Lake Lanier Homes | Lake Lanier Real Estate Blog » Lake Lanier Homes

Lake Lanier Homes and Foreclosures

Nesa Kleinheksel — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:00:59 +0000

What a great time to purchase a home on or near Lake Lanier right now. Interest rates are low, home pricing is down but the water levels are starting to come back. One of the best opportunites is to pick up a home that went into foreclosure. There is usually a 50/50 chance that a foreclosed property will need some repairs but every once in awhile a foreclosure comes along that is in good condition and is move in ready. Right now we are seeing a trend of developers that are in financial trouble and projects going into foreclosure. The reason for this is due to the developer building homes before they have contracts on it, with the downturn in the market these developers got hit hard.
I also have been noticing that the inventory for homes has gone drastically as well, homeowners are starting to realize that this is not the best time to sell so the remaining homes on the market tend to be foreclosures, corporate owned or homeowners that need to sell for financial reasons or are getting relocated. I could totallly see us going from a buyers market to a sellers market just because of the lack of inventory.
I did come across one Lake Lanier home in Flowery Branch that is priced very well for everything that you get. It is a 7 bedroom, 4 1/2 bath home listed at $784,000.This home was built in 1998, has a 3 car garage, swimming pool, hot tub and a single slip dock! According to the tax records it has just over 6200 sq.ft. Typically a home like this would probably be priced in the $900k range. Great house, great location! – If you would like more information on this Lake Lanier Home please contact me at nesa@greatlakelanierhomes.com or 404-579-9307. Nesa Kleinheksel – 9 Mile Trolley Realty

Lake Lanier Cottages and Cabins

Nesa Kleinheksel — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:40:54 +0000

I’ve been noticing a trend going on lately since the drought, a ton of investors are starting to dump their vacation rental properties on Lake Lanier for decent prices. I can definitely understand why, you can’t rent a property to vacationers if there is no water. It’s probably not a wise idea to buy one of these properties for a vacation rental but if you are ok with living in it for a year or find a long term renter it could be become a very good investment.

Personally, I like taking risks like that mainly because I am ok living anywhere for a year as long as I have backyard and a balcony, I am good to go. I have done executive housing Atlanta and it turned out a profit for me so I would probably do that on Lake Lanier as well. I don’t have much experience with vacation rentals on Lake Lanier but if you look around on vrbo.com and look at the calendars of some of these properties to see how full they are, you can get a good idea of what rents well and how much you could possibly get for it once the water comes back.

Searching around the FMLS, I saw a few cabins that I thought were pretty interesting and they were priced below $300k.

If you would like any info on Lake Lanier Cabins for sale please contact me at nesa@greatlakelanierhomes.com – Nesa Kleinheksel

Lake Lanier Townhomes

Nesa Kleinheksel — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:43:21 +0000

As my first entry I thought I would write about my home search for a home near Lake Lanier. It was 3 years ago that I was living in a condo in downtown Atlanta when I was contemplating about buying a larger single family home in Intown Atlanta, but I grew up in Holland, Michigan which was right on Lake Michigan so I always lived near fresh water. I missed going to the beach and smelling that fresh lake air so I decided why not look for a home close to Lake Lanier, but since my specialty was in selling intown homes I feared the horrible traffic that I would have to deal with on an every day basis.

One day while I was searching the Internet for homes, I had a brilliant idea of keeping my condo in Atlanta and buying a smaller place on Lake Lanier and having the best of both worlds! I knew it was going to be tough to find a place on Lake Lanier within my budget if I kept my condo but as I was searching I came across a community called Tidewater Cove Townhomes which is in Flowery Branch. I drove up that day to go take a look at it them. As I got closer to the community I approached the small downtown that Flowery Branch has which was cute and had a couple of shops. It was everything that I imagined a small waterfront community would have!. As I made all the turns to get to the community there were older and smaller homes which some of them looked run down but I guess in the back of mind it kind of reminded me of the towns in Michigan that we had to go through to get to our vacation cottage on Silver Lake, so I was even more ecstatic! Finally I arrived at Tidwater Cove and my first impression that it was your typical Townhome community. I never really wanted to live in cookie cutter community because they seem so stale and you have to worry about being so close to your neighbors but with this community I noticed right away that the developer did a good job with the landscaping, plenty of trees in the yards, flowers and bushes to make it feel more alive, so that was really nice to see because I have seen so many communities out there that do not have any landscaping and it just makes the community look so drab. The other bonus was that the community was right across from Starboard Marina. Now, at that time I did not have a boat and was actually contemplating about getting a membership at the Freedom Boat Club which was located at Holiday Marina, about a 10 minute drive from Tidewater Cove, but some of the townhomes had decent views of the Marina so again I was pretty excited.

To make a long story short I ended up putting in an offer on a townhouse that did have a view of the Marina that day and a month later I moved in! It’s now 3 years later and I am still here and I love it! I also still own my condo in Atlanta but am seriously thinking about moving up here permanently. Although Flowery Branch is not the crème de’ creme of cities to choose from, I love that it has a small town feel and it is really nice that I can go to the grocery store and not have to look my best because that is how things are up here. Laid back! I also have a pontoon boat now that is docked at Starboard so I can just walk on down to my boat!

Living at Tidwater Cove is great too…I don’t have any complaints about it. As far as I know this is the only community that is right by a Marina and is cheap! Pricing is anywhere from $130k to $160k so that is pretty hard to beat since you have the Marina right there. The developer did a nice job with the layouts and the other really feature is that they put up tall fences in the back of the townhouses so you have privacy from your neighbor, which is huge for me because I am always sitting outside and I enjoy my privacy! Most of my neighbors moved here too because of the marina and the affordability of the townhomes. I would say the only drawback is that we don’t have a swimming pool, but it doesn’t really matter to me because I would have to have an “adult only” pool anyway. Not a big fan of being in a pool with peeing kids!

Also, a mile down the road they just opened a big retail development which consists of a Target, Office Depot, Petsmart, Home Depot, Kohls and a Chili’s. I no longer have to go down to the Mall of Georgia area to do my errands! I wasn’t sure about the development because I thought it would ruin the small town feel but it just far enough away that it doesn’t affect our peace at the townhome.

Also, for any of those who might be interested in purchasing a townhome at Tidewater Cove it is only a 40 minute drive to downtown Atlanta. Of course, with traffic it is longer.

If anyone is interested in seeing what is available at Tidewater Cove, feel free to email me at nesa@greatlakerlanierhomes.com and I will forward you pics and information of what is available! – Nesa Kleinheksel – 9 Mile Trolley Realty