Lake House Purchase

[Kevin M]

After owning my boat for three years, we have decided that we love the boating life! We have been all over with the boat (Marco Island, FL, Punta Gorda, FL, Ohio River, Lake Erie and local lakes and the best, Lake Cumberland, KY. Lake Cumberland is such a wonderful lake to boat in and perfect fit for a jet boat! We are now looking at buying a small lake house to go to during the season. We are just starting the process but hopefully in a short while, we will be able to find something that fits the bill. Right now, we are checking out a place that is on a private, quite, wooded road and about 1/4 mile to the boat ramp. Getting excited!

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Love it! I wish there was waterfront property around here that 1. I could afford and 2. doesn't harbor appendature chomping gators!

Good luck and yeah.... I'm jelious of you Northern folk!

 

[Kevin M]

@Murf'n'surf , here's the plan. Buy a lake cottage at Lake Cumberland to enjoy May-Oct with the boat. Retire in 7 years and move to Florida, deep south as I never want to see cold weather ever! Maybe live at the lake house Memorial day to November and the sunshine state for the winter. I love Florida but unfortunately, can't move until I retire although I am ready to move now. Lake Cumberland will fit the bill in the meantime!

 

[Britboater]

Some of the pictures I see of you guys in the US with lakeside properties makes me so envious (in a nice way ). Beautiful countryside, clear lakes and some fantastic looking real estate, @MikeyL comes to mind, talk about green grass . To have a boat at the bottom of your garden is just the best, we have some gorgeous lakes here in the UK, but the tree huggin brigade get their way and no power craft are aloud! , such a waste and shame.
Having a boat in Florida is a must, kinda like the two go together, best wishes for the future and if you do look in South West Florida, great!

 

[bthessel]

We own a cabin at lake Cumberland, actually we are there right now and plan on taking the boat out tomorrow just to enjoy the leaves and the open water, water is 78 on the surface so bet the kids jump in. (Not this guy!) My advice would be to look for a place that is in a gated community, ours is in Lake Cumberland Resort near Burnside. That or get a really good security system if you are going to leave it unattended.

 

[Kevin M]

Is there a problem with crime there @bthessel ? The place we (just about bought) is off the road, pretty private cul-de-sac. I can't see too many people going back there but you never know.

 

[bthessel]

Is there a problem with crime there @bthessel ? The place we (just about bought) is off the road, pretty private cul-de-sac. I can't see too many people going back there but you never know.

I wouldn't say there is a problem but you do hear stories about places that are isolated getting broken in to and cleaned out (air conditioners stolen, atv's, boats stripped etc. ) personally when we bought this place last year I was looking for somewhere that there would be people around a lot to notice anything odd.

Where our cabin is there is a security guard that patrols every few hours. A lot of the cabins are in a rental program so there are people in and out, and during the offseason I can pay someone $25 a month to check on the cabin once a month and after any bad storms to make sure there is no problems. (roof leaks, tree fell on it, etc) There are a few for sale at pretty reasonable prices. I can tell you we didn't pay a lot for our 3 bedroom.

 

[Kevin M]

Ok, sounds good. I have a friend that lives close by and would have him run by periodically to check it as well, like you. We love the location and the house is small, no garage so I will not be leaving any toys there other then the boat over the summer but I will be there every other weekend. The house is only 10 years old so it's like new and doesn't require much work and thats what I want. It's small again, don't want something very big since this is a second home and, had a strict budget. I may invest in an alarm anyways as thats always a good deterrent. I appreciate the advice and hope to see you on water next summer!

 

[Big Shasta]

Ok, sounds good. I have a friend that lives close by and would have him run by periodically to check it as well, like you. We love the location and the house is small, no garage so I will not be leaving any toys there other then the boat over the summer but I will be there every other weekend. The house is only 10 years old so it's like new and doesn't require much work and thats what I want. It's small again, don't want something very big since this is a second home and, had a strict budget. I may invest in an alarm anyways as thats always a good deterrent. I appreciate the advice and hope to see you on water next summer!

If there is cell service there, check out www.simplisafe.com Great system, easy to install, all wireless and monitoring is only 15.00 a month for the basic monitoring. 25.00 if you want to be able to see/control status from your cell phone. And no contracts.

Cost me about 400.00 for the initial hardware but I got a LOT of stuff...monitored smoke alarms, multiple panic buttons....multiple window switches for some windows so I can leave them open slightly and still have them active.

If you decide to go that route, we both win if I refer you.

Get A Free Month of Alarm Monitoring
(when you give your friends 5% off)
Tell your friends about your decision to buy SimpliSafe, and send them a 5% off coupon.
You’ll get a free month of service whenever your friends buy an alarm with us. It’s a win-win-win!

 

[Kevin M]

Thank you, I will keep that in mind.

 

[Kevin M]

Done deal. We now own a lake house! Can't wait for the summer now to really get some hours on the boat (165 currently). Going down to do some work and make it our own this weekend. This is probably the most expensive mods for my boat to date, lol!

 

[Julian]

Done deal. We now own a lake house! Can't wait for the summer now to really get some hours on the boat (165 currently). Going down to do some work and make it our own this weekend. This is probably the most expensive mods for my boat to date, lol!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Now where are the photos?????

 

[Kevin M]

There coming. It officially will get christened on Thursday with the official "sign hanging"! Oh, and a drink as well!

 

[Speedling]

Awesome!
We hope to do the same thing as we love Lake Cumberland so much as well. Threw out a good number of footballs the week we were there. We had probably the worst of weeks there as there was a ton of debris in the water from the water being so high in the spring.

How did you go about searching for a place?
Paticular search engine or something?

I retire in 23 years so not a huge hurry!

Also, I'd you get a pc based security system and have Internet access you can check all the cameras from home pc, or on the phone, or even a tablet. I use this type of system for my work and it is vastly better than one of those closed box systems. If something happens you can also burn a cd of the active cameras during the event and bring to the police.
Also, you can subscribe to online storage so that it backs up online so if the thieves screw up your system they are still caught.

 

[Kevin M]

@Speedling , We started searching online via Realtor.com. We visited in June for the first time ever and absolutely loved it. We had been looking at places in Sandusky and the islands on Lake Erie but after visiting lake Cumberland, we knew thats where we wanted to be. We scheduled a second visit then in August and my two boys (21 & 26) were able to come down and they absolutely loved it as well. We browsed for a couple months and kept going back this one house. It's very private, only 10 years old and 4 (Correction, 2 mins) mins to the boat ramp. It's two bedrooms, 1 bath, about 800 sq ft. In 10 years, the previous owners never had a security issue. The main road dead ends into the lake and the road we are on is also a cul-de-sac. Our road is just a small gravel road which looks like a driveway. Only one way in / one way out. If someone was going to steal something, it would be a local. You never know but I'm not keeping anything of real value there anyways. I would be more pissed if they damaged the house more so if they stole my TV.

 

[4x15mph]

@Kevin M . so awesome and you are living the dream. Congratulations

 

[Kevin M]

@4x15mph , Thank you! Indeed we are blessed!

 

[Volffas]

Congratulations! What part of the lake are you on?

 

[justason]

beautiful lake !! big and lots of offshoots to explore .......Congrats...now you need webcams to enjoy it while you're at work !!

We purchased our lake-house, affectionately known as the bunker, in 2008. never thought I'd own one and we love it !! we can go from Desk job to boating in about 2 hours to start the weekend !!!

 

[Kevin M]

@Volffas , we are right in the middle. Cumberland Point or right across from Conley Bottom marina.