How it all happened....

I've got a confession to make. I've secretly been shopping for a cottage with no real intention of buying for several years now. I always suffer from bouts of ICY (intense cottage yearning) immediately following a visit to a friend's cottage. I wouldn't call it jealousy, or even envy. I just knew I wanted one of my very own.

For a few years I tried to dispel the ICY by renting a cottage on Lake Kashagawigamog in Haliburton. It really was a gorgeous place, but it was costly, it was for 1 short week, and it wasn't MINE.

Toward the end of the summer of 2009 after another ICY attack, I started looking at properties on lakes around the Dorset area (Kawagama, Raven, etc.) but holy smokes were they pricey. Even a 1-room shack with no running water would cost you $200K. So I started to cast a wider net. Further North, East, and South. Then I hit upon Rice Lake.

I grew up 20-minutes from Rice Lake, so I don't know why it never occurred to me to search there. I found an abundance of affordable properties on this decent sized lake. A fair number were on leased land (typically part of an Indian Reserve) but I knew I didn't want leased land. Many moons ago my grandparents had a cottage they built on leased land. The conniving land-owner terminated their lease figuring he just scored himself a free cottage, but the wiley Jameses dismantled it before they vacated the place! HA. Eat dirt conniving land-owner!

Sorry, bit of a tangent there. Where was I? Oh, right. Rice Lake. It hasn't got the "Canadian Shield" rocks-and-pine charm that you'll find on the northern lakes, but I was after water - lots of it - at a price we could afford. Rice Lake has a number of other advantages:

1. It's on the Trent Severn waterway, so with a motorboat you can toodle all over the place and even visit other lakes/towns.
2. It's a fairly shallow lake, so while it's prone to weeds, it also warms up nicely for swimming.
3. It's slightly more than an hour from home, not the 2+ hours we were considering for places to the North.
4. It's 20 minutes from my folks so they can pop by to work visit.
5. It's a big lake with decent wind for my hubby who likes to sail.
   

I stumbled upon a little cottage on the Island. It was water-access only (further reducing the cost), and didn't have a septic system installed. But, it did have a lovely western exposure (sunsets!) and touted 5 bedrooms if you included the bunkies (yes - there are two!). Best of all, it was at a price we could afford; but it needed work. A lot of work.

My DH is very handy (read: not handy at all) and wanted a cottage where he could spend his weekends in a hammock reading a book, not doing repairs.  To get that turn-key cottage we'd have to spend a LOT more cash. Fortunately, in addition to being lazy, he's also painfully cheap (and I love him for it). We decided maybe this little cottage warranted a closer look.

MISTAKE NUMBER ONE

(Dear first-time cottage buyer. Don't do what we did! Learn from our mistake. We contacted the listing agent directly to show us the cottage. Why is that a problem? Well, when it comes time to put an offer in on the place, the same agent is representing both the buyer and the seller. Whose interests are best served in that arrangement? The Real-Estate Agent's. That's whose. And once you've been in touch with one agent about a property, they get downright territorial if you try to introduce another agent into the mix. With hissing, and claws, and so forth.)

OK. So we contacted the listing agent and arranged to look at the place. To my immense surprise she responded asking us if we were really sure we wanted an island cottage. Discouraging us at the outset? Peculiar way to sell a property. I guess she had shown a lot of people the place who later decided a water-access-only property wasn't what they were looking for. Still. Peculiar.
I assured her we were well aware of the challenges of island living, and we agreed to go out to see it on October 18th. As it turns out another couple was going to be viewing the property at the same time. Personally I think it was a sneaky real-estate ploy to drum up purchasing pressure: "Oh no! If we don't act quickly, they're going to buy it out from under us!!" Between you, me, and anyone on the interwebs wandering by to read this blog, I think that's a stupid agent move, and here's why: Firstly, we're not that dumb. Secondly, I'm less inclined to really explore a property if I'm tripping over a complete stranger while I'm nosing about. I like to nose privately! If I'm not exploring it well, I'm not imagining myself there, and if I'm not imagining myself there, I'm not going to buy it.
Fortunately I brought my shiney new camera and took lots of photos as we looked around. The place is not without its warts. But you know what? After wandering around for a little while, I could really see us there. I'm sure it helped that it was a clear, sunny fall day, the colours were at their peak, and the lake was glass. Heaven.
When we got back, we hmm'd and hah'd, but weren't completely sure we could afford it.

MISTAKE NUMBER TWO

Dear first-time buyer. Figure out your budget before you shop. It's common sense, really, because you don't want to fall in love with something out of your league. Also, bear in mind that 3-season properties are often not eligible for the same kind of "buying a house" mortgage, so look into your options early.  We ended going with a secured borrowing account (sometimes called a home equity line of credit) instead of a traditional mortgage.

I contacted the agent a day or so later indicating were were interested in the property, but weren't in a position to make an offer as we hadn't made any financial arrangements yet. That's when I learned that the other couple had put in an offer the very night we saw it, and it had been accepted by the seller. Maybe the agent's pressure tactics worked after all?!
Well, Hell.