Almost everyone dreams of owning a waterfront home someday, but dreams can turn into nightmares, or at least additional chores. Owning a waterfront home comes with some maintenance issues that you might not have thought about while focusing on all of the positives that come with waterfront houses. That isn’t to say they aren’t worth it, but looking at your true needs will help you make a decision on whether you want waterfront or waterview for your next lake home. Let’s take a look at a few things you should compare while house shopping.
Waterfront Pros and Cons
Having a waterfront home typically means you can have a dock and you will more than likely have waterviews from most rooms in your home to enjoy throughout the day. You will be able to have your boat docked directly at your home for easy use, maybe even a private little beach to swim from, or just enjoy your morning coffee sitting by the water. Of course with that comes maintenance of the dock, rip rap or seawall maintenance of your water frontage, boat house maintenance and upkeep, and the potential for noise coming from the water. If you are on the high speed area of a lake the boat noise can be significant on weekends and holidays.
Some problems can be mitigated by being on a quieter finger of the lake, but then you will have tradeoffs on your waterviews and potentially the usable area of water in front of your dock for swimming and other activities. Depending on what you lake you buy on, vacation rentals may also be an issue for waterfront home owners. If you plan to live there full time, your neighbors might be different every week during high season as waterfront homes are more likely to be rented as vacation rentals.
Depending on lake and deed rights you may even be able to use lake water for gardening and watering your lawn.
Waterview Pros and Cons
If you choose to go with a waterview home, you will of course be giving up the ability to just hop in your boat directly from your house, but you can rent a marina slip if available or use the boat ramp for daily access. If you are a canoe or kayak user this is less of a hassle, or if you simply don’t want to boat! You won’t have to worry about dock maintenance or anything along those lines.
Sometimes you can find lake views that are even better than being directly on the water! Waterview properties tend to be higher than waterfront homes and so you can potentially find a home with sweeping views of the lake. If you want a larger backyard, space for a pool or other amenities it can be difficult to find a waterfront home that has the land space or low enough water table to do what you want without adding to your budget. Waterview properties can often fill those wish lists, and of course at a much lower cost.
Determining which tradeoffs are right for your lake home can be difficult, but from our point of view you really can’t go wrong either way! Lake living is wonderful no matter where you are on the lake!