Vanderbilt Country Club

Updated September 2026 · Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, Domain Realty

If you own a home in Vanderbilt Country Club and you are thinking about selling it, Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are the team to call first. Vanderbilt Country Club is a gated, bundled-golf country club community of 800 homes in Naples, Florida. Every one of those homes carries a mandatory club membership, as the club’s own real estate FAQ states, and the members own the course and clubhouse through their master association. As the leaders of Domain Realty Group our team has closed over $2.5 billion in real estate, we have been the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012, and we have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. The community sits east of Collier Boulevard with its main gate on Vanderbilt Beach Road, in ZIP 34120, and it was developed by Worthington Communities and built out between 1998 and 2001. Sellers start here: get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buyers, Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

This guide is the most complete public record of Vanderbilt Country Club that exists. Every figure in it is traced to a primary source (the club’s own fee sheet and recorded declaration, Florida’s corporate register, Collier County’s zoning and parcel records, FEMA’s flood layers), every perishable figure carries its date, and where a fact is not published anywhere, this page says so in those words rather than guessing.

Why McGreevy and Comisar Are the Best Realtor for Vanderbilt Country Club

If you’re searching for the best realtor for Vanderbilt Country Club, to sell your home or buy your next one, McGreevy and Comisar is the team that delivers. We lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012, with over $2.5 billion sold as a team and $900 million in personal sales between Jesse and Marc.

Vanderbilt Country Club market, last 12 months (all brokerages): 31 homes closed in the Southwest Florida MLS · median sold price $528,000 · median 33.5 days on market · median sale-to-list ratio 95.6% · highest sold $1,100,000 (a single-family home on Gleneagle Way, May 2026) · 8 homes for sale on 24 September 2026, 3.1 months of supply. In the county’s recorded deeds: 29 qualified sales and $16,341,000 in recorded dollar volume. (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, residential sales in the Vanderbilt Country Club development, closings 24 September 2025 to 24 September 2026, pulled 24 September 2026; Collier County Property Appraiser recorded qualified sales, 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026, 2026 preliminary roll files dated 29 August 2026. The MLS figures blend single-family homes with the Wedgewood and Waterford condominiums, so the community-wide median reflects the mix of what sold, not the price of any one home type.)

For luxury Vanderbilt Country Club sellers: Premium marketing, cinematic video, drone, professional photography, qualified-buyer database, discretion and off-market capability when needed. In the last 12 months we tracked 29 Vanderbilt Country Club closings in the county’s recorded deeds, product line by product line, which is how we price a golf-front Estate Home on Gleneagle Way differently from a second-floor Wedgewood carriage home on Radcliffe Terrace rather than applying one community-wide number to both. Before you choose anyone, see how the best real estate agents in Naples compare on the public record.

Honors and recognition:

• Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008
• 5 Star Award for Customer Satisfaction for 21 Straight Years. Only 5 out of 21k+ Licensees (Gulfshore Life Magazine)
• #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012
• McGreevy and Comisar and their Domain Realty Group team have sold over $2.5 Billion in Real Estate
• McGreevy and Comisar alone have over $900 million in Sales
• Nationally Recognized Top Producing Realtors
• Platinum Sales Production Award Winners

Selling your Vanderbilt Country Club home? Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation OR call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072 (confidential conversations welcome).

Buying a home in Vanderbilt Country Club? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873 for a personalized buyer consultation, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.

Key Takeaways: Eight Vanderbilt Country Club Facts That Decide Most Purchases

Vanderbilt Country Club purchases turn on eight facts, and most of them appear on no other page about this community. Each one below is measured from a primary record (the club’s 2026 fee sheet, the recorded Master Declaration, Florida statute, FEMA’s effective flood map or the county’s recorded deeds) and each one carries its date.

• Membership is mandatory, there is no initiation fee and no waitlist, and the buy-in is a $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution paid by the buyer at closing ($3,500 when a current owner buys a second home inside the gates). Source: the VCA 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026 and Master Declaration section 5.2.5.
• Every home pays $13,159 a year in 2026 master dues, plus a neighborhood fee of $2,320.96 (Villa Homes) to $5,278.40 (Waterford No. 3), for a recurring total of $15,479.96 to $18,437.40 before the $1,200 annual food and beverage minimum. Source: the 2026 fee sheet, 20 August 2026; totals are our addition of the published lines.
• Two special assessments run with every unit and bind the next owner: $678 for four permanent pickleball courts (members’ vote, 7 May 2026) and a Golf Course Replacement Project assessment of $7,895 lump sum by 1 July 2027, or 20 quarterly payments of $437.50 ($8,750) from July 2027 to April 2032, with work scheduled to begin in 2032. Source: the 2026 fee sheet.
• The 800 homes are four products from one builder: 102 Estate Homes, 120 Villa Homes, 338 Wedgewood carriage homes and 240 Waterford condominiums, all Worthington Communities designs built 1998 to 2001. Source: the club’s home-type breakdown and the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).
• Recorded sale medians for 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026 were $760,000 for single-family homes (n=7), $547,500 for Wedgewood (n=16) and $334,500 for Waterford (n=6). Those 29 sales are 3.6% of the community in a year. Source: Collier County Property Appraiser recorded qualified improved sales, 2026 preliminary roll files dated 29 August 2026.
• Waterford’s ten three-story elevator buildings sit inside Florida’s Structural Integrity Reserve Study and milestone-inspection regime; Wedgewood’s two-story buildings do not. The thresholds are three stories under sections 718.112(2)(g) and 553.899, Florida Statutes, as amended by HB 913 (Chapter 2025-175). The state’s SIRS reporting database records Waterford’s structural integrity reserve study as complete: one filing covering all ten buildings, completed 19 November 2024 and delivered to owners 10 December 2024, with no study-linked special assessment reported. The study’s funding plan and reserve figures are not published on any source we could reach.
• 867 of 909 county address points (95.4%) sit in Zone X on FEMA’s effective map, dated 16 May 2012; 41 (4.5%) sit in shallow-ponding Zone AH. Source: FEMA’s effective FIRM panel 12021C0218H intersected with Collier County’s site address points, measured 23 September 2026. The community is in hurricane evacuation Zone E.
• Leases must run at least 30 days (February is the one exception) and no longer than a year, no more than four times a year, and the owner’s club privileges transfer to the tenant for the lease. Source: Master Declaration section 10.2 and the club’s renter page, read 23 September 2026.

Table of Contents

This guide to Vanderbilt Country Club runs from the market and the fee stack through the community’s origins, governance and four home types, the club and the course, storm and flood posture, schools by address, what is being built nearby, and what it takes to buy or sell here. Every section on the page is listed below.

• Living in Vanderbilt Country Club as a Homebuyer
• Vanderbilt Country Club Market Snapshot: Recorded Sales and Values
• How Did Vanderbilt Country Club Come to Be?
• The Master Plan: 323 Acres, 800 Homes, One Course
• Who Governs Vanderbilt Country Club?
• The Full Fee Stack: How Much Are Vanderbilt Country Club HOA Fees and Dues in 2026?
• Vanderbilt Country Club Neighborhoods: The Eight Villages and Home Types
• What Is the Vanderbilt Country Club Membership, and Is It Required?
• The Golf at Vanderbilt Country Club: Gordon Lewis Design, Kipp Schulties Redesign
• Does Vanderbilt Country Club Have a Marina or Boat Slips?
• How Far Is Vanderbilt Country Club From the Beach?
• Tennis, Pickleball and Bocce at Vanderbilt Country Club
• Fitness, Wellness and Pools
• Dining at Vanderbilt Country Club
• Hurricane History and Storm Posture at Vanderbilt Country Club
• What Flood Zone Is Vanderbilt Country Club In?
• Insuring a Home at Vanderbilt Country Club
• Which Schools Serve Vanderbilt Country Club?
• Healthcare Near Vanderbilt Country Club
• Drive Times From Vanderbilt Country Club
• What Is Being Built Near Vanderbilt Country Club?
• Daily Logistics: Gates, Guests, Pets, Carts, Trash and Mail
• Clubs, Events and the Social Calendar
• Vanderbilt Country Club vs Forest Glen: How Do the Comparable Communities Stack Up?
• Vanderbilt Country Club Pros and Cons: An Honest Assessment
• Thinking of Selling Your Vanderbilt Country Club Home? List With the #1 Team in Southwest Florida Since 2012
• Your Local Real Estate Experts
• Frequently Asked Questions About Vanderbilt Country Club: Buyer Edition
• Frequently Asked Questions About Vanderbilt Country Club: Seller Edition
• Sources and Authoritative References
• Downloadable Documents

Living in Vanderbilt Country Club as a Homebuyer

Living in Vanderbilt Country Club means a gated, fully built-out golf community of 800 homes where 44.2% of parcels are homesteaded and 45.0% of owners mail their tax bills outside Florida. Groceries are about 1.2 miles from the main gate, a 24-hour emergency room is about 2.5 miles away, and Vanderbilt Beach is about 9 road miles west.

Who actually lives here, measured rather than described

Vanderbilt Country Club is neither a seasonal-only community nor a full-time one, and the county roll settles the question by product type rather than by impression. Across all 800 residential parcels, 44.2% carry a homestead exemption, and 45.0% of owners have a tax-bill mailing address outside Florida (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

The spread inside that average is the useful part. The homestead shares below are the county’s per-record figures; the product-line totals are our weighted arithmetic from the same roll.

Source: Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

Read that table before you read any general claim about the community’s character. Roughly two in three single-family homes are someone’s Florida homestead. Roughly one in four Waterford condominiums is. Those buildings sit inside the same gates and pay the same $13,159 in master dues, and they live different calendars. A buyer who wants year-round neighbors on the street in August is shopping the single-family side; a buyer who wants a lock-and-leave with an elevator is shopping Waterford, and should expect more of the building to be empty in summer.

Where the owners come from

Of the 800 owner mailing addresses on the 2026 roll, 440 are in Florida. The rest are spread across the Northeast and Midwest, with Canada well represented:

Source: Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). A mailing address shows where the tax bill goes, not where the owner spends the year.

Seasonal owners still qualify for Collier County’s resident beach parking permit. The county’s 311 knowledge base says part-time resident property owners obtain the permit with a driver’s license, a vehicle registration or rental agreement, and a current tax bill or closing papers; non-residents pay $10 a day.

The gates, and which one your guests use

The main entrance is the Main Gatehouse on Vanderbilt Beach Road at Danbury Boulevard. It is not “half a mile north of Vanderbilt Beach Road”, as some older descriptions put it; the gate is on Vanderbilt Beach Road itself, and the community’s south boundary is that road. The club’s guest information page sets the rule: guests must have their names submitted to the Main Gatehouse by a member or employee in advance and must show a valid driver’s license on entry.

A second gate on Collier Boulevard (County Road 951), at the west end of Preswick Lane, is members only and unmanned. The club’s directions page warns that some GPS systems route visitors to it, and that all guests and vendors must use the front entrance instead. Measured on the road network on 23 September 2026, the Danbury Boulevard gate is about 0.8 mile east of the Collier Boulevard intersection; the club’s directions text prints a shorter figure that does not match the road.

The Danbury Boulevard intersection itself is new. Collier County’s June 2026 news release on the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Phase One, which opened to traffic on 12 June 2026, lists improvements “to the existing intersections at Collier Boulevard, Weber Boulevard, Danbury Boulevard, and Douglas Road.” The road in front of the gate is now a six-lane divided road running east of Collier Boulevard.

Errands, church and the emergency room

Vanderbilt Country Club sits at the edge of the Golden Gate Estates side of Collier Boulevard, and the errand map reflects that: close for daily needs, farther for the Gulf. Road distances below were measured on 23 September 2026 from the Main Gatehouse on the road network, free-flow with no traffic.

• St. Agnes Catholic Church, 7775 Vanderbilt Beach Road, is about 0.1 mile from the main gate (parish site).
• Winn-Dixie at Mission Hills, 7550 Mission Hills Drive, about 1.2 miles, open daily 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. per the store page.
• Publix at The Shoppes at Pebblebrooke, 15265 Collier Boulevard, about 2.6 miles north (store page). There is no Publix at the Collier Boulevard and Vanderbilt Beach Road corner.
• NCH Emergency Department Northeast, a freestanding 24-hour emergency room at 15420 Collier Boulevard, about 2.5 miles from the clubhouse (NCH location page).
• Greater Naples Fire Rescue District Station 73, 14565 Collier Boulevard, across Collier Boulevard from the community (district station page).
• Vanderbilt Beach Park, 100 Vanderbilt Beach Road, about 9.3 road miles west, roughly 17 minutes free-flow and longer in season (Collier County Parks page).

Every drive time on this page is an off-peak routing estimate. January to April traffic on Vanderbilt Beach Road and Collier Boulevard is heavier, and the miles are the robust number.

Season is written into the fee schedule

The club draws its own line between season and summer, and it prints it on every price. The 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule treats 1 November to 30 April as season and 1 May to 31 October as summer: guest golf drops from $125 to $75 for 18 holes, and tenant golf from $85 to $55. From 1 May to 31 October the club also reciprocates “with over 40 area clubs for golf, dining, and sports”, per the club’s real estate FAQ. The Fitness Center publishes daily hours of 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with no seasonal caveat.

Walking loops, printed on the club’s own map

The club’s Community Site Plan carries a mileage key: the full perimeter loop by Danbury Boulevard and Gleneagle Way is 3.4 miles, the Danbury Boulevard west loop 1.3 miles, the Parkstone Place loop around Waterford 1 mile, and the Allendale Court, Radcliffe Terrace and Northhampton Court spurs 0.4, 0.3 and 0.2 mile. The roads are private, per the recorded Master Declaration.

Pets

The recorded Master Declaration, section 7.8, allows no more than two household pets per home, requires a leash whenever a pet is outside the residence, and bans commercial breeding. The club’s real estate FAQ confirms that “members and renters may have up to two domestic pets per residence.” No breed or weight limit appears in the Master Declaration; whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium documents add one is not published on the club’s public pages.

Renting, in one paragraph

Owners may lease the whole home only, for at least 30 days (February excepted) and no more than one year, up to four times a year, with prior written approval from the Vanderbilt Community Association, per Master Declaration section 10.2 and the club’s renter page. The owner’s golf and club privileges transfer to the tenant for the lease, the owner may not be in residence during it, no more than two renters may live in the home at once, and the Membership Transfer Administrative Fee is $600, plus $300 if the application arrives less than 30 days before arrival. The full rental rules are in the governance section below.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club a 55+ community?

No age restriction appears in the recorded Master Declaration or on the 2026 fee sheet, and the club treats unmarried dependents under 23 as members, per its real estate FAQ. By our reading of those documents, Vanderbilt Country Club is an all-ages community. The county roll carries no age field, so the age mix of owners is not published.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

One detail says more about daily life than any amenity list. Member volunteers run a program called Neighbors Helping Neighbors that, per the club’s community involvement page, helps residents with rides to appointments, meal delivery, shopping, pet walking and friendly visits, and lends medical equipment (crutches, canes, wheelchairs, shower seats) and baby gear. It is coordinated through the club’s Director of Member Services.

What this section does not state

Gatehouse staffing hours, any roving patrol and any security contractor are not published on the club’s public pages, so this page does not describe them. The age mix of owners is not published. Dining hours by season are held on the members-only side of the club site and are not stated here.

Buying in Vanderbilt Country Club? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples before you tour a single building.

Vanderbilt Country Club Market Snapshot: Recorded Sales and Values

Vanderbilt Country Club recorded 29 qualified home sales between 29 August 2025 and 29 August 2026, 3.6% of its 800 homes. The recorded median was $760,000 for single-family homes (n=7), $547,500 for Wedgewood carriage homes (n=16) and $334,500 for Waterford condominiums (n=6), per the county’s recorded deeds. In the Southwest Florida MLS, 31 homes closed from 24 September 2025 to 24 September 2026 at a median 95.6% of their final list price after a median 33.5 days on market, and 8 were for sale on 24 September 2026.

Data updated: September 2026.

Where every number in this section comes from

Except the Southwest Florida MLS subsection, which is labelled as such, every figure in this section is from the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026), which carries the county’s recorded deeds. A sale counts here only if the county flagged it qualified (an arm’s-length sale) and improved (a home, not a vacant lot). The latest recorded sale in the file is dated 14 August 2026.

Two denominators matter. Price per square foot in this section uses the county’s base area, the county’s own building measure; for single-family homes it is the base area of the house row alone, excluding the screen enclosure, pool, deck and paver rows the county also records on the parcel. It is not the heated living area an MLS listing shows, and it is not the living area printed on the builder’s floor plans in the neighborhoods section. The three are never compared against each other on this page. The Southwest Florida MLS subsection uses MLS living area, a fourth denominator, so its price per square foot is never set against the county base-area figures.

Single-family homes: seven recorded sales, listed in full

Seven single-family sales is a small set, so every one of them is listed rather than summarized.

Source: Collier County Property Appraiser recorded qualified improved sales, 2026 preliminary roll files dated 29 August 2026. Home type is the county building class (RC-4 Estate, RC-2 Villa). Per-sale ratios are our division of the recorded price by the base area of the house row alone.

• Median $760,000, n=7 (odd), so the median is an observed sale: the fourth of seven, on Danbury Boulevard in April 2026.
• Range $690,000 to $1,100,000.
• Median price per square foot of county house-only base area $377.55 (n=7, odd), the fourth of seven.
• Total single-family recorded volume: $5,701,000.

The county roll does not name the product, but its building class code separates the two: RC-4 on 102 houses and RC-2 on 120, matching the club’s 102 Estate Homes and 120 Villa Homes, and the club site plan agrees on every parcel. By that record the seven sales are two Estate Homes (Northhampton Court and Gleneagle Way) and five Villa Homes (Gleneagle Way, Preswick Lane and three on Danbury Boulevard). Our guides to Estate Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club and Villa Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club list every sale of each type over 12, 24, 36 and 60 months.

Wedgewood carriage homes: sixteen recorded sales

• Median $547,500, n=16 (even), the mean of the two middle sales, $545,000 and $550,000. The median is not itself an observed price.
• Range $455,000 to $600,000.
• Median price per county base square foot $294.65.

Sixteen of the 29 recorded sales were Wedgewood. The carriage homes are 338 of the 800 homes (42%), and they were 55% of the year’s recorded sales.

Waterford condominiums: six recorded sales

• Median $334,500, n=6 (even), the mean of $330,000 and $339,000.
• Range $295,000 to $358,000.
• Median price per county base square foot $232.06.

Six sales against 240 units is 2.5% turnover, the lowest of the three product lines in this window.

What the Southwest Florida MLS shows: 31 closings and 8 homes for sale

The deed record shows what sold and for how much. The Southwest Florida MLS (Matrix), filtered to residential listings in the Vanderbilt Country Club development, adds the listing side: how long homes took to sell, what they sold for against their asking price, and what is for sale now.

Source: Southwest Florida MLS (Matrix), residential listings in the Vanderbilt Country Club development, pulled 24 September 2026.

These MLS figures blend the home types. The 31 closings and the $528,000 median mix single-family Estate and Villa Homes with Wedgewood carriage homes and Waterford condominiums, so the median moves with which home type sold as much as with price. Price a specific home from its own product line in the county record above; read this table for pace and negotiating room.

• Sellers who closed received a median 95.6% of their final list price, so the typical negotiation took about 4.4% off the last asking price.
• The eight homes for sale had been listed a median 160 days, against 33.5 days for the homes that closed. A gap that wide usually means the unsold listings are priced above where the last year’s buyers paid.
• What is for sale on 24 September 2026: one single-family Villa Home on Preswick Lane asking $709,000; four Waterford condominiums on Parkstone Place asking $295,000 to $379,000; two Wedgewood homes on Danbury Boulevard asking $459,000 and $525,000; and a third Wedgewood home on Radcliffe Terrace asking $485,000, which the MLS codes to the development rather than to Wedgewood (the county condominium record places it in Wedgewood No. 3).
• The top closings in the MLS window were $1,100,000 on Gleneagle Way (May 2026, 10 days on market), $915,000 on Northhampton Court (December 2025) and $885,000 on Gleneagle Way (January 2026). The $885,000 sale, a Villa Home, was recorded by the county but not flagged as a qualified sale, so it sits outside the county list above, one reason the MLS count (31) and the county count (29) differ; the two windows also start and end on different dates.

Turnover: 3.6% of the community in a year

29 recorded qualified sales across 800 homes is 3.6% turnover for 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026. By product line, that is 7 of 222 single-family homes (3.2%), 16 of 338 Wedgewood homes (4.7%) and 6 of 240 Waterford homes (2.5%). Combined recorded dollar volume for the 29 sales was $16,341,000.

Twenty-seven years of recorded medians

The county’s recorded deeds go back to the first sales from the developer in 1999. The table shows the median qualified improved sale by calendar year for selected years. For every median, odd n means an observed sale and even n means the mean of the middle two. Years with fewer than five sales in a column are thin and are marked “thin”; read them as a handful of houses, not as a market rate.

Source: Collier County Property Appraiser recorded qualified improved sales, 2026 preliminary roll files dated 29 August 2026.

Three patterns are worth stating plainly.

• The 1999 to 2001 rows are mostly first sales from the developer, Worthington Communities, not resales. They show what the homes cost new, not a market.
• Single-family recorded medians roughly tripled from 2000 ($295,800) to 2025 ($915,000), with a trough in 2011 ($361,250) that sat below the 2005 figure ($635,000).
• The trailing twelve-month single-family median ($760,000, n=7) sits below the 2025 calendar-year median ($915,000, n=9). On samples that small, which houses sold moves the median more than the market does. This page does not claim single-family prices fell. The Southwest Florida MLS sale-to-list ratio (a 95.6% median across all 31 closings) is not split by home type, so it cannot settle the question either.

What the county’s 2026 just values say

The county’s 2026 preliminary just value is the appraiser’s assessment for tax purposes. It is not a market price, and in Vanderbilt Country Club it sits well below recent recorded sales on the single-family side.

Source: Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). The all-homes median is for even n=800, the mean of the 400th and 401st values.

Across all 800 homes the combined 2026 just value is $362,245,397 and the mean is $452,807. The recorded single-family sale median ($760,000) sits above both single-family just-value medians, which is the normal relationship in Florida, where the appraiser’s figure lags the market. A seller who prices from a just value is pricing from the wrong number.

What this section does not claim

Every figure above is a county recorded-deed figure or a county assessment, except the Southwest Florida MLS table, which is labelled as such, covers a different twelve-month window and uses MLS living area. The MLS community-wide median blends single-family homes and condominiums and is never used on this page as the price of any one home type. The price per square foot figures use the county base area, which is not living area, and they may not be compared to builder floor-plan sizes or to any listing’s square footage. Sales that the county flagged as not qualified (family transfers, foreclosures, multi-parcel transactions) are excluded, so this is not a count of every deed.

Thinking about selling in Vanderbilt Country Club? The pricing conversation starts with the recorded sales of your own product line, not a community-wide number. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Confidential conversations welcome. Buying? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

How Did Vanderbilt Country Club Come to Be?

Vanderbilt Country Club was developed by Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc., a Florida company incorporated on 12 June 1997 and named as Declarant in the community’s founding documents. Collier County zoned the land as the Vanderbilt Pines PUD in 1996, renamed it in 1998, and the club opened with a Gordon Lewis course in 1999.

Everything in this section is sourced to Collier County’s zoning records, Florida’s corporate register, the recorded declarations, the club’s own documents and dated press coverage. Where a step is our inference from those records, the sentence says so.

The developer: Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc.

Florida’s Division of Corporations lists Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc. as a Florida profit corporation, document P97000052265, filed 12 June 1997, with a principal address in Fort Myers (Sunbiz record). It filed annual reports from 1998 through 2007 and was administratively dissolved in September 2008, years after the community sold out.

The master association’s original 1998 articles name it directly. Article XIV reads: “Declarant, Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc., as long as it owns property in Vanderbilt Country Club may add property to and withdraw property from Vanderbilt Country Club in accordance with the Master Declaration” (1998 articles, Sunbiz image). The restated Master Declaration still defines the Declarant as Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc.

The floor plans the club posts today are Worthington’s own sales sheets. Every one of the four product brochures, for the Estate Homes, Villa Homes, Wedgewood carriage homes and Waterford condominiums, carries the Worthington Communities logo, a 1990s Worthington copyright line and the same Florida certified building contractor number, CBC036392. No second builder appears in any document we read. By our reading, Worthington designed and built all four product lines; a search of first-sale deeds would confirm it home by home.

From “Vanderbilt Pines” to Vanderbilt Country Club: three zoning actions

Collier County’s own zoning layer returns PUD zoning at the clubhouse with a history note that reads, verbatim: “11-26-96 PUD-96-8 96-73, 10-2-97 PDI-97-4 97-42, 6-9-98 PUD-96-8(1) 98-52”. Read as three actions:

1. 26 November 1996: petition PUD-96-8, Ordinance 96-73, the original rezoning, under the working name Vanderbilt Pines.
2. 2 October 1997: petition PDI-97-4, an insubstantial change to the PUD, approved as item 97-42.
3. 9 June 1998: petition PUD-96-8(1), Ordinance 98-52, the amendment that made the project Vanderbilt Country Club.

The county’s published list of PUD ordinances carries the line “VANDERBILT PINES 96-73 Rpld.; 98-52 (Now Vanderbilt Country Club)”, so Ordinance 98-52 repealed and replaced 96-73. The county’s PUD layer still records the old name as the AKA. Worthington Communities of Naples was incorporated after the 1996 rezoning, so whether it or an earlier owner obtained the original zoning is not published in any record we read.

Plats, the Master Declaration and three associations formed on one day

The first plat, Vanderbilt Country Club, Plat Book 30, Pages 36 to 41, and the second, Vanderbilt Country Club 2, Plat Book 32, Pages 42 to 55, both appear on the county’s zoning atlas sheet for Section 35, south half. The Master Declaration of General Protective Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of Vanderbilt Country Club was recorded on 7 July 1998 at Official Records Book 2437, Page 3017, a date and book recited in the club-hosted Amended and Restated Master Declaration.

