Rockin’ J Ranch celebrates 20 years as one of Hill Country’s most desirable communities

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Twenty years ago, the land that’s become Rockin’ J Ranch was pastureland and scrub brush and cactus and rocks. But Colonel Lee Roper had a vision for the property about four miles south of Blanco and put into action a plan that has worked like clockwork over the past two decades and made it one of the Texas Hill Country’s most desirable communities.

The 96-year old Roper is the founder of Rinco, the parent company of Rockin’ J Ranch. He loved the land and was enamored by the prospect of a founding of a neighborhood based on old fashioned ideals and solid, core values.

Roper, an Army veteran who moved to the Canyon Lake area from El Paso in 1980, was drawn to the area like most of us are – teased by the land’s verdant hills and rocky outcroppings, the wildflowers and the wildlife, the Hill Country’s far-ranging views and 300 days of sunshine.

“We were told when we first came here that the Texas Hill Country has some of the most sought-after property in the United States,” Roper says. “The land that became Rockin’ J Ranch is 45 minutes from metropolitan areas like Austin and San Antonio, but we are light years away in tranquility.”

Rockin’ J Ranch encompasses a unique livability that allows residents to get away from it all while sacrificing nothing as far as amenities and convenience. It is a fully gated community whose original ranch presence was preserved by incorporating some of the 150-year old homes and landmarks into the community’s clubhouse and the design of its golf course.

The community was laid out on a wide series of hills and plateaus amongst rolling fields of flowers and stands of oak and cedar trees. One of the unique features of Rockin’ J Ranch is its use of a centralized water and sewer system rather than the well water and septic fields employed in the majority of other Hill Country developments.

There’s no doubt that Roper and his team have hit the right notes at Rockin’ J Ranch since its founding in 2005 — less than 10 percent of the original 1,800 homesites in the 1,064-acre community are available, and there's no sales slowdown in sight.

You can still buy land at Rockin’ J Ranch on a handshake agreement; if you put half down, you can take up to three years to pay off that parcel with zero interest. And there’s no deadline on building a home on your property here because Rinco of Texas, Inc. — which also developed 23 other communities around the region — is in the land business and is not a home builder.

“We have enjoyed a continued level of success and a constant desirability over the past 20 years, and it’s something we carry a lot of pride about,” said Ryan Brubaker, the long-time sales manager at Rockin J’ Ranch. “People who were first here and drawn to the land have become our biggest advocates in the years since — word of mouth carries a lot of weight.”

One of Rockin’ J Ranch’s primo amenities is Vaaler Creek Golf Club, the centerpiece of the community and one of the top-ranked public golf courses in the Austin-San Antonio corridor. All real estate sales include basic membership to the golf club.

The course was the first signature design by Michael Lowry, who fashioned a much-tougher-than-its-carded 6,874-yard, par-72 track among live oak and cactus. Lowry routed the layout along the rolling, scrub brush-filled hollows; throughout the round a golfer will play through many cool features such as ponds, past rock outcroppings and sand hazards of various sizes and be challenged by elevated tee shots and wavy, tree-lined fairways.

Both nines at Vaaler Creek GC offer far-reaching views of the surrounding region. The generous homesite setbacks mean that the residences near the course are mostly out of sight and unobtrusive, adding to the course’s isolated feel.