How do I buy property (waterfront lot) in the Northwoods of Wisconsin (1 Viewer)

[badger]

About 2 times a year, my family visits the Minocqua or Eagle River areas and my family really enjoys it. For years, my wife and I have discussed how great it would be to have a place of our own some day up there. We currently live in the Madison area, so a place about 3 hours north-ish would be great for us. We have two kids 7 and 9 and think the best route is to buy a piece or land on a lake and wait until we're ready to build something on it. We probably aren't ready to have a place quite yet, but I'm intrigued by the opportunity to have a piece of land that we can plan to do something with someday; (or maybe even find uses of before I build on it).

Anyone have any experiences with searching for the best piece of land? I'm finding that Zillow is a great starting place. However, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for quite yet. I thought about narrowing down to various locations, then setting a requirement on the size of the lake/lot, price range, etc; then finding some agents to send me some information. (I assume they know more than Zillow).

Any better ways to go about this?

 

[Fennis]

Mitch & Murray are good guys to buy land from. They hooked me up with some land in Florida.

 

[chet]

Talk to some people who own in the area you're interested in. They will likely have a relationship with a local broker. If that's not an option, find a local broker and start there.

 

[George Jefferson Airplane]

Grab real estate magazines while you are in the area. In places like that they'll have all the vacant properties listed, some of which they don't put online.

If you are serious about buying just find an agent and give them the particulars. There is no rush so look at as many properties as you need to until you find the one that suites you.

 

[uwftbl]

We have had many family vacations over the years in Minocqua and ER area. Stayed on the water of the chains of each. The last several years we moved over a little bit to the Manitowish Waters Chain. About the same distance. Much less touristy, no traffic, great restaurants, lakes not as busy. You are much more likely to find great real estate much less costly here. And Minocqua and ER are easy rides to visit. Good luck.

 

[Zow]

I know some people who own waterfront land in Minocqua. Will ask.

 

[snogger]

Try realtor.com.. Search for an area like say Phillips, Wisconsin..

My Father in-law has close to 40 Acres of land for sale there.. Unfortunately his land wouldn't work for you as it isn't water front otherwise I'd send you a link to his land ad.. .

 

[Mario Kart]

I think you need money in order to buy property. I don't think wampum works anymore.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Use to go up to the Northwest area of Wisconsin around Danbury quite a bit. Just a few things to think about:

- you may want to find some land that has an old building on it already that you would just remodel. A lot of times the constantly changing building codes will push the requirements for the building farther away from the water front. If you remodel (even tear it down, but keep a wall or some small portion of the original building, the newer building codes won't necessarily apply.

- i would prefer a lake to a river

- check out how clean the lake is. smaller lakes may get infested with milfoil or have issues with algae covering the water\

- good fishing lake will add to value

- having a nice beach area vs rock would be nice for swimming.

 

[badger]

Use to go up to the Northwest area of Wisconsin around Danbury quite a bit. Just a few things to think about:

- you may want to find some land that has an old building on it already that you would just remodel. A lot of times the constantly changing building codes will push the requirements for the building farther away from the water front. If you remodel (even tear it down, but keep a wall or some small portion of the original building, the newer building codes won't necessarily apply.

- i would prefer a lake to a river

- check out how clean the lake is. smaller lakes may get infested with milfoil or have issues with algae covering the water\

- good fishing lake will add to value

- having a nice beach area vs rock would be nice for swimming.

Yes, I would prefer a lake over a river. It seems that half the lakes in the state are part of the Wisconsin River which runs right up the middle of the state.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/lakes/

I found this to be a useful site. You can search any lake. It tells you the size and the clarity of the water. It also has a contour map, which might be helpful as you zero in on a property. It has some good fishing information. While I don't fish, my kids love it. I'd expect we'd spend more time with water sports, boating, etc; but the fishing part is helpful.

 

[badger]

Try realtor.com.. Search for an area like say Phillips, Wisconsin..

My Father in-law has close to 40 Acres of land for sale there.. Unfortunately his land wouldn't work for you as it isn't water front otherwise I'd send you a link to his land ad.. .

I've used their app, it allows you to circle parts of a map and filter your criteria. It wasn't giving me as many properties as Zillow, but it was still somewhat helpful. Right now, I feel like I'm trying to nail down specifics of what we're looking for, then I take it to a professional to search and send me options.

 

[badger]

Grab real estate magazines while you are in the area. In places like that they'll have all the vacant properties listed, some of which they don't put online.

If you are serious about buying just find an agent and give them the particulars. There is no rush so look at as many properties as you need to until you find the one that suites you.

I do that everytime I'm up there. However, I forgot to do that this past weekend. There seems to always be great info about houses, just not always about land. I get warn out from looking at those magazines.

 

[Dragons]

Freaky thread title. I had to do a double take to realize I was still in the FFA.

I'm visiting my grandma in northern Wisconsin (near Mountain) and we are trying to prepare her for selling her lakefront cabin.

Doesn't fit the bill if you want to start with land, though.

 

[Dragons]

Grab real estate magazines while you are in the area. In places like that they'll have all the vacant properties listed, some of which they don't put online.

If you are serious about buying just find an agent and give them the particulars. There is no rush so look at as many properties as you need to until you find the one that suites you.

I do that everytime I'm up there. However, I forgot to do that this past weekend. There seems to always be great info about houses, just not always about land. I get warn out from looking at those magazines.

The re/max magazine has a page and a half of listings of lakefront land with no structure.

 

[badger]

We have had many family vacations over the years in Minocqua and ER area. Stayed on the water of the chains of each. The last several years we moved over a little bit to the Manitowish Waters Chain. About the same distance. Much less touristy, no traffic, great restaurants, lakes not as busy. You are much more likely to find great real estate much less costly here. And Minocqua and ER are easy rides to visit. Good luck.

I don't think I want to be in a "larger city," the point would be to get away from that here in Madison. However, being near a city is not a big issue, it's always fun to go into town. My wife wants to keep the drive manageable (<3hrs). However, you have to go 3-4hrs to get a piece of land we're looking for.

A former neighbor told me that about 12 years ago, he was doing the same thing I'm trying to do. He found a center point on the map of where he wanted to start looking, figured out which lakes were within a certain radius, then weeded out the small ones. He sent his information to a handful or realtors up there and got a handful of listings. They'd drive up couple times a month and check out certain regions. This is probably how I'll end up going about this, with an updated approach.