Florida’s corporate register shows all three associations filed on the same day, 21 September 1998, with consecutive document numbers: Wedgewood at Vanderbilt Condominium Association (N98000005463), the master association (N98000005469) and Waterford at Vanderbilt Condominium Association (N98000005470). The master association was incorporated as Vanderbilt Country Club Master Community Association, Inc.; its directors adopted a name change to Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc. on 5 November 1998, filed on 3 February 1999 (name change filing). On 25 February 1999 the association moved its principal address to the clubhouse at 8250 Danbury Boulevard.

Building the homes, 1998 to 2001

The county roll dates the first buildings to 1998 and the last to 2001: 212 homes carry a first-building year of 1995 to 1999 and 588 carry 2000 to 2004 (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). By record: the first plat from 1998, the second plat from 1999, Waterford No. 1 in 1998 and 1999, Waterford No. 2 in 2000, Waterford No. 3 in 2001, Wedgewood No. 1 from 1998 to 2000, Wedgewood No. 2 in 2000 and Wedgewood No. 3 in 2000 and 2001.

Florida’s condominium division records the six condominium declarations in a clean sequence (DBPR condominium extract): Wedgewood No. 1 on 15 December 1998, Waterford No. 1 on 22 December 1998, Waterford No. 2 on 22 March 2000, Wedgewood No. 2 on 4 April 2000, and Waterford No. 3 and Wedgewood No. 3 on the same day, 26 October 2000. A resident’s column published by the Naples Daily News in 2009 opens, “We bought at Vanderbilt Country Club in 1999”. Collier County’s PUD register gives the estimated build-out year as 2003 and the status today as BUILT OUT.

The course opens in 1999

The club dates itself “Est. 1999” on its About page. The original 18-hole, par 72 course was designed by Gordon G. Lewis, and the course architect who later redesigned it lists the original as “Gordon Lewis (1999)” in his firm’s portfolio. By our reading, the course opened in 1999, the same year the association moved into the clubhouse address.

Owners take the board, 2002 to 2003

The master association’s annual reports on Sunbiz show the handover in sequence. The 2000 report lists only the developer’s principals, all at the developer’s County Road 951 office. The 2002 report, filed 14 March 2002, shows a mixed board, developer principals alongside owners. The 2003 report, filed 21 April 2003, deletes every developer principal. By our reading of those reports, owners took control of the master association between March 2002 and April 2003. Under the 1998 articles, the developer’s controlling Class C vote ended within three months of 90% of homes being conveyed; the exact turnover meeting date is not published.

Storms and a perimeter fence

The same 2009 Naples Daily News resident column records that after Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 “Vanderbilt lost about 90 trees and 17 pool/lanai screens were damaged”, and that during Tropical Storm Fay in 2008 the course “was closed for a week, and when it opened just the front nine was playable because of the standing water on the back nine.” It also records that owners “voted and approved and have just about finished establishing perimeter fencing” to secure the community from surrounding development. These are one resident’s published account, not an association record, and they are stated here as that.

The 2012 to 2014 Facility Master Plan

The clubhouse campus visitors see today is the product of a two-phase Facility Master Plan. The Naples Daily News reported the groundbreaking of the new pool grille and bar in October 2012, with covered seating for 64 including 14 barstools, describing it as “the first of many renovations” over the next 18 months. That building is today’s Terrace Café. The design team was Humphrey Rosal Architects with Club Design Group on interiors; the general contractor was BCBE Construction.

BCBE’s own completion release of 5 September 2014 describes a remodel of the clubhouse inside and out: the main dining room expanded, the kitchen “doubled in size”, an expanded bar and lounge, renovated Wedgewood and Waterford rooms, a new Vanderbilt Room, a covered terrace with a fireplace, a new fitness center of “approximately 5,000 square feet of conditioned air space”, and work on the pro shop, activities building and cart barn. The club today describes the Fitness Center as a 5,100 square foot free-standing building. The cost of the program and how it was funded are not published.

The 2015 course redesign by Kipp Schulties

The club’s real estate FAQ states that the Gordon Lewis course “was re-designed by golf course architect Kipp Schulties. The completed renovation occurred in 2015.” The architect’s portfolio lists the design role as “Redesign (2015)”. What changed physically in 2015, what it cost and how long the course was closed are not published in any source we could reach, so this page does not describe the scope.

Restating the rules: 2020 and 2024

Members adopted Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation on 18 November 2020, filed with the state on 19 February 2021, and the Amended and Restated Master Declaration was recorded on 17 December 2020 at Official Records Book 5862, Page 3140, with the bylaws beginning at Page 3208. A further Certificate of Amendment, adopted on 15 February 2024 and recorded on 7 March 2024 as Instrument 6516467 at OR Book 6336, Page 2270, set the Owner’s Designee rules and the Resale Capital Contribution exemptions (recorded 2024 amendment).

The 2025 and 2026 votes

The two decisions that shape the next six years were made in under ten months (30 October 2025 to 20 August 2026). The 2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026, records that the Vanderbilt Community Association board approved an assessment “on October 30, 2025 and August 20, 2026 to fund a Golf Course Replacement Project”, scheduled to begin in 2032, and that members at a Special Members Meeting on 7 May 2026 approved converting Har-Tru tennis court 6 into four permanent pickleball courts, with construction scheduled for Fall 2026. The amounts are in the fee stack section below.

The timeline in one table

What this section does not state

The original clubhouse’s construction year, architect and size are not published, and this page states no clubhouse square footage, because no primary source for one was found. The scope and cost of the 2015 redesign, the cost of the 2012 to 2014 program, and the completion year of the new resort-style pool are not published. Whether Worthington developed other clubs in the region is not stated here, because no primary record of it was found.

The Master Plan: 323 Acres, 800 Homes, One Course

Vanderbilt Country Club is a 323-acre planned unit development in Section 35, Township 48 South, Range 26 East, entitled for exactly 800 homes (222 single-family and 578 multifamily) around one 18-hole course on 111 acres, per Collier County’s PUD register. The county lists it as BUILT OUT, with a gross density of 2.48 homes per acre.

The county’s register row

Collier County’s PUD Master List carries one row for the community. Every figure below is the county’s.

The entitlement and the built count are the same number, 800. The club states the community sits “on more than 322 acres” in its FAQ. Our own measurement of the county’s PUD polygon returns about 321 acres; small differences between a legal description and a GIS drawing are normal.

How the land divides

The association-owned land is the central fact about this community: the members, through Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc., own the golf course and the common land. By our arithmetic, the roughly 63 acres of association land beyond the county’s golf and conservation figures are lakes, private roads and common areas. The acreage of lakes is not published; it would sit in the South Florida Water Management District permit files.

Water management: one 1997 permit, held by the owners

The South Florida Water Management District’s approved permit layer shows the community’s stormwater system under permit 11-01537-P, issued in October 1997 to the developer’s affiliate and covering the whole community. Every later modification, in 2012, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025, was filed by the Vanderbilt Community Association, including a 2025 permit for the pickleball project. The 1998 articles charged the master association with operating the surface water management system “including all lakes, retention areas, culverts, and related appurtenances.”

Where it sits and what surrounds it

Vanderbilt Country Club is east of Collier Boulevard and north of Vanderbilt Beach Road, and it is L-shaped: only its northwest arm (Preswick Lane and Radcliffe Terrace) reaches Collier Boulevard. The county’s zoning atlas sheet for Section 35, north half and the PUD layer show the neighbors that touch its boundary:

• Southwest, between the club and the Collier Boulevard corner: The Mission Church PUD (by our reading of the county map, the St. Agnes parish site), Bucks Run, Tuscany Pointe and Collier 36.
• Northwest: 951 Villas (platted as Abaco Pointe).
• North: Bristol Pines, Buttonwood Preserve (the Canopy subdivision) and Soluna.
• East: no PUD; county zoning is A, Rural Agricultural, along Massey Street. Near the southeast corner at Vanderbilt Beach Road and Massey Street, Gulfshore Business reported on 14 May 2026 that Pulte opened sales at Opus Stone, a planned 51-home community.
• South: Vanderbilt Beach Road, and beyond it county zoning E, Estates (Golden Gate Estates).

Several other Collier developments share the Vanderbilt name (Vanderbilt Villas, Vanderbilt Commons, Vanderbilt Trust, and every property at Vanderbilt Beach). None of them is part of Vanderbilt Country Club.

The two plats and six condominiums

Sources: Collier County zoning atlas sheet 8635S for the plats; DBPR condominium extract for recording dates and unit counts; OR references as recited in recorded FEMA map-amendment letters and published court notices; parcel counts from the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

The county’s condominium numbering (No. 1, 2, 3) matches the associations’ numbering exactly, and the six condominium unit counts match the club’s 2026 fee sheet line for line.

Build-out is complete, and the site plans prove it

The county’s project records list three Wedgewood site development plans, one for each phase, filed in 1998 and 1999, all complete. Later site plan amendments inside the PUD, filed in 2013, 2018 and 2022, carry the club’s name rather than a residential phase, and their scope is not published. No residential lot or unit has been added since 2001, and the PUD entitlement of 800 is fully used.

The course runs through the neighborhoods

The club’s Community Site Plan, drawn in August 2017, shows how the routing organizes the homes. The front nine (holes 1 to 9) loops through the Estate and Villa Homes on Gleneagle Way, Allendale Court and Northhampton Court. Holes 10 and 11 run past the ten Waterford buildings on Parkstone Place. Holes 12 to 17 run through the Wedgewood buildings on Radcliffe Terrace and Danbury Boulevard, and 18 returns to the clubhouse. The practice range, main pool, Terrace Café, tennis courts, Fitness Center, pro shop and clubhouse sit together in the middle, off Danbury Boulevard.

What this section does not state

The acreage of lakes and preserve beyond the county’s 22.8 conservation acres is not published. The recording dates of the two plats are not published in any source we reached. The full texts of Ordinances 96-73 and 98-52, including the original petitioner and any earlier unit cap, were not read for this guide. Zoning of the rural land immediately east, along Massey Street, is stated only as the county’s current A zoning; no rezoning hearing was found.

Who Governs Vanderbilt Country Club?

Vanderbilt Country Club is governed by three Florida nonprofit associations: Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc., the Chapter 720 master association that owns and runs the club for all 800 homes, and two condominium associations, Waterford at Vanderbilt and Wedgewood at Vanderbilt, each operating three condominiums. There is no separate club corporation and no community development district.

Three associations, not eight

Older descriptions count eight associations. The eight are county record names: six condominiums and two single-family plats. The legal entities number three, and the club’s real estate FAQ says the same: “three Associations, each with its own separate board of directors.”

All three were active on Florida’s corporate register when read on 23 September 2026. The Estate and Villa Homes have no separate association; the master association bills them a neighborhood fee under the Master Declaration’s “Neighborhood” provisions. Florida’s condominium division lists one managing entity for each village’s three condominiums (MA00022939 for Waterford, MA00022940 for Wedgewood), both at 8250 Danbury Boulevard.

The club is the master association

A search of Florida’s register for “Vanderbilt Country Club” returns one entity: the master association’s own pre-1999 name. There is no club corporation, no golf LLC and no equity club. The recorded Master Declaration defines the course and states: “The Golf Course is part of the General Common Areas maintained and operated by the VCA.” The club’s own forms name the operator as “Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc./Vanderbilt Country Club.”

The club calls itself “a premier gated C.I.R.A. (Common Interest Realty Association) Club, also known as a ‘bundled’ GOLF COURSE community”, and states on its real estate FAQ that “membership is mandatory and included with every residential purchase.” Its About page speaks of a “tradition of resident ownership.” The practical meaning for a buyer is simple: the dues are the club’s operating budget, the members elect the board that sets them, and there is no outside owner who could sell the course.

Chapter 720, one vote per home

The Amended and Restated Articles state the association’s purpose as serving “as a ‘Homeowners’ Association’ as described in Section 720.301, Florida Statutes.” Every owner becomes a member when the deed is recorded, with one vote per lot or residence. Amending the articles takes two-thirds of the members present and voting at a meeting with a quorum. The developer’s old three-class voting structure no longer appears.

The board, terms and quorum

The VCA bylaws set:

• Five directors, elected to two-year terms.
• A limit of three consecutive two-year terms, after which a director must sit out at least six months.
• A nominating committee of the three immediate past VCA presidents plus the sitting presidents of the Waterford and Wedgewood associations, which gives each condominium village a formal voice in master board nominations.
• A member quorum of 30% of the voting interests.
• A calendar fiscal year unless the board decides otherwise.

The Waterford and Wedgewood condominium associations each have their own board. This page does not publish directors’ names.

Management: a self-managed club with its own staff

No outside management company appears on any filing for the three associations; all three use Danbury Boulevard addresses on the club campus. The club employs its own staff, and the named roles buyers deal with are the Director of Member Services (estoppel certificates, owner forms, tenant transfers) and the Assistant Community Association Manager (condominium questionnaires), per the Prospective Owners page. Per the club’s staff directory, September 2026, the General Manager is Scott Bertrand, the Director of Golf is Dominick Izzo and the Director of Agronomy is Spencer Snell. By our reading of those facts, the club is self-managed by the master association.

The recorded documents a buyer should read

The club hosts public copies of the Master Declaration, the 2024 amendment, the Articles and the Bylaws. The VCA Rules and Regulations link on the Prospective Owners page returned an error when checked on 23 September 2026; the club says the full rules sit on the members-only side.

Who gets club privileges

The 2024 Certificate of Amendment limits privileges to a maximum of two “Owner’s Designees” per residence, with rules for married couples, single owners with a partner, co-owners, trusts and entity owners. An LLC or corporation may name two designees over age 21 and may change them no more often than every 24 months. Unmarried children under 23 who live at home or attend school are also members. Owner’s Designees and their dependents pay no greens fees, though they may be charged cart fees, under Declaration section 5.11 as amended in 2024.

Buying: no purchase approval

“The Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc. does not have an application process for purchases,” per the club’s Prospective Owners page. Buyers return an Owner Information Form and a headshot of each Owner’s Designee to Member Services at least one week before closing. The VCA articles do give the association power to approve transfers “as may be provided by the Declaration”; the current practice is no purchase approval. Whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium declarations contain their own approval step or right of first refusal is not published on the club’s public pages.

Leasing rules, in full

Under Master Declaration section 10.2 and the club’s Membership Transfer Application:

• Whole residence only, no room rentals.
• Minimum 30 days, maximum one year. The club’s forms and renter page add one exception: February. Advertising for shorter or longer terms is prohibited, “including internet website.”
• No more than four transfers of club rights a year, “even if to the same party more than once per year.”
• Prior written VCA approval. The association must decide within 30 days of a complete application or the lease is deemed approved; renewals are filed 30 days before expiry.
• Privileges transfer to the tenant, the owner may not be in residence, and only two tenants (plus unmarried children under 23) receive privileges. Guests of tenants have no privileges and must be accompanied by a tenant.
• $600 Membership Transfer Administrative Fee, plus a $300 rush fee under 30 days; a New Tenant Orientation is mandatory.
• Occupancy cap: two persons per bedroom plus one per den (section 10.8.1). Anyone occupying a home for more than a month is treated as a tenant, rent or no rent.
• The association may collect rent directly from a tenant if the owner is delinquent (section 10.4).

Tenant food and beverage spending counts toward the owner’s annual minimum, per the transfer application.

Architecture, roofs and garages

Single-family owners maintain “all exterior surfaces, roofs, facias and soffits” (Declaration section 6.1.1), and any change of exterior or roof materials or colors needs Architectural Review approval (sections 8.2.3 and 8.2.4). Owners with a garage must park at least one vehicle in it, golf carts may be kept only in an enclosed garage or approved space, and garage doors stay closed except in use (sections 7.10 and 7.10.3).

No CDD, and which fire district

Florida’s Official List of Special Districts contains no district with “Vanderbilt” in its name, the 2025 millage table for tax area 103 carries no district levy beyond the countywide ones, and the Master Declaration never mentions one. By our reading of those three records, no community development district covers Vanderbilt Country Club, so there is no CDD bond or operating assessment on the tax bill.

The fire district is Greater Naples Fire Rescue District, not North Collier. The Florida Department of Revenue’s 2025 Collier millage table shows tax code 103 paying Greater Naples Fire at 2.0000 mills for 2025. The nearest station is Station 73 at 14565 Collier Boulevard, with the district headquarters next door at 14575.

Condominium safety law: Waterford is in, Wedgewood is out

Florida’s milestone structural inspection (section 553.899) and Structural Integrity Reserve Study (section 718.112(2)(g)) requirements apply to condominium buildings three stories or more. The enrolled text of HB 913 set the SIRS deadline for existing associations at 31 December 2025, and Collier County’s Ordinance 2024-48 adopted the 30-year milestone trigger.

The milestone years are the due years Collier County’s milestone inspection map lists for the ten Waterford buildings, read 26 September 2026; none is due yet and no Wedgewood building appears on it. The state’s SIRS reporting database records Waterford’s structural integrity reserve study as complete: one filing covering all ten buildings, completed 19 November 2024 and delivered to owners 10 December 2024, with no study-linked special assessment reported. The study’s funding plan and reserve figures are not published on any source we could reach. A Waterford buyer should request the study and its funding plan with the condominium questionnaire. Under HB 913, any association managing 25 or more condominium units must post official records on a website from 1 January 2026, which covers both condominium associations here.

What this section does not state

The Waterford and Wedgewood condominium declarations’ own leasing, pet, approval and transfer-fee provisions are not published on the club’s public pages, and this page does not guess at them. The current VCA Rules and Regulations are members-only. The associations’ adopted budgets, reserve balances and insurance schedules are not published; they reach buyers through the estoppel certificate and the condominium questionnaire. This page does not name the Collier County Commission district, because the county redistricted in 2021 and the current map was not checked.

Buying or Selling in Vanderbilt Country Club? Start With the $15,000 Capital Contribution

Nearly every Vanderbilt Country Club resale to a new owner moves $15,000 from buyer to association at closing ($3,500 when a current owner buys, and five transfer types are exempt) under section 5.2.5 of the recorded Master Declaration, and it belongs in the math of every offer and every list price here. Sellers: get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buyers: Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples. McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

The Full Fee Stack: How Much Are Vanderbilt Country Club HOA Fees and Dues in 2026?

Vanderbilt Country Club’s 2026 master dues are $13,159 a year for every one of its 800 homes, and each home adds a neighborhood fee of $2,320.96 to $5,278.40, per the association’s fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. The recurring total runs $15,479.96 to $18,437.40, before a $1,200 food and beverage minimum and two special assessments.

This section is the anchor of this guide. It states every layer a Vanderbilt Country Club owner is billed, with its amount, its billing period, what it pays for and its source. The primary source for every club and association figure is the “Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc. (VCA) 2026 Master Association Fees for All Neighborhoods” sheet, dated 20 August 2026, published on the club’s real estate page (2026 fee sheet). Where a figure is not published anywhere, this section says so in those words.

The layers at a glance

Layer 1: master dues, the same for every home

Source: VCA 2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026. The quarterly total is our addition of the three published quarterly lines.

In the fee sheet’s own words, the Community Assessment “covers operational costs of the Club, including the golf course expenses, Clubhouse, Activities Center, swimming pools, tennis courts, Fitness Center, street lighting, access control, cable television & internet, common grounds, landscaping, etc.” The Asset Replacement Reserves cover major components in the clubhouse, “golf course replacement, road asphalt overlay, roofs, main swimming pool, Bocce courts.” New Capital funds new capital items. Owners and their designees pay no greens fees on top of these dues, per Master Declaration section 5.11 as amended in 2024 (recorded 2024 amendment); cart fees are separate.

Layer 2: the neighborhood fee, which is where the product lines differ

Source: VCA 2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026. The last column is our addition of the published lines; each quarterly breakdown multiplies out exactly to its annual figure.

The fee sheet prints a fiscal year of 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 under the condominium blocks, while the VCA bylaws set a calendar year for the master association.

Why the single-family fees look lower, and are not like-for-like

The condominium fees pay for things the single-family owner pays for directly. Per the 2026 fee sheet:

• Waterford’s operating fee covers “property management, residential landscaping, water & sewer, pest control, building maintenance, building insurance, and garbage”; its reserve covers “exterior painting, roof tile replacement, and waterline replacement.”
• Wedgewood’s operating fee covers property management, landscaping, water and sewer, pest control, building management and building insurance, with a reserve for the same three items.
• Villa and Estate fees cover “property management and residential landscaping” only.

So a Villa or Estate owner at $15,479.96 or $16,030.36 still carries a full homeowners policy, the roof, exterior paint, water, sewer and pest control out of pocket, while a condominium owner’s $18,000-plus buys building insurance and building upkeep. Compare the total cost of ownership, not the fee line.

Layer 3: the $1,200 food and beverage minimum

Every home carries a food and beverage minimum of $1,200 per calendar year, per the 2026 fee sheet. It is a spending requirement at the club’s venues rather than a fee for nothing: spend it and it is used. When a home is leased, the tenant’s food and beverage spending counts toward the owner’s minimum, per the Membership Transfer Application. Add it and the recurring range becomes $16,679.96 (Villa) to $19,637.40 (Waterford No. 3) a year, by our arithmetic.

Layer 4: the two special assessments now on the books

Source: VCA 2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026.

Both are charged at the unit level, and the fee sheet says each “will remain the obligation of any successor owner.” A buyer who closes between now and April 2032 inherits whatever balance the seller has not paid, and the estoppel certificate is where that balance appears. Some older published figures for the golf assessment (24 quarters, $10,500) predate the 20 August 2026 revision and are wrong; the current sheet is 20 quarters, $8,750. The scope and total budget of the Golf Course Replacement Project are not published.

Layer 5: one-time costs at purchase

There is no initiation fee, no equity certificate and no refundable deposit in any document we read; the $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution is the buy-in, it is non-refundable, and it is a flat amount rather than a percentage of the price. Whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium documents impose a transfer fee of their own is not published on the club’s public pages.

Who is exempt from the Resale Capital Contribution

The 2024 amendment to Declaration section 5.2.5 (recorded 2024 amendment, OR Book 6336, Page 2270) exempts five kinds of transfer:

• a transfer to the VCA by lien foreclosure;
• a transfer on death to an heir or beneficiary;
• a transfer to a current or former spouse (divorce);
• a transfer to a trust or entity wholly owned by the member, or the member and spouse;
• a transfer to someone who was already a record co-owner.

Everyday member charges

From the 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule and the 2026 fee sheet:

• Private golf cart trail fee: $2,200 a year, billed semi-annually; the cart must be stored in an attached garage. A non-trail private cart pass is $30 a year.
• Club cart: $33 for 18 holes, $21 for 9 holes. Annual bag storage $130. GHIN handicap $45 a year.
• Court sports: no fee for members or tenants; guests $10 in season.
• Fitness classes: $15 drop-in.

The attached-garage rule matters for Waterford. Waterford homes have covered parking and no private garage, per the club’s real estate page, so by our reading a Waterford owner cannot register a private trail cart under that rule and uses club carts instead.

Layer 6: property tax in tax area 103

All 800 homes sit in Collier County millage area 103. The Florida Department of Revenue’s 2025 Collier millage table gives the 2025 final rates:

At 10.5058 mills, each $100,000 of taxable value costs about $1,051 a year, by our arithmetic. Across the community, the county’s 2026 preliminary roll computes combined taxes of $3,080,615 and a median tax bill of $3,718.59 per home (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). The median is pulled down by homestead exemptions on 44.2% of parcels, so a non-homestead buyer should budget from the purchase price, not from the median.

Bills go out from the Collier County Tax Collector around 31 October, with a 4% discount for payment in November falling 1% a month, and taxes become delinquent on 1 April. There is no CDD line on the bill. Non-ad valorem assessments, if any, are not in the millage table and are not stated here.

A worked first-year example

Take a buyer closing in late 2026 on a Wedgewood No. 2 carriage home, paying the golf assessment as a lump sum. By our arithmetic from the published lines: $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution, $500 processing fee, $18,214.32 in VCA dues and neighborhood fee, $1,200 food and beverage minimum and $7,895 for the golf assessment by 1 July 2027 comes to $42,809.32 over the first twelve months, before property tax, the owner’s HO-6 policy, any unpaid pickleball balance and the ordinary closing costs of any Florida purchase. In later years the same home carries $19,414.32 in dues, neighborhood fee and minimum at 2026 rates. Every figure comes from the 2026 fee sheet; the total is ours.

What is not published

• The Waterford and Wedgewood condominium associations’ adopted budgets, reserve balances and insurance schedules are not published on the club’s public pages. They reach buyers through the condominium questionnaire and the estoppel certificate.
• Owner insurance premiums are not published. The condominium fees carry building insurance; the unit owner’s HO-6 policy, and the single-family owner’s full homeowners policy, are priced per home.
• 2027 dues are not published. They are set with the next budget cycle.
• The Golf Course Replacement Project’s scope and total budget are not published.
• Whether the fee sheet’s April to March fiscal year belongs to one or both condominium associations is not stated on any document we read.

Selling a Vanderbilt Country Club home with an assessment balance? The estoppel will show it, and the negotiation goes better when you price it in first. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buying? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples, and we will build this fee stack for the exact home you are considering. Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

Vanderbilt Country Club Neighborhoods: The Eight Villages and Home Types

Vanderbilt Country Club’s 800 homes come in four product lines across eight fee-paying villages: 102 Estate Homes, 120 Villa Homes, 338 Wedgewood carriage homes in three condominiums and 240 Waterford condominiums in three condominiums. Every one is a Worthington Communities design from 1998 to 2001, and each line has its own floor plans, buildings and fees.

The complete roster

Sources: the club’s home-type page and real estate FAQ for counts, building types and the club’s stated living-area ranges; 2026 fee sheet for neighborhood fees; Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026) for build years and homestead shares. The two plat rows restate the same 222 single-family homes on the county’s lines and are not added to the total.

The reconciliation: four sources, one number

The 800 is not a marketing figure. Four independent records agree on it:

Sources: Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026); club home-type page; 2026 fee sheet; DBPR condominium extract. The county’s PUD register adds a fifth match: 222 single-family plus 578 multifamily.

