Buying an Oakland County Lake Home With Great Resale Value

There are  a few major items you should consider when buying an Oakland  County Lake home.  Many lake homebuyers don't expect to buy a bigger and better lake home in the future, but you still have to consider resale value.  It is an important factor in your decision-making.   When you put up your Oakland County Lake home for sale you want it to appeal to the broadest base of home buyers as possible.  That way it will sell quicker.

While no one in 2011 or any year can guarantee that your lake home will grow in value, there are items you can take into account when buying that maximize your potential gain.

Location, Location, Location! 

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"Location, location, location," is one of the most important item for resale of your  lake home.    Buying a lake front home is preferable over a canal front home.  Lake front will always be worth more.  Then you need to consider the shore line.  A sandy beach is best.  Then you need to be able to be deep enough to dock a boat without going 200 feet out into the lake.  The worst situation for Oakland County  lake real estate is having lily pads, cattails, or  a weedy area in front of your home.  It is undesirable for most lake home buyers.  It is going to be hard to sell that lake home later.  Also the ability of being able to see the sunset on the lake is a plus.

The item that many lake buyers forget is school system.  There are high end lake homes that have lousy school systems.  (i.e. Pontiac schools)  If you  buy a Sylvan lake home that is in the Pontiac School versus a Sylvan Lake home that is in the West Bloomfield school system you will be paying more for the West Bloomfield school system home.  A better school system will bring more money.

So when buying an Oakland  County Lake front home check the school system even though you have no kids, or if it is just a weekend home.  It may make a difference in the future when you go to sell it.  A careful choice of location can minimize potential negative influences on future resale value.

Focusing on resale value requires you to make several different "location" choices. The first choice you have to make is "which city" and then  "which lake within the city " which part of the lake" or "what area".  External factors such as nearby roads, noise, commercial properties, and parking all affect value because of the location of the home.

Other items that affect value are:

     *  Lake homes with garages will sell better than ones without.   2 car garages will sell better than homes with just a one car garage.    It is simply because of our bad weather that many lake home buyers want a garage.  There is usually one person that needs to have the car in the garage. 

The other issue is storage.  Whether it is excess storage for personal belongings from the house or storage for the toys garages are very important.  Home buyers like that they can store  lawnmowers, lake toys such as life preservers, lawn furniture, boats, tubes and more.  Sometimes the bigger the garage the more desirable.                                                                                

     *      Homes with Basements sell better than ones on crawl spaces, or slabs.  Basements allow for more living space and for more storage which entices lakefront home buyers.  Storage is one of the biggest issues for many of our Oakland County lake homes.  So having a basement allows the owner to store and keep more of their belongings.

     *   2 bedroom lake front homes limit you to buyers with only one child or a single person or a weekend cottage.  Most waterfront home buyers want 3 plus bedrooms for them or their overnight guests.
     *   An odd room layout will limit the "buyer pool" and resale.  Unfortunately many of the lake properties in Oakland County were small cottages that have been added onto.  As time went on some of the additions were not laid out well resulting in circular, or confusing floor plans.  Sometimes having to go through a bedroom to get to another room.

     *  Parking can sometimes be at a premium at lake houses in Oakland County.  Many lake houses are close together or use up every bit of land they can so parking spots may be limited.  So think about that when buying a lake home.

     *  One of the most important lake factors is whether the lake frontage is sandy or mucky.  Does it have weeds out in front of it.  A clear sandy lake bottom home will bring more buyers and a higher value in most cases.

How to buy a great Michigan lake home

So when buying an Oakland County lakefront hometake into account these factors and it will help you sell in the future

1. Location
2. School system
3. Number of bedrooms
4. Garage
5. Basement
6. Layout

Making the right choices will get you an Oakland County lakefront home with resale value!

Russ Ravary

Metro Detroit Realtor

cell (248)310-6239

yesmyrealtor@gmail.com

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