Fremont · Selling Waterfront
Selling a Waterfront Home in Fremont
The listing has to answer what the water actually does, because the buyer who pays most is the one who already knows to ask.
Scarce Frontage Cuts Both Ways
Fremont is the one town I cover that is not on the lakeshore, and water here is the exception rather than the default.
That works in your favor on the demand side. A buyer who wants frontage in this area has very little to choose between, and scarcity is the one thing a seller never has to argue for.
It works against you on the evidence side. Scarcity means thin comparable sales, and thin comparables are how a property ends up priced off an average of inland houses that have no water at all. The same fact that supports your value makes your value harder to prove.
So the work here is building the case deliberately rather than expecting the data to make it for you.
And Saying Plainly What Kind of Water It Is
Around here the word waterfront gets attached to several different things, and a buyer arriving to find something other than what they pictured does not make an offer.
Fremont Lake by town is a real lake with a public beach, a campground and a boat launch. A pond, a creek running through a back field, or seasonal low ground are all genuine features that some buyers actively want, and none of them is the same purchase.
Saying which one you have costs nothing when the answer is good, and when the answer is modest it still brings the buyer who wanted exactly that. What it prevents is the drive out that ends in disappointment, which is expensive in a market this small because word travels.
In their words
In their words
Tamera was the best ever! Give that woman a raise!
I had a very specific idea of what we wanted. An unspoiled piece of lakefront land on a wooded lot. I quickly learned that finding such a property is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Tamara diligently stayed on the search for our dream property and was always on the lookout for us... When that perfect property finally came up, Tamara knew it was the one. She called us from her car urging us to come up and see it immediately.
What I Do Before It Lists
My office is here, so I am not making a trip out to look at your property. I walk it.
I read the water the same way I read it on the lakeshore: usable frontage against the record, the bottom, depth where a dock would sit and whether one is permitted, and access in every season with who maintains the road. Then I build the comparison set honestly, which out here often means reaching further afield for genuinely comparable frontage and stating why that is the fair measure.
Then The Lakeshore Demand Method puts it in front of a paid and targeted audience before the MLS, and here that audience deliberately includes people currently searching the lakeshore towns, because a buyer who wants water and more house for the money is exactly who this property suits.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before. I work the lakeshore and inland both, which is why I can point a coastal buyer at Fremont and have it land.
Weekly, in Writing
You get a written report every week, whether it was a good week or a slow one, with showings, feedback and what I want to change next.
You can cancel at any time if you are not satisfied with the work.
More on the town is on the Fremont area page, the wider approach is at selling a waterfront home, and pricing starts at what your Fremont home is worth.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are barely any comparable sales. How do you price it?
By building the case rather than averaging what is nearby. Nearby here means inland houses with no water, which drags the number toward properties that are not like yours. The stronger footing is genuinely comparable frontage even when it is further away, with the reasoning written down so it survives a buyer's agent pushing back.
Will lakeshore buyers actually consider Fremont?
Regularly, once they compare what the same money buys. A budget that gets a modest cottage on the big lake generally gets considerably more house here, and the people who make that trade almost always began their search on the water. That is why the marketing is worth aiming there rather than only at people already searching Fremont.
My water is a pond rather than a lake. Is that worth advertising?
Yes, described accurately. There are buyers who specifically want a pond, a creek or wet ground for what it brings, and they will never find you if the listing hides it behind a vaguer word. What damages a sale is a buyer driving out expecting a lake. Saying exactly what it is brings the person who wanted exactly that.
Fremont
What selling waterfront looks like in Fremont
Inland in Newaygo County, where Gerber started in 1927 and where the same money buys land instead of frontage. My office is here.
Fremont is the one town I cover that is not on the lakeshore, and I would rather say so plainly. It has Fremont Lake by town with a public beach, a campground and a boat launch, and M120 runs across to Twin Lake and on toward Muskegon.
The trade is the point. The same budget that gets you a modest cottage on the water will generally get you a house with real acreage here, which is why people who start out searching for lakefront often end up looking at this side of the map.
The method
How I do it in Fremont
Selling Waterfront: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?