The Craig Ranch Fee Texas's HOA Reform Never Touched

"It's a sleeper of a rule that people don't really understand." That's how one Craig Ranch homeowner described a line item that most sellers in this McKinney master-planned community only discover the week they close.

The rule in question isn't the standard HOA resale certificate fee, the one Texas capped by law back in 2021. It's a separate charge written into Craig Ranch's own governing documents: a community enhancement fee, calculated as a percentage of the home's sale price, owed by the seller, and untouched by the state law most people assume protects them from exactly this kind of surprise.

If you own in Craig Ranch and you're weighing a listing this year, that distinction is worth understanding before you sign anything, not after you've already accepted an offer.

The fee that isn't the fee you think it is

In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1588, a significant rewrite of the state's Property Owners Protection Act. One of its most repeated provisions caps what an HOA can charge for a resale certificate at $375, with updates capped at $75. Texas REALTORS pushed for that reform, and it's become one of the first facts sellers hear when they start researching what an HOA transaction actually costs.

That cap is real. It just doesn't apply to what Craig Ranch calls its community enhancement fee.

Under the Craig Ranch Community Association's governing documents, sellers owe 0.25 percent on the first $300,000 of a home's sale price, and 0.5 percent on everything above that amount. The association has explained that the fee dates to the community's founding, meant to build long-term reserves as a large master-planned neighborhood matures and requires ongoing reinvestment.

That's a capital contribution tied to the sale, not a resale certificate. The state's fee cap governs the paperwork the HOA hands over describing dues and standing. It has no authority over what the community's own covenants say a seller owes at closing. Two different documents, two different legal categories, and only one of them got capped by Texas Property Code Section 207.

What it actually costs

The math is straightforward once someone walks you through it, which is exactly the problem. It rarely gets explained before an offer is already on the table.

Recent Craig Ranch new-construction pricing has run roughly $655,000 to $778,000, which puts most sellers squarely in that middle row. A $2,750 line item won't sink a deal on its own. It will change the net sheet, and it's the kind of number a seller should see while pricing the home, not while reviewing the resale certificate package during option period.

Why this catches people who did their homework

An agent quoted in a Dallas Express report on the fee called it unusual for the area, noting that it sits entirely apart from the ordinary transfer fees most HOAs charge and that its size scales with the sale price in a way uncommon among comparable McKinney communities.

That's the part worth sitting with. Plenty of sellers who've done their research know about the $375 resale certificate cap. Far fewer know that a cap on one document doesn't reach a completely separate obligation sitting in the deed restrictions they signed at purchase, sometimes years before they ever thought about selling, sometimes on the very same closing day with little time to read the fine print.

Where this lands on the calendar

McKinney's broader resale market has given sellers some room to plan around this kind of detail. Across the three months ending May 2026, the citywide median sale price sat at $505,000, down 3.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, with homes taking a median of 44 days to go under contract. That's a market with enough breathing room to get documents in order before listing, rather than scrambling once an offer starts a clock.

For a Craig Ranch seller, that window matters more than it looks. The enhancement fee isn't a surprise if it's pulled before the home is priced. It becomes a surprise, and sometimes a renegotiation mid-contract, when it first surfaces during the buyer's review of the resale certificate.

What to do before you list

1. Request the current governing documents and enhancement fee schedule from the Craig Ranch Community Association's management company before setting a list price, not after going under contract.
2. Run the fee against your realistic expected sale price rather than a county appraisal or rough estimate, since the math works in two tiers instead of one flat percentage.
3. Build the figure into your net proceeds worksheet alongside title costs and prorated taxes, so the number on paper matches what actually clears at the title company.
4. If you're weighing Craig Ranch against another McKinney community as part of a move-up decision, ask directly whether that community's governing documents include a similar capital or enhancement fee. Not every McKinney HOA does.

Not every McKinney HOA works this way

Trinity Falls, McKinney's other large master-planned community, publishes its homeowner dues as standard monthly assessments covering landscaping, trail maintenance, and clubhouse upkeep, a different cost structure than a percentage-of-sale-price fee triggered at closing. That's not a criticism of Craig Ranch's approach. Amenity-rich master-planned communities fund long-term reserves in different ways, and Craig Ranch's association has been direct about why its fee exists. It's simply a reminder that "McKinney HOA fees" isn't one number or one structure. Whether a comparable enhancement fee exists in Trinity Falls or any other community is a question worth confirming directly through that community's own governing documents rather than assuming one master-planned neighborhood's cost structure applies to another.

FAQ

Is the community enhancement fee the same as the resale certificate fee? No. The resale certificate fee is capped at $375 under Texas Property Code Section 207.003, as amended by Senate Bill 1588. The enhancement fee is a separate obligation created by Craig Ranch's own governing documents and isn't subject to that cap.

Can a seller negotiate who pays the enhancement fee? The governing documents assign it to the seller by default, but like most closing costs, responsibility for payment can be negotiated between buyer and seller as part of the purchase contract. That negotiation works better when the fee is known before the home goes under contract rather than discovered during it.

Does every home in Craig Ranch owe this fee? The fee applies under the Craig Ranch Community Association's governing documents, which cover the master-planned community's residential sections. Confirming the exact terms for a specific address means requesting the current resale certificate and fee schedule from the association's management company well ahead of listing.

Selling in a master-planned community means reading two sets of documents, not one: the resale certificate the state regulates, and the covenants the community wrote for itself. Weidler Group reads both before a Craig Ranch listing ever goes live, so the number on your net sheet matches the number at the title company. Sell a Lifestyle. Request your home valuation and get a full accounting of what your specific address owes at closing.