The plat line and the product line are different lines

The county records the 222 homes on two plats (105 and 117); the club sells them as 102 Estate Homes and 120 Villa Homes; the two lines do not coincide. Do not read plat 1 as “the estates.” The practical consequence is that a county search by subdivision name will never isolate Estate Homes from Villa Homes, which is one reason the single-family sale list in the market section is shown sale by sale.

By our reading of the club’s site plan, whose legend shades Estate and Villa lots in two tones, the streets divide like this. The totals land exactly on the club’s 102 and 120, which is the main evidence; the site plan itself says its dimensions are approximate.

Source: our lot count on the club’s Community Site Plan, August 2017 edition. Danbury Boulevard therefore carries both Villa Homes and Wedgewood buildings.

Estate Homes: 102 homes on the front nine

The club describes the Estate Homes as lining “fairways, greens, lakes on the first nine holes”, with “six distinctly different floor plans”, a screened lanai, two- or three-car garages and home sites of about 80 by 140 feet on average (club real estate page). The six Worthington plans, from the club-hosted Estate Homes floor plans:

Every Estate plan shows an optional pool package behind the lanai, and the plans mark high flat ceilings of 10 feet in bedrooms and 12 feet in the main living areas. How many Estate Homes actually have private pools is not published.

Villa Homes: 120 detached homes

The club’s word “detached” matters: these are single-family homes on their own lots, not attached villas. The club describes five plans, each with “two bedrooms with a den or optional third bedroom, two baths, a screen lanai, and two-car garage”, on sites of about 58 by 140 feet (club real estate page). From the club-hosted Villa Homes floor plans:

Every Villa plan shows an optional pool. The Master Declaration carries a zero-lot-line maintenance easement (section 15.2); whether the Villa lots are zero-lot-line is not confirmed on a plat, so this page does not state it.

Wedgewood carriage homes: 338 homes with private garages

Wedgewood is the community’s largest village: 338 two-story carriage homes in buildings of eight or ten, each with “a deep single-car or double-car garage with an interior door to the home and room to accommodate a golf cart”, per the club’s real estate page. Upstairs homes have their own private stair from a ground-level foyer and garage; no elevators are described. Wedgewood No. 1 and No. 2 are on Danbury Boulevard and No. 3 is on Radcliffe Terrace, per the state condominium file. From the club-hosted Wedgewood floor plans:

The building sheets show two layouts: an eight-home building (Oxford, Lancaster and two Nottinghams below; Newport, Lancaster III and two Nottingham IIs above) and a ten-home building that adds an Oxford and a Newport. By our reading of the club’s site plan, Wedgewood has about 37 buildings, which solves to 16 eight-home and 21 ten-home buildings; the condominium declarations’ building exhibits would confirm the exact count. The club states the largest plan as 2,115 square feet while the Worthington sheet prints 2,107; “about 1,500 to 2,100 square feet” is the safe range. Two neighborhood pools serve Wedgewood.

Waterford condominiums: 240 homes in ten elevator buildings

Waterford is ten three-story buildings of 24 homes each, nine on Parkstone Place and the tenth at 8285 Danbury Boulevard by the county record, “surrounding the 10th and 11th holes”, with “an elevator to upper floors, screened lanais, covered parking, lockable storage rooms, and a neighborhood pool”, per the club’s real estate page. There are no private garages. From the club-hosted Waterford floor plans:

Each floor runs Brighton, Aston, four Hamptons, Aston, Brighton: eight homes a floor, 24 a building. If every floor repeats the key plan, the village holds about 120 Hamptons, 60 Astons and 60 Brightons, by our arithmetic. Waterford No. 1 and No. 2 are three buildings each and No. 3 is four. The club states the top of the range as 1,705 square feet while the Worthington sheet prints 1,700. Waterford also has its own trash and recycling containers, which only Waterford residents may use, under Master Declaration section 7.12.

Waterford is the entry point to Vanderbilt Country Club: the lowest recorded prices (a $334,500 median, n=6, in the twelve months to 29 August 2026), the lowest homestead share, the same club privileges as every other home, and the one village inside Florida’s SIRS and milestone regime.

Architecture and roofs

The Worthington renderings show one consistent look across all four lines: Mediterranean-influenced Florida design with stucco walls, hipped tile roofs, arched entries and columned front doors. The condominium reserves on the 2026 fee sheet fund “roof tile replacement”, which confirms tile on the condominium buildings. Single-family roofs appear as tile on the renderings; each single-family owner maintains the roof, and a change of roof material needs Architectural Review approval under the Master Declaration.

Pools by village

Sources: club real estate FAQ and Community Site Plan. Estate and Villa Homes have no neighborhood pool; their plans offer private pools.

Dedicated village guides

Read our complete guide to Waterford at Vanderbilt: every building, floor plan and recorded sale, the state’s SIRS filing and the county’s milestone schedule. Selling or buying there? See the Waterford at Vanderbilt seller guide, the free Waterford at Vanderbilt home valuation and the Waterford at Vanderbilt buyer guide.

Read our complete guide to Wedgewood at Vanderbilt: all 37 buildings, the seven floor plans, every recorded sale by condominium and why the SIRS law does not reach it. Selling or buying there? See the Wedgewood at Vanderbilt seller guide, the free Wedgewood at Vanderbilt home valuation and the Wedgewood at Vanderbilt buyer guide.

Read our complete guide to the Estate Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club: all 102 homes identified from the county record, six floor plans, pools, and every sale over five years. Selling or buying there? See the Estate Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club seller guide, the free Estate Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation and the Estate Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club buyer guide.

Read our complete guide to the Villa Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club: all 120 detached villas identified from the county record, five floor plans, and every sale over five years. Selling or buying there? See the Villa Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club seller guide, the free Villa Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation and the Villa Homes at Vanderbilt Country Club buyer guide.

Which village is the right one

• You want a single-family house with the most room and a front-nine view: the Estate Homes. Six plans from 2,223 to 2,931 square feet, sites about 80 by 140 feet, the second-lowest neighborhood fee, and you carry your own roof and insurance.
• You want a detached house on one level at a lower entry point than an Estate Home: the Villa Homes. The lowest neighborhood fee in the community ($2,320.96 in 2026) and a two-car garage.
• You want a private garage with room for a golf cart and no exterior maintenance: Wedgewood. Two-story buildings outside the SIRS regime, and the busiest resale market in the community (16 recorded sales in the twelve months to 29 August 2026).
• You want the lowest price into a mandatory-membership golf club, an elevator and a lock-and-leave: Waterford. Budget for the SIRS question and for club carts rather than a private one.
• You are a seasonal owner renting in February: any village. The rental rules are community-wide, set by the master association, and do not vary by village on any published document.

What this section does not state

The exact crosswalk between the two county plats and the Estate and Villa lines is not published; the street map above is our reading of the club’s site plan. The number of Estate and Villa Homes with private pools is not published. The Wedgewood building count and the Waterford plan mix are our arithmetic, not a recorded figure. Bath counts on several Estate plans are not legible on the club’s scans and are not stated. Builder living areas are 1997 to 2000 sales-sheet figures; individual homes may have options, extensions or remodels, and none of these figures is a county measurement.

Choosing between villages? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples. Selling one? Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

What Is the Vanderbilt Country Club Membership, and Is It Required?

Vanderbilt Country Club membership is mandatory and attaches to the deed: every owner of the 800 homes becomes a member when the purchase is recorded. There is no application, no equity certificate, no initiation fee and no waitlist. The buy-in is a $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution paid at closing under the 2026 fee sheet.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club membership mandatory?

Yes. The club’s own Real Estate FAQ answers the question directly: “At VCC, membership is mandatory and included with every residential purchase” (Vanderbilt Country Club Real Estate page and FAQ, read September 2026). The legal mechanism sits in the association’s recorded Articles: “The Owner of every Lot or Residence shall become an Owner Member upon recordation in the Public Records of an instrument establishing the ownership” (Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation, §5.1). Each lot or residence carries one vote (§5.2), so the 800 homes carry 800 votes.

Membership is not something a buyer applies for or can decline. The club states that the Vanderbilt Community Association “does not have an application process for purchases” (Prospective Owners page). The club’s About page puts the practical result plainly: buyers can close one day and play golf the next, with no waitlist (About Vanderbilt Country Club).

Who owns the club?

The members own it, through their master association. The club is operated by Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation, document number N98000005469, filed 21 September 1998 and active today (Florida Division of Corporations record, read September 2026). Its original name was Vanderbilt Country Club Master Community Association, Inc.; the name change was filed 3 February 1999. No separate club corporation exists.

The recorded Master Declaration defines the golf course, “including but not limited to an aqua range, halfway house, cart barn, pro shop,” and states that “The Golf Course is part of the General Common Areas maintained and operated by the VCA” (Amended and Restated Master Declaration, §2.27). The Articles state the association’s purpose as a homeowners’ association under Section 720.301, Florida Statutes. So the club, its course and its clubhouse run under Florida’s HOA Act, not under a private club charter and not under a developer.

What does “bundled” mean at Vanderbilt Country Club?

In the club’s own words, it is a “premier gated C.I.R.A. (Common Interest Realty Association) Club, also known as a ‘bundled’ GOLF COURSE community” (Real Estate page). Bundled here means three concrete things, each tied to a document:

• Membership rides on title. Recording the deed makes the owner a member (Articles §5.1).
• No greens fees for owners. “Owners’ Designees and Dependents are not required to pay greens fees for the use of the Golf Course. Owners may be charged cart fees” (Master Declaration §5.11 as amended).
• Golf is paid through dues. The VCA Community Assessment “covers operational costs of the Club, including the golf course expenses, Clubhouse, Activities Center, swimming pools, tennis courts, Fitness Center, street lighting, access control, cable television & internet, common grounds, landscaping” (2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026).

Is there an initiation fee or equity at Vanderbilt Country Club?

No initiation fee, equity certificate or refundable deposit appears in any public club document. What a new buyer pays instead is the Resale Capital Contribution Assessment: $15,000 for new buyers, $3,500 for current owners moving to another home inside the gates (2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026). It is a flat dollar amount, not a percentage of the price.

The Declaration makes the contribution “the legal and personal obligation of the transferee,” meaning the buyer (Master Declaration §5.2.5). By our reading of §5.2.5 and the fee sheet, nothing in either document provides for the $15,000 to be refunded when the owner later sells; the next buyer pays their own. Who ends up bearing it in a particular sale is a contract negotiation, not a club rule.

The 2024 amendment lists the transfers that are exempt from the capital contribution: a transfer to the association by lien foreclosure, a transfer on death to an heir or beneficiary, a transfer to a current or former spouse, a transfer to a trust or entity wholly owned by the member (or member and spouse), and a transfer to someone already a record co-owner (Recorded amendment, Instrument 6516467). That answers the common inheritance question: an heir who takes title on the owner’s death does not pay the $15,000.

What does membership cost each year?

Every one of the 800 homes pays the same master dues, and every home also has a food and beverage minimum. All figures below are from the club’s 2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026, and the 2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule.

Neighborhood fees for the six condominiums, the Villa Homes and the Estate Homes sit on top of the $13,159 and are set out in the fee section of this guide. Two special assessments also run with every unit: $678 for the pickleball project and $7,895 (lump sum) or $8,750 (quarterly) for the Golf Course Replacement Project, both detailed in the golf and court sections below.

Who in a household gets full privileges?

The rules changed in 2024. The membership adopted an amendment on 15 February 2024, recorded 7 March 2024 as Collier County Instrument 6516467, Official Records Book 6336, Page 2270, effective 1 March 2024. It caps privileges at two “Owner’s Designees” per residence and protected earlier arrangements only until the earlier of a sale or 1 March 2026 (recorded amendment). That grace period has now ended, so every residence is on the new rules.

Source: Master Declaration §§4.2.2 to 4.2.9 as amended in 2024. Owners who are not designees may use the course and recreation areas only as a guest of a designee.

Do children and grandchildren count as members?

Children do, within limits. A Dependent is “an unmarried child under the age of twenty-three years old, and either living at Home with an Owner or attending school.” The children of a designee who is not an owner are not Dependents (2024 amendment to §2.21; repeated on the Owner Information Form, revised 8 May 2026). Grandchildren visit as guests. Nothing in the club’s public documents imposes an age restriction on residents, and the dependent rule itself assumes children in the household, so by our reading Vanderbilt Country Club is not a 55-plus community.

What must a buyer file before closing?

There is no purchase approval, but there is paperwork. Buyers return an Owner Information Form and a headshot of each Owner’s Designee to Member Services at least one week before closing (Prospective Owners page). Estoppel requests go to the Director of Member Services ($299 estoppel processing fee, $500 new buyer processing fee), and condominium questionnaires go to the Assistant Community Association Manager ($150), all three fees per the Prospective Owners page.

How do renters get club access?

Through a full, temporary transfer of the owner’s membership. An owner may lease up to four times a year, for at least 30 days (the club allows February rentals as the one exception) and no more than one year, with no more than two renters in residence at a time (Renter page). The Master Declaration makes a complete divestiture of the owner’s golf and recreation rights a condition of lease approval, leases need the association’s prior written approval, and the owner “may not be in residence during the lease period” (Master Declaration §10.2; Membership Transfer Application, revised 4 August 2025).

• Transfer fee: $600 Membership Transfer Administrative Fee, non-refundable if cancelled within 60 days of arrival, plus a $300 rush fee if the application arrives less than 30 days before arrival.
• Who is covered: two persons plus unmarried children under 23. Guests of tenants have no membership privileges and must be accompanied by a tenant.
• What tenants pay to play: unlike owners, tenants pay greens fees: $85 for 18 holes and $55 for 9 from 1 November to 30 April, $55 and $40 from 1 May to 31 October, plus tax (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule).
• Orientation and payment: a New Tenant Orientation is mandatory; club charges must be paid from a US bank account, and tenants keep a credit card on file (3% fee if charged).
• Food and beverage: tenant food and beverage spending is credited to the owner’s $1,200 annual minimum (Membership Transfer Application).

How do guests play and what do they pay?

Guests enter only when a member or employee has submitted their names to the Main Gatehouse, and they show a driver’s license on arrival (Guest Information page). Guest golf rates for 2026, plus tax, from the 2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule:

Is there a social or non-resident membership?

The club publishes none. Every public document describes one owner membership with full golf and amenity privileges, plus Dependents, tenants by transfer, family guests and guests. The club does not publish any social, associate or non-resident category, which fits a club whose membership is created by recording a deed inside the gates.

What membership includes, in one list

All of the following are named in the club’s own documents as part of what the dues pay for or what members use without a greens or court fee (2026 fee sheet definitions; Real Estate FAQ; 2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule):

• The 18-hole, par-72 golf course, with no greens fee for designees and Dependents
• The practice facility: aqua range with 16 stations and three island targets, chipping stations, practice bunker and putting green
• Six lighted Har-Tru Hydro-Grid tennis courts, pickleball and three lighted bocce courts, with no court fee for members
• The 5,100 square foot Fitness Center (classes, training and massage are priced separately)
• The main resort-style pool and spa and three neighborhood pools
• The clubhouse, the Activities Center and the club’s dining venues (food is paid for, against the $1,200 minimum)
• Access control, street lighting, common grounds, landscaping, and cable television and internet
• Summer reciprocity: “Each year from May 1 to October 31, VCC reciprocates with over 40 area clubs for golf, dining, and sports” (Real Estate FAQ)

Selling or buying a home where the membership is part of the deed

Sellers: because membership cannot be separated from the home, the club’s cost structure is part of your price, not an afterthought. Buyers compare the $13,159 in master dues, the $15,000 capital contribution and the two open assessments against communities where golf is optional. Pricing a Vanderbilt home well starts with the numbers a buyer’s agent will put in front of them. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation, or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

Buyers: the capital contribution, the estoppel figures and any unpaid assessment balances all surface in the closing documents, and the time to ask for them is the first week of the contract. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

What this section does not state

The club’s Rules and Regulations (dated 1 January 2023) and golf brochure sit behind the member login, so this section does not state the tee-time booking window, the dress code or any member-side policy in them. The club does not publish a golf reciprocal list by name, a member-guest format, or any refund rule for the capital contribution. Whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium documents add their own transfer fee or approval step is not published on any source we could reach.

The Golf at Vanderbilt Country Club: Gordon Lewis Design, Kipp Schulties Redesign

Vanderbilt Country Club plays one private 18-hole, par-72 course that opened in 1999 to a Gordon G. Lewis design and was redesigned by Kipp Schulties, with the renovation completed in 2015. It stretches to 6,631 yards from the Green tees, rates 72.6 with a 146 slope, and faces a funded Golf Course Replacement Project scheduled for 2032.

Who designed the Vanderbilt Country Club golf course?

Gordon G. Lewis laid out the original course, and Kipp Schulties redesigned it. The club’s FAQ says so in one sentence: “Originally designed by golf course architect Gordon Lewis, our 18-hole, par 72 championship golf course was re-designed by golf course architect Kipp Schulties. The completed renovation occurred in 2015” (Real Estate FAQ). The architect’s own portfolio lists the original design as “Gordon Lewis (1999)”, the firm’s role as “Redesign (2015)” and the course type as private (Kipp Schulties Golf Design portfolio). The club’s golf page describes the result as “sparkling lakes, stately trees” and “undulating fairways” (Vanderbilt Golf page); the FAQ adds “tree-lined fairways and undulating greens.”

Two design links to nearby clubs are worth knowing. Gordon Lewis also laid out the original Forest Glen Golf and Country Club course, which opened the same year, and Kipp Schulties also renovated Stonebridge Country Club (each club’s own site).

Course facts at a glance

One small published inconsistency: the architect’s portfolio lists the course at 6,735 yards, while the club’s current scorecard totals 6,631 from the Green tees. The scorecard is the club’s current record, so this guide uses it.

How long and how hard is the course? Tees, ratings and slopes

Eight rated tee sets for men and five for women, from the club’s scorecard (printer’s date May 2024). The Florida State Golf Association’s club listing matches the rating range, men 63.4 to 72.6 and women 67.0 to 73.7, slopes 120 to 146 (FSGA club listing).

Source: Vanderbilt Country Club scorecard, read September 2026.

A 146 slope from the Greens sits at the demanding end of the rating scale, and the spread from 6,631 down to 4,600 yards is wide enough that most households can find a set that fits both players.

Hole by hole: par and yardage

Source: club scorecard.

By our arithmetic from the card, the layout has four par 5s, four par 3s and ten par 4s, and the back nine plays about 325 yards longer than the front from the Greens. The hardest hole by the men’s handicap is the par-4 4th; the easiest is the closing par-5 18th, which returns to the clubhouse.

The local rules printed on the card

The scorecard reads “USGA Rules Govern All Play” and prints several local rules (scorecard). The red penalty area on hole 15 is a No Play, No Entry zone marked with green-capped red stakes. Mulched flower beds are abnormal course conditions with mandatory free relief. The Rule 14.3 alternative to stroke-and-distance is in effect. Dropping zones exist on holes 2 (men only), 8, 13 and 15, and relief is given from immovable obstructions near greens. By our reading of the card, all four drop-zone holes are the course’s par 3s.

Which homes sit on the golf course?

The club’s descriptions tie two of its four home types directly to the routing. The Estate Homes line fairways, greens and lakes on the first nine holes, and the Waterford condominium buildings sit around holes 10 and 11 (The Homes page; Real Estate page). By our reading of the club’s Community Site Plan, holes 12 to 17 run through the western Wedgewood area around Radcliffe Terrace and Danbury Boulevard before the 18th returns to the clubhouse. Which specific addresses have a fairway, green or lake view is a per-listing question; the site plan is marked by the club as approximate.

What practice facilities does Vanderbilt Country Club have?

The club describes a “recently expanded practice area” covering 39,000 square feet of Paspalum grass (Practice Areas page). It includes:

• An aqua range, hitting to targets in water, with 16 stations and three island targets (Vanderbilt Golf page)
• Chipping stations and a practice bunker for the short game
• A large putting green next to the first tee
• Annual bag storage at $130, or $40 a month (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule)

The Master Declaration names the aqua range, a halfway house, the cart barn and the pro shop as part of the golf course common area (§2.27).

How do tee times work?

Tee times run through the Chelsea Tee Time System, which the club describes as an automatic lottery (Real Estate FAQ). The booking window and lottery rules sit in the member-side golf policies. Because the course is private and every owner already belongs, there is no public tee sheet: guests play only with a sponsoring member or tenant.

Golf programs, leagues and instruction

• Men’s Day and Ladies Day, “with both 9- and 18-hole groups. From a casual round to the Club Championship” (Golf Programs page). The golf page promises “something for all levels,” which answers the new-golfer question directly.
• A GHIN handicap through the club ($45 a year) is required for Men’s Day, Ladies Day and eligible club tournaments (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule).
• Instruction from PGA professionals: “Private, semi-private & group lessons; Group clinics; Playing lessons” (Golf Instruction page). The FAQ counts three PGA professionals on staff.
• A Hole-in-One Fund: $5 to join and $5 each time a member aces, with the ace-maker collecting the fund (Owner Information Form).
• Charity golf: club volunteers host an annual golf tournament for Baby Basics of Collier County (Community Involvement page).
• The Golf Shop carries apparel and equipment for women, men and children at member pricing, with demo clubs, special orders and regripping (Our Golf Shop page).

Who runs the golf operation?

Per the club’s staff directory, September 2026 (club personnel page):

The same directory lists a 1st Assistant Golf Professional, an Assistant Golf Professional and a Merchandise Manager. The Director of Golf’s bio describes him as a member of the PGA since 2013 and a PGA Certified Professional in Golf Operations (Dominick Izzo bio). The printed May 2024 scorecard carries the name of an earlier superintendent; the staff directory is the current record. Seasonal starters, rangers and range attendants are hired “seasonal through May” (Careers page).

Golf carts: club carts, private carts and where to keep them

Members pay a cart fee, not a greens fee: $33 for 18 holes and $21 for 9, plus tax, year-round. Owners who want their own cart on the course pay a private cart Trail Fee of $2,200 a year, billed $1,100 in June and December, and “Members must be able to store their golf cart in an attached garage” (2026 fee sheet). A non-trail private cart pass costs $30 a year (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule).

The Master Declaration adds that golf carts may be parked only in an enclosed garage or other approved space (§7.10.3). Wedgewood garages have “room to accommodate a golf cart” (Real Estate page). Waterford condominiums have covered parking and storage rooms but no garage, so by our reading of the fee sheet’s garage rule a Waterford owner cannot register a private trail cart and uses club carts instead. The walking policy is not published.

The 2032 Golf Course Replacement Project and its assessment

This is the single largest known future cost at Vanderbilt Country Club, and it is written into the fee sheet rather than rumored. “The Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc. Board of Directors approved an assessment on October 30, 2025 and August 20, 2026 to fund a Golf Course Replacement Project” (2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026).

Three readings of that table matter to a buyer or seller:

1. The assessment runs with the unit. The fee sheet states it remains the obligation of any successor owner, so a buyer inherits whatever balance is unpaid at closing, and the estoppel certificate should show it.
2. The lump sum is $855 cheaper. Paying $7,895 by 1 July 2027 instead of $8,750 over five years saves $855 per home, by our arithmetic.
3. The scale is roughly $6.3 million to $7.0 million. By our arithmetic only, 800 homes paying the lump sum would raise about $6.3 million and 800 homes paying quarterly about $7.0 million. That is not a published budget.

The dues already carry a golf line as well: the Asset Replacement Reserves ($2,240 a year per home) cover major components in the clubhouse, “golf course replacement, road asphalt overlay, roofs, main swimming pool, Bocce courts” (2026 fee sheet).

“The Golf Course Replacement Project’s scope, architect and total budget are not published. The board approved its funding on 30 October 2025 and 20 August 2026, and the fee sheet schedules the work to begin in 2032.”

Agronomy calendar: turf, closures and overseeding

The one published turf fact is the practice area’s 39,000 square feet of Paspalum. The club does not publish the grass on its greens, tees or fairways, and it does not publish a summer closure, aerification or overseeding calendar. What the fee schedule does publish is the two-season year: in-season rates run 1 November to 30 April and summer rates 1 May to 31 October (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule). Seasonal golf staff are hired through May, which fits a peak from November to April.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club golf worth it? Reading the numbers

For a regular golfer, the arithmetic of a bundled club is simple. A member pays $33 to ride 18 holes; that member’s non-family guest pays $125 in season. A household playing three rounds a week through the season is using a course whose operating cost is already in the $10,894 Community Assessment (2026 fee sheet). For a non-golfer, the same dues are paying for a course they do not use, which is the trade every buyer in a bundled community should weigh honestly.

Sellers: golfers buying here compare the course, the 2032 project and the assessment schedule before they compare kitchens, and a listing that answers those questions up front tends to draw the serious buyers. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

Buyers: if the golf is why you are looking at Vanderbilt, ask for the estoppel balance on both assessments before you set your price, not after. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples. Jesse and Marc have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

What this section does not state

The club does not publish the scope or budget of the 2015 Kipp Schulties redesign or how long the course was closed for it. This section does not state the course’s USGA record date, the tee-time booking window, the member-guest name or format, the tournament calendar, the walking policy, the greens and fairway grass, or any closure or overseeding schedule, because none is published outside the member login. No award, Audubon certification or ranking for the course was found, so none is claimed.

Does Vanderbilt Country Club Have a Marina or Boat Slips?

Vanderbilt Country Club has no marina, boat slips, docks or Gulf access. Nothing in the club’s site, fee sheets or recorded Master Declaration mentions a marine facility, and by our reading the course lakes are golf and stormwater lakes. Boaters trailer to public launches near the Gulf, about 11 road miles west.

What the documents show, and what they leave out

The Master Declaration’s definition of the golf course common area lists an aqua range, a halfway house, a cart barn and a pro shop, and nothing marine (Master Declaration §2.27). The 2026 fee sheet charges for golf carts, bag storage and courts, and lists no slip, dock or boat storage fee (2026 fee sheet). By our reading of those two documents together, the lakes are golf-course and stormwater lakes. The club itself describes them only as “shimmering lakes” and “sparkling lakes” (Vanderbilt Golf page).

The acreage of the lakes is not published by the club. The community sits in Section 35, Township 48 South, Range 26 East, east of Collier Boulevard and north of Vanderbilt Beach Road, roughly nine miles inland from the Gulf.

