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Our oldest daughter (22) is out on her own, the middle daughter (19) is at College and the youngest daughter (17) is a Senior in HS.
We have sacrificed our summers to the Softball gods, the Club Softball and H.S. Seasons all went from April - Oct for the last 8 years . It was a great experience but there was time for little else as our weekends and many week nights were spent either coaching or watching softball. Middle daughter had opportunities to play D1 ball but elected to just be a student and hang up her cleats .
With change comes opportunity, and we are looking very seriously at buying a lakefront home at Lake of the Ozarks. Its a solid 5 hour drive each way.
We have spent time down there, most recently a week's family vacation and really had fun. I have always wanted a second home on the water and now seems like the time to do something. We would keep our 232 down there and have a dock with a lift of course. Not on the main channel - too rough.
What advice can you give a newb when it comes to owning a lake home - in particular a home at a place like LOTO.
Thanks!
2018 Cobalt R30 Twin Volvo 380 w joystick and hard top.
1965 Corvette 396CI/425HP Convertible
So I cannot speak about LOTO but I do own a place on Table Rock Lake. Which is a very similar drive to what you do to LOTO. Takes me 3.5-4.5hrs to get there depending on traffic.
First thing you have to decide is Condo or House. We picked a condo due to the long commute and were not sure how much we would go. Second thing you have to decide is if you will rent it or just keep it all to yourself.
I will say I window shopped at TRL for over a year before I pulled the trigger. We narrowed down the search to an exact area of the lake we wanted to be and when we found something in our price range we pulled the trigger. Believe it or not I bought my place site unseen because a 2br/2bth condo with a killer lake view came up for sale and a price that was not going to last to long on the market.
A year later we have 0 regrets. We have pretty much spent the entire summer weekends there. All but about 4 weekends we have been there since mid may. We do not rent ours. I did the Math and as long as we stay 4 nights a month in our place it pays for itself compared to renting. I have no regrets buying a Condo over a home because it is nice and maintenance free. You are picking the perfect time of year to shop because as winter approaches home values around lakes tend to go down due to homes sitting on the market.
liquid wrote: ↑Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:26 pm
Lake House Life is the best life.
Agree!!
Only the moving of docks with water level changes would be a concern if your not a full timer.
A lot of lakes have “ Dock handlers “ and of course the good Niebor to take care of that.
Congratulations going forward!!
He won’t have to worry about that to much at LOTO. The lake is owned by the Energy company and they keep the lake height controlled all year. Why you see homes there with decks that lead straight to their dock.
liquid wrote: ↑Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:26 pm
Lake House Life is the best life.
Agree!!
Only the moving of docks with water level changes would be a concern if your not a full timer.
A lot of lakes have “ Dock handlers “ and of course the good Niebor to take care of that.
Congratulations going forward!!
He won’t have to worry about that to much at LOTO. The lake is owned by the Energy company and they keep the lake height controlled all year. Why you see homes there with decks that lead straight to their dock.
Nice! I like the constant level. Does lotto freeze up in coves during the winter?
Only the moving of docks with water level changes would be a concern if your not a full timer.
A lot of lakes have “ Dock handlers “ and of course the good Niebor to take care of that.
Congratulations going forward!!
He won’t have to worry about that to much at LOTO. The lake is owned by the Energy company and they keep the lake height controlled all year. Why you see homes there with decks that lead straight to their dock.
Nice! I like the constant level. Does lotto freeze up in coves during the winter?
I bought my boat at LOTO and test drove it in the middle of January. It was one of those rare 65 degree days in January. I didn’t see any ice then.
Only the moving of docks with water level changes would be a concern if your not a full timer.
A lot of lakes have “ Dock handlers “ and of course the good Niebor to take care of that.
Congratulations going forward!!
He won’t have to worry about that to much at LOTO. The lake is owned by the Energy company and they keep the lake height controlled all year. Why you see homes there with decks that lead straight to their dock.
Nice! I like the constant level. Does lotto freeze up in coves during the winter?
There can be ice at LOTO, the folks I talked to say they put "bubblers" on the docks over the winter which push the warmer water up from the bottom and keep the water moving so it does not freeze. Temps are usually pretty mild most of the winter months. We are looking at single family homes and not condos, many of the homes now have maintenance free exteriors and "desert" landscaping which means very little upkeep on the outside. We have 2 dogs and condo life would not work for them. They like to be outside, and will need a little shade and grass.
2018 Cobalt R30 Twin Volvo 380 w joystick and hard top.
1965 Corvette 396CI/425HP Convertible
So there are both pros and cons to a Corp lake like TRL or a no Corp Lake like LOTO. I gripe about the Corp but it seems like some of the rules they impose are better for the greater good instead of a "wide open do what you want because nobody will stop you" type place. LOTO can get pretty crazy.
5 hours is a long way off. My place is not quite 3 hours and that gets old after awhile. But whatever you do, it WILL become your Happy Place!
I'd most definitely get the lowest maintenance place you can find. After a 10 hour round trip you don't want to be mowing for sure. And while I lust after a private dock, dock maintenance is something I don't need either, so I'm happy to rent a slip on a community dock where someone else can worry about floods and low water.
If you end up on LOTO your probably going to want (or need) a bigger boat. Waves get large there. Just a thought.
Let us know what you do!
