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Posts: 1023
| Not a big deal yet for me, but could be in the future. So I'm curious about your thoughts...
When looking at a place up north (Vilas/Oneida), when you factor in everything, would you rather live on lake, or live off of the water?
For years (34), my parents have had a very nice lake home on a lake in Vilas County. Growing up, I was "waterlocked" on that thing. I know that lake like the back of my hand and have really enjoyed fishing it over the years. The last 5-6 years, though, when I go north, I hardly ever fish that lake. I'm always dragging a boat to other lakes. (Our lake isn't a good walleye lake.)
So now my parents are getting older and that lake home is pretty much the best investment they ever made. It would break my heart to see them sell it, but I'm guessing that will happen in the next few years. I dearly love Vilas County and want to get a place up there with my wife and I'm seeing that you can get a nice cabin in the middle of the woods, with big garages for toys, for a fractional cost compared to buying "on the water". Given how I've fished lately, that may be the way for me to go.
But I'm curious to hear all thoughts on the matter. This fictional property for me would be a secondary residence or cabin. My wife and I are not looking to relocate permanently to the northwoods just yet. |
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Posts: 258
Location: Mayville, WI | I'd go off water because it's cheaper and there's a bunch of options not too far away and even if I'd be on the water, I'd still be going to other lakes as well.
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| We bought a seasonal cabin on a lake in Oneida county in 2003, had our retirement home built there last fall, moved in end of Dec. Even though the lake has been iced over since we moved in, we don't regret it a bit. Love the view, look forward to open water fishing.
The only draw backs to being on the water that I can see are taxes and use restrictions, i.e., where you can build and how you build. But the usage restrictions are put in place to protect the water, so not really complaining about that.
One advantage of being on the water is that there is a little more density in housing, which means that even though we are five miles out of Rhinelander, we have natural gas, cable TV. The natural gas is much cheaper than propane. If you are on a secluded back road off water, you gain privacy, more flexibility for use of property, but probably won't have natural gas.
We have gotten to know some folks in the area through a group we joined and many of them faced the same choice, on water or more land but off water. Seems like all are happy with choice, but each had their own wants and needs. Have to decide what is important to you. |
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Posts: 441
| If you can afford all that goes with a lake home, and love looking out and seeing the lake, then get it.
My wife had the best idea, for us. Rent a cabin, on a lake. She was right! I don't have to do any work on the cabin or property, no taxes, or anything else that goes with owning it. I get up and fish, everyday.
When you get tired of the lake or area, you rent somewhere else.
My buddy rented on the same lake we did, and his wife wanted her own place. They found a house on the same lake, and bought it. He is not retired yet, so only comes up for a week or two, at a time. He spends most of his vacation, working on his property. He wishes he was renting.
We have been real lucky, in finding very reasonable priced cabins. That is the key.
It's all in what you want. I love being on the water. There is something magical about being on the water, to me. It also helps to have a boat ramp close, so I can trailer my boat to other lakes.
Good luck, in finding what makes you and your family happy. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | 1. you would have to get a pretty big market gain to compensate for the cash cost of high taxes on water
2. lakes are noisy and everything out there will be heard and get old fast
3. too many choices for water you want to fish so you'll trailer a lot anyway
4. value of off water properties right now are fantastic with low property taxes
i grew up living on water and wouldn't choose it over a quiet cabin in the woods. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | If I had all the money I ever wanted I would love to have a place on the lake, but I don't think I'd live there. I have never lived on a lake but I share many of the same thoughts Sled has - depending on the lake anyway. Most lakes these days are getting pretty heavily built up, and I guess I'm a hermit but I don't really want neighbors. Right now my closest neighbors are probably just under 1/4 mile away but we're seperated by trees. I can go out in my yard and take a pee, or shoot a .22 or shotgun and not have to worry about anything. I can pull my boat out of the garage or have a fire in my fire ring without any "friendly" neighbors coming over to talk to me for 2 hours. Might sound silly but that's important to me.
If I did live on the water I would probably rarely have a boat docked, or if I did it would be a secondary boat. Wouldn't want to be locked in to only being able to fish the one lake, or have it be a 2 person ordeal to get the boat loaded and unloaded on the lake I lived on.
If the house has sentimental value and you love it there, then THAT might be important to you to buy it and live there. You know the area, you probably know the neighbors. You could still haul you boat back and forth each time you fish to give you flexibility to fish other lakes when you want.
If you can afford it either way, either choice will probably work well for you. Good luck!
