Buying A Cabin in 2022??

Swimming is a big deal for us. If it didn’t have, or able to have, a beach it would be a tough sell for me.

B-man wrote:

There’s only four places across from us, and I don’t see any of the others going for sale anytime soon, let alone one we could reasonably justify buying other than this one.

I don’t want to overpay, but I don’t want to have a life long regret on it either. It would kill me forever to see it sold to someone else that tears it down and puts up a million dollar shack.

I hear of similar situations coming up all the time with wildlife properties. A special property or an adjacent piece of land becomes available and there’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot to do a deal.

What you have here is a classic case of opportunity cost. If you WANT this cabin, then you have to balance the desire not to “overpay” with the fact that likely you’ll never get another chance to buy this property.

This is also a difficult situation to play just right because people are naturally suspicious of a person who comes in saying I want to buy your house, cabin, etc. Human nature, we are suspicious of the first offer as being too low.

My advice is this:

1. Don’t get your hopes up too high.

What is highly likely to happen here is the children get involved and one or more of them will “start doing research on the internet” and see $$$$. Somebody will tell them on Facebook that this property is worth $1.2 trillion and to sell for less means ma and pa are “getting ripped off.” The children almost always are the ones to scuttle deals like this because either they will want to get the property for a family bargain price, or they will see their chance to pad their inheritance and want to take the property to auction to really cash in. So try to keep the ball rolling, but don’t be crushed if things fall apart.

2. Get your ducks in a row money-wise so that you can rapidly close a deal with no delay on your end. If it does come to making a deal, every day that passes is a chance for some outsider to get involved and tell the owners they are getting ripped off and they should do X or Y.

Find a lawyer who can do a closing QUICKLY and make this part of the deal so no real estate agents or other fingers get in the pie or slow down a deal. Be like a duck, all calm on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath.

Deuces wrote:

Swimming is a big deal for us. If it didn’t have, or able to have, a beach it would be a tough sell for me.

yep and if you don’t have a beach, adding one is tough under the rules, I think you’re allowed a 20’x20′ sand pad and every one i’ve seen done is washed out in a year or 2….

Water depth is also something to think about, sucks to have a 300′ long dock to get you out to deep enough water to swim or dock a boat… Water flucuation is also important for flooding if you have a level lot parralel to the lake…

munchy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>phishingruven wrote:</div>
also, show them pics of your boys loving and enjoying the outdoors. that will go miles in the hearts of the sellers.

Agreed. Maybe have them write a letter. My sister had her daughters write letters to the owner of their current house and sent it with the offer, even though their bid was lower than others the letters went a long way.

Probably in the minority but I never got this whole letter writing thing. I would never take a lower offer just because they wrote a letter. I guess I’ve never been emotionally attached to any of my houses or property that I’ve sold over the years. In fact, if anyone did write a letter to me I would probably hold it against them to be honest…trying to finagle a deal based on my emotions..

duh queen wrote:

I turkey hunt in Burnett county and specifically target lake areas with year around residents (they like to feed the birds). As of last spring there seemed to be a lot of lakefront properties for sale. I also recently looked at what Zillow valued my place for. It seemed to be about what the market is paying. As others have mentioned, make a budget and stick to it, especially if you have cash on hand. If we hit the type of inflation I suspect is headed our way, interest rates will rise and prices will drop. This is the time when cash is king.

Interest rates are set to rise. With that said, they will be well below the historical norm for the foreseeable future. Modern government has set the precedent that they will not let a recession happen without exhausting every option they have. Therefore rates will hike extremely slowly and reach a relatively low ceiling. I’d definitely not predict some fire sale on properties coming any time soon. Land or waterfront lots do not deflate. Even in tough economic times they will hold value, and the long term play is that they will continue to grow in value. I wouldn’t bet on some type of market crash to get your hands on waterfront property. All signs point to this property being worth more year over year than it is today for the rest of history…unless B-man is leaving some details out about the property that’s an outlier.

