Prior to my wife and I getting married 12 years ago, while we were dating, I told her that I want to own a camp on a lake. She envisioned a tent on a piece of land. This is because she grew up in NYC, and had not had the experience of owning a seasonal lake front property. I had these experiences as my grandparents owned a seasonal home on a lake front lot on Goose Pond in New Hampshire. My childhood was greatly enriched by these experiences. I thank my parents and my grandparents for this.

Goose Pond, NH

I told my wife that I wanted my children to have these experiences. She agreed that by marrying she would not prevent me from fulfilling my dream. We searched from about 1996 -1999 to find a seasonal lake front property. We rented lake houses in the summer in order to “check out” the lake.

I learned that lakes that had a majority of year round house were often out of my price range. Lake George is an example. All lake front housing there is in the millions. Lake Bomoseen, which is probably 75% year round houses, averages in the $500,000 range. So, if you can find a lake that still has mostly “seasonal housing”, then you can usually find price ranges under $300,000. In general, the more North you go, the more reasonable the prices. The further you are from cities, the more reasonable the prices.

My criteria was from most important to least: Direct lake frontage (as opposed to lake access), 50 feet of lake front as a minimum. Not in an association with lots of rules and regulations. Ample parking for 3 vehicles. Not having to cross a main road to access your frontage. Not too steep of hill, not too many stairs down to your lake front. Building set at least 25 feet back from lake. Not too close to neighbors. Ideally, a septic system that is grandfathered. After all this, then I look at the building!

Interestingly enough, I saw vacation home search on HGTV the other night. The Couple wanted to purchase a vacation home on a lake in South America. They were more than willing to sacrifice Lake Frontage and lake access to get what they wanted in a house. They ended with a house that had a pool and no Lake front. They were happy with a view of the lake. You could get a house anywhere. You don’t need to go to South America Lake to get a house with a pool.

What I am saying is that if you are looking for lake front, you need to make that your main criteria. You can put a house anywhere. Back to my main point, purchasing the start of my dream.

After lots of looking, with Realtors that were not that honest, we purchased a fixer upper 750 square foot seasonal cabin – No heat – Toilet coming through the floor, plumbing that failed, hole in the roof where rain came through and hit the electric panel. Why? Lake front! It met my first criteria: 50 feet direct lake frontage. Not in an association. Grandfathered lot and septic, good parking, some stairs (15), but not bad. The building was 25 feet from the lake. The lake was 500 acres with 9 islands. No boat limits or motor limits. But a private / quiet lake. No public beach.

I knew that the building was a temporary building and that someday I would knock it down and build a cottage that was representative of the beauty of the lake. So, from October 1999 – Feb. of 2008, I fixed up that building and used it as a seasonal place. I kept it maintained, but did not put a lot of money into it as I knew that I would tear it down someday. Incidentally, I paid $35,000 for the lakefront building and lot in 1999, Last appraisal (2007), with the old building was $190,000. Why? Lakefront is finite. It’s called Supply and Demand. Lots of land around. Limited lake front. Even after the “crash” of 2008, my property is worth $175,000. Of course with the new building, that has changed. Please read the next post in this segment.

2001 photo of lake from deck

I loved my lake house the minute I laid eyes on it! After viewing the little mobile home I looked at for $80,000.00, this was a dream house. The price was a hefty $225,000.00 and it was worth it. 3 bedrooms, a large kitchen, an open dining room, cozy living room, even a little cove for the woodstove and a good size foyer. 1250 square feet in all, 2 outdoor sheds, crawl space under the house, new septic, new well and 110 feet of lake front.

As I stood on the long dock looking up at the impressive ledge bank that climbed straight up 20 feet from the water to the house I said to my realtor, “I want to buythis house, how much do you think I should offer?” We both thought that $200 K would be a good start. I was so excited that after hearing even more good things about the house (the furniture and house wares come with the house, and there’s outdoor lighting on the stairs, etc), I made the mistake (?) of saying that I was very interested in buying the house. About then my agent lead me swiftly by the arm out of the house, “Uh, we’ll talk about that later,” he said.”

