Working with a Real-Estate Agent

Fri, Oct 27, 2017

On referral, we contacted a local Windermere agent named Jon. After some discussion around what we were looking for, and our plans, he began selecting a number of properties for us.

HOA

Much of the communities in Cle Elum are in some kind of HOA. I originally wanted to avoid an HOA because I don’t want to be told what color my front door should be painted. Jon informed us that years ago, many communities formed HOAs because people were buying up lots and erecting shoddy buildings or letting cars waste away in the front yard. The HOA was a response to that and gave the community members back some control, at least in the newer communities.

Whether this was true or not, the fact was the desirable areas, those with views or near water, had an HOA. We would just have to take a close look at the CC&Rs to see how strict they were.

Well Water

Another thing we learned is how important having an existing well on site is. Given that we were wanting something with a view (which implied being on a mountain ridge) meant that a well may have to be drilled several hundred feet before finding water. Well drilling can cost as much as $50/foot, and you aren’t guaranteed to hit water with the first hole. We had found a really cool lot that sat on top of a small mountain peak. The lot encompassed the entire peak and had nearly 360 degree views. But adding $50,000 or so to the budget to drill a well was not feasible for us.

So we added a pre-drilled or existing well to our wish list.

As we looked at various lots it started to hit us how important the location was going to be. If this was to be a desirable vacation destination for our family for years to come, and maybe generations to come, it needed to be a highly desirable location. For us, that meant expansive views, including views of Lake Cle Elum. The thinking was if we had a view of Lake Cle Elum, that meant we’d only be a few minutes away from the lake too.

Lake Cle Elum is a fairly unique lake (it’s actually a reservoir that the Cle Elum River drains into/out of). It has a large public beach that is mostly sandy, and you can drive your car on (4-wheel drive recommended). It has a boat launch, but by about 4th of July, enough water has drained out of the lake that you can drive on a large perimeter of the lake and launch your watercraft anywhere you want. The lake is big too; 7-8 miles long and fairly wide.

We re-evaluated our budget. We originally wanted to spend less than $80k on the lot, and put the rest of our budget into the structures, but we realized we can always expand the structures later. We can’t do much about the lot and so we needed to get it right now, even if that meant spending a lot more. Talking with Jon, we found that if we increased the budget to about $150k, we could get a very decent lot with a view of Lake Cle Elum. In fact, he had a lot in mind.

There are several communities that have properties on Lake Cle Elum, or have views of the lake. Most of the ones that are on the lake are a bit older and already have homes built on them. The lot sizes are much smaller too, with most being only about a quarter acre. On our budget we were not going to get a lot big enough for what we were looking to do.

We turned our attention to the communities that are platted on the east ridge of the lake. These would have awesome views as the ridge would perch the lots up several hundred feet above the lake, and offer views of nearby mountains. To be fair, these are the only other communities on the lake. The south end is the public beach and dam, the west ridge is owned by Suncadia, loggers, or the government, and the north end is a state campground and part of the Wenatchee National Forest. The fact that other areas of the lake were restricted from further development also made the location desirable to us.

We were starting to run into the snow season and we really wanted to get the lot purchased before the spring, so we could begin construction immediately. Having narrowed our search to a fairly small area, and with a better understanding of what we were looking for out of the lot, we felt like we had made quite a bit of progress towards this goal. We selected half a dozen lots that were for sale in the area, and scheduled a date to go visit them!

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