We have a lake place (by we I mean my wife’s family has been there for over 100 years), and I’ve been floored by sale prices on the lake in recent years. We’ve been watching and hoping because frankly, we could use more room, but prices are astronomical. Most recently, I saw this 360 sq ft dilapidated “cabin” with 80′ of shoreline sell for $212K. Anything workable has been way more.

I’m grateful that I married into 250′ of shoreline.

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1st thing B-man–Good Luck!
I would not suggest telling them to contact a realtor. If they do on their own, so be it.
1st thing I would do is tell them you would like a closer look and take the boys along. Ask if they have a price in mind. Might be the end of the idea right off the bat. If the price is not to out of wack continue on. Show them photos of the boys enjoying the outdoors.
Don’t get hung up on what other people value it at, that is for you and your family to decide. If you put in an offer send a letter of your intentions for the future along with letters from the boys.
I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted on your latest quest.
A few more pictures of Hank and Ben please. Love those smiles.

duh queen wrote:

If we hit the type of inflation I suspect is headed our way, interest rates will rise and prices will drop.

People have been predicting this mythical “price drop” because of interest rates or something the government was allegedly going to do for almost 20 years now. Hasn’t happened. It took the banking industry and Wall Street speculators to cause the only price decline that has happened in 40 years. Great if you could take advantage of it, but I wouldn’t bet on a repeat of this.

At best, you’re going to see a slowing in the rate of price increases. With massive numbers of people now able to work from home/cabin lakeshore demand is huge. On top of that, large numbers of new retirees are sitting on huge 401ks from a go, go, go stock market and they are selling suburban homes for huge profits in the red hot real estate market. Good luck if you’re waiting for cabin prices to actually fall.

Mortgage rates have been at historic lows for over a decade now. That they were going to rise was a given in a healthy economy and this won’t cause any slowdown in consumer demand because the market is flush with cash.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
There’s only four places across from us, and I don’t see any of the others going for sale anytime soon, let alone one we could reasonably justify buying other than this one.

I don’t want to overpay, but I don’t want to have a life long regret on it either. It would kill me forever to see it sold to someone else that tears it down and puts up a million dollar shack.

I hear of similar situations coming up all the time with wildlife properties. A special property or an adjacent piece of land becomes available and there’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot to do a deal.

What you have here is a classic case of opportunity cost. If you WANT this cabin, then you have to balance the desire not to “overpay” with the fact that likely you’ll never get another chance to buy this property.

This is also a difficult situation to play just right because people are naturally suspicious of a person who comes in saying I want to buy your house, cabin, etc. Human nature, we are suspicious of the first offer as being too low.

My advice is this:

1. Don’t get your hopes up too high.

What is highly likely to happen here is the children get involved and one or more of them will “start doing research on the internet” and see $$$$. Somebody will tell them on Facebook that this property is worth $1.2 trillion and to sell for less means ma and pa are “getting ripped off.” The children almost always are the ones to scuttle deals like this because either they will want to get the property for a family bargain price, or they will see their chance to pad their inheritance and want to take the property to auction to really cash in. So try to keep the ball rolling, but don’t be crushed if things fall apart.

2. Get your ducks in a row money-wise so that you can rapidly close a deal with no delay on your end. If it does come to making a deal, every day that passes is a chance for some outsider to get involved and tell the owners they are getting ripped off and they should do X or Y.

Find a lawyer who can do a closing QUICKLY and make this part of the deal so no real estate agents or other fingers get in the pie or slow down a deal. Be like a duck, all calm on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath.

I think this advise is spot on. Going through my parents estate went great just have one brother but lawyer told us of horror storys. The more siblings the more problems there are. Love the quote about the duck!

stout93 wrote:

Probably in the minority but I never got this whole letter writing thing. I would never take a lower offer just because they wrote a letter. I guess I’ve never been emotionally attached to any of my houses or property that I’ve sold over the years. In fact, if anyone did write a letter to me I would probably hold it against them to be honest…trying to finagle a deal based on my emotions..

the paragraph below is the reason to let the owners and children know you plan to love and cherish their families hard work. Not playing on emotions, showing proof of your intentions

