foot. Most homes on the golf course are in the 1,500 to 2,000 square foot range, intermingled with some beautiful show places.
If you build a duplex, 1,400 to 1,500 square feet per unit will be sufficient. Duplex homes appeal to young families, second home owners, and even retirees. Two to three bedrooms, with two baths and a garage is standard, and would rent out for about $950 per unit this year, with a $50 raise per year.
Golf and Skiing Information
$ 89,000
Here is a little history on the Red Lodge golf course:
It was first developed in the early 1980's by a group of Billings area developers. The first nine holes of the golf course opened in the summer of 1982. The marketing campaign included media advertising, open houses and celebrity parties. The developers also offered free lifetime family golf memberships with the purchase of a lot. They were fairly successful in marketing the lots to Red Lodge residents, as well as to the entire region, selling them as potential second home developments or investments. The expansion of the Red Lodge Ski Mountain was another selling point. Some advertising pitches included: "Red Lodge is about to be discovered," "Red Lodge will be the next Aspen or Vail," "Get in on the ground floor," etc. The ski resort truly was an undiscovered gem, and lot sales went well in the early stages. By 1983 about 70% of the available lots were sold and the second nine holes of the golf course were opened. Then, things began to change.
The developers were under-funded and developing and maintaining an eighteen-hole golf course with a small local membership base was draining their finances. The free golf memberships offered were not doing anything to support the operation of the golf course. They seemed to be in trouble. In 1984, the management of the golf operation was taken over by the ski resort. They grew the golf business and then turned the management back over to the developers three years later. Lot sales continued but at a very slow pace. Only one condo development and about twenty homes had been built on the golf course by that time. By the end of the late 1980's they were in financial trouble again. They declared bankruptcy, which caused the whole development to crumble. There were wild speculations that it would all be turned back into pastures, and that the streets would be torn up. Real estate sales slowed to a trickle and the golf course itself was not well maintained. At the time, it was the largest bankruptcy seen in a Montana court. The bankruptcy dragged on into the mid 1990's.
In the meantime, however, the ski resort was expanding aggressively. To help fund the ski area expansion plans, they purchased the golf course out of bankruptcy in the summer of 1995. Undeveloped real estate amounted to more than 60% of the golf course area, and its new owners immediately went to work marketing the lots and developing additional lots for sale. Real estate started to move again. A phased plan of lot build-out was developed, and each year additional lots were offered on the market. The new lots were larger, and the developers convinced the city to annex the golf course, giving all the lots city services.
The Red Lodge Ski Mountain was bought by JMA Ventures LLC. on October 22, 2007. JMA Ventures also owns Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco and the Homewood Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe, along with the ski mountain there. The manager of this ski resort came to see me a week after the deal closed and bought some acreage, just in case he will be transferred, but he also feels that this purchase would be a great investment. When he moved to manage the ski resort in California, he bought a lot there for $ 49,000. Now it is worth close to a million. So, this is a hot tip and anything you can snag here is probably a good investment!
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1% to help local and handicapped children and 1% goes into a scholarship fund for our Highschoolers which will be matched at the end of the school year by the
Beartooth Flight Center, Inc. (KDTL) for aviation related careers.
Equal Housing Opportunity
