Selling a Waterfront Home
The listing has to answer what the water actually does, because the buyer who pays most is the one who already knows to ask.
The Buyer Who Pays Most Already Knows What to Ask
There are two kinds of people who will look at your waterfront listing, and they behave completely differently.
One is browsing and likes the photographs. The other has been looking at water for a year, has already been disappointed twice, and arrives with a short list of questions: how much frontage is actually usable, what the bottom is like where you would swim, how deep it runs where a dock would go, whether a dock is permitted at all, and what the access looks like in February.
The second person is the one who pays the most, and they are the one a vague listing loses. When those answers are missing they do not call to ask. They assume the answer is unflattering, because in their experience it usually has been, and they move to the next listing.
So the work is to answer the hard questions inside the listing, before anyone has to ask them.
Where would you like to start?
Your Comparison Set Is Not Your Neighborhood
The second thing that costs waterfront sellers money is being compared to the wrong properties.
An automated estimate reads your address and averages what sold nearby. On the lakeshore that pulls in homes on different water, homes with no water at all, and homes where the water cannot do what yours can. The number that comes out is not wrong so much as it is about a different property.
An algorithm cannot see how much of your frontage is usable, or what the bottom is like where you swim, or that your neighbor's dock sits where yours would go. It cannot tell a channel lot from an open-lake lot, or a river parcel from either. It does not know that a road is seasonal. On a back parcel it has no idea whether the water is a two-minute walk or a twenty-three minute one.
Waterfront is priced against comparable water. That sometimes means reaching further away for a fairer comparison, and saying plainly why that comparison is the right one. A buyer's agent will bring their own set of numbers to the negotiation, and the listing that has already made its case is the one that holds.
In their words
What working with me is like
Going with Tamara as our realtor was a fantastic decision! She is honest, calm, professional, and a fantastic listener. I would most definitely recommend her to anyone!
Tamera was the best ever! Give that woman a raise!
What I Document Before It Lists
I go and stand on it, and I read the water the same way I read it for a buyer. That is the whole point: I already know what the other side is going to look for.
I measure usable frontage against the recorded figure and check where your lines actually run. I look at the bottom where somebody would swim, which buyers price even though it appears on no form. I check depth where a dock would sit, and whether a dock is permitted. I look at access in every season and find out who maintains it. Where the property sits on a chain or a channel, I establish what a boat can and cannot reach from your shore.
Then The Lakeshore Demand Method starts before the MLS does. Your home goes in front of a paid and targeted audience while the listing is still being prepared, so there are buyers waiting on launch day rather than a listing hoping to be found. Most agents begin the day the sign goes in.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before. I hold the Accredited Buyer's Representative designation from the National Association of REALTORS®, which is exactly why I know which questions the buyer's side is about to ask.
Then a Written Report, Every Week
You get a written report every week, whether the news is good or not. Showings, what buyers actually said, what the traffic is doing, and what I think we should change.
You can cancel at any time if you are not satisfied with the work.
If you want the number first, start with what your home is worth. The full seller process is at selling your home, and if you are buying on the water as well, the buyer side is at waterfront homes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my listing really need the frontage and depth spelled out?
It needs them if you want the strongest buyer. Somebody who has been searching for water already has that checklist, and a listing that leaves it blank reads to them as a listing with something to hide. Spelling it out costs you nothing when the answers are good, and when one answer is weak it is better to control how it is explained than to have it discovered at inspection.
Why not just price it against what sold in my neighborhood?
Because the nearest sale is often not the most comparable one. Waterfront is priced against comparable water: the same kind of frontage, the same access, the same thing a boat can do. Sometimes the fairest comparison is further away, and saying why is part of defending the number when a buyer's agent pushes back.
Is there a best time of year to list on the water?
Season affects who is looking and what your photographs can show, so it is worth planning rather than defaulting. What matters more is that the marketing starts before the listing goes public, so interest has built by the time it launches. I will give you a straight answer for your property rather than a general rule.
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Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?