History
We purchased the SailAway lake house in March of 2006. We were looking for a house that was on a lake, close to Atlanta, and was a resonable price. After looking for a few years and watching the prices of lake houses go up about 10% to 15% each year we came across the SailAway lake house. The house was in great condition and needed very little. Whenever I pulled the add up on the internet the price kept dropping. I called Jodi Payne of Remax and meet her at the house. I took a video camera and filmed everything about the house. I was amazed at the condition and location. I drove home scratching my head, because the price for the house was to good to be true. I showed the video to my wife, Tamara and we agreed the house was a bargin, but it would still be a stretch to make payments. Jodi had said that any offer that she gets she would take to the owner so the next day I faxed Jodi what my wife and I could afford. In less than a hour I received a call from Jodi saying that we had just purchased the house. I called Tamara and told her we just bought a house that she had not seen. We both cracked up.
The following Saturday I took the family up to see what we had purchased. Everyone was just delighted. The family went to work on making the house a home and I went to work marketing the house for rent.
I had heard about how Microsoft Small Business was a great tool for building websites and all the power it had if used correctly. After about 80 hours on the computer playing... this site came to life. We also advertise on other pay sites like GreatRental.com and LakeRentals.com. I work in the computer industry so I applied a little skill in Search Engine Optimization on this site and we place pretty high in Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN. Give it a try...Search AOL.com for Lake House Rental and you should see our website SailAway Lake House or our other site http://www.LakeArrowheadFun.com.
We rent the lake house out to mostly families or couples looking to get away for a while. I really enjoy renting the house and "knock on wood" have not had one single problem with renters. We have decided that every year we will upgrade at least one big ticket item. Two years it was the pontoon boat and last year we had replaced the hot tub with a 6 person Coleman Spa that includes a waterfall and mode lights. In March of 2009 we finished remodling the kitchen. We purchased new appliances, cabinets, counter top and flooring.
Just to let you know if you are thinking about purchasing a lake house with the hopes of renting it out to pay the bills it will be a long time before we break even. I have figured it should take about seven years of increased rental prices with the same mortgage cost to start breaking even each year. We are very lucky we found a lake house so close to Atlanta that we can enjoy it and drive up to check on it. Our drive from Marietta to Lake Arrowhead is 45 minutes.
Lake Arrowhead plans to create a large water park and game fields for home owners and guests. The plans maybe on hold for a while as the economy is not looking so good right now. We hope that soon the water park will be installed and the three slides will be flowing.
One note about the SailAway Lake House is SAFETY. Lake Arrowhead GA is small, but you can ski on the big part of the lake and the area in front of all the docks are "no wake". Swimming with the kids off the dock is not like most lakes that you are in constant fear of some one being run down because the boats are flying. No boat is allowed to travel over a few miles a hour in front of the dock. Lake Arrowhead GA does not allow PWCs so they are not flying around too.
Lake Arrowhead only fluctuates a foot or so a year. Even with the bad drought in 2008 the lake was only down about two feet. Not bad at all considering Lake Lanier was down over 20 feet at the same time. No septic tanks are allowed and no runoff from construction is ever allowed. The water is clear and one of the cleanest lakes in the Southeast US. Fishing is awesome too. We keep hearing stories of bass the lenght of your arm.