The Ins and Outs of Buying and Selling Waterfront Property with Tia Lilly

[00:00:00] Tia Lilly (Intro Teaser): Knowing what you have, it’s a big deal. And knowing what’s out there and what isn’t out there too, that’s a key too. What isn’t available, so sometimes it’s not always what is available that can help with value. It’s what isn’t available.

[00:00:27] Brian Hamrick: Welcome to the Rental Property Owner and Real Estate Investor podcast, brought to you by the Rental Property Owners Association, where real estate investors have found success since 1968.

[00:01:00] Brian Hamrick: Hello and welcome to episode 413. Owning waterfront property is the dream of many real estate investors, but buying and selling waterfront property is very different than your typical real estate transaction. Tia Lilly is the founder of Property Cape Cod Real Estate. TIA is a seasoned real estate professional with almost two decades of experience specializing in all types of waterfront properties on Cape Cod, including waterfront Waterview, lake, pond, riverfront, and beachfront properties.

[00:01:41] Brian Hamrick: She understands that selling a waterfront property differs from a traditional home sale, but this fact is not widely known. Today Tia is gonna walk us through all the things we need to consider when it comes to buying or selling waterfront property. Tia, welcome to the show.

[00:01:59] Tia Lilly: Thanks, Brian. I appreciate you having me.

What Makes Waterfront Property Different

[00:02:19] Brian Hamrick: I was looking forward to this conversation because I have some waterfront property –rental property and I’m looking at building on other waterfront property. But what I found is it’s very hard to value these types of properties because you’re taking into account waterfront. Which doesn’t necessarily have a price tag on it, so you have to sort of see what the market will bear as, as far as I’ve been able to tell, but, I’m wondering what, you know, you’ve been specializing in this for such a long time. Kind of take us through it. What, what are we talking about when we’re talking about waterfront property?

[00:02:47] Tia Lilly: We’re talking about quite a bit and your situation is a little different because you are building, so it’s something “new”, But typically with the structure existing, like we look at it, I think you’re on Lake Michigan, right?

[00:03:06] Brian Hamrick: Yeah. The properties I’m talking about are on Lake Michigan and in Traverse City or North Muskegon.

Understanding Cape Cod’s Waterfront Market

[00:03:34] Tia Lilly: Right. So. So here like Cape Cod for anyone, a lot of people know Cape Cod, some don’t. It’s a resort destination here where people are drawn to our beaches and our lakes and the ocean and boating, and it’s just so many variables of water here, rivers, and they all come in different shapes and sizes and connect to different parts of the ocean. So we have the bay side, we have the ocean side. So I mean, right there alone, I can speak, it’s hard for me on Lake Michigan, I don’t know. But to Cape Cod. There’s just so many different varieties of water. So when somebody says ” Oh! I want a waterfront property or I want to sell my waterfront property or I want to buy a waterfront… First we have to look at the water. What does that water do? What is it, how do people use the water? Is it, is it boating? Is it beach? And their value will come from there.

[00:04:06] Tia Lilly: So that’s one part where you start. And then there’s a lot of different rules and regulations, as I’m sure you have on Lake Michigan as well. Anything near water. So those need to be considered in part of the sale process as well, and to be aware of it, so there’s no surprises.

The Buyer Discovery Process

[00:04:24] Brian Hamrick: Tia, can you kind of walk us through that process then, because you’re, and, and actually maybe we should just take a step back and you can just kind of help us track like what you do and what’s your, how you interface with the waterfront property as a realtor or broker, and the type of properties you typically help people buy or sell.

[00:04:49] Tia Lilly: Well that’s, there’s actually a variety and you know, I’ve, in listening to a lot of your podcasts, ’cause you work a lot with investing, well anything in real estate right, is an investment. But, so it depends. We have people who come to us, people in terms of investment, that want to… what I get excited about for people in terms of investment – we’ll just go there for one second, is it’s such a great opportunity to invest in real estate and have fun with it. Build equity. And utilize it as a vacation rental. So you generate, it generates revenue, it sound, it’s exciting. A key is getting the right property though. So that’s a huge key in what will derive the best rental revenue for you. So that’s one, one aspect. And, and, and more and more people are finding us for that venue.

[00:05:15] Brian Hamrick: So you work with a lot of short term rental or vacation rental type investors who are looking for that waterfront property that they can run down?

