What the HOA Fee Doesn't Tell You About Buying in a Murrells Inlet Golf Community

Two homes in Murrells Inlet can list the same HOA fee on the same day and still cost their new owners wildly different amounts once the deed records. That number only tells you what the neighborhood charges for lawn crews, pool maintenance, and gate upkeep. It says nothing about whether golf is bundled into that fee, sold separately as an optional round, or attached to a private club contract with its own initiation cost and minimum term. In a stretch of coast built around courses designed by Tom Fazio and Arnold Palmer, that distinction is the real price tag buyers need to compare, not the HOA line on the listing sheet.

The Club That Comes With a Contract

Wachesaw Plantation sits behind a gate south of the Marshwalk, built around an 18-hole course Tom Fazio designed in 1985. Living inside the gates does not make golf optional. Wachesaw Plantation Club requires an equity or non-equity membership as a condition of using the club, with a minimum 12-month commitment and no seasonal option offered.

The club does not publish exact pricing, so the numbers circulating among members and club-tracking sites are estimates rather than official figures. Those estimates put the equity initiation fee between $30,000 and $50,000, with some members reporting costs above that range, and monthly dues estimated at $700 to $1,000, with some reports closer to $1,500 depending on membership tier. None of that appears in the neighborhood's HOA fee. It shows up in a separate club agreement a buyer signs after closing on the house.

The Course Next Door That Works Differently

A few miles inland, Blackmoor was built around a course designed by Arnold Palmer, and the community made a deliberate choice to stay non-gated specifically to keep its HOA dues low. Golf at Blackmoor is not part of the HOA at all. It is a separate, optional round paid for the same way a visitor from out of town would pay for one.

What the HOA dues cover instead is the amenity center: a pool, pickleball courts, tennis courts, and an indoor clubhouse, an unusual feature for this stretch of the Grand Strand. A buyer comparing a Blackmoor listing to a Wachesaw Plantation listing on HOA fee alone is comparing two different products that happen to share the phrase golf community.

When the HOA Fee Already Includes Everything

International Club splits the difference again. Its HOA fee bundles a large swimming pool, fitness facilities, and a clubhouse with an on-site bar and grill and a community library, and several of its individual neighborhoods carry their own additional pools on top of that. No club membership is required to use any of it. The fee runs higher than a bare-bones community, but it is the whole bill, not a deposit on a larger one that arrives later.

One Master Plan, Several Different Bills

Prince Creek complicates the comparison further, because it is not one fee structure at all. The 2,800-acre community is anchored by TPC Myrtle Beach, the only Tournament Players Club course in South Carolina and home to the Dustin Johnson Golf School, but Prince Creek's gated sections, including The Bays, Highwood, and Seasons, each carry their own HOA and their own amenity package. Seasons at Prince Creek, an age-restricted section, folds cable, phone, internet, lawn maintenance, home security monitoring, and an on-site lifestyle director into its HOA fee. A buyer touring three homes inside Prince Creek in one afternoon can be looking at three different cost structures under a single shared community name.

Here is how those four communities stack up on paper:

Why the Timing Favors Buyers Who Ask

Murrells Inlet homes sold for a median price of $495,000 over the three months ending in June 2026, up 7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Homes are also taking longer to sell, averaging 90 days on market over that same window, down from 107 days the year before but still slower than a tight seller's market would produce.

That slower pace works in a buyer's favor here specifically because verifying a club's membership terms before writing an offer takes actual time. It means a phone call to the club rather than a published estimate, a request for the current initiation and dues schedule, and a direct question about whether membership transfers automatically at closing or has to be reapplied for and repaid by a new owner. A market moving in under two weeks leaves no room for that conversation. A market averaging three months per sale leaves plenty.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Write an Offer

• Is golf membership mandatory for this specific address, or optional?
• If mandatory, what is the current initiation fee and monthly due, confirmed with the club directly rather than estimated?
• Does membership transfer automatically at closing, or does a new owner apply and pay separately?
• Is there a minimum commitment period, and does that clock reset for a new owner?
• What exactly is bundled into the HOA fee: cable, internet, and security monitoring, or are those billed on top?

A Couple of Direct Questions

Does every home inside a gated golf community require club membership? No. Sitting inside a gate or next to fairways does not automatically make membership mandatory. Blackmoor and International Club both sit near golf courses without requiring it, while Wachesaw Plantation requires membership as a condition of ownership within its gates.

Can club dues change after I buy? They can, and Wachesaw Plantation Club states directly that it reserves the right to change membership offerings and pricing at any time without notice. Buyers should ask for the current fee schedule rather than relying on a figure they saw in a listing description or an online estimate from a prior year.

If you are weighing a Wachesaw Plantation address against a listing in Blackmoor, International Club, or one of Prince Creek's gated sections, the membership question above is the first one worth answering before any offer goes in. Dan Benish walks Murrells Inlet buyers through that math community by community, so the number you see in the listing is never the number that surprises you at closing.