“”She said she would talk with the “kids” and call me back. A couple hours later she called back and said they will have a family meeting this spring, but everyone except one already decided they would sell it. She also asked if I was an investor or realtor (one of the kids brought it up), but I assured her of our intentions to keep it as-is for the foreseeable future to enjoy with our family. I also said her children were welcome to call me as well to discuss that too.””

phishingruven wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>stout93 wrote:</div>
Probably in the minority but I never got this whole letter writing thing. I would never take a lower offer just because they wrote a letter. I guess I’ve never been emotionally attached to any of my houses or property that I’ve sold over the years. In fact, if anyone did write a letter to me I would probably hold it against them to be honest…trying to finagle a deal based on my emotions..

the paragraph below is the reason to let the owners and children know you plan to love and cherish their families hard work. Not playing on emotions, showing proof of your intentions

“”She said she would talk with the “kids” and call me back. A couple hours later she called back and said they will have a family meeting this spring, but everyone except one already decided they would sell it. She also asked if I was an investor or realtor (one of the kids brought it up), but I assured her of our intentions to keep it as-is for the foreseeable future to enjoy with our family. I also said her children were welcome to call me as well to discuss that too.””

That stuff can go a long way with some folks. The house we bought, the old couple took our offer because we were a young family and that’s who they wanted in their house over a single guy that wouldn’t appreciate it like we would have. They were so happy to see little kids come in and pick the rooms they wanted and talk about how big the house was and where they wanted their swing set out back, etc.

Personally, I feel I would be the same if I were the seller.

Thanks again for all of the great advice guys!

So much to get through here from questions and suggestions, but here’s a quick run through.

As I said before, I know next to nothing about the cabin right now as far as sewer/water/power/foundation/etc. I didn’t want to come off too strong or aggressive with a 90 year old lady over the phone lol

I do know it’s old (built in the 40’s-50’s), sits on cool sloped 1/3rd acre lot, and has roughly 120′ of sandy lake bed. The shore drops off relatively quick and doesn’t need a long dock. It’s REALLY close to the water, estimating about 40′ from the cabin.

As for the financials, I could come up with $50,000 liquid quick on my own without having to touch retirement assets. If they wanted full payment immediately, I could take a two month handshake loan from my Dad until I figured out what would be the best thing to do (I’d probably refinance the house and pay off the land, put $40,000 or so down on the cabin, and get a second mortgage for the rest of it). I’ve never borrowed a penny from my Dad in 39 years of living. But just the other day he said if I ever need to borrow a chunk of money in a hurry (like for a good deal on a boat, property, etc) not to be afraid to ask.

I love the idea of the letter. Not so much to beg and plead for a low price, but more so to show her/them of our intentions and that we’re genuine and good people just trying to create memories of our own.

It doesn’t sound like they get out on their own anymore (to go look at it with us), but I’d love to ask to meet them and take them out for lunch near their home, along with any of their children that could make it.

Now for my next idea (to help sweeten the deal if the price is high), would it be a bad/terrible/great idea to offer their family a free vacation there every year???

Like have them be able to pick a mutually agreeable time and throw them the keys for a week once a summer??

I’m not in love with that idea, but if it meant shaving off $25-$50k+ from whatever their asking (if the price is way over FMV), I’d think I’d be alright with it.

That way they would never feel like they totally lost the place??

As much as I’d love to own it, I just can’t/couldn’t stomach paying anything approaching $200,000+ for an old little cabin on a 1/3rd acre. Hoping it’s much less than that, but it will be whatever they say. Like I said earlier, I would be much better off building something and using the public access if the price is high. We could have a huge post frame building with a concrete floor and living quarters with money to spare at that point.

***Edit, it has roughly 120′ of shoreline

I wouldnt offer the free yearly vacation idea, that just creates awkwardness. The letter idea is just an assurance to them that you’re not looking to buy and rent it out or quickly flip it, your intention is to enjoy it with family the same way they likely did.

