What’s on your wish list? That is one of the first, and most important, questions that each member of the sales team with BIGHORN Properties will ask a prospective buyer of a BIGHORN home. The answer is always revelatory and provides the sales associate with almost everything needed to identify a property that both excites and exceeds the buyer’s expectations.
Inasmuch as BIGHORN sales associates exclusively sell homes within the BIGHORN community, their knowledge base is unsurpassed, and they are intimately familiar with every home at BIGHORN. When they understand the buyer’s preferences for size, number of bedrooms, location, view and price range, they’re adept at matching the buyer to the ideal home and describing how a property could be modified or remodeled to exactly meet their needs. Understanding a buyer and his or her preferences is typically only the starting point in a buyer’s real estate investment and long-lasting relationship with BIGHORN, its vaunted lifestyle and the sales associate who brought them together.
Associates Lorna Ball, Jacquie Burns, and Trevor Printz — led by Carl Cardinalli, Director of Sales — are so appreciative and pleased to represent and present so many residential options within BIGHORN that are tailored to different lifestyles and stages of life. This manifests at BIGHORN in the many families that have purchased multiple homes over their years in residence as they experience and adapt to the evolving needs of their lives.
“We are a generational Club with a commitment to legacy,” Ball says. “The availability to choose between a villa, a custom home or a homesite continues to drive the multigenerational legacy of our homeowners. Plus, all of us have been here long enough to experience the changes of our homeowners’ needs and have assisted in finding them their next opportunity within BIGHORN.”
CUSTOM HOMES
Custom homes awaken the thrill of discovery and limitless possibilities. These sprawling estates represent a vision fulfilled. Homes in an array of styles may resonate with a buyer at first sight, from move-in-spectacular to those yearning for a dramatic transformation.
Members pursue custom homes to realize their wildest fantasies in architecture and interior design. Luxurious wet bars, wine rooms, home theaters, detached guest accommodations and glorious outdoor living spaces distinguish these stunning properties.
Built from the ground up, and typically conceptualized by renowned architects, these larger homes with expansive grounds lend themselves to all the “bells and whistles” associated with luxury. Custom wet bars and wine rooms, theater rooms, detached guest houses and integrated outdoor living that blurs the space between inside and out find their rightful places in this style of home.
“Once you enter the custom realm, whatever you can imagine can most likely be achieved,” Burns says. “Consider the quality time spent in your own movie theater or exciting game room with custom pool table and golf simulator adjacent to a bar or separate kitchen — the perfect setting for family get-togethers.”
Members who initially invest in a villa and start enjoying the lifestyle the community and Club offer often find that their frequency and duration of visits significantly increase. Mix in the frequency of family and guest visits, and villa owners are soon looking to be custom homeowners.
Custom homes range from approximately 4,000 to well over 20,000 square feet.
The freestanding villa homes, available on the Mountains and Canyons sides, offer the full BIGHORN Golf Club experience in a more intimate footprint that ranges from 2,300 to 4,400 square feet.
VILLAS
These freestanding, semi-custom homes offer the total BIGHORN experience of outdoor living and entertainment in a more intimate layout. In some cases, less landscape and square footage to maintain ensures an easy level of manageability, appealing to those who might plan shorter visits.
The villas also exemplify the Club’s origin story. BIGHORN was conceived by its previous owner as a homesite development. That changed when R.D. Hubbard, BIGHORN’s recognized and revered founder, bought the development and promoted and invested in a series of neighborhoods of luxurious villas. The villas, designed by a variety of architects and offering rich appointments and finishes, gave BIGHORN buyers an immediate entrée into enjoying the Club’s golf courses, amenities, and surroundings. “It’s amazing to see how some of these homes have been beautifully updated,” Printz adds. Some buyers find the villas a perfect complement to their lifestyle and enjoyment of BIGHORN. Others enjoy the experience for a while and then decide to springboard into larger homes or enjoy villa-living while they build their custom home.
Integrated on both the Mountains and Canyons sides, villas range from approximately 2,300 to 4,400 square feet.
Discerning and adventurous individuals seeking one-of-a-kind location can identify sites with golf course or lake frontage to develop a custom home with almost any amenity imaginable.
HOMESITES
For those excited and motivated by a blank canvas of pristine BIGHORN terrain, creating a masterpiece on a homesite promises a unique adventure of bold and epic proportions. These homesites can offer an assortment of locations and views, including golf course frontage, lake frontage, or, in rare cases, both. For the more adventurous “developer at heart,” the perch of a mountain estate homesite benched into the Santa Rosa Mountains offers unparalleled views and a backdrop like no other.
“These homesites took years to develop through relationships with the city of Palm Desert and various conservancy organizations,” Cardinalli offers. “These sites cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the Coachella Valley, making them the true gems of the desert.”
As BIGHORN continues its ascent in stature and prestige, fewer undeveloped homesites remain available. The discerning investor or individual seeking a one-of-a-kind location and setting to build a custom living environment better strike quickly.
In BIGHORN, the potential awaits around every corner whether a buyer seeks a large home, a more accommodating floor plan, a different architectural style, or the simple change of scenery inherent in a new view. A variety of BIGHORN’s existing homes offer an extraordinary opportunity for renovation and innovation. These homes have great “bones,” finished with high quality materials in desirable locations around the community. Many current residents have taken advantage of this opportunity. As a result, after minimal or significant renovation, they have realized the home of their dreams. Although the properties themselves are limited, opportunities to create are endless.
This story was originally published in the 2025 edition of BIGHORN magazine.
