The Stages of Life...On and Off the Water

Several weeks ago I got a call from one of my past buyers. His family had purchased an incredible, historic property from me near the Canadian border just a couple years back for a cabin, and he said they loved the area so much that now they were thinking about finding a permanent home in Northern Minnesota, also. Since they currently live several states away, it was obvious that the lure of the northwoods had taken hold, and they knew it would be a positive change in their lives.

During the past two years their kids had grown fond of all the brand-new things to explore in these foreign surroundings, and these recent experiences had given them a wealth of topics for family conversations and bonding. Things we all need, to keep our lives interesting!

Although I don't personally work with as many buyers as I used to because of my full time role running the company, it never takes long to bring back those feelings of accomplishment in finding just the right lake place for a waterfront buyer. There is something about these special properties that makes the hunt a little more exciting than just trying to sort between the various designs available in your typical subdivision. And in all the years I've done this, I don't ever remember any buyer who wasn't thrilled with their new purchase and the variety of life's changes it brought them...and the promise of new adventures to come.

So if lake properties bring that much enjoyment, why would anyone want to sell one of them? That is the question most every buyer asks as they view these listings, especially the ones that stand out from the rest, for any number of reasons.

As real estate professionals, we are trained to look at properties differently than buyers and sellers do. Buyers tend to see the surfacy things that stir their emotions, which is why staging a home is so important. Sellers tend to put a value on memories, conveniences and comforts, which have come together in a property to make it their own. Realtors can usually see a more general snapshot of how a particular property fits in with the needs and desires of the general audience who is in that market.

But when a real estate agent decides to sell his or her own waterfront property, do these same tendencies hold true? It is a good question, and one that all agents should experience now and then to go through the same emotional ups and downs as their clients. And we decided it was time for us to do exactly that.

During my real estate career, I've seen how various stages in life tend to affect peoples' needs and desires in waterfront properties. Typically, lakeshore buyers are either looking for places they can enjoy while their children are growing up, or after their kids are grown. Those in-between years during junior high and high school oftentimes get a little busy, and sports or hanging out with friends eats up quite a few hours each day. Getting the family to the cabin can become more of a chore than a exciting family outing, but generally all are happy once they are there.

Our cabin on Rainy Lake has been in our family for forty years: thirty-seven of them as my parents' home (and mine while I grew up there), and it has been my family's getaway for the past three years, after my parents decided it was time for them to move. It is a prime piece of property - with a hard sand bottom and sought after seclusion - on one of the most gorgeous lakes in the country, where you can boat from your dock to nearly a half million acres of pristine waters. And with it's massive and modern 1,600 square foot fully heated garage, all the boats and toys have the perfect place to reside.

The main portion of the home was constructed from logs in the late 1920s and has been thoughtfully added to over time. My passion for dock and deck building over the years led to an array of sitting areas, extending from the expansive lakeside deck to more than a thousand square feet of permanent docking and benches along the water's edge, and also encircling the waterfront firepit. It is a perfect blend of privacy, relaxation, and recreational activities on and off the water, and similar to having your own resort while hosting friends from distant areas.

During our ownership over the past few years, we have provided more than a thousand hours of labor, making changes that we felt would update the structure and convert the home to more of a cabin ambience, after its many decades as a full-time home. Much of the main living area still had its classic early surroundings, with wide tongue and groove pine walls, stone fireplace, and well preserved hardwood floors under the carpet. But design improvements such as moving the kitchen to the lake side of the home, and blending more woods instead of wallpapers, have all helped to create more of a cabin aura.

From what I've mentioned, it sounds like the perfect place! In fact, I might even want one of these for myself! So why would we ever consider selling such a quintessential lake property? Perhaps, it is "the stages of life."

We love being at our place on Rainy Lake, and while there...life is great. Boating for 40 or 50 miles into Canadian waters where you hardly see another human - and where walleys are generally thick - is a refreshing experience, and it washes many of the stresses away that build up each week. But reality is still waiting for us when we get back home, where kids are starting another year of school, college applications need to be taken care of, parents and family members are not visited enough, and employees have issues that they need help with. On top of that, it is no secret that the real estate market has been a bit slower for a few years, so those 1,000 plus hours we put into working on the cabin - and another bunch of hours enjoying it - might be better put to use in the office for awhile.

