In January 2020, homeowners in the Village of The Hills packed a property owners association meeting over a bill they had never voted to approve. For four decades, buying a home in their section of Lakeway's golf communities came with a mandatory monthly membership to The Hills Country Club, priced at the time at $124 a month as the minimum category a homeowner could hold. The board was weighing proposed changes to the governing declaration that night, including one that would strip the mandatory membership language out entirely. The dispute made it into the Austin American-Statesman, because it touched something buyers rarely think to ask about until they already own the house: who actually sets the fees that show up next to your HOA dues, and can you opt out.
Six years later, that question is still worth asking before you write an offer in Lakeway's golf communities, and the answer depends on which section of the neighborhood you're buying into, not just which neighborhood.
The Fee That Isn't an HOA Fee
Most buyers assume the HOA dues on a listing sheet cover everything beyond the mortgage. In Lakeway's country club communities, that assumption misses a second, separate cost layer. Club membership dues at The Hills Country Club, which anchors both The Hills of Lakeway and the adjacent Flintrock Falls, are not set by the property owners association board. They're set by the club operator, currently Invited, the hospitality company that also manages the Jack Nicklaus-designed courses at Flintrock Falls and The Hills. An HOA board answers to residents through elections and assessments residents can contest. A club operator answers to its own pricing structure, and residents in a mandatory-membership section have no vote on what that structure charges.
That distinction is why the mandatory fee in Village of The Hills lasted four decades before residents saw a formal proposal to remove it. The fee wasn't buried in a bylaw the board controlled. It was written into the master declaration itself, the recorded document that runs with the land, and changing it required the amendment process the declaration specifies rather than a simple preference expressed at a meeting.
What the Stack Actually Looks Like
Here's the cost layering a buyer needs to model before comparing two homes at similar list prices in this part of Lakeway:
| Cost layer | Who sets it | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| HOA dues | POA board | roughly $150 to $350 a month |
| Minimum required club tier, where mandatory | Club operator | historically starting near $124 a month |
| Optional golf membership | Club operator | around $50,000 to join plus roughly $825 a month |
Add a mandatory minimum tier to standard HOA dues and the combined non-mortgage carrying cost for a home in these communities can run from roughly $500 to more than $2,000 a month depending on which membership category applies to that address. Two houses priced within a few thousand dollars of each other can carry monthly obligations hundreds of dollars apart, and the difference has nothing to do with square footage or lot size. It comes down to which section's declaration governs the property.
The Same Community, Two Different Answers
This is where the Village of The Hills story becomes more than a historical footnote. Current listing language for homes in Flintrock at Hurst Creek and Flintrock Falls, both part of the same broader Hills of Lakeway club footprint, still describes a mandatory social membership at The Hills Country Club as a condition of purchase, including restaurant access and a calendar of planned social events. Meanwhile, other marketing for the same club describes residents as social members with optional access to golf, tennis, and fitness, without using the word mandatory at all.
Both descriptions can be accurate at the same time, because they're describing different sections platted at different points, each carrying its own version of the declaration language. A home two streets over from one you're considering may answer this question differently, the same way a listing's neighborhood name tells you almost nothing about what its specific section actually requires. The only way to know is to read the document for that address, not the marketing copy for the community.
Before You Write the Offer
A few steps that matter more here than in a typical HOA transaction:
- Request the recorded deed restrictions and master declaration for the specific section the home sits in, not a general summary of the larger community.
- Ask the club directly, in writing, whether membership is mandatory or optional for that address, and at what current tier and price.
- Confirm whether membership transfers automatically at closing or whether a new owner has to reapply and pay a fresh initiation fee.
- Total the monthly stack, HOA dues plus any required club tier, and compare that number against a similarly priced home in a section without the requirement before deciding which one actually costs less to own.
None of this shows up cleanly on a portal listing. It shows up in the POA packet and the club's membership letter, and it's worth reading both before the option period runs out.
Why It Matters More for Second-Home and Lock-and-Leave Buyers
A lot of buyers drawn to Lakeway's golf communities aren't full-time residents. Some split their year between here and another home, treating the property as a lock-and-leave retreat they use on weekends and holidays. For a full-time member who plays golf twice a week and dines at the clubhouse most Fridays, a mandatory tier is simply the price of a lifestyle already in use. For a second-home buyer who might visit eight or ten weekends a year, that same mandatory fee is a fixed cost attached to a property whether or not anyone uses the amenities it funds. Running the math on total carrying cost against actual expected use, before falling for a fairway view, changes which house makes sense.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does every home in The Hills of Lakeway require a country club membership? No. Requirements vary by section, and homes within the same larger community can carry different rules depending on when that section's declaration was recorded and whether it has since been amended.
Can a mandatory membership be removed after I buy? Only through the amendment process specified in that section's declaration, which typically requires a defined vote threshold among owners in that section, not a simple show of hands at a meeting.
Does the club membership fee show up as part of my HOA statement? It can appear on the same monthly bill even though it's priced and administered separately by the club operator rather than the property owners association.
The number on a Lakeway listing sheet tells you what the house costs to buy. It doesn't always tell you what the section costs to own. For buyers weighing a golf-course home here against a similar one a few streets away, that's the number worth chasing down before the offer goes in, not after.
If you're comparing homes across Lakeway's golf communities and want a clear read on what a specific address actually requires before you write an offer, Bessie Ostertag can help you get the declaration, the club's current membership letter, and the full monthly picture in hand. Let's Connect.