Where do Vanderbilt Country Club owners launch a boat?

The public launch we verified closest to the community’s road route west is at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, 11135 Gulfshore Drive, Naples, FL 34108. The Florida State Parks page lists a boat ramp and a canoe and kayak launch, hours of 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year, and entry at $6 per vehicle; the park is part of the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail (Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, Florida State Parks). The drive is about 11 road miles from the main gate and about 20 to 25 minutes off-peak, depending on the starting point inside the gates (off-peak routing estimate, OSRM on OpenStreetMap roads, run September 2026).

Ramp capacity, trailer parking counts and launch fees beyond park entry are set by the park and can change; check the park’s page before you tow.

Can you keep a boat or trailer at your Vanderbilt home?

The recorded Master Declaration requires owners with a garage to park at least one vehicle in it and to keep garage doors closed except when in use (§7.10). The detailed vehicle, boat and trailer parking rules sit in the club’s Rules and Regulations (1 January 2023), which the club keeps behind the member login. A buyer who owns a boat should plan on off-site storage and confirm the current rule in writing with the Community Association Office before closing.

Who should look elsewhere?

A buyer who wants a boat at the back door is shopping in the wrong part of Naples. Vanderbilt Country Club is an inland golf community by design; its trade is golf paid through the dues (2026 fee sheet) and a full amenity campus inside the gates, in exchange for a trailer ride to the water.

What this section does not state

This section does not state a count of nearby private marinas, slip rental prices, or lake acreage, because none is in the sources we could verify. The boat and trailer parking rule is not published outside the member-side Rules and Regulations.

How Far Is Vanderbilt Country Club From the Beach?

Vanderbilt Country Club sits about 9 to 10 road miles east of Vanderbilt Beach, roughly 17 to 19 minutes by car off-peak, straight down Vanderbilt Beach Road. Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park is about 11 to 12 miles. The club has no beach club, and in season those drives run longer.

Is there a Vanderbilt Country Club beach club?

No. The club’s amenity list, fee sheet and dues definitions name no beach club, beach shuttle or beach facility (2026 fee sheet definitions; Real Estate FAQ). Buyers sometimes confuse the two because of the shared name. Vanderbilt Country Club’s main gate is on Vanderbilt Beach Road, but the community sits at the road’s inland end, east of Collier Boulevard, and Vanderbilt Beach is at the road’s Gulf end, about nine road miles west.

Drive distances to the beaches, measured

Off-peak routing estimates, OSRM on OpenStreetMap roads, run September 2026. Two separate runs from the clubhouse produced the ranges shown, because each destination was snapped to a slightly different point. The model does not include traffic, signals or season.

In the January to April season, real drive times west on Vanderbilt Beach Road are commonly much longer than these free-flow figures. Plan on the numbers above as the floor, not the average.

Vanderbilt Beach Park: parking, hours and facilities

Collier County Parks and Recreation runs Vanderbilt Beach Park at 100 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples, FL 34108, open year-round from 8 a.m. to sunset, with a dedicated parking garage showing real-time availability plus on-street parking (Vanderbilt Beach Park, Collier County Parks and Recreation). The county lists a $10 pay-to-park fee for vehicles without a Collier County resident beach parking permit, and advises arriving before 10 a.m. in peak season, January to March. Facilities include restrooms, foot showers, bike racks, a life jacket loaner program and a concession with chair and cabana rentals.

Do Vanderbilt Country Club owners get free beach parking?

Owners who pay Collier County property tax qualify for the county resident beach parking permit. Collier County’s 311 guidance says full-time residents and property owners “pay for their beach parking permit as part of their property taxes” and collect it at no additional cost at any Collier County community park, with current vehicle registration and a driver’s license. Part-time resident owners bring a driver’s license, registration or rental agreement, and a current tax bill or closing papers (Collier County 311, beach parking permits). By our reading of that guidance, seasonal owners qualify as well, which matters here: 45.0% of Vanderbilt Country Club owners have a tax-bill mailing address outside Florida (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park

Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, 11135 Gulfshore Drive, is open 8 a.m. to sunset every day of the year at $6 per vehicle, with a boat ramp, a canoe and kayak launch, and loggerhead sea turtle nesting (Florida State Parks). It is the choice for a quieter state-park beach and for anyone launching a kayak or boat.

The route: one straight road west

Both beaches are reached by driving west on Vanderbilt Beach Road from the main gate. Two county projects on that road matter to beachgoers. At the community’s end, the first phase of the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension opened to traffic on 12 June 2026 (Collier County news release, June 2026). At the Gulf end, the county began widening Vanderbilt Beach Road from just east of US 41 to east of Goodlette-Frank Road, about 1.8 miles, from four to six lanes; crews mobilized the week of 6 July 2026 for about two years of work, at about $28.4 million (Collier County news release, July 2026). By our reading of that two-year schedule, expect construction on the last stretch to the beach into 2028.

What this section does not state

This section does not state an in-season (January to April) drive time, because we have no timed peak-season measurement; the figures above are off-peak model estimates. It does not state a beach shuttle, beach club or beach access arrangement, because the club publishes none.

Tennis, Pickleball and Bocce at Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club has six lighted Har-Tru Hydro-Grid tennis courts, two temporary pickleball courts lined on one of them, and three lighted bocce courts beside the Terrace Café. Members voted on 7 May 2026 to convert tennis court 6 into four permanent pickleball courts, funded by a $678 per-home assessment, with construction scheduled for Fall 2026.

How many tennis courts does Vanderbilt Country Club have?

Six. The club’s tennis page: “Play tennis on one of our 6 lighted Har-Tru Hydro-Grid tennis courts” (Tennis page). Har-Tru is a clay-type surface, and Hydro-Grid is a subsurface irrigation system for clay courts that waters them from below. All six are lighted for evening play.

Programming, in the club’s own words: cardio tennis, lessons and clinics with an on-site USPTA tennis professional, “summer interclubs and USTA/CTA leagues,” and “a large viewing deck for those who prefer to watch” (Tennis page). The Leagues and Events page adds private and group instruction, drill sessions, live ball clinics, a ball machine, and a court reservation system for individual play, round robins and socials (Leagues and Events page). The FAQ lists “exhibitions, round robins, socials, tournaments, as well as league and interclub play” (Real Estate FAQ). The staff directory lists a Director of Court Sports (club personnel page, September 2026), and the court sports area includes a shop for equipment and apparel (Court Sports page).

Does Vanderbilt Country Club have pickleball?

Yes, in a temporary form today and a permanent form soon. The club describes it two ways. Its pickleball page: “Play pickleball on two blended line Har-Tru courts. Members enjoy open pickleball play, instruction, and social events” (Pickleball page). Its FAQ, more precisely: “We have two temporary pickleball courts on one of the Har-Tru tennis courts for pickleball lovers” (Real Estate FAQ).

So the accurate description for September 2026 is two temporary pickleball courts lined on one of the six Har-Tru tennis courts, not six tennis courts plus two separate pickleball courts. When pickleball is set up on that court, it is not available for tennis.

The 7 May 2026 pickleball vote and the $678 assessment

A Special Members Meeting on 7 May 2026 approved converting Har-Tru tennis court 6 into four permanent pickleball courts, with sound mitigation, shade structures, lighting, walkways and landscaping (2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026).

Source: 2026 fee sheet.

By our arithmetic, twelve monthly payments of $56.50 equal the $678 lump sum exactly, so there is no premium for paying monthly. A buyer closing before May 2027 on a home whose owner chose the monthly plan picks up the remaining payments; the estoppel certificate shows the balance. Once the project is finished, by our arithmetic the club will have five Har-Tru tennis courts and four permanent pickleball courts, since the new pickleball courts replace court 6.

Bocce at Vanderbilt Country Club

Three lighted courts, placed for socializing. “Play bocce on three brand new courts featuring night lights for evening play. Members enjoy open play, league play (mens, ladies & mixed), instruction, and social events. The courts are located near the Terrace Café so players can enjoy dinner and drinks before, during, or after play” (Bocce page). The annual bocce league fee is $10 (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule). The dues’ Asset Replacement Reserves name the bocce courts among the components they fund (2026 fee sheet).

What do court sports cost members and guests?

Source: 2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule.

Summer court play and reciprocity

The club lists “summer interclubs” for tennis (Tennis page), and from 1 May to 31 October it reciprocates with more than 40 area clubs “for golf, dining, and sports” (Real Estate FAQ). The $5 reciprocal guest court fee appears only in the summer column, which fits that window.

What this section does not state

The club does not publish when pickleball lines were first added, when the three bocce courts were built, the name of the current USPTA professional, or court reservation rules. The final layout, contractor and completion date of the four permanent pickleball courts are not published beyond the Fall 2026 construction start.

Fitness, Wellness and Pools

Vanderbilt Country Club has a freestanding 5,100 square foot Fitness Center, open daily from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with a 2,200 square foot Life Fitness equipment room, a 1,102 square foot aerobics room, massage and physical therapy on site. Swimmers have a new resort-style main pool and spa plus three neighborhood pools.

The Fitness Center: size, rooms and equipment

The club’s wellness page and FAQ describe a 5,100 square foot free-standing building (Wellness and Fitness page; Real Estate FAQ):

• A 2,200 square foot equipment room with “state-of-the-art Life Fitness equipment including treadmills, elliptical equipment, recumbent bicycles, strengthening machines, and free weights”
• A 1,102 square foot aerobics room for group classes, including Cardio Sculpt, yoga, Pilates and stretching; “All classes are provided by trained fitness professionals”
• Physical therapy on site, so residents can do outpatient therapy without leaving the gates, and massage rooms
• Restrooms, lockers and showers

The building dates from the club’s 2012 to 2014 Facility Master Plan. When the general contractor announced completion in September 2014, it described the new Fitness Center as “approximately 5,000 square feet of conditioned air space” with an exercise room, men’s and women’s locker rooms and an aerobics studio (BCBE Construction release, 5 September 2014). The club’s current figure is 5,100 square feet.

What are the Fitness Center hours?

Open daily, 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Real Estate FAQ). An on-site fitness coordinator is there Monday through Saturday, and personal training is by certified trainers (Wellness and Fitness page). The staff directory lists a Director of Fitness and Wellness (club personnel page, September 2026). No seasonal change to the hours is published.

What do classes, training and massage cost?

The gym floor itself carries no listed fee. Services are priced per use, at the same rates for members, tenants and guests (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule):

Is there a spa at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Not a full-service day spa. The published spa services are massage and stretching in the Fitness Center, and the word “spa” on the club site otherwise refers to the hot tub at the main pool, which the FAQ calls “our newly constructed resort-style pool and spa” (Real Estate FAQ).

Blue Zones and the club’s wellness posture

The club’s Lifestyle page carries a Blue Zones Project badge (Lifestyle page), and the Naples Daily News reported in April 2016 that Vanderbilt Country Club took the Blue Zones pledge. We could not find the club on a current public Blue Zones Project Southwest Florida list, so this guide reports the pledge and the badge, not a current designation.

How many pools does Vanderbilt Country Club have?

Four: one main pool for everyone and three neighborhood pools. The FAQ describes a “brand-new resort-style pool and renovated pool bathrooms” and “three smaller satellite pools (one in the Waterford Association and two in the Wedgewood Association) with convenient restrooms” (Real Estate FAQ). The club’s site plan names each one (Community Site Plan):

The dues’ Asset Replacement Reserves name the “main swimming pool” among the components they fund (2026 fee sheet).

Do Estate and Villa homes have private pools?

The single-family neighborhoods have no neighborhood pool of their own. Every Estate Home and Villa Home floor plan in the club’s library shows an optional private pool (Estate Homes floor plans; Villa Homes floor plans), so whether a given house has one is a listing-by-listing fact.

Walking and biking inside the gates

The club prints a measured walking circuit on its own map. The site plan’s mileage key shows a 3.4 mile perimeter route via Danbury Boulevard and Gleneagle Way, a 1.3 mile Danbury Boulevard west loop, a 1 mile Parkstone Place and Waterford loop, and shorter spurs of 4/10, 3/10 (Radcliffe Terrace) and 2/10 mile (Northhampton Court), marked in quarter-mile dashes (Community Site Plan). For a morning walker, that is a signed 3.4 mile loop without leaving the gates.

What this section does not state

The club does not publish the completion year or cost of the new resort-style pool, pool hours, lap-lane counts, heating, or the name of the physical therapy provider. No dog park appears on the site plan.

Dining at Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club serves members and their guests in three venues: the Vista Room, a banquet and fine-dining room seating 204; the Bar & Grille Room; and the Terrace Café with its Express Window beside the main pool. Every home carries a $1,200 annual food and beverage minimum under the 2026 fee sheet.

The three dining venues

Sources: Vista Room, Bar & Grille Room and Terrace Café and Express Window pages, read September 2026.

The FAQ adds the rhythm of the calendar: “year-round happy hour, themed buffets, dinner dances, game nights” (Real Estate FAQ). The kitchen is led by an Executive Chef, with a Clubhouse Manager and a Food and Beverage Manager, per the club’s staff directory, September 2026 (club personnel page).

How the clubhouse got its current shape, 2012 to 2014

The dining rooms members use today come from a two-phase Facility Master Plan. The Naples Daily News reported on 14 October 2012 that the club had broken ground on a new pool grille and bar, “the first of many renovations to come to Vanderbilt Country Club over the next 18 months, including a fitness center and a remodeled and expanded clubhouse, enlarged dining room and bar” (Naples Daily News, October 2012). That pool grille offered seating for 64 members and guests, including 14 barstools at a horseshoe-shaped bar; by our reading of the club’s venue descriptions, it is today’s Terrace Café.

The general contractor announced completion of the clubhouse on 5 September 2014: “The Clubhouse was expanded to allow for additional seating in the main dining room. The kitchen doubled in size,” with an expanded bar and lounge, an updated Grille Room, renovated Wedgewood and Waterford rooms, a newly built Vanderbilt Room and a new terrace with a fireplace (BCBE Construction release, September 2014). The interior designer’s portfolio adds a custom wine room (Club Design Group project page).

Private rooms and events

The club’s Private Events page lists room capacities: the Waterford and Wedgewood Room for up to 40 guests, the Vanderbilt Room for up to 20 guests family style, and the Vista Room for about 200, with “a beautiful dance floor” (Private Events page). The events the club names are weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, fundraisers, anniversaries, showers, quinceañeras and golf events, with an inquiry form on the page.

How does the $1,200 food and beverage minimum work?

The rule, from the club’s documents:

• Amount: $1,200 per calendar year, per residence (2026 fee sheet, dated 20 August 2026).
• It is a spending requirement, not a separate fee. Meals and drinks charged at the club count toward it.
• Tenant spending counts. When an owner leases the home and transfers the membership, the tenant’s food and beverage spending is credited to the owner’s annual minimum (Membership Transfer Application, revised 4 August 2025).
• Payment: club charges are paid from a US bank account; tenants keep a credit card on file, with a 3% fee if it is charged (Membership Transfer Application).

By our arithmetic, $1,200 a year is $100 a month per household. The club does not publish how an unspent balance is billed at year end.

Is the Vanderbilt Country Club restaurant open to the public?

No. The venues serve members, their tenants by transfer, and their guests; guests reach the clubhouse only after a member or employee has submitted their names to the Main Gatehouse (Guest Information page). Whether a non-member can book a private event is not published.

Summer dining and reciprocity

From 1 May to 31 October the club “reciprocates with over 40 area clubs for golf, dining, and sports” (Real Estate FAQ), which gives summer residents more tables to choose from when the season quiets down. The club does not publish its summer dining hours or any seasonal venue closures.

What this section does not state

Menus, menu prices, Sunday brunch, venue hours by season and the dress code sit on the member side of the club site, so this guide does not state them. No clubhouse square footage appears here: we found no primary source for the clubhouse’s own floor area, and the designer’s 40,200 square foot figure covers a multi-building program, not the clubhouse alone.

Hurricane History and Storm Posture at Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club sits about 9 straight-line miles inland from the Gulf, east of Collier Boulevard, in Collier County hurricane evacuation Zone E. Across Wilma, Irma, Ian, Helene and Milton, no primary source places storm surge at this position. The real exposure is wind and heavy rain on homes built from 1998 to 2001.

The geography: nine miles inland, evacuation Zone E

Two measurements settle most of the storm question, and both are reproducible from public data.

Distance from the Gulf. The clubhouse at 8250 Danbury Blvd is about 9.1 straight-line miles from Vanderbilt Beach and about 9.6 road miles by the modelled route straight down Vanderbilt Beach Road (our measurement on OpenStreetMap routing through the OSRM router, run 23 September 2026). The community is east of I-75 and east of Collier Boulevard (County Road 951), on the Golden Gate Estates side of the county.

Evacuation zone. Every one of 12 sample points across the community returned Zone E on Collier County’s hurricane evacuation zone layer (layer last edited 20 August 2026), and the same answer appears on the Florida Division of Emergency Management statewide Know Your Zone layer, which reads “COLLIER E”. Collier draws six zones, A through F, from storm-surge modelling. Zone E is the fifth of the six, so it is among the last zones the county would order out.

Ground height. USGS bare-earth elevations at the county’s own address points for homes and condominium buildings run about 15.4 to 16.5 feet NAVD 88, measured on the USGS 3D Elevation Program point query service on 23 September 2026. The flood section below sets those numbers against FEMA’s base flood elevations.

The storm record, storm by storm

Sources for the table: the National Hurricane Center’s Tropical Cyclone Report on Wilma, the National Weather Service Miami Hurricane Irma local report, the National Hurricane Center’s Tropical Cyclone Report on Ian with the NWS Miami Hurricane Ian summary, and the NWS Miami post-storm reports for Helene and Milton.

Irma is the wind benchmark for inland North Naples

Irma made landfall on Marco Island at 3:35 p.m. on 10 September 2017 as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph winds, according to the NWS Miami Irma report. The weather station labelled North Naples recorded a 112 mph gust, and a Naples station recorded 142 mph. Rain totals ran 9 to 15 inches, highest inland. The same report counts about $320 million of damage in unincorporated Collier County, at least 88 structures destroyed, 1,500 with major damage, and more than 30,000 insurance claims filed in the county.

Flood claims tell a narrower story. FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program claims data shows 108 of the 150 NFIP claims ever recorded in ZIP code 34120 came from Irma. ZIP 34120 is enormous, taking in most of Golden Gate Estates, and FEMA rounds claim locations to a tenth of a degree, so none of those claims can be tied to this community. In the grid cell that holds most of Vanderbilt Country Club, none of the 17 claims ever recorded involved a building constructed from 1998 to 2001. By our reading, that weakly suggests no NFIP claim came from a VCC building, and it is not proof.

Ian was a coastal surge event, and VCC is far from the coast

Hurricane Ian was a real and expensive event in Collier County. The NWS Miami Ian summary counts about $2.2 billion of damage county-wide, 33 buildings destroyed, 3,515 residential and commercial buildings with major damage, and five deaths. The Naples Pier gauge measured 6.18 feet above mean higher high water before it was destroyed, and the National Hurricane Center places maximum inundation of 6 to 9 feet above ground in Naples.

The geography of that surge is the point. The NWS Miami Ian summary says that surge flooding “covered almost all of Collier County south/west of Tamiami Trail/US 41” and reached “a few miles inland across low-lying areas and along rivers and canals.” Vanderbilt Country Club is east of I-75, about 9 miles from the Gulf, and in Zone E. By our reading of the NWS geography, it was outside the surge footprint. Its Ian exposure was wind, with the Naples Airport tower recording a 105 mph gust, and rain.

What the community’s own record shows

The only community-specific storm account we found is a September 2009 neighborhood column in the Naples Daily News archive, written by a resident. It reports that after Hurricane Wilma in 2005 “Vanderbilt lost about 90 trees and 17 pool/lanai screens were damaged,” with volunteers helping to reopen the course, and that during Tropical Storm Fay in 2008 the club “was closed for a week, and when it opened just the front nine was playable because of the standing water on the back nine.”

That second detail matters more than it looks. It is the community’s mapped flood hazard behaving as designed: rainfall ponding on the course while the homes stay dry. No report of damage specific to Vanderbilt Country Club from Irma, Ian, Helene or Milton appears in any primary or major-news source we searched.

Built 1998 to 2001, before the Florida Building Code

The Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s overview of the Florida Building Code records that the statewide code “supersedes all local building codes” as of 1 March 2002. Every Vanderbilt Country Club residence was built from 1998 to 2001, according to the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026): 212 first-building years fall in 1995 to 1999 and 588 in 2000 to 2004. All of them were permitted under Collier County’s earlier local code.

That shows up on paper at insurance time. On Florida’s uniform wind mitigation form, OIR-B1-1802, question 1 gives the top answer only to homes built under the 2001 Florida Building Code or later, so a VCC home answers “unknown or does not meet.” The other features on the form, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof shape, secondary water resistance and opening protection, are credited on what an inspector finds regardless of the year built. The insurance section below walks through what that means in premium terms.

Roofs are now 25 to 28 years old unless they have been replaced

An original 1998 to 2001 roof is now 25 to 28 years old. Florida’s roof-age statute, section 627.7011, bars an insurer from refusing to write or renew a policy “solely because of the age of the roof” when the roof is under 15 years old. For older roofs, the insurer must allow an inspection at the owner’s expense and may not refuse coverage solely on age if the inspection shows “5 years or more of useful life remaining.”

Condominium roofs are an association matter. The 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026 shows that the Waterford and Wedgewood reserve lines fund “exterior painting, roof tile replacement, and waterline replacement.” For an Estate Home or Villa Home, the roof is the owner’s, and the permit history for that address is the proof an underwriter asks for.

Firewise and the preserve edge

The club’s home page displays a Firewise badge. That is the club’s own claim; we did not confirm it against the national Firewise USA roster. It is relevant because the community borders preserve land, and wildfire season in Southwest Florida runs through the dry winter and spring months.

What this section does not state

• This section does not say Vanderbilt Country Club is safe from hurricanes. No address in Florida is. It says the surge record is measured and consistent, and that the exposure here is wind and rain.
• Collier County’s Zone E is not tied to a specific hurricane category in any county document we found, so no category is stated for it here.
• How many VCC roofs have been replaced, and when, is not published. The answer sits in Collier County building permits for each address and in the condominium associations’ reserve studies.
• Which pre-2002 code edition and local wind amendments Collier applied to 1998 to 2001 permits is not published in any source we reached.
• Whether the clubhouse has standby generator power is not published.

What Flood Zone Is Vanderbilt Country Club In?

Vanderbilt Country Club is 95.4% FEMA Zone X by address point: 867 of 909 Collier County address points sit outside the high-risk flood area on the effective map, with 41 (4.5%) in Zone AH. Every home reads X: all 222 single-family homes, every Waterford residential unit and every Wedgewood unit. The shallow ponding zone covers the course, lakes and yards between pads.

The measured census, village by village

We tested every one of the 909 address points Collier County publishes for the eight Vanderbilt Country Club subdivision and condominium numbers, using the county’s Site Address Points layer, against the polygons of FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer. The county points sit on or next to structures, which makes them a better test than a street-centerline geocode.

Computed 23 September 2026 from Collier County address points against the effective FEMA flood hazard polygons. The 909 points exceed the 800 homes because the county layer also carries ancillary points (Waterford carport and storage structures, association utility and common-area points on the single-family plats, and a few amenity points; the four AH points on plat 2 are among these, not homes).

Wedgewood is the cleanest result in the community: 377 of 377 points in Zone X. The Waterford points in AH are all the ones the county numbers 1 to 4 at each building address, which sit a few metres from the residential point. The club describes Waterford as having covered parking and lockable storage rooms on its Real Estate page, so by our reading those numbered points are carports or storage structures. Every Waterford residential unit, numbers 101 through 308, falls in Zone X.

The four AH points on the single-family plats are not homes

Four address points on the single-family plats fall in Zone AH, two on Gleneagle Way and two on Danbury Boulevard, and none of them is a house. Re-measured against the county roll in September 2026, the two Gleneagle Way points are association utility assets on a common parcel and the two Danbury Boulevard points are an association structure and a commercial point; every one of the 222 single-family homes’ primary address points reads Zone X. A county address point is still not a surveyed building footprint, so a buyer should rely on the elevation certificate or the lender’s flood determination for the specific house.

The pads sit above the ponding level

The pattern is plain on the printed FIRM panel, which we read from FEMA’s Map Service Center copy of panel 12021C0218H: the golf course, lakes, preserves and yards are shaded AH, the lakes themselves AE, and the building pads are cut out as unshaded X.

By our reading of those numbers, the building pads sit roughly 1 to 2.5 feet above the base flood elevation, while streets and yards sit at or just below it. Vanderbilt Country Club was graded so the buildings stand above the mapped ponding level, and the streets, yards and course are designed to hold water in a 1% annual chance rain event. Tropical Storm Fay’s standing water on the back nine in 2008 is that design working.

FEMA’s panel legend defines Zone AH as “Flood depths of 1 to 3 feet (usually areas of ponding); Base Flood Elevations determined,” and Collier County’s floodplain management FAQ gives the same definition. AH is a Special Flood Hazard Area, so the federal mandatory purchase rule applies inside it, but it is not a coastal velocity zone and not a riverine floodway. FEMA’s own Letters of Map Amendment for VCC buildings name the flooding source as “PONDING/OVERLAND FLOW,” not storm surge.

The maps that govern today, and the map that is coming

Effective map. Collier County’s countywide FIRM first took effect 17 November 2005. The two panels that cover Vanderbilt Country Club, 12021C0218H (north and west) and 12021C0410H (south), were revised and made effective on 16 May 2012, on the NAVD 88 datum, community number 120067 (Collier County, unincorporated). The Waterford condominiums, the clubhouse and the southern single-family streets sit on 0410H; Wedgewood, Preswick Lane and most of Gleneagle Way sit on 0218H, per the sample points we tested.

Preliminary map. FEMA released preliminary FIRMs for Collier County on 20 March 2025, the county held a flood risk open house on 17 June 2025, and the 90-day appeal period began on 19 August 2026, with a target effective date of summer 2027, subject to change, according to the Collier County news release of August 2026. On FEMA’s preliminary flood hazard service, the community moves to panels 12021C0218J and 12021C0406J, the south half renumbering from 0410H to 0406J.

