Lakefront Bargain Hunters
 

Do you watch Lakefront Bargain Hunters.
You can get a 3 bedroom 3 bath, lakefront property for ~300k in NC or GA.

I prefer my lake water to be clear.

They have a longer season and you get more house for your money but the turbidity turns me off.

They were on Lake Winnepesaukee about a week or so ago but I didn’t get the channel. Today they are on Moosehead Lake at 2 o’clock this afternoon.
It’s fun to compare what you can get.

Ya but the lake water is brown and they have lots of snakes! :D

And your point is? Lake Tahoe waterfront is outa site. Location, location, location...

a funny story...
 

My brother-in-law's wife is a North Carolina native. When he brought her here for the first time, she had 3 comments on Winnipesaukee:

1) "Oh my God...I can see my feet when I step in the water...!"
2) "You mean there are no leeches and snakes in this water...??"
3) "This water is soooo cold!" (and it was July)

We are all very fortunate to have this beautiful resource to enjoy and call home.

I watch occasionally and usually the houses are not exactly lakefront (might be across the street) or there is something that makes them a little less desirable for the price. I like the program.

You forgot alligators!

One of my neighbors moved to Tennessee and he comes back to his lake front log home for a month every summer. I asked him this past summer if he was going to sell and buy a lake front home in Tennessee, "hell no, there's too many snakes and the water is brown"!
Of course he has plenty of money and his own jet so getting back here is not as much of a chore as it would be for others. :laugh:

Is there a lake anywhere in the country that has it all?
good size
clean, clear water
decent place under $1,000,000
nothing that will eat or poison you swimming around in it
warmer weather than NH
beautiful, natural surroundings

????

I have not yet found it,,,

Until you said “warmer weather than NH” I would of said we are already here...

Dan

Eureka!
 

We found it in 1967 on East Bear Island and have been sharing it with family and friends ever since. 🐻

Yes! But I'm not telling where.... not till I buy a place there ;)

If you want to see incredibly clear water... google flathead lake in Montana. The pictures are hard to believe.

My sister in law and her family live in Bigfork, Montana on Flathead Lake. It’s very true....the water is incredibly clear and beautiful......however, it’s also incredibly cold, so when we visited a few years ago, the only ones to go swimming were our grandchildren, then 13 and 15. They didn’t mind the frigid temperature a bit. Beautiful place!

Yes, I have thought about the lakes out west. Montana, Idaho... they look incredible! At least from the pictures I have seen they are easy the equal of Winni I would have thought being so remote the properties would be cheaper but in looking online I did not find that to be the case. A Montana or Idaho winter might make NH look like Florida though.

Lake Tahoe
 

A family member was on Lake Tahoe in August - was amazed at how clean/clear the water was. Crystal blue water and visibility beyond 25 feet with minimal algae/plant life at all on the bottom/in the water.

Of course the season may be shorter, the water colder for this time of year (sub 65) and I agree the cost of the homes is most likely 3 to 4 times higher than than of Winni.

I guess all have their pros and cons but like most on this board, it's hard to beat NH lakes region all things said and done.

Lake George isn’t bad either. Might even be a few degrees warmer than Winni.

In another generation it'll be "decent place under $10,000,000"...

In my opinion Lake Tahoe is gorgeous with colors almost exaggerated. The blues are phenomenal...However, in my opinion, it's a boring lake. I think only one island. For boating, there's almost no place to go. You can ride around in a large circle all day and maybe anchor at a beach. The traffic around the lake is on one road. Don't expect to get anywhere fast. If you like to gamble, that takes you indoors and away from the lake.

Nope. As far as my knowledge takes me, there is no other lake in the USA like Winnipesaukee.

Many years ago, amid rumors of the mafia dumping bodies into Tahoe, Jacque Cousteau went diving and found hundreds of golf balls and not one body.

Don’t believe that show for a second.

I have a good friend Greg who purchased a home on lake Champlain AND was actually on that show. He had purchased the home 3 months before being on the show for 615k and when they “toured” his empty home with the other houses it was advertised at 325$.

They literally moved out all his stuff into a pod in the yard, shot the show, then moved it back in for the 6 month recap. It was funny to watch, he had sold his company and was very successful. A bargain wasn’t really what he needed at all but they were insistent he would say things like well we would have to repair the XYZ and that really puts us close to our budget etc.

Prior to seeing his episode I was always wondering how I could get a 4 bed 3 bath home on the lake for 225k!

I really like watching these shows also and I was shocked to find out how fake they really are.

The home diagonally across the street from me in my neighborhood was on the show” My Lottery Dream Home.” When I spoke to the owner he told me the same thing. The whole storyline was made up. He had been in his home for many months before they filmed the episode on TV.

lake george
 

Having spent a bunch of time on lake george I can tell you categorically that it is colder than winni-and deeper.

Newfound Lake has always been know as one of the clearest lakes in the country.

Most of the southern lakes are man made...….lake bottoms are all dead trees ,stumps and mud.No natural beaches except where erosion has occurred along the banking.

My fav is Lake Champlain. It’s also quieter boat wise than Winni. More sailboats. And it has a couple of hundred islands also.

Just a few years ago you could purchase a little home there for a reasonable price.

Here we had to settle for no waterfront, no views, but can walk to the beach. We needed something under $300,000 as that’s all we could afford after selling our family home back in NY. At least the little house we have is new. We are here full time, also.

Tennessee River
 

My family bought our first boat in 1949. Home port was Madison, Indiana on the Ohio River. We made several boat cruises down the Ohio to Paducah, Kentucky, and then up the Tennessee River to Knoxville, passing through Kentucky. Tennessee, and Alabama via the "Great Lakes of the Suoth" created by nine dams built by the TVA in the 1930's. The water is clear and there is a lot of shoreline. Perhaps there are places available for a reasonable price in this area.

