Very similar. A lot of new buyers have no idea the differences it makes on where you are on a lake. The premium spots are rare and expensive.
You have to factor in
Wind exposure.
Sun Exposure.
Water Clarity.
How long to get there (if it's a weekend home) [we wanted to stay under 2.5 hrs]
What is near by, attractions are nice to take guest too, or eat out at for ourselves.
How easy is it to get to the water.
Is it gradual entry or a drop off.
Neighbors, do they rent weekly, renters love fireworks on their summer vacation, and it gets old.
Dirt road, it can really trash you cars. And dust can be and issue along with it.
Garage, pine needles and sap can really trash your car.
They all cost.
Place we ended up in has exactly the opposite sun exposure. We'd get May, June, July sunsets at the old place. This place will get August-April. This is nice because it won't get unberably hot in the peak months and the sun will warm us and extend the days when we need it the most. It was gorgeous this weekend (cold and grey at the old place). There is an island (that blocks those July sunsets) but that island blocks the prevailing winds.
It has a whopping 420ft of frontage. Gentle access. But only a tiny sandy beach. Which could be widened with permits (I think, not counting on it). Lot is not narrow in any dimension. And you can't see a neighbor in any direction !! It feels like you are on an island (it was an island 200 years ago). Nice mountain view (3000 ft Mount Cardigan) and the mountain will be snow capped any day now. Property is not flat, but it has bumps in all the right places.
Only 2 hrs from MA and water doesn't get any clearer. It does have a garage. But it is on the same dirt road but further in. Old place dust was a problem, new place dust should not be problem.
The loons are still visiting.
This was like the 8th try, lost count.
We tried in 2014 to "upgrade". We put a down payment on a house on Squam. And it was nifty spot. But we went back a couple days later and it was like 5PM and it was completely shaded. Oh crap what have we done. We look back on the camera on our existing home on NewFound and the sun was still beaming on the beach. Luckily due to a technical error on contingencies we got out easy. We had a good deal and they sold it for more.
Then last year we considered a gorgeous home on a low tax town of Hebron off the lake. It was like 180 acres. Overlooking the lake. The nicest porch we've ever seen (massively deep, you could hold a dance on it). We made an offer and they countered but we were worried about being too secluded. SO we never countered back. When COVID hit we thought, secluded could have been really nice thing.
Then there was one we had all lined up when we finally did sell on NewFound. Gorgeous home. Low taxes. Pretty poor water access (steep and marshy). My wife kept saying she could not get down to the water. I kept saying I'll fix it, I was satisfied we could get to the water at all, so I thought. We had agreement all signed. They knew I was concerned about sun exposure. They sent pictures implying sunset on the dock. turns out they were like 3PM. The property would never see a sunset any time of year from any place on the property. Then we took a boat ride to visit water side. Water was pretty cloudy. We knew that could happen but not so early in the season. Tons of loons though. But then the sellers asked if we could move closing out 30 days. We said ok. Then they asked for another 30 days but we'd still close on same date. We said ok. Then they asked for another 30 days. We signed P&S in June and they were talking about November. We requested same closing date and we'd have access to garage and property (outside). They were upset when we asked for that. At that time I knew something was wrong. They wanted to find the perfect home before they would even start packing and if they couldn't find it, they were gonna back out in September. I said we want out. They wanted deposit. Then I found out both agents knew that was their plan and had documentation to show it. As as I pointed that out we got the deposit back the next day.
Oh keep in mind we are moving our MiBox of stuff from one house to the next during a lot of this. The title company and miBox knew us well.
Another was on Cow island. Gorgeous home. That's what started this thread. Really torn because the home was so nice. But only 7 months was was killer. Especially with wanting a COVID safe haven this winter if needed. Price was pretty steep for 7 months (they were asking $1.3 million). We did put an offer. They made a fair counter offer. But we passed.
Then a 2nd Squam house pops up. Talked about in this thread. It seems just the right trade offs. Gorgeous sun exposure (not mountain sunsets though). Squam is tough to get mountain sunsets on, probably $5million if it does. Affordable because it was 3 season and not a huge lot. But abutting neighbors were an Air BB and so was the cottage we were looking at. Renters can get tough if you have dogs and the renters have unfriendly dogs and you're pretty close. All refurbed. But no closets, renters don't need closets. It did have a new well and walls were insulated. All that needed to be done was insulating under it.
What ever we were going to buy we wanted it to be an easy sale in case it doesn't work out. So if say we put a new house on it, would we get that investment back? We thought so. Until the Septic Assement came in. That basically capped its value increase rate. This was a problem with our place on NewFound. Nice place, but Septic limits held it back.
2nd isLand. Another gorgeous home. Had the Gilford perks. And much closer to travel from MA. And cheaper. Really nice sun exposure (maybe too much). First buyer fell through. They had multiple backup offers over asking. We were about to put $100K over asking, no inspections, cash offer. Then I got the prior buyers inspection report. I posted about that above. Huge mold issues because builder didn't know what he was doing. House was sitting on rocks moved into place by hand. I could not pay that much, we never signed P&S.
Another off the lake house in Alton. Most gorgeous home we have ever seen. All essentially new. Super efficient. 360 mountain views/sunsets on top of a hill. 100 Acres. 12 acres of blueberries, that contract farmer took care of and made profits for owner with. We were so close to putting an offer. But it wasn't close to anything. It was an hour to anything on the west side of Winni. Why have a nice house with no water. We finally passed.
Then the compound that was listed for a long time. We finally decided to look at it. With rental income it was cheap and could be split. I posted about that one in this thread. One attraction was it could be split. Until we found out they sold a piece of it while signing the P&S. It took a while to figure out splitting was compromised with that sale. We lost $25K (half the deposit).
Now we found another nice off water house in Meredith (keep in mind these are over $1 million with no water). Waukawan in views and mountains. Could walk to public beach. We finally passed. We didn't have the excuse of it being not close to stuff. But every time a water front came up in our price range, especially on NewFound lake we were all over it.
Then magically one pops up near our old house on NewFound. No showings for a week. And sale depends on court approval. We put a full price offer, no inspections, site unseen, contingent that they accept it before any showings or else the offer was reduced (a bonus to sign early, well that didn't work, but the realtor was impressed with the idea). They would not answer the offer until end of a week of showings. So we schedule the first viewing.
The day before we view it another house pops up abutting the one we just put an offer on. I was on my way 20 minutes after it was listed. This was at 5PM and it's getting dark at 7PM and I'm 2 hours away. Realtor drove up from Portsmouth NH !! Renters were going to occupy the next day for a week. We started the P&S process the next day while we looked at the house next door (watching the renters arrive at the other house, too funny). They had 14 Showings that followed us THAT DAY (this is the first house that needed court approval, in case you are lost
). We knew our offer was more or less dead. So we signed a new P&S with this latest home (that I saw the night before at 7PM in the dark). Owner accepted our first offer !! We got huge browny points for being former neighbors and they knew I took care of a shared dirt road with my tractor. So the next day, we officially pull our unanswered offer on the house next store. Then we get news that the Executor selling the home was removed and the home is no longer for sale. Talk about fate !!
When we sold our house we were kind of bummed buyers were not coming to the closing. We kind of wanted to see them off, see their excitement, we thought it would ease our emotions. The seller of the house we just bought, more or less demanded we meet at closing. She was just as emotional as we were and wanted to see who she was passing it off to. We were thrilled to meet her as well. I think it was in her family for well over 50 years, maybe more.
We did a ton of homework on what to offer on the last house.