Those older structures so close to the water are grandfathered in for current setback rules, while a replacement structure can’t be built 1 inch bigger, those properties are HIGHLY desirable!!! and likely very expensive…

I have been looking for real estate the last few months… anything on a decent lake under $200,000 I would be scooping up in a heartbeat. I will say, in the last 2 weeks… the market has slowed and the inflated prices are slowly dropping…Good luck

I spent the last 10 months looking at lake properties and at least in the 2nd and 3rd quarter of last year, most of the properties we looked at were definitely on the high side of the Zillow. Also you would see properties that their purchase history showed the current list price as being 60 – 70% above what it was sold for in 2018. It was obvious that the market was trying to maximize the values. Still properties were being sold fast, either by eager buyers or the real estate agents themselves understanding the prices and looking to flip. I was ready to put in an offer on a just listed property on a Monday after seeing it the previous Thursday and was told bidding was closed at 9:00AM. 6 weeks later the sale collapsed and I told the wife and our new realtor that I would not risk losing it again for 5% so we added 3% to the offer and it stuck. Your case is pretty cool. Yes maybe only 120″ of shore however you have total access to your existing property across the street, something that if you wanted to have a pole shed, storage, whatever, you would be paying a lot more than just the price of the lakeshore property. It’s hard to find that combination. I agree with some of the posts, there are a lot of other things to consider and most of those need inspections to complete the sale anyway. If you like the cabin go for it as the 2 properties sound like a perfect situation.

Well I have a short novel all typed up and ready to go. I’m leaning towards mailing it along with copies for the kids, but could email it to her also (if she uses email anyway), my thoughts are it would be easier for her to get it to the kids that way?

I’m not letting myself get my hopes up too far yet, mainly because she did say yesterday her son didn’t want to sell it (yet).

If nothing else, maybe they’ll hang onto the letters and remember me one day if and when they ever do decide to sell it. I’d love to get her kids contact info, in case it’s years down the road and after they’re gone.

I’m hoping to build a relationship with them all and gain a way to keep in touch down the road.

Do your research on pricing. Get in early on a cash offer. Have a back up offer ready. Try to get it fast before there is a bidding war. Think I would be in contact with the owner a few times before the spring meeting. In this market don’t think I would low ball that first offer much.

You might want to offer looking after the place if they don’t use it much. You know , mow the grass, check for vandalism etc. in exchange for using the beach. You also build a relationship for down the road if/when they decide to sell.

MX1825 wrote:

You might want to offer looking after the place if they don’t use it much. You know , mow the grass, check for vandalism etc. in exchange for using the beach. You also build a relationship for down the road if/when they decide to sell.

The minute we bought the land I told myself I need to become good friends and trade favors with one of the neighbors. I’d love to be able to drag our old little 14′ Lund up onto someone’s shoreline and leave it there for the summer. Who knows, if they don’t want to sell it now they could possibly be the one

At least for Minnesota lake front properties are starting at $250-300k for small lots that have less than ideal shorelines. Even that low of a price is not common. Good size lots or great shoreline are commanding much more. The market for lake homes is in overdrive.

I don’t see lake home prices dropping either. The rate of increase will hopefully come down, but I do not foresee the actual sale price to drop

The lake our cabin is on is about 370 acres (not a huge lake) just outside of Cumberland WI. Lake lots are going from about 140K (weedy bays) to well over 200K for an average lot on the main lake. There is a tear down cabin a couple lots away from us that would sell for closer to 250K than 200K. If it gets listed, it will sell really fast, will have multiple offers and will most likely sell for over asking price. Prices are insane. Best of luck Bman.

My wife and I bought a place on Vermilion this past August. It was a family friend so we avoided any kind of bidding war and he gave us a better deal than he could’ve gotten on the open market.

But like your story, he liked that we would buy it and use it and not just rent it out or flip it or anything like that. We stretched our budget to meet him but I can’t imagine regretting it at this point.

I’m 31 and I’ll have this place for my entire life essentially so I’m pretty pumped about it.

The other question to ask is what direction does the cabin/property face?

I wouldn’t even look at a lake property that didn’t face west (or south)..but that’s just me. When we bought our cabin (which faces west/northwest), it wasn’t top priority, but would be now if we bought another lake property.

May not seem like a big deal to some, but let me tell you, it makes a world of difference. You get the sun in the late afternoon/early evening. Sunsets better than Puerto Vallarta/Jamaica.