Before and after photos above of a home we appraised recently on Buford Dam Road. Ouch! That hurts. How do we appraise such a property. I will tell you. Read on..
Home we appraised on Cherokee Trail in Gainesville, GA. No water at dock, but water stone's throw away from dock. Ouch again. If the dock was in water, value would have been a good bit higher. 
Here is the dock of a home on Shadburn Ferry Road.
First let me tell you appraising homes with no water at the dock is no easy task..You need someone who knows this lake well! Unfortunately value is negatively affected in this situation for the duration that there is no water at the dock. We must look at several things when comparing properties to the subject property in order to determine value. We use a combination of lake homes with water, without water (although there are few homes that have sold recently that did not have water at the time of sale), homes with lake access-no dock or permit, homes with lake view-without access, homes off lake-no access or views, homes with community docks. We first review the home to determine size, location, quality of construction etc.
Next, we look at the lake lot. Several items come into play here: Site size, location, topography of the lot, how far the water is from the rear of the home, corps line, corp frontage, how deep the water is at full pool and currently, what type of permit is in place, for example, swim dock, boat dock, single slip, double slip, etc. Since boat docks are considered personal and not "real" property, we do not value the docks, we value the type of permit in place. However, that being said, in 95% of the cases, the dock transfers with the property, therefore if one home has a very nice double slip 32 x 32 aluminum dock vs. a home with an older double slip dock, we will assign extra value to the lot overall.
We must extrapolate the variance in value between lake homes, lake access homes, lake views homes, lake homes with a community dock, etc. It is a process called "matched pair analysis". Since really no two lake homes are exactly alike, this process becomes complicated. The basic premise is, you take two homes that are exactly alike but for one thing, maybe one has a garage and the other does not. Whatever the difference is in sales price for these 2 homes, that is what we give credit for in the aprpaisal for that amenity.
With lake homes, we have to compare many similar properties with only 1 or 2 variances to figure out what the market will pay for any one particular variance. We may find that a home with a single slip dock permit vs. one with a double slip permit sells for $50,000 more. That is just an example. It is further complicated by the fact that this variance will go up or down based upon the overall value of the property as a whole. For example, you may have a higher market value for the different dock permits, when dealing with homes in the 1/2 million range as opposed to homes in the 1 million plus range and so on...
So when people ask me, what is the difference in the value of my home with and without water, there is no one simple answer as so many factors come into play. Plus the current value will fluctuate as the lake levels do. As long as you have enough water to navigate a boat in and out, then your values will not be negatively affected to any significant degree. If you do not have water at your dock, but you can chase it a few feet down the cove, you are better than those that have no water for many feet down the cove, where there is no possibility of getting your dock in the water.
Once the market rebounds, the water comes back up and the realization of the added value, that no more dock permits brings to lake lanier property, we may see a significant and rapid increase in values, should all of these factors come together around the same time. So do not be surprised if you see sudden jumps in value as the water rises, hopefully this spring!
If you need an appraisal of your property by someone who will be fair, yet objective, visit our web site and contact us.
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