Tucker |
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Posts: 102
| I concur with what others said. The days of going up to that area and enjoying some peaceful time on the water are restricted to pre-mid-June and post-Labor Day. Between those time periods, most of the lakes up there have some jet skis, wakeboard boats, and endless droves of the weedline hugging pontoon parades (god forbid they get that pontoon more than 100 feet from the shoreline). Even sitting on the dock and enjoying the view is hard to do these days. I'd get a place in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the quietness. River front properties are an alternative route that are somewhat intriguing to me too.... |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | I have a cabin on a flowage in Price County. Actually on one of the feeder creeks where it enters the lake. It is very secluded and there isn't much boat traffic in front of my place. More kayaks and canoes, or the few neighbors farther up stream. I intend to build an addition to it somewhere near term. My kids are getting older and will soon have families of there own. I love being on the water and having the ability to just walk down to the pier and hop in the boat at will. Also the great views of all the wildlife is priceless! |
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Posts: 8716
| Kind of torn on this one. I've got some property up in Vilas on a musky lake which will some day have the dream lake house. But looking around at what you can get off the water just a few minutes away I almost think it's better to have a larger piece of property and forgo the lakefront. You're going to fish all the area lakes anyway. I can't imagine anything will beat the view, or be much better than being able to sit on my pier and enjoy my coffee in the morning with the loons and eagles. But you can get a LOT more bang for your buck going off-water. And if you're like me and you'd rather not see or hear your neighbors, it might be a better bet.
You have to consider the costs of getting power to the property, having a road/driveway put in, who will plow it in the winter, propane vs natural gas...
You are pretty limited on what you can build on a lakefront lot unless you pay a fortune for a multi-acre property. Most of the lakefront lots have been subdivided to hell and back. 5 acres off water close to all the lakes will give you more opportunities for a garage, the house you want, storage for your toys, a burn pile...
I have to say, though. Being able to walk down to the pier, hop in the boat and go? Priceless. If you get hungry, back to the house you go. If you need a bathroom break, back to the house you go. If you want to fish for an hour or so or quit when nothing is moving it's a LOT easier when you just have to zip across the lake vs taking the boat out and going home.
Bugs?
You're in the woods no matter what. Whether it's your shoreline or a boat landing, the mosquitoes are incredible. Not too bad out on the water, but when you hit land? RUN.
Last year was unreal, even during the day.
Edited by esoxaddict 3/27/2015 1:29 PM
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Posts: 255
| I've had both. Started with some acres and a garage near Three Lakes, and now we have a place on WI River near Rhinelander. My situation is this: married, three kids under 9, I like to musky fish, we now tube and ski some. Your situation wasn't clear to me.
I find that I love having the boat ready to go in the lift or at shore; can sneak in and out whenever I want with trolling motor. I found the bugs were terrible in the woods. We can fish and play, and still use a toilet at the cabin. Sunsets, campfires on shore, cast from shore/dock for gills, northerns and crappies all day; boys love it. We can eat hot meals at cabin. We can get out of the rain. Snowmobile trail is on the lake. Don't hunt.
I found a great value on the water, but I searched for two years. Everyone has said it, you have to weigh what you want most. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | some big fish in that river^ |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | I rented on a class A lake in Price for about 8 years. Hated fishing it.
Bought a house on 20 acres off the water and now I enjoy fishing it again. And I catch a lot more fish when I do fish it.
Taxes suck, the inability to do what you want with land, feeling guilty when you aren't fishing, noise at night, neighbors in sight, gotta drive to your bowstand.
I'd like to own a house on a lake but I wouldn't want to be there full time. |
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Posts: 32784
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | We own a place near hwy 8 in Rhinelander, but 6 miles out of town. One neighbor. Pelican River across the road. Sue owns a place west of Minocqua in a quiet lake association neighborhood near a pretty nice lake. We have a key for the gated landing and a slip at the dock if I want one. I don't, we like to move around. |
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Posts: 1023
| Love all the replies. Keep them coming.
My wife and I do not have plans, nor do we have plans to have kids.
There is certainly merit to jumping in the boat and going out for an hour or two and not having the hassle of hooking up a trailer.
And there is certainly merit about how busy the lakes can get. Taxes. Price. Neighbors...etc.
Like I said, hopefully this isn't an issue for a little while. But if it is, I want to have as much knowledge as I can available to me when I make a decision on what to do up there.