[00:05:30] Tia Lilly: We do, and we have, a rental division, a vacation rental division specifically for that as well. So we’re full service on that. So our ideal client is the one that is out of state, wants to come in and enjoy their houses a few weeks out of the year, want it to be their own, but want this home to be an investment in terms of more than just appreciating an equity, but have it generate revenue. And we just see everything through — everything. Like we take care of the house like it’s our own house and drop a check into their account once a month during season. Winter, we close it down though here. Very quiet in the winter on Cape Cod.

[00:05:55] Brian Hamrick: Yeah, I can imagine. But very busy during the summer. We were just there not too long ago and it’s a beautiful area and a real, really amazing, uh, beachfront.

[00:06:10] Tia Lilly: What town did you stay in?

[00:06:13] Brian Hamrick: We stayed on the mainland in, in Plymouth where, you know, Plymouth Rock is. And then, but we did travel out to Nantucket.

[00:06:20] Tia Lilly: Yes. So you were in Nantucket?

[00:06:23] Brian Hamrick: Yeah. I wanted to drive the whole Cape. And, and for those who aren’t actually, for those who aren’t familiar, when you say Cape Cod and all they picture is Jaws kind of give a, give tell, kind of describe where Cape Cod is and what we’re talking about.

[00:06:40] Tia Lilly: It’s the tip of Massachusetts, it’s a peninsula, so it’s connected by, it’s, it’s connected by two bridges. You could travel over the Sagamore Bridge or the Bourne Bridge to get there, and it comprised of 15 towns. And a lot of people think of it, it’s like a arm. So if you look at your arm, you have the upper, you have the. Lower mid and outer cape. So it’s outer Cape would be like all the way to Provincetown. Everyone knows Provincetown. And then upper, upper Cape was when you first come over the bridge. And then there’s everything in between and it’s, it’s actually quite spectacular. So where you were, you were on Nantucket. So we have Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

[00:07:15] Brian Hamrick: I wasn’t on Nantucket. I don’t know why I said Nantucket. It was, it was Provincetown. We went to Provincetown. Yeah, we took the ferry to Provincetown.

[00:07:25] Tia Lilly: Provincetown’s a lot of fun.

[00:07:28] Brian Hamrick: It was, it was, it was very eye opening. My kids loved it.

[00:07:32] Tia Lilly: Oh, I’m sure they did. I’m sure they did. similar to Key West. Right. So it’s got a lot of similarities to Key West, but it’s fantastic. Tons of shopping and excellent restaurants. People probably are familiar with Cape Cod and like Martha’s Vineyard and, and they shot Jaws on Martha’s Vineyard, although they made up a fictional city called Amity, I think was the, the name of the city.

[00:07:55] Tia Lilly: You’re so right. I hadn’t thought about that when you said Jaws, but a lot of people do think…

The Buying and Selling Process

[00:08:05] Brian Hamrick: Let’s talk about just the buying and selling of waterfront property then. I mean, what, where, where do you start?: If someone calls you and says, Hey, I wanna buy waterfront property. How do you narrow it down for them?

[00:08:15] Tia Lilly: Well, we start at the beginning and a lot of it is like, you know, I always encourage people to kind of look at it with the end in mind, so to speak, because it can change. But how do you wanna see, how do you see yourself using this property?

[00:08:25] Tia Lilly: Let’s like, like dive into that and then what do you like to do?

[00:08:30] Tia Lilly: Because I can typically tell with what their interests are. I’ve been doing this – I built my agency on buyer agency originally, so working with buyers to help ’em find their vacation home. So it’s really, it’s really ’cause based on their interest and how they wanna use the water. Like, are you a boater?

[00:08:40] Tia Lilly: Do you like to go to the beach?

[00:08:43] Tia Lilly: Do you walk to the beach. Also, budget’s gonna factor into that. Like what are they looking to, to, what do they have budgeted for this home?

[00:08:50] Tia Lilly: And that can kind of start to, to play out as far as like what, what would be the best fits from, it’s all great. People ask me all the time, where’s the best place?

[00:08:55] Tia Lilly: It just depends on anything near or on water. You can’t go wrong. So it’s interest. Do you wanna be near activities?

[00:09:00] Tia Lilly: Do you wanna be quieter?

[00:09:03] Tia Lilly: You know, so.

[00:09:21] Brian Hamrick: And what affects the price? Like what, what would make, uh, waterfront more valuable and what would make it less valuable?

