Can't decide on property, we want our cake and eat it too

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by mswlogo

If it didn’t have a road through it, it would have been $3m. Tons of homes on Newfound lake are like that. It’s a glacier lake. Original roads are very close to the water in a lot of parts.

I’d love to have 360 views of mountains, sunrise, sunset, 5 acres, brand new home and low taxes, private, no dust and neighbors that don’t rent, easy to drive to and near stuff. Oh and zero light pollution would be nice too. Bonus would be a boathouse. There are a few of those out there. Problem is they are $10m+

Fair enough. I guess this is where it gets personal—for me, a street and cars between me and the lake isn't lakefront.

Question, though: you've mentioned in almost all your "possibles" that you'll do a sizeable amount of work and/or rebuild. Have you considered putting those funds towards the purchase, increasing your range of homes from which to choose?

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[mswlogo]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

Fair enough. I guess this is where it gets personal—for me, a street and cars between me and the lake isn't lakefront.

Question, though: you've mentioned in almost all your "possibles" that you'll do a sizeable amount of work and/or rebuild. Have you considered putting those funds towards the purchase, increasing your range of homes from which to choose?

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Upgrades would be future funds and were never a guarantee. But we considered homes up to $2m but our criteria was much much higher if we went that much. We have zero debt with what we bought. All we have to pay for is food, taxes and health insurance. Energy is zero for us (Solar makes money and fuels both cars).

We considered as low as a $200k shared beach cottage too. Figuring we could at least be on the lake and took our time shopping over years. But lake home hunting can absolutely ruin a summer too.

What we bought might not be forever either. Depends on what planning boards allow us to do. Also might depend on what the market does. That’s why I like the rent backup option. In case things did go south, say on job and market. Rent could fill in if needed. People will always rent. That extra backup security was the trade we made for accepting the road. That was partly why we sold. If I want to retire (or forced to early) the taxes on both homes plus health insurance was a little tight. But now it’s not.

And there are many things better about this place vs our last. Old place No garage, ever, very limited septic options if septic failed (might have needed to go holding tank). Limited sun as season progressed. Sometimes dust was bad if wind was not the prevailing direction. Endless cleaning of pine needles coming in. I’d spend 3-4 weekends in spring cleaning it. 3 levels in House (Washroom on bottom, bedroom on top) and 4th to the water.

My wife can comfortably take herself and our dogs on the golf cart right down to the beach. Golf cart is great, she packs it with all the beach stuff and food. Our dogs love it. One dog constantly jumps into the golf cart hinting let’s go to the beach. Because that’s what we used at the old property. Old property had a lot of stairs or you could go around the long way with the golf cart. A lot of properties my wife could not handle getting to the water. The golf cart is like a Gazebo on wheels. Love it.

All our favorite spots are close by land or water. Friends live a few houses over. Gorgeous long views from house high on hill as well as seeing all the action on the lake from the cottages close to the water. They get $3000/wk for the house and around $1250/wk for each cottage. But I’m not sure I want to deal with renters at all if we don’t have to.

One thing I’ve learned is you can convince yourself into or out of anything

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by mswlogo

One thing I’ve learned is you can convince yourself into or out of anything

You're clearly thoughtful about the whole picture, though.

I've learned a lot about buyer's (and, in this case, seller's) remorse in my life both as a salesman and consumer, so I research and plan as much as necessary to reduce that potential to as close to zero as possible.

Thanks for sharing your process and thoughts.

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