The headline for owners: the preliminary map changes nothing at Vanderbilt Country Club. The tally on the preliminary map is identical, 867 X, 41 AH and 1 shaded X, and not one of the 909 address points changes zone between the effective and the preliminary maps. Preliminary maps cannot be used to rate an insurance policy; the 2012 panels govern until the new map takes effect.

Six Letters of Map Amendment cover Waterford and Wedgewood buildings

Between 2013 and 2016 FEMA issued Letters of Map Amendment that removed Vanderbilt Country Club condominium buildings from the Special Flood Hazard Area, or confirmed them as outside it. We read every letter we found inside the community footprint on FEMA’s Map Service Center.

Across the six letters that is 22 Wedgewood buildings and 6 Waterford buildings. Each letter states that “the Federal mandatory flood insurance requirement does not apply” to a removed structure, while “the lender has the option to continue the flood insurance requirement.” No Letter of Map Amendment was found for any single-family lot.

One caution a Wedgewood or Waterford owner should read twice. The 2016 letters carry a “STUDY UNDERWAY” note: “When the new NFIP map is issued it will supersede this determination.” With the new map targeted for summer 2027, those determinations lapse unless FEMA revalidates them in the revalidation letter that accompanies a new effective map. Whether these six will be revalidated is not published yet. Because the new preliminary map already shows the buildings in Zone X, the practical effect may be nil, but an owner should keep the letter and check the revalidation list when it issues.

The map revision on Gleneagle Way is not about Vanderbilt Country Club

FEMA’s Letter of Map Revision case 24-04-1528P (effective 24 December 2024, since superseded) and its correction 24-04-6932X (effective 21 January 2025) show up in a search of Gleneagle Way. The revised polygon runs mostly east of the community, and only its western sliver touches the Gleneagle Way street centerline. The county address points on Gleneagle Way sit outside that polygon, in Zone X. By our reading of its extent, that revision was for development east of the community, not for VCC.

The lakes and drainage are a permitted, owner-run system

The whole community drains through a lake and swale system permitted by the South Florida Water Management District. Every later permit is held by the owners’ master association, per the SFWMD approved environmental resource permits layer.

The design storm, control elevations and lake storage volumes sit in the permit files on SFWMD’s permitting system, not in the map layer, and are not published on any page we reached.

What a buyer should do anyway

• Look up the specific address on FEMA’s Map Service Center and ask the seller for any elevation certificate. Collier County’s floodplain office holds elevation certificates for structures built in A zones after 1979.
• For a Waterford or Wedgewood unit, ask the association for the Letter of Map Amendment that names the building, using the case numbers above.
• For any single-family home, ask for the elevation certificate; all 222 single-family address points read Zone X, and the four AH points on the plats are common-area structures.
• Price flood insurance even in Zone X. The insurance section explains why Citizens policyholders will need it from 1 January 2027.

What this section does not state

• This census is a point test, not a parcel-by-parcel flood determination. A lender’s determination for a specific address governs.
• No flood-insurance premium for any individual VCC home is published here, because premiums depend on the structure.
• Whether the six Letters of Map Amendment will be revalidated when the new map takes effect is not published.
• Acreage of lakes inside the community is not published in any source we reached.

Insuring a Home at Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club insurance splits by ownership form. Waterford and Wedgewood owners pay for building insurance through their neighborhood fee and carry an HO-6 unit policy; Estate and Villa owners insure the whole house. Collier County holds a Class 5 flood-insurance rating worth 25%, and Citizens requires flood cover on every personal residential wind policy (condominium unit-owner policies exempt) from 1 January 2027.

Who insures what, by home type

The neighborhood figures come from the club’s 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. Its definitions say the Waterford operating fee covers “property management, residential landscaping, water & sewer, pest control, building maintenance, building insurance, and garbage,” and the Wedgewood fee covers the same list including building insurance. The Villa and Estate fees cover property management and residential landscaping only, so a single-family owner’s insurance bill sits entirely outside the fee.

Condominium master policies and the HO-6 gap

Florida’s condominium act, section 718.111(11), requires every condominium association to carry “adequate property insurance,” with replacement cost determined “at least once every 3 years.” The association policy excludes “floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments.” Those items are the unit owner’s to insure on an HO-6 policy, along with contents, liability and loss assessment.

The board sets the master-policy deductible “consistent with industry standards and prevailing practice.” That is why loss assessment coverage on an HO-6 is worth pricing: a hurricane deductible on a master policy can be passed through to owners as an assessment. Each association’s carrier, wind deductible, flood policy and premium are not published on any public page; they sit in the association’s budget and insurance schedule and on the condominium questionnaire at resale, which the club’s Prospective Owners page prices at $150.

Collier County’s Class 5 flood rating: a 25% discount

Unincorporated Collier County has participated in FEMA’s Community Rating System since 1 October 1992 and has held Class 5, a 25% discount on NFIP policies, since 1 October 2015, according to FEMA’s CRS Eligible Communities list dated 1 April 2026. The county’s 2026 Flood Protection Newsletter repeats the Class 5 and 25% figures. A field in FEMA’s raw policy dataset for this ZIP reads differently; we rely on FEMA’s published April 2026 list, which is the authoritative record.

What flood insurance costs in ZIP 34120 under Risk Rating 2.0

FEMA’s NFIP policy dataset for ZIP 34120, policies effective July 2025 through June 2026 (4,532 policies, all rated under Risk Rating 2.0), gives a useful range. These are ZIP-wide figures, not quotes for any VCC home.

Two readings follow. First, under Risk Rating 2.0 the flood zone no longer sets the rate by itself, which is why AH policies in this ZIP are not dearer than X policies. Second, the zone still decides whether a federally backed mortgage requires flood cover, and for most VCC homes, in Zone X, it does not. The typical single-family X policy in the ZIP carries the $250,000 building limit (633 of 692 policies).

Citizens: personal residential wind policies need flood cover from 1 January 2027

Citizens Property Insurance is phasing in a flood requirement for its personal residential policies that include wind. Per Citizens’ flood requirement page: homes in a Special Flood Hazard Area already must carry flood; outside it, the rule phased in at $600,000 of dwelling value from 1 January 2024, $500,000 from 2025 and $400,000 from 2026, and reaches “All policies, regardless of value” on 1 January 2027. The required flood limit equals the Citizens dwelling limit, or the NFIP maximum of $250,000 if that is lower.

Condominium unit-owner policies are exempt, along with tenant contents and ex-wind policies. So by our reading, from January 2027 every Estate or Villa owner insured by Citizens needs a flood policy even in Zone X, while Waterford and Wedgewood owners on a Citizens HO-6 do not.

Citizens eligibility also has a ceiling. Under section 627.351(6), a home with a dwelling replacement cost of $700,000 or more is not eligible, with a limited exception up to $1 million, and a condominium unit is not eligible if its combined dwelling and contents replacement cost reaches $700,000. Replacement cost is not the county’s just value, so which larger Estate Homes cross that line is an address-level question.

Wind mitigation: what a 1998 to 2001 home can still earn

The OIR-B1-1802 wind mitigation form is valid for up to five years if nothing material changes. For a VCC home:

• Building code (question 1): a pre-2002 home answers “unknown or does not meet.” That credit is out of reach.
• Roof covering (question 2): a replacement roof permitted on or after 1 March 2002 qualifies for the top answer. An original 1998 to 2001 roof qualifies only if its product carried an approval at installation.
• Roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof shape, secondary water resistance and opening protection (questions 3 to 7): credited on what the inspector documents, regardless of build year. Clips or straps, hip roofs, sealed roof decks and impact glass or shutters all count.

Homes permitted from 1998 to 2001 under the local code were, by our reading, likely not required to have opening protection when built. Shutters or impact windows now on a VCC home were probably added later, and the permit for them is what an inspector wants to see.

Hurricane protection rules for owners

For the single-family homes, Florida’s homeowners’ association act, section 720.3035(6) as amended in 2026, says a board or architectural committee “may not deny an application for the installation, enhancement, or replacement of hurricane protection” that meets the board’s adopted specifications. The statute’s definition now names roof systems meeting ASCE 7-22, permanent and roll-down shutters, impact windows and doors, reinforced garage doors, and “exterior fixed generators” with fuel storage tanks. The Vanderbilt Community Association is organized under chapter 720, per its amended and restated articles.

For Waterford and Wedgewood, section 718.113(5) requires each condominium board to adopt hurricane protection specifications for each building. The actual specifications each association has adopted are not published on the club’s public pages.

Waterford is inside Florida’s condominium safety laws; Wedgewood is not

This is the single sharpest insurance-and-reserves difference inside the gates.

The club’s Real Estate page describes Waterford as ten three-story condominium buildings, “Each building houses 24 residences,” with an elevator, and describes Wedgewood as two-story buildings of eight or ten residences. Florida’s milestone inspection law, section 553.899, and its structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) law, section 718.112(2)(g), apply to condominium buildings three habitable stories or higher. Collier County adopted the 30-year milestone trigger, not the optional 25-year one, in Ordinance 2024-48, adopted 12 November 2024.

The milestone years are the due years Collier County’s milestone inspection map lists for each Waterford building, read 26 September 2026. The state’s SIRS reporting database records Waterford’s structural integrity reserve study as complete: one filing covering all ten buildings, completed 19 November 2024 and delivered to owners 10 December 2024, with no study-linked special assessment reported. The study’s funding plan and reserve figures are not published on any source we could reach. A Waterford buyer should request the SIRS and its funding plan, and any milestone inspection report, with the condominium questionnaire. Both condominium associations manage well over 25 units, so under the 2025 condominium law (HB 913, chapter 2025-175) each must post its official records on a website from 1 January 2026.

Our guide to Waterford at Vanderbilt walks through the state filing, the milestone schedule building by building, and every recorded Waterford sale.

The flip side for Wedgewood is real. At two stories, Wedgewood’s 338 carriage homes sit permanently outside the milestone and SIRS regime, while still funding ordinary reserves for painting, roof tile and waterlines through the reserve line on the fee sheet.

My Safe Florida Home grants

Florida’s My Safe Florida Home statute, section 215.5586 (2026), offers hardening grants to homesteaded, site-built homes built before 1 January 2008 with an insured value of $700,000 or less, detached or attached up to three stories, after a program inspection. The state matches $2 for every $1 up to $10,000. Every VCC home meets the pre-2008 test; homestead status and insured value decide the rest.

The separate My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot covers buildings three stories or taller within 15 miles of the coast, with a board vote plus approval by at least 75% of resident unit owners, and a state contribution up to $175,000 per association. By our reading, Waterford meets the height and distance tests and Wedgewood does not meet the height test. Current program funding and application windows are not stated on the program page we reached.

What this section does not publish

• No homeowner, HO-6 or wind premium for any VCC home is published here. Premiums are quote-specific.
• The Waterford and Wedgewood master-policy carriers, wind deductibles and flood policies are not published.
• Waterford’s SIRS is filed as complete with the state (19 November 2024); its funding plan is not published on any source we reached.
• Which utility serves the community is not confirmed from a utility or regulator document, so no provider claim is made here.

Insurance is where a VCC purchase is won or lost on carrying cost. Buyers, call Marc at (239) 287-5873 or read how we represent buyers in Naples; we will pull the wind mitigation report, the roof permit and, for Waterford, the SIRS before you commit. Sellers, a current four-point and wind mitigation report shortens every insurance conversation a buyer has; get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

Which Schools Serve Vanderbilt Country Club?

Vanderbilt Country Club is zoned to Bear Creek Elementary, Oakridge Middle and Barron Collier High for the 2026-27 school year, and all three graded A in 2025-26. That assignment held at every one of 562 community addresses we tested. Older pages naming Big Cypress Elementary are out of date: Bear Creek opened in August 2025.

How the answer was established

Collier County Public Schools runs a live address lookup behind its school locator. On 23 September 2026 we queried that CCPS address service for the current 2026-27 school year across all seven community streets: Danbury Blvd (194 address points), Gleneagle Way (106), Radcliffe Ter (101), Parkstone Pl (100), Allendale Ct (28), Preswick Ln (17) and Northhampton Ct (16).

All 562 returned the same three schools, with no rezoning flag for the following year. The service caps each search at 100 results, so 562 is a large sample rather than a census of all 800 homes, but it contains zero exceptions across every street and every home type.

The zoned schools by address

Collier County Public Schools address service, queried 23 September 2026 with the parameter for the 2026-27 school year. Condominium building addresses return results only when searched with the unit, so each building row covers every unit record returned.

Why older pages say Big Cypress Elementary

The same county service returns a history. For the clubhouse address, the 2023-24 and 2024-25 records return Big Cypress Elementary on Golden Gate Blvd W, with the 2024-25 record carrying a rezone flag pointing to Bear Creek. From 2025-26 on, the record returns Bear Creek Elementary. Middle and high school assignments did not change across the four years returned. Bear Creek’s own school website calls it “the first elementary school built in Collier County in 17 years,” and the principal’s welcome video is dated 28 July 2025, so the school opened for 2025-26. Any page that still names Big Cypress Elementary for Vanderbilt Country Club predates that change.

The three schools, measured

Sources: grades from the district’s 2026 Accountability Brief dated 1 July 2026; percent of points from the Naples Daily News school data tables built on state data; enrollment and teacher ratios from the federal NCES Common Core of Data for Oakridge Middle and for Barron Collier High; distances from our routing on 23 September 2026.

Bear Creek Elementary earned an A in its first graded year, which the Naples Daily News group reported on 22 July 2026 in its school grades story. The Naples Daily News Bear Creek data page shows 2025 state test pass rates of 70% to 83% in English language arts and 77% to 84% in math across grades 3 to 5, each above the Collier and Florida rates on the same page. The school’s site describes it as “Designed with hurricanes and safety at the forefront.” The principal is Margaux Horne, per the school’s own site.

Oakridge Middle is the closest zoned school, 2.0 road miles down Danbury Blvd and Collier Blvd. It has graded A every year from 2021-22 through 2025-26.

Barron Collier High has also graded A every year in that span. The school’s own home page carries a banner reading “#1 High School in Collier County 2023, 2024 and 2025”; the ranking body is not named on the page, so we report it as the school’s own claim.

The district around those schools

Collier County Public Schools earned an A for 2025-26, and the district’s 2026 Accountability Brief calls it “one of only five Florida districts to be rated as an ‘A’ for the last nine years,” sixth-highest in points among 67 districts, with 51 of 52 traditional schools rated A or B and none rated D or F.

Private schools within about 11 road miles

Tuition figures are not published here because none was confirmed on an official school page for 2026-27.

Colleges and universities

• Florida Gulf Coast University, 10501 FGCU Blvd S, Fort Myers: 16,803 students in fall 2025, about 20.0 road miles and 31 minutes off-peak by I-75 north.
• Florida SouthWestern State College, Collier Campus, 7505 Grand Lely Dr, Naples: about 11.9 road miles and 21 minutes down Collier Blvd.
• Ave Maria University, Ave Maria: about 21.5 road miles and 37 minutes by Immokalee Rd and Oil Well Rd.
• Hodges University is closed; it announced in August 2023 that it would close by the end of August 2024, per Gulfshore Business.

What this section does not state

• Bear Creek Elementary enrollment and capacity are not yet published in federal data.
• The county school board’s boundary vote that moved the community from Big Cypress to Bear Creek was not retrieved, so no vote date is given.
• The school bus route and car-rider route from the community to Bear Creek are not published here; the district’s transportation locator answers that per address.
• Attendance zones can change year to year. Confirm the zoning for the exact address on the district’s locator before relying on it.

Healthcare Near Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club’s nearest emergency room is NCH’s freestanding Northeast emergency department at 15420 Collier Blvd, open 24 hours and about 2.5 road miles north, roughly 7 minutes off-peak. Full hospitals are 12 to 26 minutes away: Physicians Regional Pine Ridge, NCH North Naples Hospital and NCH Baker downtown.

The measured table

Drive distances are our off-peak routing from the clubhouse on 23 September 2026. A caution on the Collier Boulevard campus: it shares the road name but sits in East Naples near I-75, about 10.7 miles south, not near the community.

The emergency room up the road

NCH’s Northeast building on Collier Blvd is the practical answer to “how far is the ER.” The location page lists it as open 24 hours, 7 days, phone (239) 624-8700. The same building houses NCH pediatrics, internal medicine, the Rooney Heart Institute Northeast and ProScan NCH Imaging, per the NCH location directory.

NCH describes itself on its About Us page as “a locally governed non-profit” with NCH Baker Hospital and NCH North Hospital totalling 713 beds, and its emergency services page lists five emergency departments: Baker, two at North Naples (adult and pediatric), the Northeast freestanding department and the Bonita freestanding department. NCH’s own wording calls them “trauma receiving facilities,” which is not the same as a state-verified trauma center.

Urgent care and walk-in clinics

The short version: a 24-hour emergency room, a walk-in urgent care and a MinuteClinic all sit in the Collier Blvd and Immokalee Rd cluster, each about 2.5 miles and 7 minutes off-peak from the clubhouse.

What this section does not state

• This page makes no claim about any current academic or network affiliation of any hospital.
• Which facility is the state-verified trauma center for Collier County residents is not stated, because the Florida Department of Health list was not retrieved.
• Current ownership of Physicians Regional is not stated.
• Drive minutes are off-peak model estimates; January to April traffic on Collier Blvd and Immokalee Rd adds time.

Drive Times From Vanderbilt Country Club

Vanderbilt Country Club is about 9.6 road miles and 19 minutes off-peak from Vanderbilt Beach, 12.3 miles from Naples Airport, 14.9 miles from Fifth Avenue South and 28.3 miles, about 40 minutes, from Southwest Florida International Airport. Every figure here is an off-peak routing estimate from the clubhouse; season adds time.

The one qualifier that governs this whole section

Every distance and time below comes from the OSRM router on OpenStreetMap road data, run on 23 September 2026 from the clubhouse at 8250 Danbury Blvd. These are free-flow model estimates. The router does not model traffic, signal timing, school zones, gate queues or January to April congestion. Real peak-season times on Collier Blvd, Immokalee Rd and Vanderbilt Beach Rd are longer. Treat the minutes as a floor, not a promise.

Getting onto I-75

There is no I-75 interchange at Vanderbilt Beach Road today. The club’s own directions page routes northbound arrivals via Immokalee Road (Exit 111) and southbound arrivals via Pine Ridge Road (Exit 107).

The measured table

OSRM off-peak routing estimates from 8250 Danbury Blvd, measured 23 September 2026. Beach and park destinations are routed to OpenStreetMap feature points; the parking entrance can add or subtract a few tenths of a mile.

Main gate versus clubhouse, and why it changes the numbers

Vanderbilt Country Club has two gates. The staffed Main Gatehouse is on Vanderbilt Beach Road at Danbury Blvd, and the members-only, unmanned gate is on Collier Boulevard at the west end of Preswick Lane, per the club’s guest information page and its community site plan. Guests and vendors must use the main gate. The main gate sits about 0.8 road mile east of the Collier Blvd and Vanderbilt Beach Road intersection, by our routing measurement.

Measured from the main gate instead of the clubhouse, the numbers shift by a few tenths of a mile: Vanderbilt Beach Park is about 9.3 miles and 17 minutes, Delnor-Wiggins about 11.0 miles and 20 minutes, Mercato about 7.8 miles and 15 minutes, and RSW about 28.8 miles and 39 minutes, all off-peak. The nearest grocery, the Winn-Dixie at 7550 Mission Hills Dr, is about 1.2 miles from the main gate, and the Publix at The Shoppes at Pebblebrooke, 15265 Collier Blvd, is about 2.0 miles from the clubhouse. St. Agnes Catholic Church at 7775 Vanderbilt Beach Rd is about a tenth of a mile from the main gate.

The five numbers worth remembering

• Emergency room: 2.5 miles, about 7 minutes. NCH Northeast on Collier Blvd.
• Vanderbilt Beach: about 9 to 10 miles, 17 to 19 minutes off-peak, straight west on the road the main gate fronts. Not “minutes from the beach” in any season.
• Downtown Naples: about 15 miles, 26 minutes off-peak, via Pine Ridge Rd and I-75.
• RSW: about 28 miles, about 40 minutes off-peak, via Immokalee Rd and I-75 north.
• Oakridge Middle School: 2.0 miles, about 5 minutes, the closest zoned school.

What these numbers are not

• They are not peak-season trip times. County traffic counts in the next section show why: Immokalee Rd near Collier Blvd carried about 49,000 to 57,000 vehicles a day in 2025.
• Alligator Alley is a toll road; the toll is not stated here.
• The Miami time is to downtown Miami, not to Miami International Airport.

What Is Being Built Near Vanderbilt Country Club?

Vanderbilt Country Club’s front gate now sits on a rebuilt six-lane arterial: the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension opened east of Collier Blvd on 12 June 2026, including improvements at the Danbury Blvd gate intersection. I-75 express lanes with direct access at Vanderbilt Beach Road start construction in fall 2026. The land around the community is otherwise largely built out.

The Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension, Phase 1: open at the main gate

Collier County opened Phase 1 of the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension to traffic on 12 June 2026, after substantial completion, and held the ribbon cutting on 1 July 2026 at the northeast corner of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Collier Blvd, near the St. Agnes parking lot, per the county’s opening release and ribbon-cutting release.

• Length and lanes: about seven miles from Collier Blvd to 16th Street NE; six lanes divided from east of Collier Blvd to Wilson Blvd, then two lanes to 16th Street NE with room to widen; shared-use path and bike lanes.
• Structures: three canal bridges, 18 stormwater ponds, a relocated stretch of the Cypress Canal, Massey Street improvements, and new signals at Wilson Blvd, 8th Street NE and 16th Street NE.
• At the VCC gate: Gulfshore Business reported on 10 June 2026 that the project included improvements to the existing intersections at Collier Boulevard, Weber Boulevard, Danbury Boulevard and Douglas Road. Danbury Blvd is the community’s entrance road, so the main gate intersection was rebuilt as part of the project.
• Cost: the county’s strategic priority reports list a $153 million Phase 1 budget, of which $74 million came from the infrastructure sales surtax. Gulfshore Business puts the all-in figure, with land and design, at more than $200 million. The contractor was Sacyr Construction USA.
• Why it was built: the county says the extension “will help relieve congestion on other arterial roadways and is expected to reduce emergency response times.”

What it means at the gate, by our reading: Vanderbilt Beach Road east of Collier Blvd used to dead-end into Golden Gate Estates. Since 12 June 2026 it carries Estates traffic west past the main gate and St. Agnes to Collier Blvd, which means more through-traffic at the Danbury Blvd intersection than before 2026, offset by less pressure on Immokalee Rd and Golden Gate Blvd. A Naples Daily News story of 25 October 2019 recorded that residents worried about lights and noise from increased traffic at the Massey Street intersection; the design changes made in response were not in the portion of the story we could read.

Phase 2 and the road further east

Phase 2 runs about 2.0 miles from 16th Street NE to Everglades Blvd, built first as a two-lane road inside a four-lane right of way, per the county’s public meeting handout. The county’s FY26 first-quarter priority report lists a $49.5 million budget, right of way fully acquired and design at 90%, with a federal wetlands permit pending. The county’s June 2026 releases say construction may begin in early 2027. Phase 2 is 7 to 9 miles east of the community.

I-75 express lanes, with direct access at Vanderbilt Beach Road

FDOT project 452544-1 widens I-75 across 21 miles from north of Golden Gate Parkway to south of Alico Road, with express lanes in both directions, a new diverging diamond interchange at Immokalee Road, noise walls, and “Direct access to express lanes at Vanderbilt Beach Road.” WINK News (1 September 2026) and WGCU (20 September 2026) report construction starting this fall, three to four years of work, more than $600 million invested, and about 16 miles of 22-foot noise walls costing $77 million.

By our reading of FDOT’s wording, the Vanderbilt Beach Road element is express-lane access ramps, not a full interchange with the general-purpose lanes. A full partial interchange at Vanderbilt Beach Road (northbound on-ramp, southbound off-ramp) appears only on the Collier MPO’s 2050 needs list, which is a long-range, unfunded list. If it were ever built, it would bring I-75 access closer than today’s roughly 6 road miles to the Immokalee Road or Pine Ridge Road exits.

Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road

• Collier Blvd past the community is on the Collier MPO’s congested corridors list for the Vanderbilt Beach Rd to Immokalee Rd stretch with an average daily bottleneck of 1 minute, the lowest on that list; the Immokalee Rd stretch from Goodlette-Frank to Collier reads 32 minutes (MPO 2050 plan draft, chapter 4).
• Collier Blvd widening, Green Blvd to City Gate Blvd N (four to six lanes), about 2.5 to 4 miles south: $59.58 million budget, design at 95%, construction date not set, per the county’s FY26 first-quarter report.
• Immokalee Rd and I-75 diverging diamond interchange: transferred to FDOT, with construction in FDOT’s draft work program for fiscal 2027.
• An overpass carrying Immokalee Rd over Collier Blvd and a Collier Blvd extension north to the Lee County line both appear on the MPO’s 2050 needs list only, with no funding.
• Coastal Vanderbilt Beach Rd widening, just east of US 41 to east of Goodlette-Frank Rd (about 1.8 miles, about $28.4 million), mobilized the week of 6 July 2026 for about two years, per the county release. It sits on the route to Vanderbilt Beach, so expect work zones on the drive to the Gulf through 2028.

Traffic counts on the roads around the gates

Averages are our arithmetic from the quarterly counts in Collier County’s 2025 traffic count report and 2019 traffic count report. Station 580’s fourth-quarter 2025 figure reads 2,849 in the county file, which is implausible for an open arterial and was left out. No count yet exists for Vanderbilt Beach Road east of Collier Blvd, because that road only opened in June 2026.

