Big Canoe, Letter to the Publisher: “Wow, Thank You!” (…and questions for the Town Hall)

I recently got a Letter from a potential Homebuyer, looking to purchase in Big Canoe, GA.  I’ve redacted names in the interest of privacy.

David,
My husband and I recently came down from Xxx Xxxx to look at buying a vacation/retirement/rental home in your lovely community. I ran across your community on Pinterest, cool rock slide in the mountain photo, and I have been researching properties there for a few months. My husband and I love the mountains, hiking and golfing so we thought we would take the opportunity this Fall to visit and see what Big Canoe was all about. We enlisted the help of realtor Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx, who also is a BC resident, to show us a few homes. While the homes we saw would certainly have fit the bill for us, subsequent conversations about the monthly dues were concerning to me so I did a little digging.  Xxxxx had indicated a couple of things, that the dues covered road maintenance and replacement and front gate personnel etc., she also said point blank that the developer was “long gone”, to my question asking about the developers participation in the community. Now while I was trying to wrap my head around how roughly $10m worth of yearly dues was being spent on roads and the front gate, I luckily stumbled across your paper… It is very obvious to me, and should be to the all of the BC residents, that the financial management and management overall of BC has got to change. The continued mismanagement of POA dues should be outrageous to everyone living there and there should be an avenue with which residents can rectify the situation. As beautiful as your community is, the financial problems alone are the reason we chose not to purchase there. I would imagine that until the community fixes these issues they will continue to see slow or declining home sales as any savvy home buyer will do their due diligence and find the information in your paper and other public documents very relevant to their decision making process.

I wish you all the best and I truly do hope that your community will figure out a way to galvanize and get the management and finances back on track. I will keep an eye on the community in hopes that it does just that!

– Xxxxxxx Xxxxx

Even as an outsider, the author of the Letter was easily able to ascertain that the community has obvious financial and management problems.  I think many of the more astute property owners are also realizing that the “fake economy, and fake market” that has been subsidized by the Developer is coming to an end.  The community is going to have to start dealing with the realities of being self-determinant, self-funded, and well, REALISTIC about the future possibilities and shortcomings that exist.

I started this newspaper because I am tired of watching the problems in this community continue to get kicked down the road to the next generation of property owners that buy in.  I’ve watched it for 20 years, and I think of it as a pyramid scheme.  We have a growing mountain of undealt with problems that are never faced, and that are always foisted off on the next wave of property owners.  And when the Realtors representing the community have to resort to flat out lying (i.e. “the developer is long gone”) to keep the scheme alive, that is a sure sign that a collapse is nigh.

Later this week at our Townhall Meeting, it is foreseen that more demands will be made of Property Owners for cash infusions for things that they will say the Community Needs, when in reality it is a laundry list of WANTS for the Developer, and a small group of entitled Insiders.  The community will once again have an opportunity to voice their concerns, and demand answers of our Board & GM.

The signs abound that the Developer, and select Insiders, are fastening on their Golden Parachutes and heading for the exit door.  The plane it seems is going down.  One thing that could still save the situation is to tackle the Developer on the way out the door, and wrestle back some of that loot that is stuffed in their backpack, and take control of the parachute.  That’s a metaphor by the way.  Please don’t actually tackle any of the Developer representatives…. except maybe figuratively.  Following are some suggested action items that we currently have as “tackling” leverage.

• Get the May 14 1987 Plat that may show Sconti Point as part of the already owned Sconti Lake Nine Golf Course. 
• Get the 2016 Land Deal records that have been withheld (i.e the full Rochester Report, the unredacted Purchase Sales Agreement – with ALL Amended Versions, Contract with Norton, etc)
  
• Have an independent attorney review the legality of the FDU’s and Blackwell Creek aspects of the 2016 Land Deal. 
• Get the Community, Clubhouse and Food & Beverage Accounting Records. 
• Contract for a full independent Forensic Audit. 
• Above all – Demand the Property Tax Records!
  (this is one they are really afraid of because it is already proved that there was fraud in the payments of the Property Tax Records, and that sort of thing has Legal Teeth!)
  

I will repeat that the community should demand a full forensic audit,  and should have the State Tax Authorities do the work of looking into the Property Tax History of the POA (doesn’t cost us anything).  And Get That Plat because I am convinced it is worth over $2 Million Dollars to the Community!  Why can’t they produce a simple plat record?

I know they will tell you that a forensic audit is too expensive.  But I ask you, is it more expensive than…

• $100’s of Thousands wasted on the Internet Task Force that never materialized? 
• $100 Thousand +/- spent fighting the Water Company, only to needlessly give away our rights at the end?
• $Millions to remodel a Golf Course that less than 10% of the community uses? 
• $Money wasted on chasing Troon Management Deal? 
• $125K wasted on the recent Chambers Survey? 
• $Money they spent designing a SPA that too few wanted? 
• Almost $1 Million in combined, high priced upper management salaries for a team that is leading us deeper into Financial Loss? 
• $Money we are now paying Bobby Jones Golf to do what we are already paying said aforementioned high-priced management team to do?
  
• $10’s of thousands they are throwing at attorneys to frivolously sue me and block my requests for information, in the hopes to shut down my reporting? (not working by the way!).

A proper and independent forensic audit might finally do what our entire management team, and countless financial and audit committee investigations have failed to uncover…. which is where the losses are, and why they are happening.  Because as the original letter writer was able to quickly ascertain from an outside perspective:

“…the financial management and management overall of BC has got to change. The continued mismanagement of POA dues should be outrageous to everyone living there and there should be an avenue with which residents can rectify the situation.”

The Existing Developer is about to sell to a New Developer, who will have a clean slate.  This is the communities last chance to use existing leverage against the Existing Developer before they are out the door, with the bag of loot and gone forever.  The most interesting sentence in the 2005 Amended Covenant is a statement that describes one of two conditions which may occur for the Developer to lose their rights and control in the community, stating:

“all specific rights of the Type “D” member shall end (1) two (2) years after the date that the number of individual lots (improved and unimproved) on the POA’s assessment records is greater than 4,500, or (2) on such earlier date as the Type “D” member consents to in writing.“

I don’t know about anyone else, but I like Option (2), and I believe the existing leverage needs to be applied to the developer to help them see that they have milked the Big Canoe Cash Cow for all they are going to get, and that it is time to move on, perhaps even leaving a nice financial thank you gift on the way out, as a gesture of mutual peace and final settlement between parties.

Peace,

– david hopkins / publisher.

PS… To the dear person that wrote me this letter… Thank You too!  I look forward to a day in the future that we have cleaned our house as a community, and you will feel comfortable coming back for a second look.  You sound like you would make a great neighbor!