[00:09:41] Tia Lilly: Anything on water is definitely valuable, but it depends on how you can use the water. The most expensive on Cape Cod typically would beachfront – anything that has any type of beachfront. And then the factors or think about, do you own the beach in front of you or is that just you own to the edge? So there’s different variables.

Beach Ownership: Public vs. Private

[00:10:01] Brian Hamrick: On Cape Cod, can you own the beach? So it’s like in Michigan, the Lake Michigan, I think a lot of that beach is public. Like you can’t own it.

[00:10:10] Tia Lilly: Yes. And on the Cape, some of it is public and some it is private owned. So is that important to you at all?

[00:10:18] Tia Lilly: You know, that privacy aspect?

[00:10:21] Tia Lilly: So it’s really kind of getting in and, and a lot of times. I find the process changes. So you have to go, like I encourage, I always encourage my clients, don’t feel bad. Let’s go look at them. You have to go out and see them, and then you think you want something and it can change directions. Some people know and it doesn’t. It’s like this is the house, this is the one.

[00:10:36] Tia Lilly: But others I’ve worked with for years and it changes directions. It’s okay, we want this. We’ve gotta look at them to see. So, beachfront, a lot of people are looking for pools now, so they want waterfront with a pool. And some want a waterfront with a pool and a deep water dock. So now you have various levels of dock. So if you say to me, Brian, I wanna, I, Hey, look, my family and I, we love boating. We want a dock. I’m gonna have to now ask you questions about that boat because. Is that boat, the draft, how big is the boat?

Docks and Boating Access

[00:11:01] Tia Lilly: What draft does it need?

[00:11:03] Tia Lilly: Because you don’t wanna be all excited about a house and you get there and you find out you can’t get your boat out to the main ocean because it’s gotta go through tides or so forth. So what and what does boating look like to you?

[00:11:13] Tia Lilly: It’s different for everybody. So some people are out in the main ocean traveling to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and wherever others are. For example, I like to boat in Bass River. I put around Bass River in my boat. So it’s all, it all depends on what that, what that inter like, what that is. So that’s a big piece of it because people look… and is the dock licensed?

[00:11:28] Tia Lilly: So just because it has a dock, did maybe the owner put it in 10 years ago under the radar and it never went through the proper channels to be licensed. So these are all things that to just so there’s no surprises.

Regulatory Requirements and Permitting

[00:11:41] Brian Hamrick: Is there some regulatory agency that if you wanted to put in your own dock or sea wall or any, anything, that you would have to go through a process to get that approved?

[00:11:51] Tia Lilly: It’s quite a process actually. And it starts with hiring an engineer and then it has to go through the town approval, and then it goes through the state approval. So all in all, it can take about a year to get approved. That’s if everything goes well. So sometimes just because you’re looking at a property that doesn’t have a dock, but the dock, but to the right and left of the property, they do have docks, does not mean you’ll get a dock on that property. They have to do surveys. They survey for shell fish and they survey for these species. They have all kinds of survey its got to pass to even get to the next level.

[00:12:21] Brian Hamrick: So you really have to be aware when you’re buying waterfront property, and not just in Cape Cod, but anywhere, like what are the regulatory agencies, what are the hoops you’re gonna have to jump through to maybe, uh, put improvements in or do what you wanna do? Do you, do you have any stories of people who have bought waterfront property and then realize, oh wow, this, this isn’t anything like what I thought I could, can make it?

[00:12:41] Tia Lilly: I’ve read a lot of stories and I read a lot of state case studies on it, and I’ve seen a lot of, I’ve heard and I’ve heard a lot of stories.But I really try to be proactive, so my client is never ever in that situation. So when they buy something, they know what they can and can’t do before they buy it. So there’s no surprises. So there’s a lot of due diligence done.

The Due Diligence Process

[00:13:01] Brian Hamrick: How do you accomplish that? Like tell, tell us about the due diligence you do on these properties.