That rental option is pretty appealing to me, too. Even though my parents are up there, my wife and I "won" a silent auction once to go to Jay's Resort on the Cisco Chain. We really enjoyed our time there. |
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Posts: 1220
| I need enough of a least traveled lake so that if I say I caught a 50 there, ten guys can't say, " no you didn't , we saw you shake off a dink, and then take out the bump board so guys at the ramp think you maybe had something to measure. I want the privacy to pass my gas and have nobody around to say it doesn't smell like roses. Probably need the cabin in the trees and a good can of Deep Woods Off....or, maybe the skeeters don't like the smell of roses.....bonus savings! |
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| Whaaa...no one mentioned, "living in a van, down by the river!"  |
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Posts: 3136
| What about a real nice travel trailer,,then you can change scenery and be at the hot bite and they make some really nice ones now,,resorts have hookups and season long leases and your on the water. Maybe sacrifice a little solitude but you can always pick up and move. |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | I have lived on Lake Onalaska for around 16 years now. The ease of walking out my back door and into the boat is wonderful. I spend most of my time on the water, with the lake being attached to the Mississippi there is never a shortage of water. I also live a half a block away from the main landing, and although it is a madhouse on the weekends, i have found myself enjoying the circus/entertainment. If I am not on the water, I enjoy listening to someone's outboard planing out. I also have a lake cabin on a southern price county, WI body of water. Cabin has been in the family for generations, it is only 52 acres, not much for fishin, but it is on the peaceful side. So, when i do get up there to muskie fish i put alot of miles on my truck going from place to place, would love to have a cabin on a muskie lake so i could squeeze out at convenience and not have to worry about leaving the girlfriend behind for the day (she doesn't muskie fish). I also have some hunting property in Buffalo county with a huntin shack on the land, no running water, no electricity, no neighbors and tons of peace and quiet. If I had to choose one to live in full time, I would choose the muskie lake.
Edited by beerforthemuskygods 3/27/2015 6:09 PM
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| Yea I currently have a lot of the same thoughts I have seen posted. My biggest dilemma is that I really enjoy going and spending time Vilas county but it is 300 mile drive for me one way and I would only be able to make 3-4 day trips twice a month. And I wonder if I bought a place on the water or in the woods would just become to much and not enough enjoyment.
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | My cabin up north is set up to be relatively maintenance-free. No yard, vinyl siding, etc. I'll have to clean out the gutters once in a while or take care of a dead tree but for the most part it is get there and enjoy. |
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Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | happy hooker - 3/27/2015 5:49 PM
What about a real nice travel trailer,,then you can change scenery and be at the hot bite and they make some really nice ones now,,resorts have hookups and season long leases and your on the water. Maybe sacrifice a little solitude but you can always pick up and move.
If I had the money that's the route I'd go. Me and my dad looked into going halfsies on a smaller cottage on a lake about 45 minutes away, but don't want to feel obligated to go there every weekend. A camper would be a much better fit for us, lots of nice campgrounds around here. For now though, there are plenty of awesome lakes within 1/2 hour of my house.
If I was going to pick up some property and build I'd be going for in the sticks. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | if you want to go a bit further north (Montreal, Gile etc...) you'd be shocked how cheap you can buy a house in a small town ... it's more like buying a car or truck than a house. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | We chose a property on the lake, and we love it. The biggest downside we experience are the higher property taxes. Don't be discouraged by the other "drawbacks" of lake living. You can find property where your neighbors aren't on top of you and breathing down your neck. You can find lakes where jet skiing, tubing, and waterskiing isn't a dawn to dusk activity. Sure, there are land use restrictions but I don't view a 75 foot setback from the lake a hardship. In our township, acreage in the woods is governed by the same rules as lakefront property so "doing whatever you want" is governed by the same rules regardless if you have waterfront or not. Every municipality has their own rules - do your research and you can find something that works for your family.
I don't tire of fishing the lakes we're on, and when I want a change of scenery it's easy enough to pull the boat and trail it to another local lake. We're about 25 miles out of town so we're pretty much in the "sticks" too. An hour round trip to town trains you to keep a detailed and complete shopping list. It also can raise health concerns in an emergency - if you need immediate help you will find yourself in deep trouble. For us it's yet more incentive to stay healthy and take very good care of ourselves. Like Tucker, i occasionally pee in the yard, fire a shotgun (to move along the odd wandering bear) and though we have a great relationships with our neighbors, neither is closer than 250 feet or so.
I'm an early riser and like to pour a cup of coffee, grab my rod and go out to the dock and cast first thing in the morning. It's nice to step out for 10 or 15 minutes and not have to take the boat down off the lift to wet a line. I catch a few musky off the dock every summer, along with numerous walleye, smallies, "green carp", and a variety of panfish.
Any property you chose, be it on water or deep in the woods, will have its own risks and opportunities. We were lucky enough to stumble upon lakefront property that is also remote. Carefully consider your family's desires and choose the one that fits you best.
Lastly, unless you are fortunate enough to have a lake breeze the mosquitoes are every bit as bad on the lakefront as they are in the woods !
