Periodically I search the web for real-estate listings grouped under the heading:
Water Front Property. After my wife and I watched the value of our camp on Wassookeg Lake double in a very short period of time, we decided that another piece of property on the water would be a good idea. Unfortunately, unless this weeks Power Ball ticket is a winner, money is an issue. We have some money tucked away but the longer we wait the more expensive water front property becomes. We need a bargain. Experience has told me that there is no such thing but I still find myself getting excited every time I see a 50,000-dollar price tag floating in the sea of 250,000-dollar price tags. Before I click on the link, I can’t help wondering which of the three types of water front property it will be.
If, for the paltry sum of 50,000 dollars, our piece of property falls into the first category, it would be the equivalent of buying that old car in the barn for 500-dollars and discovering a 63 Corvette hiding under the tarp. This category is entitled
Ocean Front Property. Of course, the chances of this happing are a million to one. Land on the ocean is so far out of my league that I really have no idea what it sells for. I do know that a commercial broker usually handles the sale of property on the ocean, and an asking price of a million dollars is not uncommon. I also know of a ramshackle, one-bedroom, ocean front camp in Cape Elizabeth that sold for 250,000 dollars. The land was not included with the camp but instead; it was leased on a year-to-year basis with no guarantee that the lease would be renewed. If I click on my link and find
Ocean Front Property for 50,000-dollars I will be able to retire early.
The second category our property could fall under is entitled:
Lake Front Property.
This grouping of real estate covers a vast number of options and price ranges. It would be more accurately categorized as “Any” Body Of Water Front Property. Ponds, streams, brooks, rivers and lakes are all fair game in this category. When I click on my link I am hoping to land in this category. If I am lucky I will find something on a decently sized lake that is not more than a 2-3 hour drive from Augusta. I am hoping to stumble on to an undeveloped lot that I can possibly build on ten years from now. The prices on
Lake Front Property vary greatly, but in general, the further north you travel, the cheaper the price. There are exceptions. Moose Head Lake would be a good example of one. A quarter of an acre lot, if you could find one, would go for at least 100,000 dollars.
Our last option under the water front property heading is where I hope not to end up. When it comes to real estate I have found that the word disappointment can be spelled R.O.W. This is real estate jargon for Right of Way. The property in this category is not on the water at all. If you purchase property in the
Deeded Right of Way category you obtain access to some body of water (usually by walking through the back yards of two or three of your neighbors) or the use of a communal beach (typically shared by thirty other lot owners in a development of some sort). Every time the land I am interested in ends up in this category, which is most times, I can’t help but feel bamboozled.
Five years ago, a friend of mine was trying to sell an old post and beam camp in upstate Maine for 20,000 dollars. Someone suggested that he advertise it in the New York Times as a Maine hunting camp. They also told him that no one would give anything priced under 150,000 dollars a second glance. Two months later he was a 100,000 dollars richer. My property in Sidney abuts a good size beaver bog. Perhaps I need a New York Times add that reads:
Water Front Hunting Camp for Sale-1, 000,000 dollars / willing to negotiate.