But an even larger factor might be that, I've been acquainted with Rainy Lake - and that particular piece of property - for forty years. After turning fifty this year, I started realizing that I probably don't have a lot of 40-year blocks of time left, and I'd hate to spend all my future ones in the same place - experiencing the same things.

Life is what you make it. Some of us choose to wander through life with no ties, and others stay put for most of their time on this planet. Most of us are probably somewhere in between, where we are more mobile during our younger years, but then settle down for awhile to provide some stability to our kids as they are growing up, or to gain some traction and a higher income in a particular profession. And many of us trade some of our wanderlust in doing that.

There are many beautiful places to explore across this country, and probably at least five million waterfront properties throughout our fifty states that can provide a limitless array of enjoyment to their owners...but time allows each of us to only use one at a time. Along with that, there are many new experiences to be had and people to meet everywhere, so any one of those 5,000,000 properties will send you on a different path in life. If you keep the same one forever, you may miss out on some of the best times of your life!

So next time you take a look at a lake property and wonder why the owners are selling, try to keep in mind that it could be for any number of reasons, but most likely it just relates to "the stages of life."

And if you are interested in our place on Rainy Lake, I'll sell it to you for about what I have into it, and I'll throw in all the labor for free! And if I can't find another lake I like better in Michigan or New York or North Carolina or somewhere else - some time in the future - I just might end up back at Rainy in years to come, but hopefully with a lot of new experiences to look back on.

Lake Cabins versus Lake Homes

There was a comment recently on this blog, which was really more of a question on my thoughts pertaining to the difference between the lake cabin market and the lake home market. Or if there is a difference at all.

One thing many of my clients have heard me say over the years is to make sure they were buying a cabin where they want to have a cabin. In other words, if it is going to be your getaway you may want to know that it feels like that ahead of time.

Although there are many wonderful properties on lakes throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, some areas have turned into what feel like residential neighborhoods with the majority of the owners living there full time. Those people many times have to get up for work each day and don't enjoy loud parties, laughing and music late into the night out their windows.

But cabin owners often have a different goal, and that is to wind down away from their daily routine...which sometimes means extra friends and family to help them in that process. And singing, joking, laughing, water-skiing, yelling and late-night campfires may all come into play, sometimes creating problems between neighbors.

Obviously, people live full-time on lakes everywhere. But as you get into more remote locations away from population centers, there may be more leniency toward weekenders and off and on "weekdayers" that might disrupt the solitude now and then.

Lake areas that are only a few miles from the Twin Cities were once mainly vacation homes and cabins, but today you won't find a lot of them left. If you want to have yours there, you may not be quite as welcome as you would a little bit further away. And if you're thinking of setting up a campground on your 50 foot lake lot for a few days (no matter where it is) - with some of the campers relieving themselves in the neighbors' bushes, along with disposing their beer cans in their yards - you might have a hard time getting invited to the neighborhood gatherings you don't host! Make sure you keep that in mind as you choose the setting that works for your needs.

I may have swayed some from the question about the contrast in the two markets currently, but I think it is important to understand the overall difference between an area that feels like it is meant for cabins...and one that may not yield the same emotion. And it certainly isn't only tied to lakes around the Twin Cities; you will find this same type of variation of properties around communities as small as Grand Rapids or Bemidji as well. It's just that the neighborhood-like atmosphere around the lakes won't extend as many miles away from the center of town as it does in the more populated areas.

It seems that at the present time the actual lake cabin market may be a bit stronger than that of the lake home market. But I think that part of that is due to the fact that some smaller cabin properties have dropped into a very affordable price range as low as $150,000 to $200,000, which was nearly impossible to find anything in a couple years ago. Many people that were once priced out of the lakeshore market completely are now back in it again based on this correction of prices, and that is seeming to spur the cabin sales.

As this activity has picked up in the lower end, it also seems like we are starting to get more contacts in the next price ranges above that than we were just a month ago. And we have also begun to get more of the calls like we used to, where people are looking for lake homes two or three hours away to retire to. Perhaps things are turning around in front of our eyes without us really recognizing it is happening.

I do think that some of the early buyers are now starting to see the values on many of these great lake properties that are priced like they were four or five years ago. If you are thinking of joining them, now might be the time.

2012 Update: The prices in the lakeshore market continued to decline across most of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin until this year, which has made it even more affordable for waterfront buyers to find good quality lake homes in many popular markets as low as $250,000 -- where those used to be prices for lots and cabins just a few years back. If you would like more information on current market conditions in the lakeshore real estate market, you can contact Dan Anderson at 888-346-5253, or find him on the web at Lakehomes.com or LakehomesMinnesota.com.