Who is next door

The county’s zoning and PUD layers, read through the Collier County PUD register, show a community boxed in by finished neighborhoods on three sides:

• North: Bristol Pines, Buttonwood Preserve (which contains Canopy) and Soluna touch the boundary.
• Northwest: Abaco Pointe (formerly 951 Villas) touches the boundary.
• West and southwest: The Mission Church, Bucks Run, Tuscany Pointe and Collier 36 touch the boundary between the community and the Collier Blvd and Vanderbilt Beach Road corner. Across Collier Blvd sit the fire district parcel, Sonoma Oaks and Summit Place in Naples.
• South: Vanderbilt Beach Road, with Golden Gate Estates zoning (E, Estates) beyond it.
• East: Massey Street, with county zoning of A, Rural Agricultural, on the large tracts along it. At Vanderbilt Beach Road and Massey Street, Gulfshore Business reported on 14 May 2026 that Pulte opened sales at Opus Stone, a Seagate Development Group community planned for 51 homes.

The east side is the one edge where land use could still change, because the rural tracts along Massey Street now front a six-lane road. We found no pending rezoning hearing for them; that is a gap, not a guarantee.

Civic facilities within a few miles

• Fire: the community pays the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District (2.0000 mills in 2025, per the Florida Department of Revenue millage table for tax code 103). The nearest station is Station 73 at 14565 Collier Blvd, with district headquarters next door at 14575 Collier Blvd, across Collier Blvd from the members’ gate. The county and the district opened a new Station 74 on DeSoto Blvd S on 21 July 2026, far to the east.
• Library: the Estates Branch at 1266 Golden Gate Blvd W is the nearest branch, open Monday to Thursday 10 to 6 and Friday to Saturday 9 to 5.
• Parks: Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park, 810 39th Ave NE, 150 acres, with a 22,641 square foot community center, an aquatic complex and six lighted pickleball courts. Paradise Coast Sports Complex sits about 6 miles south at I-75 Exit 101; a 3 November 2026 referendum on raising the tourist development tax from 5 to 6 cents would help fund its completion, per Gulfshore Business.
• Shopping: Founders Square, 55 acres at the southeast corner of Immokalee Rd and Collier Blvd, holds restaurants, Sunshine Ace Hardware, a 7-Eleven, a 35,000 square foot Physicians Regional medical office and self-storage, about 1.5 to 2 miles north of the members’ gate.

The growth behind the traffic

The University of Florida’s BEBR 2025 population estimates put Collier County at 413,314 on 1 April 2025, up 10.0% from 375,752 at the 2020 census. From 2020 to 2025 the county had 4,712 more deaths than births and 42,274 net in-migrants, so all of this decade’s growth is people moving in. BEBR’s medium projection reaches 443,000 by 2030 and 512,700 by 2050. The eastern towns now approved in the county’s rural lands, including the 3,205-home Horse Trials Village approved on 9 December 2025, lie 15 or more miles east; their westbound trips are exactly the traffic the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension was sized to carry.

What this section does not state

• Which county commission district the community sits in is not stated here.
• The exact geometry of FDOT’s Vanderbilt Beach Road express-lane access, and whether it is toll-only, is not published in the pages we reached.
• What was rebuilt at the Danbury Blvd intersection (signal phasing, turn lanes) is not published beyond the county’s description of “improvements.”
• Whether any rezoning is pending on the rural tracts east of the community is not published in any record we found.

Daily Logistics: Gates, Guests, Pets, Carts, Trash and Mail

Vanderbilt Country Club is gated, with a staffed Main Gatehouse on Vanderbilt Beach Road at Danbury Boulevard and an unmanned, members-only gate on Collier Boulevard. Guests are pre-registered by a member, pets are limited to two per home on a leash, and golf carts live in a garage.

Where are the gates, and who uses which?

• Main Gatehouse: on Vanderbilt Beach Road at Danbury Boulevard, about 0.8 mile east of Collier Boulevard by our measurement. All guests, vendors and realtors use this gate. Gatehouse phone (239) 348-3385 (Realtors page).
• Back gate: on Collier Boulevard at Preswick Lane, labelled “Back Gatehouse” on the club’s Community Site Plan. It is members only and unmanned: “some GPS systems will direct you to our gate access off Collier Boulevard; however, this is an unmanned gate. All guests and vendors must enter through our front/main entrance off Vanderbilt Beach Road” (Contact and Directions page).
• Club office: 8250 Danbury Blvd, Naples, FL 34120, (239) 348-2662.

Access control and street lighting are among the costs the Community Assessment pays for, per the 2026 fee sheet definitions.

How do guests get in?

“Vanderbilt Country Club is a secure, gated community. Before entry is permitted, guests must have their names submitted to the Main Gatehouse by a member or employee. Guests must provide a valid Driver’s License upon entry at the Main Gatehouse, located off Vanderbilt Beach Road. Gate access on Collier Boulevard is for members only” (Guest Information page). Guests of tenants have no membership privileges and must be accompanied by a tenant at all times (Membership Transfer Application).

How do showings, signs and open houses work?

Realtors show a driver’s license and business card at the main gate and pre-register with the Community Association Office. The sign rules are specific (Realtors page):

• One 24 by 24 inch “For Sale” sign per property, in the association’s tan board with blue lettering, street side only, with up to five lines that may read “For Sale” by owner or with the realtor’s name
• No riders, no “Sold” signs, and no signs in windows or on lanais; the sign comes down once the home is under contract
• One metal step Open House sign, no larger than 18 by 24 inches, removed by sunset; residents should tell the gatehouse, which will hand out flyers and maps if provided

Sellers: those rules shape how a Vanderbilt listing is marketed, because curb signage is minimal and every showing passes a staffed gate. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072 to talk through a plan that works inside them. Buyers: every visit needs your agent pre-registered at the gate, so tours take a little planning. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

Are pets allowed at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, up to two. The recorded Master Declaration: an owner “may keep no more than two (2) household pets,” dogs, cats or other animals the association expressly permits, with no commercial breeding, and “ALL PETS MUST BE KEPT ON A LEASH WHEN NOT IN THE OWNER’S RESIDENCE” (Master Declaration §7.8). The FAQ extends the same limit to renters and adds that owners must clean up after their pets (Real Estate FAQ). No breed or weight limit appears in the Master Declaration.

Golf carts, garages and vehicles

• Owners with a garage must park at least one vehicle in it, and garage doors stay closed except when in use (Master Declaration §7.10).
• Golf carts may be parked only in an enclosed garage or other approved space (§7.10.3).
• A private cart on the golf course needs the $2,200 annual Trail Fee and storage in an attached garage (2026 fee sheet).

Trash and recycling

Trash handling differs by neighborhood. The Waterford neighborhood fee lists garbage among the items it pays for, alongside property management, landscaping, water and sewer, pest control, building maintenance and building insurance (2026 fee sheet). The Master Declaration adds that “Only Waterford residents are allowed to place trash in the Waterford trash and recycling containers” (§7.12), which by our reading means Waterford uses shared containers. The Wedgewood, Villa and Estate fee descriptions do not list garbage, and the collection day and hauler for those neighborhoods are not published by the club.

Mail, internet and television

All 800 homes carry Naples, FL 34120 addresses (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). Which post office delivers to the community is not published in any source we could verify, and mailbox arrangements by neighborhood are not published by the club.

Cable television and internet are named in the Community Assessment’s list of what the dues pay for (2026 fee sheet definitions). The club’s site plan labels a building “Cart Barn COA/Hotwire” (Community Site Plan); by our reading that points to Hotwire Communications as the provider, but the provider, speeds and contract terms are not published.

Occupancy and who counts as a tenant

The Master Declaration caps occupancy at two persons per bedroom plus one per den (§10.8.1) and treats anyone occupying a residence for more than one month as a tenant, whether or not rent is paid (§10.8.2). Leases are whole-residence only, with no room rentals (§10.2), and advertising a rental for less than 30 days or more than one year is prohibited, including online.

Security beyond the gate

The club publishes the gate procedure and nothing further about security staffing. It does not publish the Main Gatehouse’s staffed hours, a roving patrol or a camera system. The club’s home page displays a Firewise badge (club home page); we did not confirm the community’s current status on the national Firewise USA list, so it is reported as the club’s own claim.

What this section does not state

The club’s Rules and Regulations (dated 1 January 2023) hold the detailed parking, vehicle, holiday decoration and quiet-hour rules, and the club keeps them behind the member login, so they are not stated here. Condominium-level pet or leasing rules for Waterford and Wedgewood are not published on any source we could reach. The gatehouse’s staffed hours are not published.

Clubs, Events and the Social Calendar

Vanderbilt Country Club runs its social life from a 3,000 square foot Activities Center with a sharing library and media center, and the club counts more than 40 social clubs, from bridge and mah jongg to book clubs and watercolor. Trivia and bingo nights, dinner dances and member charity drives fill the calendar through the season.

The Activities Center

The club describes a 3,000 square foot building “with multiple rooms to gather with friends,” plus “a large sharing library and media center” (Social Activities page). The Activities building was among the facilities improved in the 2012 to 2014 Facility Master Plan, alongside the pro shop and cart barn (BCBE Construction release, September 2014). The Community Assessment names the Activities Center among the costs the dues pay for (2026 fee sheet). A card room sits in the expanded pro shop building, per the interior designer’s scope (Club Design Group project page).

What clubs can you join at Vanderbilt Country Club?

The club counts “over 40 social clubs” and names these on its Social Activities page (Social Activities page):

“If you love live music, you will love Vanderbilt!” the club adds. The Activities and Events Calendar is “filled with special interest groups, classes, speakers, entertainment, and special events throughout the year”; the calendar itself sits behind the member login. The staff directory lists an Activities and Communications Director, per the club’s staff directory, September 2026 (club personnel page).

Charity and volunteer life

A large share of the social calendar is organized around giving, per the club’s own Community Involvement page:

• Baby Basics of Collier County: club volunteers host two fundraisers a year at the club, Dining for Diapers and a golf tournament. The club states its volunteers helped distribute thirteen million diapers to Collier County babies; the charity’s own site reports over 13 million diapers across Collier County and Bonita Springs, without naming the club (Baby Basics of Collier County).
• Relay For Life (American Cancer Society, Greater Collier County): volunteers organize a Soup Supper and a Luminaria Ceremony, and the club states it has donated “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to Relay For Life since 2006. That total is the club’s own statement.
• Shy Wolf Sanctuary: supported by members.
• Neighbors Helping Neighbors: member volunteers who help with rides to appointments, meal deliveries, shopping, pet walking and friendly visits, and who lend medical equipment (crutches, canes, wheelchairs, shower seats) and baby gear (booster seats, highchairs, porta cribs, car seats). It is coordinated through the Director of Member Services.

For a buyer relocating from out of state, that last program is the most practical fact in this section: a neighbor-run network for rides and loaned equipment inside the gates.

How the social year runs: season and summer

The club’s own fee tables frame the year as season, 1 November to 30 April, and summer, 1 May to 31 October (2026 Member/Tenant Fee Schedule). Seasonal golf and services staff are hired “seasonal through May” (Careers page), which by our reading means a fuller program from November to April and a lighter one in summer. Summer members gain reciprocity with more than 40 area clubs for golf, dining and sports (Real Estate FAQ), and tennis runs summer interclubs.

The seasonal pattern shows up in ownership, too. Of the 800 homes, 44.2% carry a homestead exemption and 45.0% send the tax bill to an address outside Florida, led by New York (44), Massachusetts (39), Michigan (36), Ohio (33) and Illinois (30), with 20 owners in Ontario and 9 in Quebec (Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll, published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). By our reading, that mix means a busy winter calendar and a smaller, year-round core in summer.

How do new members meet people?

The club builds the on-ramps into its programs: 9-hole and 18-hole groups for Men’s Day and Ladies Day, open pickleball and bocce play, round robins and socials on the tennis courts, and the 40-plus clubs in the Activities Center (Golf Programs page; Leagues and Events page). Tenants attend a mandatory New Tenant Orientation (Membership Transfer Application). The club’s public social feed runs on Instagram as @vccnaples (club home page).

What this section does not state

The club does not publish a member newsletter title or schedule, a holiday event calendar, club meeting times, or the size of any individual club. Opinions about how lively or quiet the social scene feels come from anonymous forum posts, which this guide does not repeat as fact.

Vanderbilt Country Club vs Forest Glen: How Do the Comparable Communities Stack Up?

Vanderbilt Country Club compares most directly with Forest Glen, its near twin: both opened in 1999 on Gordon Lewis courses, both put a club membership with every home, and both have about 800 residences. Heritage Bay, Naples Lakes and Stonebridge are the other membership-with-every-home peers; Olde Cypress and Quail Creek are the optional-golf contrast.

The benchmark table

Every figure below comes from each club’s own official site, read on 23 September 2026. We publish no fee or price figure for any other community, because none was researched to the standard this page holds for Vanderbilt Country Club.

On the Vanderbilt Country Club side, the club’s home page states that “Club membership is included in the price of a home,” and its Real Estate page calls it a “bundled” golf course community. The comparison rows quote each peer club’s own membership or real estate page, linked in the last column.

Forest Glen: the closest match on paper

Forest Glen is the comparison that holds up best on the facts. Per Forest Glen’s own site, it has 799 residences on 630 acres, it describes itself as a “gated, membership-inclusive community,” and its original course is also a Gordon Lewis design that opened in 1999. Vanderbilt Country Club has 800 residences on about 323 acres (the county PUD register) with a membership that comes with every home, per the club’s Real Estate page.

The differences are the course history and the land. Forest Glen’s course was redesigned by Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest in 2008 and renovated again by Ron Forse in 2024. Vanderbilt’s was redesigned by Kipp Schulties in 2015, and its owners have already approved and scheduled the next one: the Golf Course Replacement Project, funded by a $7,895 lump sum or $8,750 over 20 quarters per home and scheduled to begin in 2032, per the club’s 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. Forest Glen’s ZIP code is 34114; Vanderbilt’s is 34120, north of Vanderbilt Beach Road and east of Collier Blvd. With structure, age and size this close, a buyer choosing between them is largely choosing a location and a course history.

Heritage Bay: the other 34120 membership community

Heritage Bay is the only peer in the table that shares the 34120 ZIP. Per Heritage Bay’s membership page, a buyer becomes “automatically a member” with “no equity or deposits required,” the same structural answer as Vanderbilt. The differences are scale and age: Heritage Bay has 27 holes by Lewis-Azinger on 718 acres and opened in November 2006, per its story page, against Vanderbilt’s single 18 on about 323 acres, finished 1998 to 2001. Heritage Bay’s home count is not stated on the pages we read, so no homes-per-hole comparison is made.

A dedicated Heritage Bay page is not yet live on our site. For a nearby membership-with-every-home community we have already covered in depth, read our guide to Naples Lakes Country Club, which the club itself describes as having 731 residences in six villages with “full membership” with every home, per its real estate page.

Stonebridge: same redesign architect

Stonebridge is the peer that shares an architect with Vanderbilt. Its own site credits a recent renovation to Kipp Schulties, who redesigned Vanderbilt’s course in 2015, and says buyers are “automatically a member” with “no equity or deposits required,” per Stonebridge’s membership page. Stonebridge opened in February 1992 on a Gene Bates par-71 course, per its history page, making it six to nine years older than Vanderbilt’s housing stock.

The optional-golf contrast: Olde Cypress and Quail Creek

Not every North Naples golf community puts a golf membership with the house. The Club at Olde Cypress requires a social membership and sells full and associate golf memberships as optional purchases, across 550 single-family homes and a P.B. Dye course. Quail Creek Country Club is member-owned with two Arthur Hills courses and its own membership inquiry process; by our reading its golf membership is a separate purchase, which we have not confirmed from its documents.

That is the axis that matters most in any comparison. At Vanderbilt, every owner pays the same $13,159 a year in master association dues that fund “operational costs of the Club, including the golf course expenses,” per the 2026 fee sheet, plus a neighborhood fee and a $15,000 resale capital contribution at purchase. Owners pay no greens fees, only cart fees ($33 for 18 holes in 2026). A golfer gets that for the dues alone; a non-golfer pays it anyway.

Other communities we cover nearby

For buyers weighing a different kind of Naples community against Vanderbilt, our guides to Valencia Golf and Country Club, Riverstone, Terreno, Vineyards of Naples and Saturnia Lakes each carry their own sourced facts. For the higher-priced end of Naples golf, see Mediterra, Grey Oaks and Tiburón. The Naples area hub maps them all. No figure from those pages is carried into the table above.

Vanderbilt Country Club or Forest Glen: who should choose which

Choose Vanderbilt Country Club if you want the 34120 ZIP, north of Vanderbilt Beach Road, a Gordon Lewis course redesigned by Kipp Schulties in 2015, and a next course replacement that owners have already approved and scheduled to begin in 2032, funded at $7,895 a home as a lump sum or $8,750 over 20 quarters. Choose Forest Glen if you want the 34114 ZIP, more land per home (630 acres for 799 residences, against about 323 acres for 800 at Vanderbilt), and a course renovated by Ron Forse in 2024. In both, the club membership comes with the house, so the honest comparison is the full fee stack from each club’s own documents, not the list price.

What this section does not state

• No dues, capital contribution, median price or price per square foot for any other community is stated here, because none was researched to this page’s standard.
• Home counts for Heritage Bay, Stonebridge and Quail Creek are not stated on the pages we read.
• ZIP codes marked “not confirmed” were not confirmed from the club’s own page.
• “Similar on paper” is not “similar in price.” Recorded sale prices at each peer were not compared.

Choosing between Vanderbilt Country Club and one of these peers is a location and carrying-cost decision more than a golf decision. Buyers, call Marc at (239) 287-5873 or read how we represent buyers in Naples, and we will lay the fee stacks side by side from each club’s own documents. Sellers, a buyer who has toured Forest Glen or Heritage Bay the same week is the buyer you are pricing against; get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. We are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.

Vanderbilt Country Club Pros and Cons: An Honest Assessment

Vanderbilt Country Club’s strengths are measurable: golf and every amenity with the home, a 95.4% Zone X flood census, A-rated zoned schools, an ER 2.5 miles away and a built-out, owner-run club. Its trade-offs are equally measurable: a $13,159 master dues floor, two assessments on the books, pre-2002 construction, and a busier front gate since June 2026.

Every item in both lists below is sourced elsewhere on this page. Nothing in the cons list is a softened pro.

The pros, each one measured

• Golf and every amenity come with the home, with no waitlist and no greens fees for owners. The club’s home page says membership “is included in the price of a home,” and the Master Declaration says owners’ designees “are not required to pay greens fees,” per the recorded Master Declaration. The only charge to play is the cart fee.
• The owners own the club. The golf course is a common area of the Vanderbilt Community Association, a chapter 720 homeowners’ association, per its articles. There is no developer, no equity certificate and no outside club owner.
• The flood census is strong. 867 of 909 county address points, 95.4%, sit in Zone X on the effective map, and every Waterford and Wedgewood residential unit is in X. The preliminary 2025 map changes none of them.
• No storm surge on record. About 9 miles inland, evacuation Zone E, with no primary source placing surge here across five named hurricanes since 2005.
• All three zoned schools graded A in 2025-26, and Oakridge Middle is 2.0 road miles away.
• A 24-hour emergency room 2.5 miles up Collier Blvd, with urgent care and a MinuteClinic at the same distance.
• Built out and settled. All 800 homes were finished from 1998 to 2001, per the county roll; every purchase is a resale, and the community’s character is fixed.
• No Community Development District. The 2025 Florida Department of Revenue millage table for tax code 103 lists no CDD levy, and the state’s official list of special districts has no Vanderbilt district, so there is no CDD bond line on the tax bill.
• Wedgewood’s two-story buildings sit permanently outside Florida’s milestone and SIRS regime.
• A lower-priced route into a golf community with membership on every home. Waterford’s six recorded qualified sales from 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026 had a median of $334,500 (even n=6), per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

The cons, each one equally specific

A pros-and-cons list with no real cons is worth nothing, so here are the real ones.

• The master dues are a floor every owner pays, golfer or not: $13,159 a year in 2026, plus a neighborhood fee of $2,320.96 to $5,278.40 and a $1,200 food and beverage minimum, per the 2026 fee sheet. A non-golfer is paying for a golf course.
• Two special assessments are on the books and follow the home. The golf course replacement assessment is $7,895 lump sum by 1 July 2027 or $8,750 over 20 quarters, for a project scheduled to begin in 2032; the pickleball assessment is $678. Both “remain the obligation of any successor owner,” per the same fee sheet.
• A $15,000 resale capital contribution is charged to a new buyer at closing, per the fee sheet.
• Every home predates the Florida Building Code, so the top wind mitigation credit for building code is out of reach, and any original roof is now 25 to 28 years old.
• Waterford is inside Florida’s condominium safety laws, and its SIRS funding plan is not published. The study is filed as complete with the state; a Waterford buyer has to get the study and its funding plan from the association before committing.
• The course, lakes and yards between pads are mapped as shallow ponding Zone AH, even though every home’s address point reads X, so the lender’s determination for each house still matters.
• From 1 January 2027, every Citizens-insured Estate or Villa owner needs a flood policy, even in Zone X.
• The front gate is busier. Vanderbilt Beach Road east of Collier Blvd became a six-lane arterial on 12 June 2026, and the Collier Blvd count station south of Immokalee Road, which by our reading fronts the members’ gate, averaged about 37,800 vehicles a day in 2025, up 15% from 2019.
• It is a long way to the Gulf. Vanderbilt Beach is about 9.6 road miles and 19 minutes off-peak, longer in season, and there is no beach club.
• There is no marina, boat slip or dockage.
• Leasing is tightly managed. Owners may lease up to four times a year, 30 days to one year, must transfer the membership to the tenant and may not be in residence during the lease, and tenants pay a $600 transfer fee, per the club’s renter page.
• Recent single-family sales are thin. Seven recorded qualified single-family sales in the trailing 12 months to 29 August 2026, a median of $760,000 (odd n=7), against a 2025 calendar-year median of $915,000 on nine sales, per the county roll. Samples that small move with the mix of homes sold, not just with the market.

For sellers weighing when and how to list

With 29 recorded qualified sales across 800 homes in the 12 months to 29 August 2026, turnover is about 3.6% a year, per the county roll. That means a small, visible pool of comparables in each home type, and buyers who will read the fee sheet, the assessment schedule and, for Waterford, the SIRS before they offer. A seller who has the estoppel figures, the roof permit, the wind mitigation report and the assessment balances ready answers the cons list before a buyer raises it. In the last 12 months we tracked 29 Vanderbilt Country Club closings in the county’s recorded deeds, and as the leaders of Domain Realty Group our team has closed over $2.5 billion in real estate. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

For buyers deciding whether VCC fits

If you play golf several times a week, the dues arithmetic works in your favor and the cons list is mostly a due-diligence list: which home type, which flood point, which roof, which condominium regime and what assessment balance you inherit. If you do not play, compare the $13,159 floor against a community where golf is optional before you fall for the clubhouse. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873 or read how we represent buyers in Naples, and we will run that list against the specific address. McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 and the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012.

Thinking of Selling Your Vanderbilt Country Club Home? List With the #1 Team in Southwest Florida Since 2012

If you’re searching for the best Vanderbilt Country Club listing agent, or thinking, ‘I need to sell my house in Vanderbilt Country Club…’, start with what buyers here ask first: the $15,000 resale capital contribution, two approved assessments that follow the home, and whether a Waterford building’s reserve study is done. We answer all three before your listing goes live.

For the whole club, read our Vanderbilt Country Club seller guide, get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation priced village by village, or, if you are buying, start with the Vanderbilt Country Club buyer guide.

McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012, and we have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. In the last 12 months we tracked 29 Vanderbilt Country Club closings in the county’s recorded deeds, segment by segment, because an Estate Home on Gleneagle Way, a Wedgewood carriage home on Radcliffe Terrace and a third-floor Waterford condominium on Parkstone Place are three different markets behind one set of gates. Selling here has mechanics that most Naples listings do not. The club’s Prospective Owners page states that the Vanderbilt Community Association “does not have an application process for purchases,” so there is no buyer interview to schedule, but your buyer must return an Owner Information Form before closing, and every estoppel request carries a $500 New Home Buyer Processing Fee on top of the $299 estoppel fee printed on the 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. Club membership is not a separate certificate you sell: under the association’s Amended and Restated Articles, section 5.1, every owner becomes a member when the deed is recorded, so membership passes with the title, and the buyer, not you, owes the $15,000 capital contribution under section 5.2.5 of the 2024 recorded amendment to the Master Declaration. Showing agents must present a driver’s license and business card at the Vanderbilt Beach Road gatehouse, and the association allows exactly one 24 by 24 inch For Sale sign in its tan and blue specification, per the club’s Realtors page. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation, or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

Honors and recognition:

• Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008
• 5 Star Award for Customer Satisfaction for 21 Straight Years. Only 5 out of 21k+ Licensees (Gulfshore Life Magazine)
• #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012
• McGreevy and Comisar and their Domain Realty Group team have sold over $2.5 Billion in Real Estate
• McGreevy and Comisar alone have over $900 million in Sales
• Nationally Recognized Top Producing Realtors
• Platinum Sales Production Award Winners

Data updated: September 2026.

What Vanderbilt Country Club actually sold for, by segment, comes from the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026), counting recorded qualified improved sales from 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026. The latest recorded sale in those files is dated 14 August 2026. Price per square foot uses the county’s base area (for single-family homes, the house row alone, without the pool, screen enclosure and deck rows), which is a county building measure and not the heated living area a listing sheet shows, so it is never compared with a listing figure.

Twenty-nine recorded sales against 800 homes is a 3.6% annual turnover rate. The county file does not separate Estate Homes from Villa Homes, so the seven single-family sales are listed individually rather than split into two thin medians:

Two readings matter for a seller. First, the trailing twelve month single-family median of $760,000 (n=7) sits below the 2025 calendar-year median of $915,000 (n=9) in the same county file, and on samples that small we read it as fewer and lower-priced closings rather than proof that values fell. Second, timing with season is visible in the dates: four of the seven single-family closings recorded in October to December 2025 and three in April and May 2026, with none in the county file from June through 14 August 2026, the latest sale date it holds. The club itself runs its fee calendar on a 1 November to 30 April season in the 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule, which is when most buyers are inside the gates to see a home. In the Southwest Florida MLS, the 31 Vanderbilt Country Club closings from 24 September 2025 to 24 September 2026 sold at a median 95.6% of their final list price after a median 33.5 days on market (all home types blended; Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled 24 September 2026).

