Anyone buy a house on the lake? Fish more?

[softwateronly]

We bought as everything/prices were falling in 08 but they certainly crashed even more afterwards. It’s a little less than 2 hrs from our home. Might have been the best decision or the worst, depends on the day. A second property pretty much excludes traveling. You see the payments you make and it’s hard to justify going to other places. The Mrs and I get out somewhere new every few years or so in Feb. The fishing and time spent fishing have done nothing but get better. You can always take your boat to a new lake if you need a change. Waking up or spending all night on the water is amazing. If the ecosystem of the lake doesn’t crash, it’s a pretty good place to put your hard earned money. 
 

Scott

 

PS - we spent years renting it out by the week. Really helped make ends meet. 

[fishhugger]

thought provoking..............!

[GRiver]

My wife and I live on the water, when we first moved here I actually fished less. Always something had to be done, or I thought so.

Now I’ll get out there real early fish till midday, then come home cut the grass or whatever. Or get what needs to be done early in the day and head out and fish till dark…. or after. 

When I wasn’t living on the water and trailering to the water I set a day and I went, no matter what. Rain, wind or whatever. 
Now that we live on the water I’m a little more flexible about it.

[TnRiver46]

We rented ours for over 20 years , that can go either way. I’m going to move there one day but of course keep one boat in the driveway on a trailer and canoe/kayak/or Jon boat down at the dock. You don’t have to stuck on one lake if you live on it, the wheels still roll 

[geo g]

I like renting a big house on the water and the entire familly comes for a week.  Rent a boat for the week.  Somewhere different every year and walk away with no maintenance of any kind.  We will go back to a place we really liked and all the pieces came together.  Absolutely no headaches and no work.  We have found some beautiful places.

[rangerjockey]

I have trailer on Table Rock and love it. We had a condo for 5 years or so but sold it to be closer to the marina where I keep my boat. 

Lots of bass boats around us and even in the summer busy season the lake pretty much belongs to the fisherman until 10 am or so. 

 We will probably build a house down here whenever I retire and move here permanently but for now this is great. The guy we rent the pad from keeps the grass cut and I only pay for electric the water and sewer is on him.

I'm not going to say it's cheap but to us it's worth it and I can be on Bull Shoals in 20 minutes if we want a change of scenery.

I personally wouldn't try to maintain 2 homes.

 

[NHBull]

I have a camp on a 200 acre pond that is known for monster trout.

 

The best thing is that you can go out when ever you want and I find myself goi g out for a lot of short periods instead of my traditional longer periods when I go for bass at home.

 

It's just different 

[TnRiver46]

47 minutes ago, rangerjockey said:

I have trailer on Table Rock and love it. We had a condo for 5 years or so but sold it to be closer to the marina where I keep my boat. 

Lots of bass boats around us and even in the summer busy season the lake pretty much belongs to the fisherman until 10 am or so. 

 We will probably build a house down here whenever I retire and move here permanently but for now this is great. The guy we rent the pad from keeps the grass cut and I only pay for electric the water and sewer is on him.

I'm not going to say it's cheap but to us it's worth it and I can be on Bull Shoals in 20 minutes if we want a change of scenery.

I personally wouldn't try to maintain 2 homes.

 

The secret to maintaining two homes: have fishing buddies that are carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. That’s what I’ve done hahaha. 

[the reel ess]

We had a lake house in my family from 2 years before I was born until about 3 years ago. My sister and I finally sold it after my dad passed. It seems to me that it was a whole lot of work. My dad would take a couple weeks a year to spend there. We worked half of that time keeping the place up and making improvements. It requires owning two of a lot of things. You need security or good neighbors to watch out for you when you're not there. But some of the best times of my life were spent there. It was just never the same after my mom died. So after my dad passed it was downright depressing to go there.

 

Oh, but to the point, we did fish a lot.