Looking For a Few "More" Good Agents

I don't know if the market finally turned, but these last two weeks have been about the busiest we've seen in at least a couple of years. Most of the buyers I've talked with tell me that they feel it is time to jump on something now, before prices turn back the other way. I think they are probably right, and I also believe the first ones back in the market are going to end up doing pretty well in the long run.

I've mentioned during the past few months about the incredible amount of visitors and page views we have seen on the website this year. That gives a strong indication that people are interested in making a move to a lake place. But in the last couple of weeks, we have been absolutely inundated with leads coming from prospective buyers, so it seems that many of them are finally coming out of hiding.

Lakehomes.com has become a busy portal for waterfront properties, and each of our agents has the unique ability to act as an exclusive representative for his or her market area on the site. Because of our top search engine results, and the added exposure we can offer, sellers are increasingly aware of the value in having their property listed on Lakehomes.com. And our local experts help assure that these sellers understand realistic values in the ever-changing market we are in, so that this added exposure produces the best results for their clients.

But several of our agents have also become very busy with the recent influx of buyers who need help now. Besides wanting basic information on individual properties, many are asking for a knowledgeable agent to assist them in the purchasing process. They expect that Lakehomes.com agents will be able to fill that need, and we don't want to disappoint them!

At the present time, we have quite a few areas across Minnesota and Wisconsin where we could use some extra coverage. Many of our agents can handle large geographic areas quite well, but when they get busy it can be difficult to meet everyone's needs. We'd like to make sure that each prospective customer who requests information and assistance from us - whether buying or selling - gets it immediately.

If you would like more information on our company, just give me a call at 866-327-9889 to discuss how you might benefit from being associated with Lakehomes.com. Whether you are interested in acting as an Affiliate Agent for Lakehomes.com under your existing broker, or an actual agent for Lakehomes.com Realty, you will get the same exclusive rights to your market area. And most important, no matter which method you choose, your clients will get the exact same incredible exposure that Lakehomes.com has to offer.

Dan Anderson
Broker/Owner

A Strange Year

After doing this real estate stuff for as long as I have, you tend to expect certain things at different times of the year. Generally, everyone gears up for a busy spring market, followed by a typically good summer market. Then when fall comes, the buyers become more choosy and mainly look for good deals. Winter is normally slow in Minnesota, so then we just get ready for spring again.

But the last few years - and certainly this year - it is hard to judge just what to expect in any given month. The economy has dealt nearly everyone a blow, so it is not surprising that people are a bit more cautious. But what is most surprising to me is the amount of interest we are seeing from potential buyers looking for properties online...yet not really making contact with agents or looking at homes in person.

The number of visitors on our website has increased tremendously, so I can only assume that most of those people have the financial ability to purchase a lake property of some sort. Perhaps, everyone is just trying to make sure that prices have bottomed before they jump in.

I don't know if we are at the bottom or not, but it sure feels like prices can't really go much lower. It seems like a lot of sellers are deciding to pull the plug, and just take their homes off the market until things change. Generally, that is a pretty strong indication that we have hit a bottom, so we'll see.

If you are a serious buyer and just waiting for the perfect time to get out and find that perfect lake place, I don't think you will ever see a better opportunity to pick up a great value on a waterfront home or cabin. But unless you get out there and see a few of them in person, you may never know for sure.

Price Dips aren't Permanent...and Neither are Dips in Cabin Floors

Much of the lake cabin stock of Minnesota and Wisconsin is getting up there in age, closing in on the 100 year mark. And the northern winters, with frost as deep as six feet, have a tendency to make a few adjustments in these structures - many of them built as seasonal abodes just a level or two higher in quality than the even more seasonal hunting shacks that adorn the northern woods.

Our forefathers - and foremothers - were resourceful when it came to constructing the family lake cabin, and generally used materials that were most readily available. Quite often, those were the trees that had grown up on the surrounding land. And since many of them needed to be removed to create roads and open spaces anyway, using that timber for joists and studs killed two birds with one stone.

Spruce logs and rough-cut dimension lumber (in many odd dimensions not available at your local lumber yard) were not quite as sturdy as the kiln-dried variety used today - and foundations were sometimes only as deep as the nearest rock or tree root to the surface. But who cared about a little bounce or shifting here and there? These places were meant to have fun, and late night drinking parties would cause the floors to seem uneven anyway. So as long as the inhabitants were a half a bubble off, the floors might as well be that way, too!