[00:13:11] Tia Lilly: Oh, it’s so boring, but I’m happy to share it. Actually to me it’s not, but like I start at the town departments, I started the registry a deeds. So a lot of times I do preliminary, I, I let them. All, no, I’m not an attorney. I, I’m not, but I can go through, you do this long enough, look for outstanding orders or look for order orders of conditions that are recorded there to see if they have to keep up with anything. This is something that maybe the town will say, look, you have to plant X amount of plants every single spring. So, you know, you wanna look for anything that’s the, and that would be recorded. So I go through all the town departments, I go through conservation. I talk to someone in conservation to get their take on the property too, and just make sure what I’m reading. I understand. So when I do send over this information to my clients that, that I can explain it well to them. So they at least know what can and can’t be done. Same for the sell side too, when you’re listing. So this way you can add value to property to get the seller the best dollar value, at the best terms too, if you understand what you have.

Adding Value Through Proper Documentation

[00:13:51] Brian Hamrick: Well, give us an example of how you would add value that way.

[00:14:01] Tia Lilly: Let’s just take, like, since we were talking about a dock, for example, so I do the due diligence. So let’s say I have something, so I’m listing a property on the river, deep water dock. I wanna, I go, I do my preliminary homework to make sure that that dock is licensed and, and, and in good standing. This is also something that you can advertise and you can talk about in your showings. Because if anybody’s looking around, they probably have come through a few docs that aren’t. You know, so this now, not always. Or maybe somebody added onto their dock and they weren’t supposed to, or, you know it can be very important to know that you have a legitimate deep water dock that is all on the up and up and approved that. I think there’s value there for sure.

[00:14:41] Brian Hamrick: And how much, let’s say it’s not, and you’re working with the seller, how much would, would they typically need to spend to bring it up to, to code or whatever, and and how much would that yield?

[00:14:51] Tia Lilly: It depends on where it is, the town. The location. So I think a lot of that is factoring that into your price and knowing where, knowing that that is going to also, because look somebody that does their due diligence, you wanna know things ahead of time. You don’t wanna get, get, negotiate a price. Now you’re in the middle of the sale and now this comes up. And now they’re gonna try to, you know, have my client reduce the price substantially to go forward. So you wanna just, even if they don’t wanna update it, you just want that information upfront so there’s no surprises and the sale runs through smoothly. That’s my philosophy anyways. Sometimes you can get it up to date, but it’s a long process.

Real Numbers: Investment Returns and Case Studies

[00:15:31] Brian Hamrick: You do work with investors who wanna buy a vacation rental property on Cape Cod. Can you talk about that process?Like, and, and, and, and give us some examples of actual numbers. Like if I came to you and said, okay, I wanna buy a, a property on Cape Cod that I can visit once, or, you know, for one or two weeks outta the year. But then rent out the rest of the time and, and make all, make a profit and make some money. Yeah. Yeah. What would you, what would you tell me and, and what process would you take me through?

[00:15:51] Tia Lilly: Well, first of all, when you said I wanna make a profit, we’d start there because what does that look like to you?

A lot of it is, are you taking a mortgage?

Are you paying cash for the property?

I’ll give you an example. Right now I’m working with a couple guys that are selling a New York property, so they’re gonna do a 1031 exchange. And they’re selling their New York property for substantial money, it will be over a couple million. And so, they don’t want to get taxed on this money. So they’re like, what do you think?

I said, let’s, let’s, this is a way that they can have generate income. So they’re gonna, they’re going to sell New York, buy a Cape Property just strictly for rental. So I am, I’m gonna say like for them properties that I’m looking at will generate a couple hundred thousand a year for them once we get it really going between $200,000 and $300,000 a year. So it depends on what your numbers, and then they’ll have expenses of course, but they’ll, they’ll probably net between $150,000 and $200,000.

[00:16:31] Brian Hamrick: And will that be before, uh, like will they have any sort of debt on it or are they just paying cash?

[00:16:41] Tia Lilly: They’re gonna do a 1031, so they’re doing cash. So, and then they’ll gain, and so here’s the thing, when you look at it, because a lot, I have somebody else that recently approached me that was all about turning a profit. So some of them will and some of them won’t, and it, the profit it turns was nothing substantial at first, but you’re not, it’s covering your costs, but where you really, really make the investment, the gain is in the equity when you go to sel. It always goes up – unless you’re selling short term, don’t. I’ve always advised don’t buy to sell within five years.

Long-Term Investment Strategy

[00:17:11] Brian Hamrick: But if you hold it long enough, it’ll go up.

[00:17:21] Tia Lilly: Hold it long enough. We had, we had a couple that we worked with for. They bought a house they bought a house strictly for that. They bought it for $2.2 million. We generated over $200,000 a year in rental revenue. And last year we sold it for, (so they had it five years, and we rented it), they sold it for $4.4 million – and that was a five year. And I mean, that was a little unique ’cause of COVID, definitely unique. But even without COVID, they would’ve still made a decent profit.