[Deephaven]

There are other things to weigh when thinking about buying lake frontage.  First, is it the lake you want to fish the most?  Second, if you do and you keep your boat on it do you keep all your stuff in it?  I used to keep my Ranger 521 at my dock....and then someone stole both my graphs, 20 rods and a bunch of tackle.  Now even though we have a dock to keep it on it is in my garage safe and sound.  Have a runabout on the water for other boating.  To be fair the boat launch is so close to me that I can probably launch my boat faster than I could take a cover off so perhaps my compromise isn't normal.

Personally, I would probably pick a really small lake where a powered kayak or other small vessel was king and keep that on the water and have my fishing boat in a garage.  

 

 

[Yakalong]

Having a vacation home on the lake has been the best purchase. I've owned it for 7years now. Love it! We talked about it for quite of few years and decided what are we waiting for? We want to use it before we are to old, so we purchased and haven't looked back. We told ourselves and still believe if we ever stop going then we will sell it. I don't see us selling anytime soon. It is so nice to have the boat on a lift. Previously, I would pass sometimes on fishing because I only had an hour or so, now I can fish for an hour or so and have the boat back on the lift in no time. Great purchase and I would do it again. 

[flyfisher]

i don't want to live on a lake but a place with access to the susquehanna river would definitely pique my interest  

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

i don't want to live on a lake but a place with access to the susquehanna river would definitely pique my interest  

You better put it way up high 

[clemsondds]

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.  We are going to look for a house on the lake, close by.  We were looking at a lake that's 2 hours away, but I agree with others...if it's too far then you just end up doing maintenance when you are there since you go less often.  And yes, we have been doing the rent a house on the lake, for the past 8 years (twice a year) and it's fun...but very competitive and expensive...just not many options.  Would rather just put that money into our own place. Thanks again! 

[GANGGREEN]

I think I qualify to answer the question.  My wife and I just purchased a very small, seasonal home on an upstate SC lake last May.  We aren't lakefront, but we live in a lakefront community and as such, we have privileges, a launch and a community day use dock (no permanent boat dock or slips though).  So far, at least from my perspective, it's been a fabulous decision that I/we haven't regretted.  Because we don't have our own dock on the lake, we still have to launch daily, but it's literally minutes to launch on "our lake" or less than half an hour to launch on a couple of other large and well-known lakes.   Because we're keeping our farm up north, at least initially, it DOES increase my maintenance, but I can only work on one house/yard at a time anyway and my maintenance on the "lake house" is pretty minimal.  

I went from fishing a couple of times a month, but only from March-November, to now fishing several times a week and being able to do it literally straight through the winter.  When we head north in a month or so, I'll be back to my normal routine of only fishing occasionally, but over the course of the year, I fish MUCH more than I used to.   The decision for us was and is mostly a financial one.  If we were independently wealthy, we'd live lakefront with a permanent dock, but on our lake the real estate has just become stupid expensive.

 

[TnRiver46]

25 minutes ago, GANGGREEN said:

I think I qualify to answer the question.  My wife and I just purchased a very small, seasonal home on an upstate SC lake last May.  We aren't lakefront, but we live in a lakefront community and as such, we have privileges, a launch and a community day use dock (no permanent boat dock or slips though).  So far, at least from my perspective, it's been a fabulous decision that I/we haven't regretted.  Because we don't have our own dock on the lake, we still have to launch daily, but it's literally minutes to launch on "our lake" or less than half an hour to launch on a couple of other large and well-known lakes.   Because we're keeping our farm up north, at least initially, it DOES increase my maintenance, but I can only work on one house/yard at a time anyway and my maintenance on the "lake house" is pretty minimal.  

I went from fishing a couple of times a month, but only from March-November, to now fishing several times a week and being able to do it literally straight through the winter.  When we head north in a month or so, I'll be back to my normal routine of only fishing occasionally, but over the course of the year, I fish MUCH more than I used to.   The decision for us was and is mostly a financial one.  If we were independently wealthy, we'd live lakefront with a permanent dock, but on our lake the real estate has just become stupid expensive.