Back in the twenties and thirties there were still a lot of choices out there when it came to finding a good place to throw up a lake cabin. Even on the most high priced lakes of today, you could find perfect sandy beaches on large acreage plots nearly anywhere you wanted...and at prices even lower than they are this year.

As time progressed the lakes became more developed, and some of those historic cabins disappeared in favor of more modern - and much larger - "lake houses" that took their places. But one intriguing aspect of old cabins is their rustic and authentic charm that is very difficult to replicate, so many of those original cottages grew over time to become "lake houses" themselves through a process called "adding on," which helped retain a bit of the original character that gave the place its ambiance. Sometimes, though, the "adding on" only occurred on the sides and the top of the original structure...and not underneath. And when you increase the mass of any object, without beefing up its support mechanism, something will generally give.

There are two phrases that I've heard more than any other from prospective buyers over the years, as I have driven them from one house or cabin to the next, in search of the perfect combination of lake home; lakeshore type; lake size and quality; lot size; and likely lifestyle they may find in this location.

The first phrase is more often related to actual lake home buyers and goes like this: "If we could just move our house to this lot, it would be perfect." Since I know they are transferring in from Pittsburgh, I find it hard to believe they would pay the transportation costs of their entire home for that distance, so I just drive on to the next property on our list instead of getting off track checking on UPS charges for something like that.

The other common comment comes from lake cabin buyers, and it makes quite a bit more sense than the first one: "We already have a house; we want something that feels like a cabin." What they are really saying is, "Find me one of those places built 80 years ago filled with character. But, since I don't have the knowledge or the time to fix it up, find me one in good shape."

Because a lot of lake cabin buyers do like the true cabin feel, and because a lot of those early cabins also have some of the most prime sandy lots due to their original owners getting in at the head of the line, the older structures are attractive. But there can be a few issues that need to be taken care of, and one of them is dipped or sloping floors.

This is certainly a roundabout way of getting to the main subject matter of this article! But now I'll try to keep on track.

If the place has been there for a long time, it is probably done moving. It may still head up and down a bit over the freezing and thawing seasons, depending on if you leave it heated or not over the winter. But it should pretty much settle in again at the same level once the frost retreats.

There are a couple different methods you can use to bring sagging or sloped floors back to a more level state, and one may be better than the other depending on access to the floor joists and quality of flooring currently in place. Also, if those dipped floors are on the second story, it is quite difficult to adjust the entire house from the bottom up without affecting most of your doors and windows at the same time.

Whatever method of adjustment you decide is best, you should first make sure that everything is solid under the structure. Sometimes you will find cracked or rotten floor joists that need to be replaced or given extra support. Don't add any more weight onto an already faulty infrastructure.

Once you know everything is solid below, then you can begin to bring your floors back to level. If there are minor sags and soft spots on the main floor, and you can easily get under the structure, you can use jacks to slowly bring up those areas to the correct height, and then re-support each of those spots. You may have to do this over time, as wood doesn't not like to make any quick decisions in changing its shape (unlike people, who make quick decisions on changing their shapes for the better, but don't often follow through with it). But if you have the patience, you will typically be able to get your floors quite level again with this procedure.

Another method of leveling is to remove the underlayment and subfloor in the areas affected and either add new, straighter joists, or scab onto the ones that are there. You may or may not have to do this throughout the entire room, but it can be a lot of work if you have a large area to repair. And if it is an upstairs area of the house or cabin, you may run into insulation, plumbing and electrical wires between the floor and the ceiling below, so you have to use a lot of caution in this process.

Fortunately, there is one other method that is not as intrusive as the removal of the flooring system. Instead, you can find your highest spot in the floor and build your floor up to that level. Essentially, it creates a new subfloor over the old floor, and stiffens everything up along with making it level again. You will lose about a half inch of height in that particular room, but unless you are already nearly seven feet tall it should not affect you much.

You will first need to run a straight-edge from the high point to other areas of the room (a long straight board should suffice), and then run a level on top of that to see what thickness of shimming will be required to raise the floor. Then, figure out the surface area of the room for your new layer of flooring. If you are going to run carpet, floating floor, linoleum, or a similar finished flooring product, then a half inch layer of plywood works well for your new underlayment. So now you just have to figure out how much of it you need for the entire room, and what other materials will fit underneath it to support it all.