Cape Cod Market Outlook

[00:17:55] Brian Hamrick: And if they were selling it now, would they have made as much of a profit or have values gone down because of higher interest rates?

[00:18:05] Tia Lilly: See in my opinion, I, this is where I probably differ a little bit. I don’t think it depends on how you look at the values. I don’t see them going down on the Cape at all. At all. Will people have to get more realistic about their prices? That’s what’s gonna look like out to the public, and when we start coming out, they’re gonna, oh, the capes. Down, but is it really down?

We just appreciated it over 10 years in, in a couple years, like the prices went crazy. So I think people are gonna have to be more realistic, but. They’re still at much higher, they’re still doing very well. I don’t know if that makes sense.

[00:18:39] Brian Hamrick: But Yeah. You know, going back to the 1031 exchange, when your, your clients who are doing that, you’re, you, I wanna bring up something that one of my previous guests, Dave Foster, who’s a 1031 exchange expert, said that, that really stuck with me. And that is you can buy your dream home as through a 1031 exchange and as long as you rent it out, I can’t remember if it’s a one year or two years. it and, and take possession of it as I, I think it’s a couple years.

1031 Exchanges for Waterfront Properties

[00:19:10] Tia Lilly: Yeah. And then you can Yep, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And you can enjoy it still too. And have vacations. Yeah.

[00:19:20] Brian Hamrick: You can still vacation there, rent it out as a rental, and then after two years you can move into it. And you did a 1031 exchange into your dream home.

[00:19:28] Tia Lilly: Yeah. Or keep it and just have a vacation home and still rent it. I mean, there’s so many options. That’s why I think it’s exciting. I know you’re more in the multi, right?

[00:19:36] Brian Hamrick: The multi multifamily

[00:19:38] Tia Lilly: Yeah, multifamily apartments and things like that. I mean, Cape is small here, so I I it’s more vacation destination and it’s, but it’s so much fun. ’cause where can you invest and make money and have like a nice vacation?

You can’t do that with stock market or in your 401K or, you know, it’s, it’s so great.

[00:19:50] Brian Hamrick: I’m not gonna vacation at Apple or Tesla.

[00:19:53] Tia Lilly: Oh no, exactly.

Financing Waterfront Properties

[00:19:56] Brian Hamrick: Getting back to the investment opportunity, you’re doing vacation rentals on Cape Cod. Typically. It, um, what I’m hearing you say is that your clients are buying with cash, a lot of cash these days. I mean, are there loans that, do you typically see them leverage debt through loans that are available for, for that type of property?

[00:20:13] Tia Lilly: Definitely that, that’s a little bit more challenging though right now with the rates up. So I think, I think a lot of, a lot of people are thinking and I still think it’s great to do it. You just gotta find the right property rates will go back down again. I believe they will anyways, maybe in a later next year or something, but I think they’re gonna go down and then you, you know, you refinance at that point, but the properties are still gonna go up. The good, the good ones, so to speak. Good locations. Since you manage, or your company manages short term rental or vacation rentals on waterfront, what are some of the expenses that you need to proforma when you buy Waterfront property?

Expenses and Maintenance Considerations

[00:20:41] Tia Lilly: You gotta look at flood, you gotta look at insurance. Even if there’s some waterfront properties that do not have, they’re not, they’re not in the flood zone ’cause they’ve been elevated out. But it’s still good to talk to your insurance agent about that. And also you’ll, you’ll. What you’re, so you have the insurance, you have maintenance. It will take a little bit more on the maintenance end of it on the water. You just got the winds and it depends where on the water. There’s some that are sheltered. You do have to take care of your dock. Usually you pull that in and pull that out or have something in place that protects it throughout the winter. So these are some other expenses and it’s really not a lot. It depends on the winter we get though, as far as the maintenance to the outside. That needs to be done more often to homes.

[00:21:13] Brian Hamrick: Do you get some pretty harsh winters on Cape Cod in comparison to the rest of the country?

