It’s been on my new year’s resolution list for the past two years and been on my personal list of things to do for 13 years, and it finally happened last month. You can read about the build-up at my entry called a Time Consuming Addiction.
At the real estate auction, there were several cars there and 10-12 people who had showed up. I imagined this meant there was going to be considerable competition for the lots. In actuality, most of the people were realtors or sellers, so when it got down to bidders, there were only 4 parties: my friend Brad (who was only interested in getting a steal), a neighbor lady (also only interested in a steal) and some guy who wanted some other property. So this should be real easy for me, I thought to myself. Unfortunately, there were 2 people on the phone, and they ended up dictating the action. The bidding started at $25K and I bid against someone on the phone up to $45K for the choice of the three lots (2 was the one I wanted, 3 was pretty good and 4 has terrible lake shore). I let it go because I thought maybe the next one would go cheaper if the first guy blew his wad on this bid. He ended up picking lot 3 to my surprise, so I was still in the running to get lot 2. For the next auction, it started at $25K and I found myself bidding against the other guy on the phone. There was a really small chance this guy would pick lot 4, so I figured I had to get this one if I wanted the lot. He ended up bidding me up to $47K where I won the auction.
I was happy with the purchase – the lots were listed at $75K and I was prepared to go to $55K. Becky had said "Don’t go over $60K". After the auction I got to talk to most all the neighbors so I got a feel for the residents and they seemed like nice people. They were all weekenders from the Cities. The property we have has 175 ft of lakeshore and is 1.55 acres. The majority of the property is pretty flat farm land. Within 25-30 ft of the water there’s a wooded bluff that descends into the water. This area is very wooded and at the lakeshore there are several trees that have fallen over into the water. It’s very difficult to walk the shoreline because of this.
When I went to close on the property I found out that the person who won the first bid actually never signed a purchase agreement, so I may have been bidding against some phantom. That didn’t make me feel good about how the price could’ve been driven up. However, I also learned that I paid less than the reserve price for the lot, so I still think we got a good deal.
That brings us to today. We decided to take a crack at cleaning up the site today. Becky, my dad and I dropped the girls off with my mom and went to work with nothing but a saw and a branch cutter. It was amazing how much work we got done in 2 hours, and amazing how out of shape I am. I definitely couldn’t keep up with my 60 year old father as we shared the cutting duties on some big branches. The bank is pretty steep, so getting the branches up the hill was as big of a challenge as cutting them to begin with. In the end, it was a great difference. We were able to cut down 6-7 branches that hung out over the water plus a couple small trees that were in the sight line. Now we can see and go straight down into the water from our property.
We’re happy to be moving forward and it’s fun to have a project. We’re not planning to move out there or anything, but it’s a fun place to have. The beach looks pretty decent, so with some work we’ll have a good place for the girls to swim.
Eric's space 