Buying a lake community home in the winter

[Descant]

Due diligence is never 100%. I bought a "closed" house where the home inspector turned on the furnace, and it started right up. He shut it off and said "That looks OK". After closing we turned on the heat and after a few minutes it automatically shut down because the exchanger was shot and it was pumping carbon monoxide into the air ducts. Next house was a cash deal so no inspector and I brought in my contractor and HVAC guy. We all watched the caretaker who had shut the house down dry fire the boiler. On the spot, the seller's agent dropped the sale price by the cost of a new boiler as quoted by my HVAC guy. A new boiler is a nice perk on a "used" house. Town Hall will have permit records for others in the community that have replaced septic systems. Be aware that there is pending legislation about septics and property close to waterfront. 250' feet in the bill now could change to 500' when the bill goes to the Senate. Well water: be sure to test for PFAS. It's more expensive that just a potable test. It cost me $5500 for a PFAS filtration system, reimbursed by the state of NH.
Bottom line, anything that is suspect, have your contractor give you a price and set up an escrow account to settle 60-90 days after closing.

[MeredithMan]

Whether water-access or waterfront, the clarity of the water and the condition of the bottom were always major considerations for us when we were looking to buy. Is the bottom rocky? Sandy? Sticks and pinecones and muck? In some areas of Moultonboro the water appears to have a "brownish" hue, even though it is very clean. Unfortunately, you can't see and make a judgement on any of this when the lake is frozen over. If you really love the house and the community, perhaps your realtor can help you get pix of the waterfront area from the sellers or their realtor so you can make a (semi) informed decision.

Good luck!

[WinterHarborGuy]

I understand you may be hesitant to name the community. I would suggest maybe you search this forum with that community name and see what you can find. There are some communities that have issues with crowded amenities or waterfront or just bad HOAs. There might be mentions here…

[Susie Cougar]

Originally Posted by WinterHarborGuy

I understand you may be hesitant to name the community. I would suggest maybe you search this forum with that community name and see what you can find. There are some communities that have issues with crowded amenities or waterfront or just bad HOAs. There might be mentions here…

That’s what I was thinking. If you tell us what community you are looking at,I’m sure you will get many responses.

[Couple of Lakers]

Originally Posted by WinterHarborGuy

I understand you may be hesitant to name the community. I would suggest maybe you search this forum with that community name and see what you can find. There are some communities that have issues with crowded amenities or waterfront or just bad HOAs. There might be mentions here…

Always make sure to do your due diligence. We had someone who bought a place in our small community to run an air bnb business. This was not allowed by our HOA and ended up being a huge problem for the buyer after they found out. They ended up selling again.

Check condos bylaws and if possible have a chat with other owners that can answer questions sometimes better than a realtor.

I'm not sure if anyone would want to live in a place where guests are constantly rotating and getting drunk all hours of the night.

We understand that folks like to get help paying for their investment. But personally we don't want to entertain strangers on vacation on a daily basis during the summer.

So bottom line in an HOA check the rental rules. The community does make a huge difference!

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by Couple of Lakers

Always make sure to do your due diligence. We had someone who bought a place in our small community to run an air bnb business. This was not allowed by our HOA and ended up being a huge problem for the buyer after they found out. They ended up selling again.

Check condos bylaws and if possible have a chat with other owners that can answer questions sometimes better than a realtor.

I'm not sure if anyone would want to live in a place where guests are constantly rotating and getting drunk all hours of the night.

We understand that folks like to get help paying for their investment. But personally we don't want to entertain strangers on vacation on a daily basis during the summer.

So bottom line in an HOA check the rental rules. The community does make a huge difference!

An HOA near us changed the rules after a guy bought for Airbnb. A bad situation for him. But as you say, too many abuses

[SAB1]

Originally Posted by MeredithMan

Whether water-access or waterfront, the clarity of the water and the condition of the bottom were always major considerations for us when we were looking to buy. Is the bottom rocky? Sandy? Sticks and pinecones and muck? In some areas of Moultonboro the water appears to have a "brownish" hue, even though it is very clean. Unfortunately, you can't see and make a judgement on any of this when the lake is frozen over. If you really love the house and the community, perhaps your realtor can help you get pix of the waterfront area from the sellers or their realtor so you can make a (semi) informed decision.

Good luck!

Beyond the physical home this is a great point. You need to know where you are buying if you are in it for lake use. This can impact value and the amount of time it could take you to sell it down the road. As mentioned above there are areas of the lake with brown water, lots of weeds and of course the water rats (geese). Geese absolutely suck to put it mildly. Not to stir pot and some may take issue with this but if I were looking to buy right now I would wait and see where this blue green algae threat goes in the next couple years. This could be problem.

[TomC]

All the above makes sense... but the problem with real estate is the inventory is constantly changing so what is available today will likely not be available if one takes the time to do the recommended diligence. Real estate is personal, so if a particular property checks all the boxes, a case can be made to move fast or miss out. A conundrum...

[Biggd]

Originally Posted by TomC

All the above makes sense... but the problem with real estate is the inventory is constantly changing so what is available today will likely not be available if one takes the time to do the recommended diligence. Real estate is personal, so if a particular property checks all the boxes, a case can be made to move fast or miss out. A conundrum...

FOMO, is what the younger generation call it. As a 70 year old, that has been through many up and down markets, that's a bad reason to buy!
We've had a tremendous run up in prices over the last five years. Personally, I don't think it will last much longer, JMO.