Horseshoe Bay's Fee Stack: What Actually Transfers With the Deed

Which fee is "the HOA fee" in Horseshoe Bay?

Ask five different owners and you'll get five different answers, and all five will be partially right. That's the trap. A buyer confirms one number during due diligence, feels satisfied that the homework is done, and closes without realizing that number was only one layer of a stack that can run four or five systems deep on a single lot. None of those layers substitutes for another. Paying the biggest one doesn't excuse you from the smallest one.

The Fee That Isn't One Fee

Start with the Horseshoe Bay Maintenance Fund. It's a separate nonprofit from the Horseshoe Bay Property Owners' Association, created under the original Declaration of Reservations to collect an annual fee from every lot, tract, and dwelling unit in the subdivision. Bills go out each October or December for the year ahead, payment is due by January 1, and the amount adjusts based on the Consumer Price Index rather than sitting fixed year to year.

Here's where the assumption breaks. Published figures on Maintenance Fund obligations show the annual cost swinging from under $200 to nearly $5,000 depending on which neighborhood the lot sits in. That's not a typo and it's not a range you can average into a rule of thumb. A buyer comparing two homes at similar price points can be looking at a 20x difference in this one line item alone, and neither the MLS sheet nor a casual conversation with a seller will surface that on its own.

Five Layers, One Signature

The Maintenance Fund is just the first system. Most Horseshoe Bay properties sit under several at once, and each one funds something different.

Layer three is where the named subdivisions come in. Gated communities inside the city limits, including Applehead Island, Escondido, Summit Rock, The Trails, Bay Country, and Tuscan Village, each run their own HOA on top of the Maintenance Fund and POA obligations. The Trails publishes its own amenity fee schedule separate from dues: a boat slip runs $3,800 a year, a wave runner slip is $550 a year, and kayak storage is $55 a year, each billed annually and each optional depending on whether you use the amenity. That's a third layer with its own menu of costs that a buyer has to ask about by name, because no single disclosure document bundles all three together.

What Doesn't Follow the Deed

The two items that catch buyers off guard aren't the ones with the biggest numbers. They're the ones that don't come with the house at all.

Club membership at The Club at Horseshoe Bay Resort is not automatic ownership benefit. Reported initiation costs for standard membership categories run roughly $25,000 to $50,000, with annual dues climbing into five figures on top of that, and the top golf tier costs more still. Buyers assume that because a home sits inside Horseshoe Bay, or even backs up to a fairway, club access comes with it. It doesn't. Some sellers hold a membership that can be assigned to a buyer, some hold one that expires with the sale, and some properties never had one attached in the first place. The only way to know is to ask the club directly, in writing, before the option period runs out.

Short-term rental eligibility works the same way. The City of Horseshoe Bay requires an annual STR permit for any stay under 30 days, currently $600 and due with the application. That fee is explicitly non-transferable. If a seller has been renting the home on a nightly basis and has a permit in hand, the buyer still has to apply for their own. The ordinance also requires a local responsible party who can respond to a complaint within one hour, which matters for anyone planning to manage a rental remotely. And the city permit is only the first gate. A subdivision HOA's declaration can cap or prohibit short-term rentals outright regardless of what the city allows, so a buyer underwriting rental income needs both the city rule and the specific HOA's rule in hand before making assumptions about cash flow.

Before you write an offer: confirm in writing whether club membership transfers with this specific property, and separately confirm what the HOA and the city both say about short-term rental use. Neither answer can be inferred from the other.

The County Line Under the Water

One more layer sits underneath all of this, and it has nothing to do with dues. Horseshoe Bay straddles two counties. The city is located primarily in Llano County and extends east into Burnet County. The Llano County portion is served by Llano Independent School District. The Burnet County portion is served by Marble Falls Independent School District.

This isn't a quality distinction, it's a jurisdiction one, and it affects more than which buses run on a given street. Which county a parcel sits in determines which appraisal district values it, which tax rates apply, and which school district a family is assigned to. Two homes a quarter mile apart, both inside Horseshoe Bay, both under the same POA and Maintenance Fund, can sit in different counties entirely. It's the kind of detail that's easy to miss because "Horseshoe Bay" reads as one place on a listing sheet when it's legally split down the middle.

What to Confirm Before You Write the Offer

Given how many independent systems can attach to a single Horseshoe Bay property, the due diligence list looks different here than in a standard subdivision purchase. Before submitting an offer, confirm:

1. The current Maintenance Fund fee for the specific lot, not a neighborhood average
2. Whether the property sits inside a subdivision-level HOA (Applehead Island, Escondido, Summit Rock, The Trails, or another), and what that HOA's dues and amenity fees run separately from the Maintenance Fund
3. Whether a Club at Horseshoe Bay Resort membership is attached to the property, and if so, whether it's assignable to a buyer or expires with the sale
4. If short-term rental income is part of the plan, whether the specific HOA permits it, and separately whether the city's $600 annual STR permit and one-hour response requirement fit the intended use
5. Which county the parcel sits in, since that determines the school district and taxing authority
6. Whether the resale certificate has been requested and delivered, since Texas law gives associations 10 days to produce it and caps the preparation fee at $375
7. Whether any dock, boathouse, or bulkhead has a current, transferable permit, since waterfront structures on Lake LBJ require their own separate authorization

None of these questions has a wrong answer built in. A home can check out fine on every point. The risk isn't that Horseshoe Bay's fee structure is unusually expensive. It's that treating "the HOA fee" as one line item, when it's actually four or five, is how buyers end up surprised months after closing rather than during option period when there's still time to negotiate or walk.

Quick Answers

Does club membership come with the house? Not by default. Confirm directly with The Club at Horseshoe Bay Resort's membership office whether a specific property carries an assignable membership before assuming access is included in the purchase price.

Can I short-term rent a Horseshoe Bay home? It depends on two separate approvals: the subdivision HOA's rules and the city's $600 annual STR permit. Some HOAs restrict or prohibit rentals under 30 days regardless of what the city allows, so both need to check out.

Does it matter which county my lot is in? Yes. It determines the appraisal district, tax rates, and whether the property feeds into Llano ISD or Marble Falls ISD. Two homes inside the same subdivision can sit on opposite sides of that line.

Horseshoe Bay rewards buyers who ask specific questions early, not generic ones late. If you're comparing properties across Applehead Island, Escondido, The Trails, or anywhere else inside the city and want the fee stack broken down for a specific address before you write an offer, Kale Stephens has spent years underneath these details, not just around them. Let's Connect.