I was a bit perturbed to find out that the realtor had not brought the paper work with him and while I waited about an hour for him to return my friend Pete took me for a spin in his boat out to see the house from the water. Well, just then I saw a woman standing on the dock looking up at the house and I gulped, “Pete,” I said, “That woman is going to buy my house.” It was then that I decided to make the owners a full offer! Sure enough, she put a bid of $220,000.00. I guess it was lucky for me that the realtor didn’t come with the paper work on this particular day, onlyhat was about where my luck ended for a while!

It seemed I waited an eternity to hear from the realtor. That’s because he was waiting on the primary realtor, Wenda Byrd of Century 21, to get back to him as to whether the owners had accepted my offer. Come to find out, Wenda had never given the owners the benefit of knowing that I was interested in their house because she had other notions as to just who would buy that house, especially since she stood to receive full commission for the sale by getting her client in that house. Finally, my realtor timidly asked my friend Peter to drop by the house to see what the owners knew, that’s when we discovered that the owner’s didn’t even know that there was another offer, although they do remember inquiring about “the lady from New York” who seemed so interested. Apparently, Wenda Byrd decided to keep that information to herself and I was lucky again when my friend Pete informed the owners of the truth, and since my offer was $5,000 more than Wenda’s client the owners accepted my offer, naturally.

The next issue was with the mortgage company (Magnum from LendingTree.com) after 4 weeks of grueling back and forth work, they dropped me 4 days before the scheduled closing. They simple stated, “We’re not doing this.” Apparently, they had never sold a 3 season, lake front property and were pressuring me to have a furnace installed (at my expense) to make the house into a cheap, makeshift 4-season home; Magnum Mortgage also wanted me to go with one of those prime rate mortgages but I was insisting on a traditional fixed rate loan. What made me mad was that I had asked them right up front if they had had experience selling 3 season, lake front property, to which they replied, “Sure we do,” NOT!

Well, I finally got a local mortgage company when my realator (Gilbert of Poultney) exclaimed “We get mortages on houses that are falling into the lake; I’ll bet they’ve already sold your mortgage.” So, I prayed that the owners agreed to wait another month for a new mortgage, this company (National City Mortgage) was superb and very creative.

LuAnn and Lances Lakehouse

Partial view from deck

Dear Peter,

I just wanted to take a moment to update you on our lake house. If you recall, you helped me through the decision process. Thank you so much for answering all of our questions about the Lake. We are beginning our second summer “on the lake” and can’t tell you how happy we are that we bought a place on the Lake. We found a cute little place in our price range that has great frontage for swimming, boating and relaxing. I’d like to share a few things with you and your readers to update them on our purchase.

It took us four years to find the right place at the right price! One of the things we thought about as we looked for a place was the distance from our house. I had my heart set on a cabin at a lake about 4 1/2 hours from home. We ended up at the Lake which is only 2 1/2 hours from home and are really happy we did. Being so close makes it easy to get to the lake most weekends. Even a day trip to take care of a problem is an easy thing to do.

Although I worried about making this decision, it has turned out to be wonderful. I have learned to kayak and find myself out in my kayak at least once every day. I even kayaked around the entire rim of the lake last summer (and that took some time on an almost 500 acre lake!) We have wonderful neighbors and are making new friends at the lake.

No place is perfect and we are finding out that there are quirks to owning a seasonal lake place. We have finished up many little maintenance jobs that needed to be done (always get an inspection, buyers!) and had a great time choosing new little odds and ends for the place. I’d like to recommend freecycle.org and craigslist for finding free and inexpensive things that are in terrific shape. Everyone tells me the little jobs never end, but so far they seem fun. All in all, it was a great decision and nothing beats sitting on the dock right next to the lake with a glass of wine! So, Peter, I’ll see you soon “on the lake”. Thanks for all your help. LuAnn