Cape Cod’s Weather and Climate

[00:21:28] Tia Lilly: No. No, it’s pretty, they’ve been pretty mild overall. It’s more our winds. Depends the way the wind blows, so sometimes the wind storms. Like, no one will hear about it, and we’ll have more damage on a wind storm than any other storm that is broadcasted on the news. So it’s more, I think our winds, you do have erosion…

Insurance and Flood Considerations

[00:21:50] Brian Hamrick: But you talked about floods and insurance and, and I’m wondering like, is Cape Cod prone to hurricanes at all? And, and what kind of insurance rates are you seeing? And, and, and especially changes in insurance costs.

[00:22:05] Tia Lilly: We’ve been fortunate, uh, really fortunate and I, I’m not real great with the. How, I don’t even know how to explain it, but there’s, because of where we’re positioned here on the Cape and because of the water, we, we have had hurricanes, but we don’t… We, I’m not a knock on wood, you know, I just like, we get, we’re pretty lucky. I think it’s how we are positioned here. So we do get storms, don’t get me wrong, but we haven’t seen and my heart breaks all around the world – all these catastrophes with weather, and I just think all the time, how lucky are we?

We don’t really have to deal with anything major. It’s really, really more the wind. I think the way the wind blows. You can have a rough year, if the wind’s blowing a certain direction that no one would even think that that would affect our homes, and our beaches, but. Yeah.

And insurance wise, I didn’t answer that. A question. So insurance wise, no, we’re not seeing, like, I know I’ve had some conversations with Florida for exam people in Florida that work there. There a lot of insurance agents are pulling out. I think they’re going under I’ve, I’ve heard and read a little bit about that. We aren’t seeing that here at all. I always recommend local insurance companies on the Cape. They are awesome and they have very competitive rates and they’re there for you if you need ’em. So we have, you know, we have some great insurance agents that we work with. And prices are competitive, very competitive.

Valuing Unique Waterfront Properties

[00:22:55] Brian Hamrick: I want to talk about certain areas, and I’ll, I’ll give you like specifically, you know, the areas that I’m, I, I have in Michigan. So one, we have 240 foot of beachfront on a vacation rental resort in North Muskegon. And when we valued it, we valued it based on the cabins and the houses that were located on this land and then the acreage that was there. I’m sure that the location and being on the beachfront added value to it, but it was really hard to put a number on that. So I’m wondering like, what do you typically do or see done when it comes to looking at beachfront property? And I, I realize you’re, you’re focused on Cape Cod, but in other areas, what would you advise as far as putting a number on, on what that that beach front is worth?

The Importance of Location and Scarcity

[00:23:29] Tia Lilly: Think about it this way. So if you took those cabins and those properties that you valued, right?

And you picked them up and you put ’em somewhere away from the water, let’s just say in Michigan somewhere in central where there’s not, you know, you have to drive to get to the beach. I would, you know, how much, what?

What’s the value of that when you put it in there?

[00:23:51] Brian Hamrick: Yeah, let’s say the value goes down by 40% tremendously.

[00:23:55] Tia Lilly: It’s all about location. It’s just location. So I would always say it’s, you’re not valuing, it’s not even so much the cabins, it’s that, it’s the, that’s amazing that property. I just like get excited to hear it. So what sounds spectacular?

So. That is how, how, how big is it again?

How many acres?

[00:24:15] Brian Hamrick: I wanna say we’ve got 12 to 14 acres, seven cabins, three houses, and you know, it’s all kind of rectangular and you can walk right down to the beach. It’s on a bluff, so you have to go down a set of stairs to get there. But I’ve wondered and just played around with the thought, we bought it as a vacation rental resort, so we paid on net operating income. What did the cabins bringing in.

[00:24:40] Brian Hamrick: But if we were to just say, you know what, we’re just gonna sell the land with the beachfront, would that actually be worth more than what it is as a commercial property?

[00:24:48] Tia Lilly: It might. But do you have versatility there?

So it depends on your buyer. It depends on the buyer, so you have a lot of versatility. So you can market it as just, hey, you can do whatever you, well, not whatever you want, but within reason, through the rules, right?

Because that’s Prime. Prime. That’s like the best that you can get with Beach water. You know, it doesn’t get any better than that. So you have the location. No, it doesn’t. So the location’s superb. So that’s really where your high value comes in. And then you have producing cabins on there that you know, so somebody could come in and just take over or maybe they can add, I don’t know out there, but it sounds like you got a lot of acreage, so that’s amazing. So you could, somebody might come in and wanna buy something like that and build more, or tear down and build something different that. Who knows?