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From the Land of the Red Man
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My wife and I grew up with places on the lake of the ozarks. My parents place was at about the 8 mike marker on the Gravois arm. My wife’s dad’s place was at about the 33 on the Osage.
My parents had a house. It was always a work in progress. It was always fixing hjnfs etc. We had our own dock and when it needed repairs or the encapsulated foam law came into effect it became costly. Eventually it became a chore to go there.
My father in law found a cheap trailer and some good people who ran a trailer park. They kept the place nice and maintained the dock. He had to pay a slip rental and a pad rental plus his utilities. It cost him maybe $250 a month. He spent a weekend before lake season and a weekend after doing some maintenance stuff but then became fairly work free and left a lot more time to play with the boat.
I think when I am ready for a lake place I would like it be 3hrs or less away depending on the lake. A condo or something with a dog walking area might be more for me. I think I would rather pay a small HOA fee and not have to worry about freezing pipes, dock repairs, sea wall repairs, lawn...and go and enjoy the boat and lake.
That is my $0.02. Hit me up on the phone if you have any questions
Lake living is the best so I would say go for it! We built our dream retirement lake home and just completed it in June. We have 2 in college and our youngest still at home for another 4 years, after which we will full time at our lake home from May through October. I get sacrificing summer weekends for sports - we did soccer and swimming for our kids each summer from 2002 until 2014. My youngest thankfully is into music and golf which doesn’t screw up our summers.
5 hours is a long drive for a weekend(our is 2 hours away) but to me it would still be worth it. Many of our neighbors own lake homes that are 4+ hours away and they still use their lake home a lot. Dock maintenance is not a big deal where we are in Minnesota because the lake level varies at most only a few inches a year. The dock is powder coated aluminum so it requires no maintenance. The only expense after the initial investment is I pay someone to pull the dock and lifts out at the end of October and install it in late April. The ice will destroy a dock so everyone takes them out and stacks them on the shoreline.
We will spend Thankgiving and Christmas at our lake home this year. Many might think I’m crazy but winter can have some of the most beautiful days of the year. I’ll buy a couple snowmobiles this fall and we will make the most of the winters until my youngest is out of the house and enjoy many frozen weekends at our lake home. After she graduates high school, it’s Naples Florida for 6 months each winter!
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We live about 45 minutes from TRL and about 1:15 to the south part of LOTO near Camdenton. We too would like to find a place one of these days.
Prices seem to be at a peak/premium right now. If you look at Zillow it's a steep climb the last few years. My advice if you have cash is to hang on to it for a couple of years and figure out what you like and what you want then when the there is a dip in the economy you'll be in a position to pick something up for a reasonable price. The stock market is up right now, people are making $$$ and they are feeling pretty froggy and the prices reflect that. We've looked at a few places at LOTO that were rotting away, bad seawalls, and docks that needed repair for $200k+, no thanks.
One issue with LOTO is there seems to be little to no regulation and apparently no zoning. You might have a million dollar mega lake house sitting right next to a broken down single-wide trailer. You also have to wonder if with all the 1000's of lake homes there, does each and every one of the septic systems work as it should? I'm betting not. If you want to be right on the lake, like to be around a LOT of boats and people, enjoy places to eat on the water it's definitely fits that. It's definitely got curb appeal from that aspect.
TRL on the other hand has a lot more rules since it's a corp lake. Homes can't be built right next to the water and there are far fewer and the quality of the homes seems to be of a higher quality/nature. At least that's been my view/perspective from the water. It's a less busy lake, way fewer boats, people, docks, apparent cleaner water and still a place or two to go eat but nothing like LOTO. We've made a few friends there and honestly, the more time we spend at TRL the better we like the laid backness of that lake. It's kind of nice to just find a little quiet cove, throw out the stack mat, put our favorite tunes on the stereo and just relax and cool off on a hot summer day. It's not the "party cove" let it all hang out social atmosphere of LOTO, totally different. We take our teenage kids and we've done all kinds of coving out, tubing, wakeboarding, cruising, Cobalt Regatta, etc. I couldn't think of a more picturesque setting to have a lake home and a better place to enjoy from the water.
ajcampen wrote: ↑Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:53 pm
Bigblock, what city/area of Iowa do u live in? That way we can help u with your search.
I'm on neenah Wisconsin. Lmao I don't pull from the bow and I don't live in Iowa. Lol
I would love a cottage or a lake house. That's 5 years away. My wife wants to live on a boat. She's nuts. My brother lives in the lake he Doesn't have a maint free home so it's painting and a new deck. Like MNboaters he had someone install the docks and remove them. It's about 300 bucks and done. We hurt our backs one year so that was enough. My other brother has a cottage abour 1hr45 min from me. He lives in Az so he hasn't done anything to it lately. He's coming back for summers next year and will be painting his cottage. Cutting trees up for fire wood. That's about it. Maybe build another house on part of the lot. He has 600 ft of wood covered frontage. My other brother has 90 ft of frontage.
Myself in shooting maybe for Table Rock condo with a pool or Down by Florida somewhere. Who knows.
I agree no work condo would be great.
No way would I be more than 2 hrs from my water dream place. Sell the house and move!
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. It was a great experience but there was time for little else as our weekends and many week nights were spent either coaching or watching softball. Middle daughter had opportunities to play D1 ball but elected to just be a student and hang up her cleats . 
to take care of that.
