Hi, I got your email on the Property Owners Association–lake association. Thank you so much for the information. I think we will pursue looking for a place on your beautiful lake. Thanks again. LuAnn
LuAnn:
How did you get my email? Lake Hortonia is a reasonably clean lake with little or no Algae. My family and I love the lake!
I am biased. Lake Hortonia is relatively private and quiet. It has no Public Beaches or State Parks on it. That cuts down on noise and pollution.
We (The Property owners association) have done 2 lake treatments and eradicated 98% of Mil foil. Especially now, the lake is beautiful.
The depth ranges from 0-60 feet. Average Depth is probably 18′.
LuAnn is doing a good job of researching a lake front property. First, she has identified and area that is commutable from her home, about 2 hours away, then she starts researching various lakes both by internet and visits. Here is an example of her finding my email address off the property owner’s web site.
Hi, we have been looking for a place on a lake and recently came across Lake Hortonia. We live in Kinderhook, not far from East Greenbush. Could you take a few minutes and tell us about the lake? We were wondering about the water quality, clarity etc. We have a lake near here–Kinderhook lake, but the water is very cloudy and filled with algae. How is the water at Lake Hortonia? Any issues? Do you know the depth of the lake? Is it a very busy lake? Any info you could send would be appreciated. LuAnn
It is apparent that LuAnne has thought about purchasing lake front where she lives but has dismissed the idea due to pollution. She asks about Algae and depth. Both good topics when considering a lake front property. Another topic good to think about is size of the lake. Although, she may have decided that this lake is ample size (500 acres) as she has visited it. To make a more thorough analysis, LuAnn should see the lake by boat.
Thank you for the tip. Do you know Tammy? I had actually made contact with a Patsy, but she was not available when we could come up and doesn’t reply to emails. We had hoped to come up on Oct. 8 when my husband had a day off and a date previous to that when she had a baby shower to go to. Of course, he is not off this weekend, but I might be able to talk my son into coming up with me on Sunday if I can make arrangements to see some places. Do you know of any places that might be on the market by owner? If I can come up on Sunday, we will drive around the lake in addition to any places that are listed on the MLS. We don’t want a big place (hopefully under 250,000). Can you tell me about the taxes up there? The taxes on a 250,000 place in St. Lawrence County is 10,000! We just think that is too much. Also, thank you for your kind invitation to stop by and meet you and your wife. I will email you ahead of time if we are coming to make sure you’ll be around. Again, thank you for your time and help. LuAnn
Another good example of how LuAnn is doing her homework. St. Lawrence (1000 islands) is more like 5 hours away. This demonstrates that LuAnn takes her research seriously
PS Do you know the place for sale on — Camp Road? It is on lakehouse.com The Realtor listing the place is __ realty. Hope I’m not taking too much of your time. Again, thanks!
No…Because these cabins are mostly owned by “out of staters”, most use realtor’s. Taxes are around $3000 a year for a $200,000 place. . If were there, you would be welcome to stop. Yes. The owner purchased it only 2-3 years ago. Fixed it up and seems to be re-selling it. I don’t know him. I can tell you some recent transaction with Realtor A and she is very un-ethical.
In this email LuAnne is requesting information about the real estate sales people. I have experience that if you are not familiar with area, some real estate sales people will take advantage of that. When I first started looking at lake front, the first Realtor took us too little country stores to sample the cookies and “buy” into the local “ambiance”. Then she showed us lake front that was at the top or above our price range. After weeks of looking and not being satisfied, I met with another Realtor who showed us a perfect fit in terms of in our price range and direct lake front. As it turns out, this was the prior Realtor’s listing. She had chosen not to show us this listing as it was half the price!
In another example, I had a friend who made a full price offer on another realtor’s listing. Since I knew both the seller and the buyer, I found out that the Realtor held back the full price offer and instead presented her with her own client’s offer of $10,000 less. This seems un-ethical to me. The sellers would lose $10,000, the highest bidder would not get the place, but the listing Realtor would get 6% instead of 3%! Be careful!
In another scenario, one Realtor that I worked with never told me that the state of Vermont had a progressive tax on “purchases by out of state residents”. If we purchased and then sold the property in less then 5 years, we would be hit with a capital gains tax of 50%!
Hi, Peter. I’ve been up to look at the camp a couple of times and it looks pretty good. I was wondering if I could bother you with a couple more questions. (I couldn’t find the little red camp that was for sale by owner–maybe they’ve taken down the sign for the winter) I mentioned that the place we are looking at is owned by the B……–the one with the stairs, a little ways from the boy’s camp. I had a friend look at the place and she found some issues with the stairs/supports, etc. While that can be fixed, I am wondering if you know of any areas in that vicinity that erode/slide etc?
Do you know of any problems in the past with any of the hilly areas around the lake?
Do you feel that the water around this particular camp (if you are familiar with it) has a problem with excess weediness? Is Lake Hortonia an extremely weedy lake?
In addition to the capital gains penalty for resale, do owners from outside of Vermont pay more in property taxes?
Lastly, do you know anything about Rick from Rick’s remodeling? He is giving us an estimate on the repairs to the camp and I am trying to find out if he has a good reputation.
Finally, in advance, thank you so much for all your emails and help. If we are successful with this property, we hope to meet you and your family up at the lake. Thanks again. Luann
My Response - In general, No. I do not know of any areas that erode/slide. In general, from a geological stand point, Hills slowly come down. You are never going to totally escape the weeds! In some form or another, if you have lake front, you may get weeds. Otherwise, there is swimming pools(which also grow weeds if you don’t take care of them). Lake Hortonia is a shallow lake, so I would say it gets it’s share of “weeds”. Of course, some of the “weeds” attest to the quality of water and natural ecology. There is a small cove just to the right (facing the lake) of your lake front that gets pond lily’s pretty heavily. But right in front of your place, I have not seen many.
YES. This changed this year. Non-residents pay a higher formula. A bit of taxation without representation. Lake front cabins come at a cost.
No…..but I usually do my own work. So it means that I just don know him.
Good luck
Hi, Peter. Just wanted to let you know that we did come up to see the place on Camp Road. We didn’t end up having time to explore the rest of the lake and didn’t have cell service there, so we didn’t call you. The camp isn’t bad. I was wondering if you are familiar with that section of the lake and could tell me about that part. Do you know how deep it is there? Is that a section of lake that is being treated for milfoil? Do you know anything about a girl’s camp near this cottage? My son and I ended up eating lunch at Lakehouse on Lake Bomoseen–it was a great day for watching the sailboats. As seasoned lakers, do you and your wife have any other advice for us about things to think about in regards to purchasing a cottage on Lake Hortonia? Thank you, again, for all your help and time. LuAnn
I don’t think you will. The only noise that you hear is when they call the kids for breakfast. They ring a bell. But that camp runs 6 weeks. Pretty much….In the summer you have more “pond weed”, and the lake is shallow, so natural growth is abundant. But, it is usually clean. Remember - no public beaches. I don’t think it ever gets cloudy, shallow areas can get weedy.
Thank you again for your time and help. We are getting closer, but we’re not there yet. If it’s meant to be . . . LuAnn