Once you've figured out the difference in height from the high point to the low point of your floor, you should use sheets of plywood, OSB, or another product in various thicknesses ranging from 1/4" to the total thickness needed, or be able to stack them to get to that thickness. So, if you have a 2 inch drop, you might want sheets of 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4". Then use small pieces of each thickness to slide under your straight-edge to see what the actual total thickness is needed to support that 1/2" plywood sheet just perfectly, then measure the distance needed for each thickness before it begins to push the straight-edge up again. You should also have a couple bundles of 1/16" construction shims, which are 3 foot long strips of cardboard that can be stacked to fill any thinner gaps.

If you have a large drop in the floor, it is easier to build the floor back up throughout those regions with larger sheets of plywood, and then run two inch strips of your shim materials over that new surface to fill in the remaining gaps. Smaller dips can be remedied more easily with just using the correct thickness of shim strips off of the existing floor. You should run each strip no more that about 6-8 inches apart to give the best support to your new layer of flooring. If you go much wider than that, you will tend to get some bounce between those new shim supports.

When all the shims are in place and level, you can put down your new layer of flooring with subfloor screws no more than one foot apart throughout the surface. Make sure you run the screws directly into the shims, instead of the gaps between the shims, so you don't pull down on the unsupported areas of your new floor. Now you can add your new baseboard, and trim any doors that may be too tight with the higher level of flooring. You will find that your bounce in the floor will be gone, and it will feel like a new room.

I've shown lots of interesting cabins over the years that had similar issues to those we have talked about here. With the right materials, and a few days of focused determination, you can have that rustic and charming lake cabin...and level floors to boot!

Important Note to Lakeshore Sellers

In the old days it used to be easy to choose a real estate agent to sell your lake home or cabin. You just needed to call a few in to give you a price, and then pick the one you liked the best. Most everyone had the same marketing plan:

1. Put up a sign
2. Advertise in the newspaper
3. Advertise in local real estate guide
4. Put in MLS (if available)
5. Do open houses
6. Take calls
7. Get offer
8. Go to closing

And a lot of them wore cheap suits and drove Lincoln Continentals, so it was hard to opt for one over another based on appearance alone.

Once in awhile an agent would even promise to go knock on neighbors' doors to see if they knew of anyone interested in buying a place on your lake (not a bad idea). Some would promise to make fancy brochures that they would leave on your kitchen table, and even put up a brochure box at the end of your driveway (which many times would end up being empty). Or an arrow or two out on the road (which many times would end up missing). And when the seller called the office to complain about some of these promises not taking place, there was no voicemail to leave a nasty message on...only a receptionist with a little pink notepad.

Those were the good old days!

But now, life has become complicated. Most people who own lake homes and lake cabins have been there for awhile. They aren't as versed in a lot of the new technologies that seem to inundate us each day. And to think about Twittering to create a successful sale, or spend a good part of each day social networking with strangers - hoping to find one who is the perfect match for your waterfront real estate - might send shivers down your spine.

Truthfully, I don't know what works and what doesn't any longer. What I do know is that nearly every real estate agent boasts about having multiple websites they can display your property on in hopes of attracting an interested - and qualified - buyer. Some of them say your listing will be on nineteen sites, others promise it will show up on 29 of them, but most of them have no idea how they really get there...or if they ever do. There are all kinds of automated feeds that send listings to everywhere these days, but they may or may not be an effective means of marketing, since buyers still have to find them...and then also find your property on them.

I also know that if I spent my day trying to Twitter my listings away, I probably wouldn't sell too many. It might be like knocking on doors all day trying to find just the right buyer for each property. And that doesn't seem real efficient to me either.

When it comes right down to it, selling real estate really hasn't changed all that much. There are only a few things that are important in creating the sale, and here they are:

1. Price your property corectly (in this market it is more important than ever).
2. Clean up clutter and fix anything that needs fixing inside and out.
3. Think about where your ideal buyer might come from. If you have a lake property, most buyers will be from somewhere else, and they may not even know for sure where they want to end up. To find these types of buyers, widespread - and targeted - exposure is the name of the game.
4. Choose an agent who will be honest with you and get you the type of exposure that will put you in front of that ideal buyer.
5. Hope for the best!