I don’t know the laws or what can and can’t be done there, but it sounds like there’s tons of potential, like of what could or could not. You know, what you could do there. So, but it’s all about like, if you picked that up and took it somewhere else, it doesn’t have that much value. I mean, it’s valuable, but not that much. So you, you have something very special. Very special.

Why You Need a Waterfront Specialist

[00:25:55] Brian Hamrick: Well, I think it, it also has to do with who you choose to broker it for you, because if you look at it one way, you could say, well, this is just based on the value of the properties and the acreage and the, the net operating income, but. If you found someone like yourself who really understood the value of waterfront property and had a pool of buyers who were looking for, you know, specifically for waterfront property, I, you know, I, it, it seems like there would be a difference in the type of, of buyer and price that you’d be able to get.

[00:26:21] Tia Lilly: I appreciate you saying that because that is so true. did they, even if it’s not me, hire somebody. We have others too here. I’m not the only one. There’s great agents that know what they’re doing on the water, but hire somebody that knows what they’re, what they’re what your water value is worth, because that can a lot would, you’re right. Would come in and just say, oh, well they’re cabins or whatever, and it’s. So knowing what you have, it’s a big deal. And knowing what’s out there and what isn’t out there too, that’s a key too, what isn’t available. So sometimes it’s not always what is available that can help with value. It’s what isn’t available.

[00:26:55] Brian Hamrick: Explain that. What do you, what do you mean by that?

[00:27:00] Tia Lilly: Well, meaning, I’m gonna guess that no one else has what you have. I don’t know, lake Michigan, but is there any comps out there or anywhere that anything have sold?

Does anybody have 14, 12, 14 acres of land with seven cabins?

[00:27:15] Brian Hamrick: Not quite that, no. I mean, there’s vacant land that you could look at the acreage and their frontage and what they’re getting for properties out there, if any.

[00:27:22] Tia Lilly: Right, but, but see, but right there tells you a lot. So you have a resort type property that nobody else has. So it’s, you’re only selling to one buyer. That’s it. Well, maybe, maybe a couple investors. Who knows?

But it’s one party that’s gonna buy that property and that for somebody. ’cause I, I’ve heard Lake Michigan’s spectacular. I’ve never had the opportunity to go, but that’s would be very valuable to somebody that’s looking for that type of property.

[00:27:45] Brian Hamrick: Yeah. Amazing Beaches by the, yeah, I’ll, I’ll give a plug for it. If you wanna check it out and you’re looking for an awesome vacation place to stay with a group, uh, you can go to, uh, bookdreamsstay. com. Check it out. It’s bookdreamsstay.com. Uh, I don’t normally plug my myself on, on the podcast, but check it out. There’s a number of properties on there. But look for Scenic Drive Resort. It’s an amazing property

Favorite Tools and Resources

[00:28:10] Brian Hamrick: Tia, what is your favorite hack or app?

[00:28:15] Tia Lilly: The 2 apps I more live on is my MLS. I’m always on the MLS app constantly just seeing if anything… what’s going on, what’s new, what reduced in price, what’s gone under contract – so I live on that all day long. And the other app is our CRM app. It’s really challenging for us and any CRM. Because we’re seasonal, and we’re specialized and you’re in a resort destination everything. We’re very personal with what we do and everything is so specific and a lot of the CRMs are kind of meant for like that cookie cutter kind of area. So we do have that challenge.

Resources and Contact Information

[00:28:45] Brian Hamrick: How would someone find out more about you or get ahold of you or even just see the listings that you have?

[00:28:50] Tia Lilly: Thanks for asking. PropertyCapeCod.com is where you can find us. Again, that’s property cape cod. com and go check out like our podcast offers. We have on there in the, in the menu, in the top right we do have podcasts. If you wanna subscribe to my magazine, you can get that for free. That comes out every other month. And just a lot of good information. More on water too, living on the Water’s edge guide, so there’s some different offers there. But yes, property cape cod. com. Thank you so much, Brian.

[00:29:20] Brian Hamrick: Yeah, well thank you Tia. It’s been a pleasure talking with you about waterfront property. Yeah, it’s, it’s very different from non waterfront property, and I think you’ve done a great job kind of explaining how and why and things to look for, and then answering some of my personal questions. I really appreciate that.

[00:29:35] Tia Lilly: I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

[00:29:40] Brian Hamrick: You’re welcome. Thank you for being on the show.