Selling Your Lakefront Property? You’ll Get More If You Get Shoreline Work
We originally published this in our regular column on Angie’s List, but also wanted to share it here on the site
We’ve worked with countless owners of shoreline property whose realtors told them to restore their shoreline before they list their home.
As a lake-home owner, your backyard is as central to your property as most people’s front yards are to theirs. It’s the first thing you notice. It’s what everyone else notices and remembers (and envies). It says more about one’s “status” than perhaps it should.
People who are in the market for a lake home are a unique breed. They have different priorities.
Lake-home buyers tend not to care about a missing door or color of the shutters. But they will take you to the mat over a forgotten, weedy, eroded shoreline. You probably paid a hefty sum for your lake-front property, and you’d like to sell it for significantly more. Instead, they’ll be talking you down on price. Wrong direction.
People who want lakefront property want it for emotional reasons.
The first thing potential buyers do when they enter your home is walk to the first window overlooking the water. They won’t hear what you say about the new tiles in your foyer. They won’t hear their spouse ask, “Don’t you just love those tiles, honey?” They’ll block out all of that, because they’re trying to imagine what they’ll see and hear and feel when they own their piece of the lake.
If what they picture isn’t just a little magical, then their brain wins the debate. They’ll go back to thinking about money and numbers, and they’ll haggle with you – if they’re still interested at all.
On the other hand, if they love what they see when they first look out the window, you could tell them the toilets don’t work, the furnace has a year left, and they’re two miles from a Superfund facility. They’ll block all that out, too. The heart has won.
Even at this point, they’re probably mostly sold. Now you just have to show them up-close what they saw from the window. It’s time to walk outside and have a look at the shoreline.
Most people buying lake homes are new to the “living on the water” lifestyle. They have dreams of sunbathing and reading a good book in the afternoons, and sitting around a fire in the evenings. You’ll want to play to that as much as possible.
That’s because they haven’t considered the minor drawbacks. They have no idea that, in reality, snoopy neighbors can sometimes make it impossible to walk outside in a bathing suit and not be seen. Or that some days they’ll be raking weeds from the shoreline rather than rubbing on suntan lotion. Or that mosquitos will invite themselves to the family cookout.
Your mission is not to let those kinds of thoughts creep in. You do that by doubling down on the eye-pleasing and the convenient.
Throw in crisp and clean-looking riprap along the shoreline. Remove some of the aquatic weeds. Lay down some sand to make it feel like an ocean beach. May even add a circular paver patio with a raised fire pit, or add a staircase to take your potential buyer down to the lake in style.
Of course, your buyers may also be interested in the house itself. (Who’da thunk?) We can’t really help you there.
But if you nail the lake-front part, they’re more likely to fork over big for a house they don’t love yet to get a piece of lake they love already.
Get more for your lake property. Contact Lakeshore Guys® today. (Caution: we’ll do the kind of work that may make you not want to sell your property after all!)