Edited by dfkiii 3/28/2015 7:35 AM
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Posts: 156
| dfkiii - 3/28/2015 7:31 AM
I'm an early riser and like to pour a cup of coffee, grab my rod and go out to the dock and cast first thing in the morning. It's nice to step out for 10 or 15 minutes and not have to take the boat down off the lift to wet a line. I catch a few musky off the dock every summer, along with numerous walleye, smallies, "green carp", and a variety of panfish.
That's so awesome. I miss that from when I was a kid (except the coffee part, i used to drink Orange Juice...though now it would certainly be coffee :)). We had a cabin on a lake in Oneida County. Even when I was about 9, I would wake up at first light and be down on the dock throwing a minnow or worm out there. I would also release all the black bullheads I caught after dark the night before. I used to keep em in a bucket.
My grandfather used to say to my mom (his daughter)..."That kid doesn't stop fishing, ever". So he started calling me Ike...for Izaak Walton the famous author of "The Compleat Angler". Haha. My grandfather was in the boat with my Dad & I when I caught my first musky in 1988. He was so proud. When I get a big Musky now, my grandpa is still always the first one I think of...
Lots of good memories, but each person is different as to whether they should be on the lakefront or not. I know after a while, we started trailering to a lot of different lakes in the area to keep it "fresh". |
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Posts: 75
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dfkiii - 3/28/2015 7:31 AM
I'm an early riser and like to pour a cup of coffee, grab my rod and go out to the dock and cast first thing in the morning. It's nice to step out for 10 or 15 minutes and not have to take the boat down off the lift to wet a line. I catch a few musky off the dock every summer, along with numerous walleye, smallies, "green carp", and a variety of panfish.
It helps when you can cast off your dock towards one of the best weedbeds in the lake!
I would spend a lot of time on lake before I bought again - at all time of year and all times of day. There is a resort with a popular restaurant near our cabin. Great place. Being on the lake during the day or during the middle of the week you would never imagine the amount of traffic that goes down the road on a Friday or Saturday night to that restaurant. It not an issue where we are, but if we were further in that direction we'd be hearing a lot of traffic. There is also a popular snowmobile trail down the middle of our bay. Depending on your point of view, that may be a positive or a negative, but it helps to be there in the winter to gauge its impact.
Edited by bwalsh 3/28/2015 11:58 AM
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | First off, I have lived on a lake all my life and would trade it for nothing, but it took me a while to fish other waters. It is very easy to put your boat in the water, tie it up to your dock and the next thing you know it is fall and you haven't fished any other waters. If your cabin is not on the water, you are more or less forced to put your boat on a trailer every night. Then the next morning you can decide what lake you want to trailer your boat to. If your boat is tied to the dock, you end fishing "your" lake again.
In short, it is a lot easier to fexplore new waters if your boat is on your trailer rather then your dock. So if you are a fisherman, think about buying the cheaper off water cabin, so you will be more likely to go to where they are biting. |
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Posts: 1198
Location: Walker, MN | It depends on the lake...
The last thing you want is to have an explosive bite going on 10 miles up the road and you are intent on fishing your lake because the boat is already on the lift. If you have the means to be on a premier lake with a consistent bite going on and huge fish than I can't imagine a better place to set up residence. |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Ditto on what Sled said! |
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| For off lake, sometimes you can get a real good deal on a nice property. About a half mile from our lake home, an older gentleman passed away and family put his house up for sale. Nice 2 acre lot, with 2 car attached garage and a big detached garage. Only problem was the house was quite dated and needed new carpet, some new windows, etc. Big paved drive way. Folks that bought it are not into fishing but rather have a big go fast boat on a triple axle trailer and multiple snow mobiles. They got a great deal on the property, have natural gas, cable tv, lots of storage for all the power toys, less than five miles from Rhinelander and got it for under $100,000. |
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Posts: 24
| Great Post:
It is tough to beat having a place on the water as I've had a place since 1999 in Vilas. These are things that I considered when looking for my lake place:
It needed to be a lake that has trophy potential for Musky and or Walleye, big SMBs a plus
It needed to be as big a water as I could afford (I figured this would be best in long run for investment if I ever needed to
sell) and I wouldn't get bored
Needs to have restaurants, hardware store, bait shop options within 20 minutes
Fairly level drive and shore helps in winter and getting lift in and out
Lake has good landings to move off and be positioned next to your other key lakes
The best thing for me is driving up on Friday night and getting out quickly for an hour or two and still being able to fish either walleye or musky (or your favorite species). Eagles, loons are added bonuses. Some other very key things are if weather is bad you can still get out and zip back or fish from dock, and play frontal conditions to your advantage. I started with resort cabin that went condo for under $100K and then flipped it to get to my next property. All in all, having a place to go to get out of the rat race is good for the soul on the water or off.
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