Barney Bear, maybe we were neighbors in Indiana way back when. During the war my father, who was with DuPont, was transferred to a munitions plant in Indiana. We lived in Hanover, IN in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house because there was a housing shortage, and all the men from the college were serving our country. I remember watching the boats going by on the Ohio River......that was a great place, as I recall. Anyhow Madison and Hanover are only 6 miles apart.

Nebanusit Lake is to me the clearest and cleanest in the state. Access is terrible and it's off the beaten path so never paid attention to. Some of the BEST salmon and trout fishing in the state too.

I was just up at Payette Lake in McCall Idaho yesterday, I'd dump my place on Winni in a heart beat if I could do a one for one swap.

I do not know anything about Payette Lake. What is the draw and/or advantages over Winni?

Hmm good question, in my opinion pretty much everything.

Idaho is a secret....shhhhh....don't tell anybody.

Undeveloped and still pristine...

Idaho
 

Undeveloped for a reason, I'm sure.

https://visitidaho.org/things-to-do/.../payette-lake/

Much smaller the Winni and undeveloped because over 1/2 the shoreline is protected.

It’s a very deep lake that has good trout finishing and does ice over with 2 ski areas close by.


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Beautiful country, but...
 

Beautiful country - I know as many years ago I spent time with relatives who live in Salmon, Idaho - not too far away. But, man, is it remote. Except as a die-hard sportsman, I think you'd get bored with the lake itself. If you want to hike one day, fish the next, hunt the next, and then repeat in a different order during the last half of the week - then have at it. Long as you don't get eaten by a grizzly bear.

For me, I'd miss access to the coast, cities, restaurants, supermarkets, friends and family, bigger lake with places to go - blah, blah, blah - civilization I guess. Of course with civilization comes all the repercussions we whine about on this forum - LOL.

How Deep
 

From a perspective of depth - Lake Tahoe is over 1,500 feet deep in some spots. Talk about losing something that falls off the boat forever! Scary deep...

Maybe the next iPhone to be released soon will increase the waterproof depth rating - joke

They just performed the deepest recovery of a drowning victim in Tahoe the other day

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/...da/3567929001/

All depends what you're looking for....my wife and I have incredibly stressful jobs, and we look for peace and quiet and solitude....several years ago, we discovered a lake in Maine with a campground and a ramp....16 miles long, all owned by paper company, hence no development....we put the boat in, explored up around eight miles, and found a sandy beach where we beached the boat, set up our beach chairs, and sat in the sun, read, and swimmed all day and never saw another human being. Closest thing to heaven on earth we know of....

Lake St. George Liberty, Me.
 

We stayed at the State Park for a few years many years ago. Great clear water and maybe a little colder than Winni. But great times with a lot of the same people. Several familys of School teachers. Good fishing, water Sskiing etc. kerk

Idaho; A great place to buy potatoes and be in the middle of nowhere!

As long as we have left the lakes region, Idaho comes in #3. #2 in quality potatoes is Aroostook County Maine and #1 is St. John's County Florida. Of course, if yo like those grainy things at Mickey D's....they come from Idaho, except in Aroostook County. I never ate at a McD's In St John's County.

It's not a lake, but 1000 Islands is very similar to Winnipesaukee in atmosphere, water temperature, water clarity and beauty, but it's 5 times bigger and directly connected to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and half of it is in Canada. It's also the starting point for the Rideau Canal, which is AMAZINGLY beautiful and interesting.

Up until I left, McD’s had three french fry suppliers:

Lamb Weston
Simplot
McCain

While all three met the product specs set forth by the corporation, I preferred the Lamb Weston over the Simplot and the McCain fries were a distant third. Unfortunately transportation costs favored McCain. I would have paid more to have Lamb Weston back.

A "Snake" Here Would Be The "Common Water Snake"—and Harmless...
 

I haven't seen a snake in Lake Winnipesaukee, but in 1960s Winter Harbor, I've pulled off a leech. :o So, for Winter Harbor, there's a statement to be made for "good water"—at least it was in the 1960s.

Because, according to esteemed forum member Shore Things, leeches in 2009 are a good sign: :eek2:

Dunno Flathead Lake is awful nice too however it is REALLY out there away from civilization and way north of the 45th parallel. Official had test in the water yesterday to see if it was swimmable this late in the year.... it would have been "refreshing" but doable.

The beauty of the area is staggering.

Clean water? Check out the river running into it. That pool is about 15 feet deep.

McCall which is right on Payette Lake is a great little town plenty to do with a nice western flair to it. To land a piece of waterfront though is pricey. Cascade lake to the south has better opportunities. Both are surrounded by tons of farm land and backdropped in all directions with mountains.

The area is no longer a secret.

This post made me think of the "Wetson" burger franchise (NY area-60s/70s).
BEST fast food burgers ever! Sometimes had sales- 10 for $1.00!
Any NY people old enough to remember Wetson's?

Other topic:
It wasn't unusual to have a leech stuck on you, back in the day- even in a completely, clear-water, sandy beach area. We just used to pour salt on them- then peel them off. Sometimes left a mark, sometimes not. I think we decided it all depended on how long you had it on you. The thing was, they weren't always in plain sight- you had to pull your swim suit away from your body just n case! Everybody on the beach wanted to see :eek:

I do. We went to the ones in Lynbrook and Hicksville. Great burgers. Square like Wendy’s and White Castle.


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I was kinda counting on you, Joey!