Pros and Cons on Living on Lake Lanier

So you’re thinking about making a move to Lake Lanier. Well, I’m going to give you all the reasons why you should and shouldn’t consider making that move.

I too live on Lake Lanier and recently made that move and I’m going to share with you some of the benefits and the cons that we found with living on the lake.

One of the main benefits that we found living on Lake Lanier as well the easy access that you have to our dock. If you enjoy getting to spend time on your boat and enjoying water sports on the weekends, well it’s simply right in your backyard and you could not have an easier trip to your boat than directly out your back door and down to your dock. We love being able to quickly get on our boat and out onto the water, especially our busy hectic lives- the time that we save not having to store our boat at a marina, drive to the marina, haul our stuff to the boat, unpack our stuff, put it in our car, go back to our house- well you can see how that time adds up. Also, not to mention the headache if you’re having to constantly take your boat on and off the trailer and into the water at one of the many boat ramps that we have around Lake Lanier, it’s simply all at your fingertips right in your backyard.

Another benefit that we found to living on Lake Lanier is that we found that we enjoy  the lake more because we have more access to it. It’s not uncommon for us to be able to go out on a week day for a sunset cruise and enjoy the quiet peacefulness of the lake.

We also find that we are squeezing more lake time in in between our busy hectic schedules because it’s just so easy to get down to the water and enjoy the boat. Not only do we find that we enjoy the lake more throughout the week, but also year round prior to living on Lake Lanier, we would never go to the lake on the weekends during the winter or fall months. While living on the lake, we found that it’s so enjoyable so incredibly peaceful to go out there and enjoy the lake and you practically have the lake all to yourself. I cannot tell you how great it is to have the lake right in your backyard. 

Another thing I enjoy about living on Lake Lanier is getting to enjoy nature. You would not believe the amount of animals that we always see in our backyard. Living near and around the lake, we have deer, bunnies, there’s groundhogs, and we even have beavers- which are actually very helpful because they help take down some trees and give us a better lake view.

It never fails every single evening, you can almost set your clock to it, that you can see deer in your backyard and if you have a husband like me who grew up in the south- you have to stop him from, well, wanting to hunt it. 

Another great thing that we have found about living on Lake Lanier is the people. Y’all it’s truly a community of people that live on the lake and you get to know your neighbors, you get to know people that have docks next to you, and the cove across from you. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help out all throughout the year and it truly gives you that kind of sense of belonging and that you’re part of this community. That’s really really special. There’s also Facebook groups, there’s a popular one called Lake Lanier Dwellers. You can only be a part of that Facebook group if you actually have a house on Lake Lanier, and people there give recommendations all the time on great handymen and contractors, and just general advice on managing your dock and living on the lake. It’s a really great community to be a part of and you can even join the Lake Lanier Association if you want to get more involved with managing the lake.

All right- let’s face it. There are some cons to living on the lake and I’m going to share with you the few that I have found. The first is being the cost. You’re going to pay a premium to live on Lake Lanier and over the past couple of years, the prices of lake homes have continued to skyrocket and that is caused by one primary reason… well two. So let’s talk about those. The first reason is that the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake, stopped issuing dock permits which means that the existing permits that are out there on the lake are all that there is, so the only way to get a dock permit transfer from one owner to the next is by purchasing a piece of land that already has that dock permit with that piece of land. So as you can imagine, home prices instantly rose because the U.S Army Corps of Engineers stated they were not going to be issuing any more dock permits, the second reason that the cost of living on Lake Lanier has increased so much is, well, everyone wants to be here and you can see why. Especially given the circumstances of 2020 and the pandemic, people have found that if they’re going to live somewhere or if they’re going to have the ability to drive somewhere and have a vacation home, they want it to be really close to where they are. They want to be with family and they want to do something where they can enjoy their family outdoors and there’s no better place for that than here on Lake Lanier.

Another negative that I found about living on Lake Lanier and something that you’re going to have to get used to, is that there aren’t that many traditional neighborhoods on Lake Lanier that give you the ability to have a dock in your backyard, so that means that you’re going to live not in a neighborhood and you’re not going to have an HOA. Now, we can talk about the pros and cons of an HOA,  but for the most part, one of the benefits about being in an HOA is that you have kind of a consistency of homes around you. Home values hold pretty steady because everyone’s keeping up with their yards and there’s some set standards involved there. Whenever you have a home on Lake Lanier and you have a house that’s kind of like off a meandering street, it’s not uncommon to have a million dollar house on the lake and then directly across from that million dollar house, a mobile home or a small two-bedroom home that’s primarily used as a rental. It’s simply something that you’re going to have to get used to and it’s one of those compromises that you’re going to have to make whenever you are searching for your lake home.