In over 20 years of selling lake properties in many parts of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, I have always tried to be as upfront and honest with potential sellers I possibly can be. I probably missed out on quite a few listings where I was too honest, whether it had to do with realistic pricing or just getting rid of the orange shag carpet. Not everyone wants to hear the truth, but you are not hiring me to be a liar. It won't do either one of us any good in the long run, and you will most likely still be in the lake home that you didn't want to be in any more - putting the dock in an out, raking the beach, fixing the plumbing...and maybe even replacing mechanicals that start to wear out along with your 732 day old listing on the MLS.

As much as possible, I have tried to get my agents to follow these same guidelines. As a company we don't get all the listings we interview for, but we generally still feel good that we gave the seller the best information possible to make a well-informed decision.

There are all kinds of reasons sellers choose to work with - or not to work with - certain agents, from personality conflicts to some of the other issues I have touched on here like pricing and condition. But when it comes right down to it, you still have to get that perfect buyer to your door one way or another, so your main focus in choosing how you will go about that should be on the best marketing plan for your particular property in this day and age.

Lakehomes.com is one of the most widely viewed waterfront real estate websites in the entire country because of its simple and highly targeted name, along with incredible search results. Not only that, but it has the information waterfront buyers are looking for, and it keeps bringing them back. And if your listing is in Minnesota or Western Wisconsin, you can't find a better place to expose your lake property to an incredible amount of likely buyers each day.

The graph at the top of this article represents our page views from visitors to our site each day since the beginning of 2009. As you can see, we have gone from about 1,000 views per day to over 20,000 views a few days ago, since our numbers started climbing in February. That's a 2,000% increase in traffic in just the last few months.

For the most part, those aren't buyers looking for in-town starter houses, horse farms, convenience stores, or condos for sale along the boulevard; they are lakeshore buyers looking for places like yours! While most other websites include the above property types along with their waterfront offerings, Lakehomes.com makes it easy for lakeshore buyers to find exactly what they want without having to filter through all the other things they don't. Because of that, we also make it easier for those buyers to find your lake home, cabin, lot or resort when it comes time to sell it.

The National Association of Realtors found that 87% of buyers were now using the Internet to find real estate information online in their November 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. If that many people are out there searching online overall, and if that many targeted ones are showing up on our site each day, isn't that where you might want to be, also?

Like I said earlier in this article, selling real estate has really not changed all that much over time. It's just a matter of using common sense to figure out how to get your property noticed by the most possible likely buyers for it once it is properly priced and well-presented. Whether that is on Twitter, through the local newspaper, or handing out flyers door to door, I don't don't know the answer. But some people are having pretty good luck with that on Lakehomes.com!

Giving Visitors What They Want

Over the last several months you have probably recognized some pretty drastic changes with this website. During the past thirteen years, we have brought the Lakehomes.com name from one of the first online niche real estate destinations to a regular stop for those who are thinking of buying or selling lake properties in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.

As a visitor, your main purpose of using this site - or any site for that manner - is to get the information you want. And...you want to be able to get it without a lot of work. Our goal has always been to fill that need to the best of our abilities.

In February, Lakehomes.com took on a new look. Instead of just being a website for Lakehomes.com Realty and its agents, we decided to blend the site with both agents from our own real estate company and local experts from other companies who could give you the best information and service possible. So, instead of just seeing agents from Lakehomes.com Realty on our site, you may find those from Edina Realty, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, or any other company where we have teamed up with a local expert who we feel can give you the lakeshore expertise you need.

It is a great combination effort. And whether you are a buyer or a seller, you can be assured that you will be able to connect with a real estate agent who understands the local market - or markets - you are focused on.

From everything we are seeing, it is exactly what you are looking for. The number of visitors on the site has increased about 400% since mid February, and our page views have seen about a seven-fold boost. In these days of "way too much information," it seems we are providing the refined data that people are looking for...at least as far as waterfront real estate is concerned.

We will continue to grow into more markets - and provide more localized information and expertise - as we move ahead. But whether we remain a great informational lake property website for Minnesota and Wisconsin, or a national brand, we promise to continue to bring you the information that you are looking for as best we can.

As we continue on our quest to be the ultimate waterfront real estate portal, we intend to add business directories, rentals, and other services to help you find all the information you need in one online destination. So when it comes to lake properties, and information on the areas surrounding them, you shoudn't have to go anywhere else - other than Lakehomes.com - to find exactly what you need!