 

Yeah it’s crazy . I would imagine our house might have cost less than 100k to build in the late 80s. Now they are going for over half a million, people from CA and NY buy them sight unseen 

 

granted I’ve already heard of some folks moving right back to CA after they attend a few committee meeting and realize how country we are 

[GANGGREEN]

8 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah it’s crazy . I would imagine our house might have cost less than 100k to build in the late 80s. Now they are going for over half a million, people from CA and NY buy them sight unseen 

 

granted I’ve already heard of some folks moving right back to CA after they attend a few committee meeting and realize how country we are 

 

So far they aren't moving back from here yet.    Lots from Chicago, NJ, PA, etc. etc..

[TnRiver46]

10 minutes ago, GANGGREEN said:

 

So far they aren't moving back from here yet.    Lots from Chicago, NJ, PA, etc. etc..

You need to start wearing overalls and carrying a shovel, it’ll scare them off 

[flyfisher]

2 hours ago, clemsondds said:

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.  We are going to look for a house on the lake, close by.  We were looking at a lake that's 2 hours away, but I agree with others...if it's too far then you just end up doing maintenance when you are there since you go less often.  And yes, we have been doing the rent a house on the lake, for the past 8 years (twice a year) and it's fun...but very competitive and expensive...just not many options.  Would rather just put that money into our own place. Thanks again! 

yup but i would take a 5 minute drive to the ramp rather than 4 hours.

[Choporoz]

Bought our retirement lake house last summer.  But I'm still 3 years from retirement.  It is four hours from work, so we kept both houses for now.  The growing equity makes it cheaper than selling and then renting  something for weekday usage.  Honestly thought I'd do a fair amount of teleworking from the lake house, but I got a crash course in the challenges of 'rural broadband'.  So, my wife spends most weekdays at the lake house and I spend most weekdays at the old house.  It is working well for us so far.  She does a great job of routine maintenance inside and out to ensure that my weekends aren't all work.

   I'm glad we jumped when we fell into the right house on the right lake.  I think if waterfront is important,  you should pull the trigger as soon as the math works.   Few lake homes are appreciating slower than income/ability to afford.  Most just aren't going to be relatively more affordable later.

[TnRiver46]

20 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Bought our retirement lake house last summer.  But I'm still 3 years from retirement.  It is four hours from work, so we kept both houses for now.  The growing equity makes it cheaper than seeling and then renting  something for weekday usage.  Honestly thought I'd do a fair amount of teleworking from the lake house, but I got a crash course in the challenges of 'rural broadband'.  So, my wife spends most weekdays at the lake house and I spend most weekdays at the old house.  It is working well for us so far.  She does a great job of routine maintenance inside and out to ensure that my weekends aren't all work.

   I'm glad we jumped when we fell into the right house on the right lake.  I think if waterfront is important,  you should pull the trigger as soon as the math works.   Few lake homes are appreciating slower than income/ability to afford.  Most just aren't going to be relatively more affordable later.

That last sentence must be very true……

 

I just ran by our place to check on my chimney patch and the mouse traps. The neighbors were out on the porch and informed me that a house just up the street a couple hundred yards sold for $1.5 million, and it’s not on the water. I nearly fainted, but apparently it’s brand new and quite fancy with 3 car garage 

[soflabasser]

I live in South Florida where you can spend a whole lifetime fishing and never fish all the lakes, ponds, canals, and other bodies of water. A vacation house with a lake is nice but I rather fish several locations since I enjoy multi species fishing.

[Bassin Bruce]

I lived on a small lake when we first got married some 35 years ago. It was a great largemouth bass lake and I caught my PB there but I too love to go to different bodies of water and found myself doing just that more often than not.

[TnRiver46]

Again, it’s not like there’s a force field around you lakefront home preventing you from driving to different water 

[Captain Phil]

Many older guys want a home on the water with a dock for their boat.  They believe this would make it easier to go fishing.  If you have ever kept your boat hanging in a dock, you know the truth.  Bugs, snakes and creatures of all types can get in your boat and birds crap all over it.  Washing it is a hassle and maintenance can be difficult.   Covering and uncovering a boat in a dock is a chore in itself. You get to meet dock carpenters on a regular basis.   Then there's the problem of theft.   I kept my boat on davits for a few years and it was way more work than towing it around.