So that brings me to a really good point- you’re going to have to compromise and that was a hard thing that we found whenever we were shopping for our lake home. There’s no such thing as the perfect house. You’re either going to have the perfect location, the perfect walk to your dock, the perfect house, and it’s rare to find all three of those to fit together, so what we learned is that you’re going to have to compromise. Find out which is more important to you- is it more important to you to have the house fit your lifestyle and what you need every single day? Or is it more important to you to have an easy walk down to your dock? Or is it more important to you to live south of the lake so that you’re within a 45 minute drive to Atlanta, or can you give that up and live on the northern part of the lake up in Gainesville or Cumming and have a longer drive but have a better house? It’s all about what you’re willing to compromise on, and the right real estate agent will walk you through that and will help you navigate buying that home on Lake Lanier. Just know you’re going to have to compromise. 

All right. My husband and I learned this next lesson the hard way and that is managing your dock. Something that we had to learn whenever we purchased our lake home was how to manage our dock. Lake Lanier is a lake that constantly has water let out of the Buford Dam and into the Chattahoochee River, which means the lake levels rise and fall. Because of the water they let water out and the accumulation of heavy rain fall that collects in the lake, all of our docks are floating docks, they are not stationary, which means that as the lake level rises and falls, you have to bring your dock in and out to go along with the water. If you do not stay on top of it, you’re going to find yourself up the creek without a paddle, or you’re going to find yourself needing a paddle to get out to your dock (which has happened to us a time or two.) Thankfully, we had really awesome amazing neighbors that met with us and showed us how to rescue our dock when we did not bring it in during heavy heavy rains, and the lake level rose really quickly. One thing that we learned is that you’re going to need some waders. You might need a dolly if your dock doesn’t have wheels on it, but just know that you’re going to have to keep an eye on the dock. Watch the weather and know when to bring in and out. You can either do this yourself, or you can pay companies to do this. There are dock management services around Lake Lanier- you pay a monthly fee to them and they will drive around to your dock via boat and make sure that dock is coming in and out whenever you may need it. Another thing to note though is that if your dock is on deep water, you’re not going to have to deal with this issue just as much so that kind of goes back to compromise. You’re always going to have some benefits and cons no matter where you are on the lake and what type of lake house you buy. Definitely living on deeper water means that you would have to manage your dock a little bit less.

The last con that we have discovered about living on the lake is taxes. Now, we talked about how living on the lake is a little bit more expensive. What we also discovered is that your property taxes are impacted by living on the lake. While technically you aren’t taxed more for living on the lake, the way that they calculate your taxes, depending upon which county you live in, is drastically impacted. For example, in Hall County, which is where I live, your property taxes are calculated in part due to how many linear feet you are along the shoreline of Lake Lanier. So while it may seem like a really great benefit to have a hundred feet of Lake Lanier front footage, just be wary and mindful that that’s directly going to impact your property taxes. It also impacts your property taxes based on where you are on the lake. If you’re in a cove, if you’re over deep water, all of those things are accounted for and taken into account by the tax assessors so just know that if you’re going to challenge your property tax assessment, it’s going to require some in-depth studying and a lot of questions to figure out how those property taxes are calculated. Another commonly mentioned con to living on Lake Lanier is the unmentioned Lake Lanier tax. What is the Lake Lanier tax? Well whenever you have a downed tree in your yard, or you need a new roof, or you need a new deck on your home and you call a contractor to come to your house and they see that beautiful lake in the backyard, and they think, “oh they must have a lot of money, we’re going to give them the Lake Lanier price.” It’s commonly mentioned in Facebook groups of homeowners on Lake Lanier. They often refer to it as the Lake Lanier Tax. Don’t let this scare you though, just know that it is out there and there is price gouging involved, however, make sure you get a trusted recommendation from friends neighbors and a real estate agent.

Are you ready to make a move to Lake Lanier? There’s many benefits and you can see there’s some downsides to living on the lake, but heck, that’s with any community right? There’s always going to be pros and there’s always going to be cons. If I can help you find your perfect lake home or vacation home, give me a call!

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