What Is Your Vanderbilt Country Club Home Worth? Get a Free Valuation in 60 Seconds.

Start with a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation. We then price your home against its own segment’s record rather than the community’s, because a Wedgewood carriage home at a $294.65 median per square foot of county base area and a single-family home at $377.55 per square foot of house-only base area are not two points on one ladder, and because the county’s just value for your parcel (the community median is $432,600 across all 800 homes on the 2026 preliminary roll) is an assessment and not a price.

(239) 898-6072, text or call. Confidential conversations welcome.

Do I have to disclose the golf course replacement and pickleball assessments when I sell?

Your buyer will see both on the estoppel certificate, so plan to price around them rather than disclose them late. The 2026 fee sheet says each assessment “will remain the obligation of any successor owner.” The pickleball assessment is $678 per unit, approved by members at a special meeting on 7 May 2026, payable as a lump sum or $56.50 a month from June 2026 to May 2027. The Golf Course Replacement Project assessment, approved by the board on 30 October 2025 and 20 August 2026, is $7,895 as a lump sum by 1 July 2027, or 20 quarterly payments of $437.50 from July 2027 to April 2032, totalling $8,750; the work is scheduled to begin in 2032. Florida’s estoppel form under section 720.30851 requires the association to state special assessments levied against the parcel. By our reading, a buyer closing before July 2027 will commonly ask for a credit equal to the unpaid golf assessment, and whether you give one is a negotiation, not a rule. What Florida law requires you personally to disclose is a question for your attorney.

Who pays the $15,000 capital contribution when a Vanderbilt Country Club home sells?

The buyer does, by the recorded document. Section 5.2.5 of the Master Declaration, as amended by the certificate recorded 7 March 2024 at Official Records Book 6336, Page 2270, says payment of the Resale Capital Contribution Assessment “shall be the legal and personal obligation of the transferee,” due on the date of closing, in an amount the board sets by resolution (2024 recorded amendment). The 2026 fee sheet sets it at $15,000 for new buyers and $3,500 for current owners buying another home inside the community. It is a flat amount, not a percentage of price. The same amendment exempts five transfers: to the association by lien foreclosure, on death to an heir or beneficiary, to a current spouse or a former spouse in a divorce, to a trust or entity wholly owned by the member or the member and spouse, and to someone who was already a record title holder. A buyer can still ask you to credit some of it; that is contract negotiation, and settlement statements, not public records, show how often it happens.

How does the $299 estoppel certificate work on a Vanderbilt Country Club sale?

Requests go by email to the Director of Member Services, per the club’s Prospective Owners page, and “A New Home Buyer Processing Fee ($500) and Estoppel Certificate Fee will apply.” The 2026 fee sheet prints the estoppel fee at $299. Section 720.30851, Florida Statutes requires the association to issue the certificate within 10 business days of a written request, sets a $250 base fee when the account is current plus $100 for delivery within 3 business days, and orders those figures adjusted every five years for inflation; by our reading the club’s $299 reflects that adjustment. If you own in Waterford or Wedgewood, a Condominium Questionnaire is a separate $150 request to the Assistant Community Association Manager. Order both in the first days of the contract, because the estoppel is where the buyer first sees the assessment balances.

What happens to my club membership if I rent my home instead of selling it?

It moves to your tenant for the lease, and you step out of the club while the lease runs. The club’s Renter page says members “are required to transfer their membership to the renter during the rental period,” and the Membership Transfer Application adds that members leasing their home “may not be in residence during the lease period.” Leases run a minimum of 30 days (“with the exception of the month of February,” in the club’s words) and a maximum of one year, up to four times a year, with no more than two renters in residence. The fee is a non-refundable $600, plus a $300 rush fee if the application arrives less than 30 days before arrival. Leases need the association’s prior written approval under section 10.2 of the Master Declaration. On a sale the question does not arise, because the buyer becomes a member when the deed records.

What must a Waterford seller hand the buyer about the structural integrity reserve study?

The study itself, or a statement that the association has not completed one. Waterford’s ten buildings are three stories with elevators, per the club’s Real Estate FAQ, so section 718.112(2)(g) required a structural integrity reserve study by 31 December 2025. Under section 718.503(2)(a), Florida Statutes, a non-developer condominium seller must provide, at the seller’s expense, the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the inspector’s milestone summary if applicable, “the association’s most recent structural integrity reserve study or a statement that the association has not completed” one, and the state’s Frequently Asked Questions document. Where a required study or milestone inspection has not been completed, section 718.503(2)(e) requires contracts signed after 31 December 2024 to say so in conspicuous type. Waterford’s completion and funding status is not published on any source we could reach, so request it from the association before you list. Wedgewood’s buildings are two stories and fall outside the study requirement.

How should an Estate Home be priced against a Villa Home in Vanderbilt Country Club?

As two products, not one. The club’s Real Estate page describes 102 Estate Homes of 2,223 to 2,931 square feet of living area on lots averaging 80 by 140 feet with two- or three-car garages along the front nine, and 120 detached Villa Homes of 1,746 to 1,974 square feet on lots averaging 58 by 140 feet with two-car garages. Their 2026 neighborhood fees differ too: $2,871.36 a year for Estate Homes and $2,320.96 for Villa Homes on top of the $13,159 master dues, per the 2026 fee sheet. The county records the 222 homes on two plats (105 and 117 parcels); the club sells them as 102 Estate Homes and 120 Villa Homes; the two lines do not coincide, so county medians cannot be split by product. By our reading of the club’s community site plan, Estate Homes sit on Allendale Court, Northhampton Court and the inner lots of Gleneagle Way, and Villa Homes on the outer Gleneagle Way lots, Preswick Lane and part of Danbury Boulevard. We price each home against same-product sales.

If you are buying rather than selling, the same record works in your favor: Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

What this section does not state

This section publishes no commission figure, and its Southwest Florida MLS figures blend single-family homes and condominiums, so they describe the community’s pace rather than any one home type’s price. The Waterford structural integrity reserve study is filed as complete with the state, but its funding plan is not published on any source we could reach, and whether sellers in closed Vanderbilt Country Club transactions credited buyers for the capital contribution or the golf assessment is not published anywhere, because only settlement statements hold it.

Your Local Real Estate Experts

Vanderbilt Country Club sellers and buyers work with Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar of Domain Realty, the team behind this guide. Every figure on the page traces to a primary record: the club’s own fee sheet and governing documents, the Collier County 2026 preliminary roll, Florida’s corporate register, FEMA flood layers and the Florida Statutes.

Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) is the direct line for Vanderbilt Country Club sellers. He runs the valuation and pricing conversation, which here starts with segment: in the last 12 months we tracked 29 Vanderbilt Country Club closings in the county’s recorded deeds, and they split into three markets with medians of $760,000, $547,500 and $334,500. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation, or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) leads buyer representation, which at Vanderbilt Country Club means reading the fee stack, the two assessments that run with every home, the leasing rules and the Waterford reserve study question before you write an offer. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

Honors and recognition:

• Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008
• 5 Star Award for Customer Satisfaction for 21 Straight Years. Only 5 out of 21k+ Licensees (Gulfshore Life Magazine)
• #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012
• McGreevy and Comisar and their Domain Realty Group team have sold over $2.5 Billion in Real Estate
• McGreevy and Comisar alone have over $900 million in Sales
• Nationally Recognized Top Producing Realtors
• Platinum Sales Production Award Winners

Contact:

• Jesse McGreevy: (239) 898-6072 · [email protected]
• Marc Comisar: (239) 287-5873
• Office: 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134

By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, Domain Realty. Florida license numbers: Jesse McGreevy SL3101296, Marc Comisar BK3060671.

Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) are licensed Florida REALTORS® with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC).

Our about McGreevy and Comisar page explains how the team works and where we sell across Naples and Bonita Springs.

McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.

Jesse McGreevy is a top-reviewed Vanderbilt Country Club realtor, and every quote below is a five-star review left by a client on McGreevy and Comisar’s Google Business Profile, quoted in the client’s own words.

★★★★★ “Jesse did a great job as Realtor and his assistant, Beth, didn’t miss a thing throughout the process!” Verified Google review

★★★★★ “Marc is one of the most down to earth realtors that really listens to your needs and is exceptional at finding the right house.” Verified Google review

★★★★★ “He was quick to respond with any questions about the purchase of our new home and made sure everything went smoothly! We highly recommend him as an agent!” Verified Google review

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Frequently Asked Questions About Vanderbilt Country Club: Buyer Edition

Vanderbilt Country Club buyers ask the same questions in search, on forums and at the gatehouse, and most answers online are years out of date. Each answer below comes from the club’s own 2026 documents, the recorded Master Declaration, the Collier County 2026 preliminary roll, FEMA or Florida law, with the date and a link beside the number.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club membership mandatory?

Yes. The club’s Real Estate FAQ answers it directly: “At VCC, membership is mandatory and included with every residential purchase.” Legally, section 5.1 of the association’s Amended and Restated Articles makes every owner a member when the deed is recorded, with one vote per home. There is no way to buy one of the 800 homes and decline the club.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club a bundled golf community?

Yes. The club calls itself a “premier gated C.I.R.A. (Common Interest Realty Association) Club, also known as a ‘bundled’ GOLF COURSE community” on its Real Estate page. Bundled means golf and every amenity come with the home and are paid for through the association’s dues, $13,159 per home in 2026 per the fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. Owners and their designees pay no greens fees under section 5.11 of the Master Declaration; they pay a cart fee of $33 for 18 holes when they use a club cart.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club member owned?

Yes, through the master association. The recorded Master Declaration states that “The Golf Course is part of the General Common Areas maintained and operated by the VCA,” and the Collier County 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026) shows the course and common land titled to Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc. That corporation, Sunbiz document N98000005469, is the Chapter 720 homeowners’ association for all 800 homes; there is no separate club corporation.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club an equity club?

Not in the certificate sense. No equity certificate, refundable deposit or initiation fee appears in the governing documents or the 2026 fee sheet. By our reading, owners hold the club collectively through the association that owns the land, and the buy-in is the non-refundable $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution Assessment paid at closing.

Is there a waitlist to join Vanderbilt Country Club?

No. The club’s About page says membership is bundled with the home, so you “close today and golf tomorrow,” with no waitlist. The Prospective Owners page adds that the association “does not have an application process for purchases.”

How much are Vanderbilt Country Club HOA fees and dues in 2026?

Every home pays $13,159 a year in master dues ($10,894 operating, $2,240 asset replacement reserves, $25 new capital), plus a neighborhood fee, per the 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026. Adding the two published lines gives these annual totals before the $1,200 food and beverage minimum, carts and assessments:

The condominium fees include building insurance, water and sewer, which single-family owners pay separately, so the lines are not like for like.

What do the Vanderbilt Country Club master dues pay for?

The 2026 fee sheet defines the $10,894 Community Assessment as covering “operational costs of the Club, including the golf course expenses, Clubhouse, Activities Center, swimming pools, tennis courts, Fitness Center, street lighting, access control, cable television & internet, common grounds, landscaping.” The $2,240 Asset Replacement line funds major components in the clubhouse, “golf course replacement, road asphalt overlay, roofs, main swimming pool, Bocce courts.” The $25 New Capital line funds new capital items.

What does each neighborhood fee add at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Per the 2026 fee sheet, the Waterford fee covers property management, residential landscaping, water and sewer, pest control, building maintenance, building insurance and garbage, and the Wedgewood fee covers the same list without garbage; both carry a reserve line for exterior painting, roof tile replacement and waterline replacement. The Villa and Estate fees cover property management and residential landscaping only, so single-family owners insure and roof their own homes.

What is the Vanderbilt Country Club initiation fee or capital contribution?

There is no initiation fee. New buyers pay a $15,000 Resale Capital Contribution Assessment at closing, and current owners buying another home inside the community pay $3,500, per the 2026 fee sheet. Section 5.2.5 of the 2024 recorded amendment makes it “the legal and personal obligation of the transferee” and lets the board set the amount by resolution.

Is the Vanderbilt Country Club capital contribution a percentage of the price?

No. It is a flat $15,000 for a new buyer on every home type, whether a Waterford condominium (recorded sales from $295,000 to $358,000 in the 12 months to August 2026) or the $1,100,000 single-family home recorded on Gleneagle Way in May 2026, per the 2026 fee sheet. Section 5.2.5 of the recorded Master Declaration makes it “the legal and personal obligation of the transferee.”

What other one-time fees does a Vanderbilt Country Club buyer pay?

The club lists a $500 New Home Buyer Processing Fee and a $299 Estoppel Processing Fee on the 2026 fee sheet, and a $150 Condominium Questionnaire Fee for Waterford and Wedgewood units on its Prospective Owners page. Who pays the estoppel and questionnaire fees in a given deal is set by the contract. Before closing, you must also return an Owner Information Form to Member Services.

Is there a food and beverage minimum at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, $1,200 per home per calendar year, per the 2026 fee sheet. It is a spending requirement rather than a fee, and if you lease your home, your tenant’s food and beverage spending counts toward your minimum, per the Membership Transfer Application.

Are there special assessments at Vanderbilt Country Club right now?

Two, and both follow the home to the next owner. The pickleball assessment is $678 per unit, approved by members on 7 May 2026, payable in a lump sum or $56.50 a month from June 2026 to May 2027. The Golf Course Replacement Project assessment, approved by the board on 30 October 2025 and 20 August 2026, is $7,895 as a lump sum by 1 July 2027 or 20 quarterly payments of $437.50 from July 2027 to April 2032 ($8,750); the project is scheduled to begin in 2032. Both come from the 2026 fee sheet, which says each “will remain the obligation of any successor owner.”

Does Vanderbilt Country Club have a CDD?

No, by our reading of three records. The state’s Official List of Special Districts contains no district with “Vanderbilt” in its name, the Florida Department of Revenue’s 2025 Collier millage table lists no district levy for tax code 103, and the Master Declaration contains no reference to one.

What are property taxes in Vanderbilt Country Club?

All 800 homes sit in Collier tax code 103, whose 2025 final rate was 10.5058 mills, including 2.0000 mills for the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District, per the Florida Department of Revenue millage table. The median 2026 tax bill across the 800 parcels is $3,718.59, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). Because 44.2% of homes carry a homestead exemption, a buyer’s first bill can be far above the seller’s.

Does Vanderbilt Country Club have to approve my purchase?

No. The club states that the association “does not have an application process for purchases” on its Prospective Owners page. You must complete an Owner Information Form, with headshots of each designee, before closing. Whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium declarations add their own approval step is not published online; ask for them with the condominium questionnaire.

Who gets club privileges when a couple, a trust or an LLC buys?

Up to two Owner’s Designees per home. Under the 2024 recorded amendment, a married couple on title are the two designees, a single owner may add one adult over 21 who lives with them, and a corporation, LLC or trust may name two natural persons over 21, which an entity may change no more often than every 24 months. The old rules were grandfathered only until the earlier of a sale or 1 March 2026, so every home now runs on the new rules.

Are children members at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, if they are dependents. The 2024 recorded amendment defines a dependent as an unmarried child under 23 living at home or attending school, and the club’s Real Estate FAQ says those dependents “are considered members.”

Is Vanderbilt Country Club a 55+ community?

No, by our reading. Nothing on the club’s site, in the 2026 fee sheet or in the recorded Master Declaration imposes an age limit, and the club counts dependents under 23 as members. Resident age mix is not published.

How many homes are in Vanderbilt Country Club, and what types?

800, in four types, per the club’s The Homes page: 102 Estate Homes, 120 detached Villa Homes, 338 Wedgewood carriage homes and 240 Waterford condominiums. The Collier County 2026 preliminary roll counts the same 800 residential parcels, recording the 222 single-family homes on two plats of 105 and 117 lots; the club’s 102 and 120 split and the county’s plat line do not coincide.

How big are the homes in each Vanderbilt Country Club neighborhood?

The club’s Real Estate page gives living area ranges: Estate Homes 2,223 to 2,931 square feet with six floor plans; Villa Homes 1,746 to 1,974 square feet with five plans; Wedgewood carriage homes 1,512 to 2,115 square feet in two- and three-bedroom plans; Waterford condominiums 1,282 to 1,705 square feet. The original Worthington Communities plan sheets are posted by the club, for example the Estate Home floor plans.

What is the difference between Wedgewood and Waterford at Vanderbilt?

Height, garages and count. Wedgewood is 338 two-story carriage homes in buildings of eight or ten, each with its own single or double garage “with an interior door to the home and room to accommodate a golf cart.” Waterford is 240 condominiums in ten three-story buildings of 24 homes around holes 10 and 11, with elevators, covered parking and storage rooms. Both descriptions are on the club’s Real Estate page.

Do the Waterford condos have elevators and garages?

Elevators, yes; garages, no. The club’s Real Estate page lists “an elevator to upper floors, screened lanais, covered parking, lockable storage rooms, and a neighborhood pool.” Because the private golf cart rule on the 2026 fee sheet requires storage “in an attached garage,” by our reading Waterford owners use club carts.

What is a carriage home at Vanderbilt Country Club?

At Vanderbilt it means a Wedgewood home: a two-story building of eight or ten condominium residences, each with a private garage below or beside it, and second-floor homes reached by private stairs from the garage level, per the club’s Real Estate page and the Wedgewood floor plans. Legally they are condominium units in Wedgewood at Vanderbilt Condominiums No. 1, 2 and 3.

Can I keep a private golf cart at Vanderbilt Country Club, and what does it cost?

Yes, if you can garage it. The 2026 fee sheet sets a $2,200 annual trail fee, billed $1,100 in June and December, and requires members “to store their golf cart in an attached garage.” A club cart costs $33 for 18 holes or $21 for 9.

How many associations will I belong to at Vanderbilt Country Club?

One or two. Every owner belongs to Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc., the master association and club. Condominium owners also belong to Waterford at Vanderbilt Condominium Association, Inc. (Sunbiz N98000005470) or Wedgewood at Vanderbilt Condominium Association, Inc. (Sunbiz N98000005463), each running three condominiums. Estate and Villa homes have no separate association; the master association bills their neighborhood fee.

When were Vanderbilt Country Club homes built, and who built them?

From 1998 to 2001, per the Collier County 2026 preliminary roll, by Worthington Communities. The master association’s 1998 articles name Worthington Communities of Naples, Inc. as the Declarant, and every floor plan sheet the club posts, such as the Villa Home plans, carries the Worthington Communities name. Every home predates the Florida Building Code, which took effect on 1 March 2002.

Can I rent my Vanderbilt Country Club home?

Yes, within limits. The club’s Renter page allows rentals “up to four times per year for a minimum of (30) days (with the exception of the month of February) and maximum of one year,” with no more than two renters in residence. Each lease needs the association’s written approval under section 10.2 of the Master Declaration, carries a $600 transfer fee plus $300 if filed under 30 days before arrival, and you may not be in residence while it runs.

Do renters get golf privileges at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, because the owner’s membership moves to them. The Renter page requires members “to transfer their membership to the renter during the rental period.” Privileges reach two tenants plus unmarried children under 23, and guests of tenants must be accompanied by a tenant, per the Membership Transfer Application. Tenants pay greens fees; owners do not.

What do tenants and guests pay to play golf at Vanderbilt Country Club?

From 1 November to 30 April, tenants pay $85 for 18 holes and $55 for 9; from 1 May to 31 October, $55 and $40. A member’s guest pays $125 and $85 in season and $75 and $60 in summer, and a member’s family guest pays the tenant rate. Members pay only the $33 or $21 cart fee year-round. All figures are from the club’s 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule, plus tax.

Are pets allowed at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, up to two per home. Section 7.8 of the Master Declaration limits an owner to two household pets and requires a leash outside the residence, and the club’s Real Estate FAQ extends the same two-pet limit to renters. No breed or weight limit appears in the Master Declaration; condominium-level rules are not published online.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club gated, and where is the main entrance?

Yes. The staffed Main Gatehouse is off Vanderbilt Beach Road at Danbury Boulevard, and a second gate on Collier Boulevard is unmanned and for members only, per the club’s Guest Information page and directions page. Guests must be pre-registered by a member and show a driver’s license.

Where is Vanderbilt Country Club, and is it the same as Vanderbilt Beach?

No. Vanderbilt Country Club is inland at 8250 Danbury Boulevard, Naples, FL 34120, east of Collier Boulevard and north of Vanderbilt Beach Road, per the club’s directions page. Vanderbilt Beach is the Gulf-front neighborhood of North Naples in ZIP 34108, roughly 9 to 10 road miles west, and none of the Vanderbilt-named condominiums there belong to this club. For the wider city, see our Naples guide.

How far is Vanderbilt Country Club from the beach?

About 9.3 to 9.9 road miles and 17 to 19 minutes to Vanderbilt Beach Park (Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park is about 11 to 12 miles), straight west on Vanderbilt Beach Road, as an off-peak routing estimate; in-season traffic is slower. The club has no beach club. Collier County’s Vanderbilt Beach Park page lists a $10 parking fee without a county beach permit, and the county’s 311 beach parking answer explains that property owners receive the permit through their property taxes.

Does Vanderbilt Country Club have a marina or boat slips?

No. The club’s amenities are golf, court sports, fitness, pools, dining and the Activities Center, per its Real Estate FAQ, and no dock, slip or boat storage appears on the club’s community site plan. The nearest public launch we cite is the boat ramp at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, roughly 11 to 12 road miles away as an off-peak routing estimate.

Who designed the Vanderbilt Country Club golf course?

Gordon G. Lewis laid out the original course, which opened in 1999, and Kipp Schulties redesigned it, with the renovation completed in 2015. The club’s Real Estate FAQ names both, and the Kipp Schulties Golf Design portfolio dates the credits “Gordon Lewis (1999)” and “Redesign (2015).” The next major work is the Golf Course Replacement Project, scheduled to begin in 2032.

How long and difficult is the Vanderbilt Country Club course?

It is an 18-hole, par 72 course of 6,631 yards from the Green tees, rated 72.6 with a slope of 146, down to 4,600 yards from the Platinum tees, per the club’s scorecard printed May 2024. Five tee sets and three combination tees are rated, and the par 4 fourth is the number one men’s handicap hole.

How do tee times work at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Through the Chelsea Tee Time System, which runs an automatic lottery, per the club’s Real Estate FAQ. The booking window is on the members-only side and is not published. Men’s Day and Ladies Day run 9- and 18-hole groups, per the club’s golf programs page, and a $45 GHIN handicap is required for those days and club tournaments.

Can Vanderbilt Country Club members play other clubs in the summer?

Yes. “Each year from May 1 to October 31, VCC reciprocates with over 40 area clubs for golf, dining, and sports,” per the club’s Real Estate FAQ. The list of participating clubs is not published publicly.

Does Vanderbilt Country Club have pickleball and tennis?

Yes. Today the club has six lighted Har-Tru Hydro-Grid tennis courts and two temporary pickleball courts lined on one of them, per its tennis page and pickleball page. Members approved converting court 6 into four permanent pickleball courts on 7 May 2026, with construction scheduled for Fall 2026, per the 2026 fee sheet; by our arithmetic that leaves five Har-Tru tennis courts. Three lighted bocce courts sit by the Terrace Café.

What is the fitness center like at Vanderbilt Country Club?

A 5,100 square foot freestanding building with a 2,200 square foot equipment room and a 1,102 square foot aerobics room, open daily from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with massage and physical therapy, per the club’s Real Estate FAQ and wellness page. Drop-in classes are $15 on the 2026 fee schedule.

How many pools does Vanderbilt Country Club have?

Four: the new resort-style main pool with spa beside the Terrace Café, plus three neighborhood pools, one in Waterford and two in Wedgewood, per the club’s Real Estate FAQ. The community site plan names them the Parkstone, Danbury and North Danbury pools. The main pool’s completion year is not published.

Where do Vanderbilt Country Club members eat?

In three venues: the Vista Room, a banquet and fine dining room seating 204, per the club’s Vista Room page; the Bar and Grille Room; and the Terrace Café with its Express Window for golfers at the turn, per the Terrace Café page. Menus, prices and summer hours are on the members-only side and are not published.

What is the social life like at Vanderbilt Country Club?

By our reading of the club’s calendar and fee seasons, busiest from November to April. The club’s social activities page describes a 3,000 square foot Activities Center with a sharing library and “over 40 social clubs,” from bridge and mah jongg to book, music and spiritual clubs. Members also run charity work, including a Neighbors Helping Neighbors volunteer group, per the club’s community involvement page.

What flood zone is Vanderbilt Country Club in?

Mostly Zone X. Of 909 Collier County address points inside the community, 867 (95.4%) fall in Zone X on the effective FEMA map, 41 (4.5%) in Zone AH (shallow ponding) and one in shaded X; none of the AH points is a home, and all 222 single-family homes read X. The effective panels are 12021C0218H and 12021C0410H, revised 16 May 2012 (FEMA FIRM panel 0218H). Preliminary maps (new panels 0218J and 0406J) opened for appeal on 19 August 2026, per Collier County.

Will I need flood insurance at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Federal rules require flood insurance on a federally backed mortgage only for a structure in the high-risk zone, though any lender may still require it, and Citizens Property Insurance changes the answer from 2027. Citizens’ flood requirement page says every Citizens personal residential wind policy, “regardless of value,” must carry flood coverage from 1 January 2027, with condominium unit-owner policies exempt. Collier County is a Community Rating System Class 5 community, worth a 25% discount on eligible flood premiums, per FEMA’s April 2026 CRS list.

What hurricane evacuation zone is Vanderbilt Country Club in?

Zone E, the fifth of Collier County’s six zones (A to F), on the county’s evacuation zone layer, which matches the state’s layer. The community sits roughly 9 miles inland, so its storm exposure is wind and heavy rain rather than surge. No damage report specific to Vanderbilt Country Club was found for Irma (2017) or Ian (2022).

Does the Waterford condominium need a milestone inspection or SIRS?

Yes for Waterford, no for Wedgewood. Both laws apply to condominium buildings three stories or taller: section 553.899 requires a milestone inspection by 31 December of the year a building turns 30, and section 718.112(2)(g) required a structural integrity reserve study by 31 December 2025. Collier County uses the 30-year trigger under Ordinance 2024-48, and the county’s milestone inspection map lists Building 1’s inspection as due in 2028, Buildings 2 and 3 in 2029, 4 to 6 in 2030 and 7 to 10 in 2031. The state’s SIRS reporting database shows Waterford’s study completed 19 November 2024; its funding plan is not published, so request it with the questionnaire.

