The summer is over. So too the traditional lake-house shopping season. Several unsold properties have already gone off market, quietly putting themselves away until next spring. But a surprising number of houses have come on the market recently, the sellers trying to take advantage of the year’s last window of opportunity: early fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week a real beaut showed up on Zillow, and it was within our price range. I called up the Realtor right away and scheduled a viewing. We arrived before she did, and the moment we stepped into the back yard, I could hear the water lapping on the shore and felt an immediate calm. The house was a classic 1940s-era cabin. I loved almost everything about it, even its dinky kitchen and its shabby old furniture, which was to be included in the sale. Being there was like stepping back in time to a safer, quieter way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The house was only a seasonal, and it would have to remain so, we decided, due to its alarmingly steep driveway and total lack of other parking. That I wasn’t keen on, but I could have lived with it and all of the cottage’s visible flaws, because it had three reasonably-sized bedrooms that all had lake views, and the plot had both shade and sun, plus privacy and a level, sandy approach to the water. It was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we looked a little deeper and found some hidden issues. It had a shallow well (which means it pulls lake water), and it needed a new septic system (because the current one was both outdated and located close to the lake, which isn’t allowed anymore). The small plot left few options for placing the new septic, and the relocation might have required the well to be moved, too. We knew from visiting another cottage with similar issues that the fix could cost a small fortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even that we might have managed in other circumstances, but the cottage was being sold as a 3-bedroom and the town had it listed as a 1-bedroom–a discrepancy that could have caused issues later–and the seller had set a Sunday deadline for offers. That deadline left us with no time to talk Town Hall, septic installers, our lawyer, or anyone else who could have helped us to understand what we might be getting ourselves into and what contingencies we’d need to put in our offer. If only we’d a had a few more days! But we didn’t, and we couldn’t afford the risk, so we had to let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Monday it was listed as “sale pending.” I’d known it would be, but I’m nonetheless a little heartbroken, and I’ve nicknamed that lake house “The One That Got Away.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The summer is over. So too the traditional lake-house shopping season. Several unsold properties have already gone off market, quietly putting themselves away until next spring. But a surprising number of houses have come on the market recently, the sellers … Continue reading