What schools serve Vanderbilt Country Club?

For 2026-27, Bear Creek Elementary, Oakridge Middle and Barron Collier High, identical at all 562 addresses checked in the Collier County Public Schools address lookup. All three earned an A for 2025-26 in the district’s 2026 Accountability Brief, Bear Creek in its first graded year. Older pages naming Big Cypress Elementary predate Bear Creek’s August 2025 opening.

Where is the nearest hospital or emergency room?

The NCH Emergency Department Northeast, a 24-hour freestanding ER at 15420 Collier Blvd, about 2.5 miles and 7 minutes away as an off-peak routing estimate, per NCH’s location page. NCH North Naples Hospital is about 8.7 miles and Physicians Regional Pine Ridge about 6.2 miles away on the same off-peak basis.

What is being built near Vanderbilt Country Club?

The biggest change is at the front gate: Phase One of the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension, about seven miles east from Collier Boulevard, opened on 12 June 2026, per Collier County, and the project improved the Danbury Boulevard intersection at the main gate, per Gulfshore Business. By our reading, expect more through traffic past the gate than before 2026.

What have Vanderbilt Country Club homes sold for over the last 12 months?

From 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026, the county recorded 29 qualified sales: single-family median $760,000 (n=7, odd), Wedgewood median $547,500 (n=16, even) and Waterford median $334,500 (n=6, even), per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). The highest was $1,100,000 for a single-family home on Gleneagle Way in May 2026. The Southwest Florida MLS shows 31 closings from 24 September 2025 to 24 September 2026 at a $528,000 median across all home types (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled 24 September 2026).

How does Vanderbilt Country Club compare with Heritage Bay?

Both are bundled golf communities in ZIP 34120, but the golf is different. Vanderbilt has one 18-hole, par 72 course for 800 homes; Heritage Bay has 27 holes by Lewis and Azinger, opened in November 2006, and says buyers are “automatically a member,” per its membership page. Heritage Bay’s home count and fees are not stated on the pages we read. The closest twin by numbers is Forest Glen, with 799 residences and a 1999 Gordon Lewis course, per Forest Glen’s own site.

Is Vanderbilt Country Club Firewise certified?

The club’s home page displays a Firewise badge. We did not confirm current recognition on the national Firewise USA roster, so treat it as the club’s own claim.

Who manages Vanderbilt Country Club?

The master association employs its own staff rather than an outside management company, by our reading of the club’s staff directory and the association’s filings. Per the club’s staff directory, September 2026, Scott Bertrand is General Manager, Dominick Izzo is Director of Golf and Spencer Snell is Director of Agronomy. A five-member board elected for two-year terms governs the association under its bylaws.

How do I start a search in Vanderbilt Country Club?

Decide on the segment first, because the fee, insurance and structural questions change with it, then line up the documents that answer them. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples. If you already own here and are moving within the community, get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072, and note the $3,500 current-owner capital contribution on the 2026 fee sheet.

What this section does not state

Condominium association budgets, reserve balances and owners’ insurance premiums are not published; the Waterford structural integrity reserve study’s funding plan is not published on any source we could reach (the study itself is filed as complete with the state); the club does not publish menus, dining prices, tee-time booking windows or its reciprocal club list; and the Southwest Florida MLS figures on this page blend all home types, so they are never used as the price of one segment.

Frequently Asked Questions About Vanderbilt Country Club: Seller Edition

Vanderbilt Country Club sellers face questions that most Naples listings never raise: a $15,000 capital contribution the buyer owes, two assessments that follow the home, a $299 estoppel, a sign specification, and for Waterford owners a structural study. The answers below cite the club’s 2026 documents, the county’s recorded sales and Florida law.

Who is the best listing agent for Vanderbilt Country Club?

Judge any agent on what they can show you about this community before you sign. McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012 and Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, and in the last 12 months we tracked 29 Vanderbilt Country Club closings in the county’s recorded deeds. A fair test for any listing agent here is whether they can explain, without looking it up, who pays the $15,000 capital contribution, how the $7,895 golf course replacement assessment shows on the estoppel, and what a Waterford seller owes the buyer under section 718.503. You can also see how the best real estate agents in Naples compare on the public record. Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

What is my Vanderbilt Country Club home worth?

That is a valuation, not a community median. The county’s recorded sales from 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026 put the single-family median at $760,000 (n=7), Wedgewood at $547,500 (n=16) and Waterford at $334,500 (n=6), per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026), but your number depends on product type, floor plan, view, roof age and whether the unpaid golf assessment will be credited. Get a free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation, or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.

How much does it cost to sell a home in Vanderbilt Country Club?

The community-specific costs are small and published; the large ones are negotiated. The club charges a $299 estoppel fee and a $500 New Home Buyer Processing Fee on each estoppel request, per its Prospective Owners page and the 2026 fee sheet, plus $150 for a condominium questionnaire; who pays each is a contract term. Florida’s documentary stamp tax on the deed is 70 cents per $100 of price under section 201.02, which by our arithmetic is $5,320 on the $760,000 single-family median. This guide publishes no commission figure; commission is negotiable and no statute sets it.

How do you market a Vanderbilt Country Club home to qualified buyers?

Within the association’s rules, which are specific. The club’s Realtors page allows one 24 by 24 inch For Sale sign on the street side only, in the association’s tan with blue PMS 2768 lettering, with no riders, no “SOLD,” and removal once you accept a contract; agents must pre-register with the Community Association Office. We market the facts buyers search for, the 2026 fee total for your home type, the assessment balances and, for Waterford, the study status, to buyers already weighing Naples bundled golf communities such as Naples Lakes Country Club.

Can we list off-market in Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes. Nothing in the club’s published rules requires a sign or an open house, and the club’s Realtors page treats both as optional. A quiet, appointment-only launch still needs each showing agent to present a driver’s license and business card at the Vanderbilt Beach Road gatehouse. Discretion is part of how we handle any listing; the trade-off is a smaller pool of buyers in the first weeks, which we would discuss with you against your timing.

How long does it take to sell a home in Vanderbilt Country Club?

Homes that closed in the twelve months to 24 September 2026 took a median 33.5 days on market in the Southwest Florida MLS, and sold at a median 95.6% of their final list price; the eight homes for sale on 24 September 2026 had been listed a median 160 days (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, all home types blended, pulled 24 September 2026). The county record shows the same pace another way: 29 recorded qualified sales in the twelve months to 29 August 2026 against 800 homes, a 3.6% turnover rate, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). Wedgewood was the most active segment with 16 sales.

What’s the current market for sellers in Vanderbilt Country Club?

Steady volume at the carriage-home level, thinner at the top. Wedgewood’s recorded median was $535,000 across 18 sales in calendar 2025 and $550,000 across 13 sales from January to 14 August 2026. Single-family sales were fewer, 9 in 2025 at a $915,000 median and 3 in 2026 to 14 August at $760,000, samples too small to call a price trend. Waterford recorded 14 sales in 2025 at $366,500 and a thin 3 in 2026 at $300,000. All figures are from the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

Do you handle club-membership transfer in the sale negotiation?

At Vanderbilt there is no membership to transfer separately, which makes the negotiation about money and paperwork instead. Under section 5.1 of the association’s Amended and Restated Articles, your buyer becomes a member when the deed is recorded. What we do negotiate and manage is the $15,000 capital contribution the buyer owes, any credit for the unpaid assessments, and the buyer’s Owner Information Form, with designee headshots, due to Member Services before closing.

What have Vanderbilt Country Club homes sold for recently?

The seven single-family sales recorded from 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026 were $690,000 (Gleneagle Way, October 2025), $702,000 and $779,000 (Danbury Blvd, November and December 2025), $915,000 (Northhampton Ct, December 2025), $755,000 (Preswick Ln, April 2026), $760,000 (Danbury Blvd, April 2026) and $1,100,000 (Gleneagle Way, May 2026). Wedgewood’s 16 sales ran $455,000 to $600,000 and Waterford’s 6 ran $295,000 to $358,000. Source: Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

Are Vanderbilt Country Club home prices dropping?

The county record does not prove it. The single-family median fell from $915,000 (n=9) in calendar 2025 to $760,000 (n=7) over the trailing twelve months, but on samples that small one or two sales move the median, and by our reading it reflects fewer, lower-priced closings rather than the same homes selling for less. Over the long run the single-family median rose from $295,800 in 2000 to $500,000 in 2021 and $899,000 in 2024, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026).

Which sells for more, Waterford or Wedgewood?

Wedgewood, consistently. Over the twelve months to 29 August 2026, Wedgewood’s recorded median was $547,500 (n=16) against Waterford’s $334,500 (n=6), and per square foot of county base area the medians were $294.65 and $232.06. The gap tracks the product: Wedgewood carriage homes have private garages with room for a golf cart, and Waterford units are in three-story buildings with covered parking, per the club’s Real Estate page. County figures are from the 2026 preliminary tax roll (files dated 29 August 2026).

How does the county’s just value relate to my sale price?

Loosely. Just value is the appraiser’s assessment, not a market price. The single-family plats’ median 2026 just values are $596,216 and $724,186, while the recorded single-family sale median is $760,000, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). Homestead caps also push taxable value far below just value on long-held homes, so neither figure is your list price.

Who pays the capital contribution when I sell my Vanderbilt Country Club home?

Your buyer, by the recorded document. Section 5.2.5 of the Master Declaration, as amended in 2024, makes the Resale Capital Contribution Assessment “the legal and personal obligation of the transferee,” due at closing (2024 recorded amendment). The 2026 fee sheet sets it at $15,000. A buyer may still ask for a credit; that is negotiation.

If I buy another home inside Vanderbilt Country Club, do I pay the capital contribution again?

Yes, at a lower rate. The 2026 fee sheet charges $3,500 to current owners against $15,000 for new buyers. Moving from a Waterford condominium to a Villa Home, for example, costs the $3,500 contribution on the purchase side.

Which transfers are exempt from the Vanderbilt Country Club capital contribution?

Five, under the 2024 recorded amendment to section 5.2.5: a transfer to the association by lien foreclosure; a transfer on death to an heir or beneficiary; a transfer to a current spouse, or to a former spouse in a divorce; a transfer to a trust, partnership, corporation or other entity wholly owned by the member, or the member and spouse; and a transfer to someone who was already a record title holder of the home. An arm’s-length sale is not exempt.

Does the golf course replacement assessment transfer to my buyer?

Yes, any unpaid part does. The 2026 fee sheet says the assessment “will remain the obligation of any successor owner of the property.” Owners choose a $7,895 lump sum by 1 July 2027 or 20 quarterly payments of $437.50 from July 2027 to April 2032 ($8,750). A home sold in 2026 or early 2027 carries the full assessment unless the seller has already paid the $7,895 lump sum; the estoppel shows which.

Does the pickleball assessment transfer to my buyer?

Yes. The $678 pickleball assessment, approved by members on 7 May 2026, is charged at the unit level and “will remain the obligation of any successor owner,” per the 2026 fee sheet. Owners who did not pay the lump sum by 25 May 2026 pay $56.50 a month through May 2027, so a sale before then leaves a few months for the buyer.

Who pays a special assessment at Vanderbilt Country Club, buyer or seller?

The association looks to whoever owns the home when each installment falls due, because both current assessments run with the unit, per the 2026 fee sheet. The estoppel certificate states what is due as of its date, and how that balance and any future installments are split between buyer and seller is agreed in the contract; confirm the allocation with your closing agent.

What triggers a special assessment at Vanderbilt Country Club?

At Vanderbilt the record shows two routes. The pickleball project went to the members at a special meeting on 7 May 2026 as a “material alteration of the common areas,” while the Golf Course Replacement Project assessment was approved by the board on 30 October 2025 and 20 August 2026, both per the 2026 fee sheet. Which votes a given project requires is set by the Master Declaration.

Who pays the estoppel fee on a Vanderbilt Country Club sale, and what does it cost?

The club prints $299 on the 2026 fee sheet and adds the $500 New Home Buyer Processing Fee to each request, per its Prospective Owners page. The fee is paid by whoever requests the certificate, and who bears it is commonly a contract term. Section 720.30851 sets a $250 base cap, adjusted every five years for inflation, and requires issue within 10 business days.

Can I get an estoppel fee refund if the sale falls through?

Sometimes. Section 720.30851(8) requires a refund when the certificate was requested for a sale that did not close, the payor was not the parcel owner, and a written request with reasonable documentation arrives no later than 30 days after the scheduled closing date. Condominium estoppels follow the parallel rules in section 718.116.

Is an estoppel certificate required to sell in Vanderbilt Country Club?

In practice, yes. Florida law entitles an owner, a buyer’s designee or a lender to one on written request, and a closing agent relies on it to pay off assessments; section 720.30851 lists what it must state, including the regular assessment, special assessments and any capital contribution due. Condominium owners also need one from their condominium association under section 718.116.

What documents must I give my Vanderbilt Country Club buyer?

It depends on what you own. Estate and Villa Home sellers must give the buyer the homeowners’ association disclosure summary before the contract is signed under section 720.401. Waterford and Wedgewood sellers owe the condominium package under section 718.503(2)(a): the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the milestone summary if applicable, the latest structural integrity reserve study or a statement that none has been completed, and the state’s FAQ document. The club posts the master documents on its Prospective Owners page.

Does my Vanderbilt Country Club buyer need association approval?

Not from the master association for a purchase. The club states that it “does not have an application process for purchases” on its Prospective Owners page. Leases do need written approval under section 10.2 of the Master Declaration. Whether the Waterford or Wedgewood condominium declarations contain a purchase approval or right of first refusal is not published online; the condominium questionnaire is where it surfaces.

Can I put a For Sale sign in my yard at Vanderbilt Country Club?

One, to the association’s specification. Per the club’s Realtors page: a 24 by 24 inch MDO board in tan with blue PMS 2768 copy, street side only, up to five lines including “FOR SALE” and either “BY OWNER” or the agent’s name, no riders, no signs between sidewalk and road, none in windows or on lanais, and removal as soon as you agree to a contract.

Can I hold an open house in Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes. The club’s Realtors page allows one metal step “Open House” sign no larger than 18 by 24 inches, removed by sunset, and asks residents to call the front gatehouse at (239) 348-3385 when they schedule one; gatehouse staff will hand out flyers and maps if the seller provides them.

How do buyers’ agents get through the gate for showings?

At the main entrance only. The club’s Realtors page requires agents to show a driver’s license and business card at the front gate off Vanderbilt Beach Road; the Collier Boulevard gate is members only and unmanned, per the club’s directions page. All agents must pre-register with the Community Association Office, so we confirm registration before the first showing.

Can I sell my Vanderbilt Country Club home by owner?

Yes. The association’s sign specification expressly allows “FOR SALE” with “BY OWNER” on the one permitted sign, per the club’s Realtors page. You still carry the same obligations: the estoppel, the disclosure summary or condominium package under Florida law, and the buyer’s Owner Information Form before closing.

Can I rent my Vanderbilt Country Club home while it is listed for sale?

Yes, within the lease rules, but it changes showings. The club’s Renter page allows leases of 30 days to one year up to four times a year, and while a lease runs the membership belongs to your tenant and you may not be in residence, per the Membership Transfer Application. Build showing access into the lease.

What rental rules will an investor buyer face at Vanderbilt Country Club?

No lease shorter than 30 days (the club’s wording carves out “the month of February”) or longer than one year, no more than four leases a year, no more than two renters in residence, association approval of each lease within 30 days of a complete application, and a $600 transfer fee per lease. The sources are the club’s Renter page and sections 10.2 to 10.5 of the Master Declaration. By our reading, those limits rule out nightly and weekly rentals.

Does SIRS apply to my Wedgewood carriage home?

No. Section 718.112(2)(g) applies the structural integrity reserve study to condominium buildings three stories or higher, and Wedgewood’s buildings are two stories, per the club’s Real Estate page. The milestone inspection law, section 553.899, uses the same three-story line. Wedgewood still keeps ordinary reserves for painting, roof tile and waterlines, per the 2026 fee sheet.

Will Waterford’s SIRS status hurt my sale?

Uncertainty hurts more than a finished study. Waterford’s three-story buildings needed a structural integrity reserve study by 31 December 2025 under section 718.112(2)(g), and section 718.503 requires you to hand the buyer the study or a statement that none was completed. The state’s database records it as completed 19 November 2024 and delivered to owners 10 December 2024, but its funding plan is not published, so get the report from the association before listing; a completed study with a clear funding plan answers the buyer’s biggest Waterford question.

When is Waterford’s milestone inspection due?

By our reading, by 31 December 2028 or 2029 for Waterford No. 1 (built 1998 to 1999), 2030 for No. 2 and 2031 for No. 3, because section 553.899 sets the first inspection by 31 December of the year a building turns 30 and Collier County adopted the 30-year trigger in Ordinance 2024-48. Each building’s exact year follows its certificate of occupancy date, which the county’s permit records hold.

What is the best time of year to sell in Vanderbilt Country Club?

The club’s own calendar runs season from 1 November to 30 April, per its 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule, and that is when most buyers are in Naples to tour. The county’s single-family dates fit that pattern: four of the seven recorded sales from 29 August 2025 to 29 August 2026 were in October to December and three in April and May. Our 24 September 2026 Southwest Florida MLS pull reports twelve-month figures, not a month-by-month split: the 31 closings took a median 33.5 days on market.

Do carrying costs affect what buyers will pay at Vanderbilt Country Club?

Yes, and buyers compare them first. Master dues plus the neighborhood fee total $15,479.96 a year for a Villa Home, $16,030.36 for an Estate Home and $18,074.44 to $18,437.40 for Wedgewood and Waterford, per our addition of the 2026 fee sheet, before the $1,200 food and beverage minimum. Because golf and amenities are paid through those dues, we present them against what buyers would pay at a non-bundled club, not against a plain HOA.

What closing costs do Vanderbilt Country Club sellers pay in Florida?

This guide states only what law or the club fixes. The deed carries documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 under section 201.02; the club charges $299 for an estoppel and $500 for buyer processing on the 2026 fee sheet. Title insurance, commission and prorations are contract terms, and we walk through them with your numbers.

What are documentary stamp taxes on a Vanderbilt Country Club sale?

Seventy cents per $100 of price under section 201.02, Florida Statutes. By our arithmetic on the county’s twelve-month medians, that is $5,320 on a $760,000 single-family sale, $3,832.50 on a $547,500 Wedgewood sale and $2,341.50 on a $334,500 Waterford sale.

What happens to my homestead exemption and taxes when I sell?

Ask a CPA and the property appraiser’s office about your own case. What the record shows: 44.2% of Vanderbilt homes carry a homestead exemption, and single-family plats are about 64% homesteaded against 22.2% to 30.6% across the three Waterford condominiums, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026). Because a homestead exemption belongs to the owner rather than the home, buyers read your listing’s tax line as a floor, not a forecast.

How should I think about capital gains when I sell a second home here?

With a CPA, before you list. On the county roll, 45.0% of Vanderbilt Country Club owners mail tax bills to addresses outside Florida, led by New York, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio, per the Collier County Property Appraiser 2026 preliminary tax roll (published bulk data, files dated 29 August 2026), so many sellers here are selling a second home. Tax treatment depends on your residency and history, and this guide gives no tax advice.

Does a golf course or lake view add value in Vanderbilt Country Club?

The county record cannot isolate it, because it does not flag views. The club’s Real Estate page places the 102 Estate Homes on the fairways, greens and lakes of the first nine and Waterford’s buildings around holes 10 and 11, so view is part of what separates homes within each segment. We measure it with paired sales of comparable homes on and off the course when we price a specific listing; the 24 September 2026 Southwest Florida MLS pull reports community-wide figures only, so this page prints no view premium.

Does the insurance market affect what buyers will pay at Vanderbilt Country Club?

It shapes the buyer’s monthly cost. Every home was built before the Florida Building Code took effect on 1 March 2002, per the Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s building code summary; an insurer may not refuse a policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old under section 627.7011, so a documented roof replacement is worth having ready. From 1 January 2027, Citizens requires flood coverage on every personal residential wind policy regardless of value, with condominium unit-owner policies exempt, per Citizens. A current wind mitigation report helps a buyer price the home.

How do I get a Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation?

Start with the free Vanderbilt Country Club home valuation, then we price your home against its own segment: single-family, Wedgewood or Waterford, and within single-family, Estate or Villa. (239) 898-6072, text or call. Confidential conversations welcome. If you are buying as well as selling, Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Naples.

What this section does not state

This section publishes no commission figure, no title insurance figure and no tax advice. The Southwest Florida MLS figures on this page blend all home types. Waterford’s structural integrity reserve study funding plan and each building’s certificate of occupancy date are not published on any source we could reach, and seller credits for the capital contribution or assessments are not published anywhere.

Sources and Authoritative References

Vanderbilt Country Club facts on this page come from 190 primary and authoritative references, listed here by publisher: the club’s own governing documents and fee sheets, Florida’s corporate register and statutes, Collier County, FEMA and NOAA, the school district, and local news. No real estate brokerage or listing portal is cited anywhere on this page. Collier County Property Appraiser figures come from the appraiser’s published bulk tax-roll data (2026 preliminary roll, files dated 29 August 2026).

Vanderbilt Country Club’s own documents and pages

• Vanderbilt Country Club: VCA 2026 fee sheet dated 20 August 2026
• Vanderbilt Country Club: the club’s home-type breakdown
• Vanderbilt Country Club: the club’s renter page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: guest information page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: directions page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: 2026 Member and Tenant Fee Schedule
• Vanderbilt Country Club: the club’s real estate FAQ
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Community Site Plan
• Vanderbilt Country Club: community involvement page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Estate Homes
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Villa Homes
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Wedgewood carriage homes
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Waterford condominiums
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Amended and Restated Master Declaration
• Vanderbilt Country Club: its About page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: recorded 2024 amendment
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Amended and Restated Articles
• Vanderbilt Country Club: VCA bylaws
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Prospective Owners page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: staff directory
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Owner Information Form
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Membership Transfer Application
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation,
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Vanderbilt Golf page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Club scorecard, printed May 2024
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Practice Areas page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Golf Programs page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Golf Instruction page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Our Golf Shop page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Dominick Izzo bio
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Careers page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Tennis page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Leagues and Events page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Court Sports page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Pickleball page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Bocce page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Wellness and Fitness page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Lifestyle page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Vista Room
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Bar & Grille Room
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Terrace Café and Express Window
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Private Events page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Realtors page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: club home page
• Vanderbilt Country Club: Social Activities page

State of Florida

• Florida Legislature: HB 913 (Chapter 2025-175)
• Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation: SIRS reporting database
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): Sunbiz record
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): 1998 articles, Sunbiz image
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): name change filing
• Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation: DBPR condominium extract
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): 2002 report
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): 2003 report
• South Florida Water Management District: approved permit layer
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): Waterford at Vanderbilt Condominium
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): Wedgewood at Vanderbilt Condominium
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): one entity
• Florida Department of Revenue: 2025 Collier millage table
• Florida State Parks: Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, Florida State
• Florida Division of Emergency Management: KYZ ZL Vector Enriched Calculated 20230608
• Florida Housing Finance Corporation: Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s overview
• Florida Office of Insurance Regulation: OIR-B1-1802
• Florida Legislature: roof-age statute, section 627.7011
• Florida Legislature: section 718.111(11)
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation: Citizens’ flood requirement page
• Florida Legislature: section 627.351(6)
• Florida Legislature: section 720.3035(6)
• Florida Legislature: section 718.113(5)
• Florida Legislature: section 553.899
• Florida Legislature: section 718.112(2)(g)
• Florida Legislature: chapter 2025-175
• Florida Legislature: My Safe Florida Home statute, section 215.5586
• My Safe Florida Home: My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot
• University of Florida BEBR: BEBR 2025 population estimates
• University of Florida BEBR: medium projection
• Florida Legislature: section 720.30851
• Florida Legislature: section 718.503(2)(a), Florida Statutes
• Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz): Sunbiz document N98000005469
• Florida Legislature: section 201.02
• Florida Legislature: section 718.116
• Florida Legislature: section 720.401

Collier County

• Collier County GIS: site address points
• Collier County Government: 311 knowledge base
• Collier County Government: June 2026 news release
• Greater Naples Fire Rescue District: district station page
• Collier County Government: Collier County Parks page
• Collier County GIS: zoning layer
• Collier County GIS: PUD layer
• Collier County Government: Section 35, south half
• Collier County Government: PUD Master List
• Collier County Government: zoning atlas sheet for Section 35, north half
• Collier County Government: Ordinance 2024-48
• Collier County GIS: milestone inspection map
• Collier County Government: Collier County Tax Collector
• Collier County Government: Collier County news release, July 2026
• Collier County GIS: Collier County’s hurricane evacuation zone layer
• Collier County GIS: Collier County FEMA base flood elevation layer
• Collier County Government: floodplain management FAQ
• Collier County Government: Collier County news release of August 2026
• Collier County Government: 2026 Flood Protection Newsletter
• Collier County Government: Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension
• Collier County Government: ribbon-cutting release
• Collier County Government: public meeting handout
• Collier County Government: FY26 first-quarter priority report
• Collier Metropolitan Planning Organization: 2050 needs list
• Collier County Government: 2025 traffic count report
• Collier County Government: 2019 traffic count report
• Collier County Government: Estates Branch at 1266 Golden Gate Blvd W
• Collier County Government: Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park

Federal agencies

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): effective FIRM panel 12021C0218H
• U.S. Geological Survey: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query service
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Tropical Cyclone Report on Wilma
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Hurricane Irma local report
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Tropical Cyclone Report on Ian
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Hurricane Ian summary
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Helene
• NOAA National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service: Milton
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): National Flood Insurance Program claims data
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): FEMA’s preliminary flood hazard service
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 13-04-7722A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 13-04-7927A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 14-04-2822A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 16-04-7372A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 16-04-8149A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Letter of Map Amendment 17-04-0009A
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): CRS Eligible Communities list dated 1 April 2026
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): NFIP policy dataset