Your Ultimate Guide to Buying a Home on Lake
Why choose a lake specialist from the Living on Lake Lanier team for your new home? Because our expertise is invaluable! We live, work, and play on the lake, giving us insight into the unique factors to consider when buying a lake home for over 20 years!
- On and off market properties
- How to Find the Right Lot
- Septic Systems
- Dock Permitting
- Army Corps of Engineers Restrictions
- Lake Lanier Civic Organizations
- Dining and Activities
The Home Buying Process
We understand purchasing the right lake home is a big financial and lifestyle decision. With over 19 years of expertise and expansive knowledge of Lake Lanier and the surrounding areas, the Living on Lake Lanier team will give you the confidence you need when buying the home of your dreams!
Start Your Search
We will consider the age and stage your family is in as well as the goals you’re trying to accomplish to help guide you throughout the process. If needed, we will connect you with our trusted local lenders who have a fantastic reputation and track record of getting our client’s to the closing table on time, every time.
Be the First to Know
Be the first to know when new properties hit the market…and off-market opportunities, too!
We will create a custom search based on your wish list so homes that match your specified criteria will be delivered straight to your inbox as soon as they hit the market. Our team has sold many unlisted homes by matching buyers with sellers. Don’t you want to be the first to know?
Buying on a Lake
There are a few extra details to account for when buying a lake home. Lake Lanier is our backyard! With a close working relationship with the Army Corps of Engineers, we can offer additional insight regarding shoreline management, boat dock specifications and permits, and what can and cannot be done on Corp property. By the way, the Corp of Engineers are a bunch of really great folks!
Offer & Close
Once you find the home of your dreams, we will submit an offer. As skilled negotiators, we know how to get you the best price and terms on the home of your dreams. Once the offer is accepted, we will help you navigate inspections, appraisals, closing, and Corp of Engineers change of ownership process (quick note: dock permits are NOT transferable). We can’t wait to see you on the lake!
Preferred Lenders
Check out your preferred lenders below.
- Joy James with Guaranty Mortgage
- Nikki Powers with Guaranty Mortgage
Ready to Buy a Lake House?
Google Reviews
Zillow Reviews
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Put simply, we’ve never before experienced a real estate service level like Michelle delivered. We’ve been in our fair share of real estate transactions over our lifetime, but we haven’t enjoyed... Read more paying a real estate commission more than we did when Michelle led us to the close on our lake life dream. She’s a powerhouse on her own, but she’s not alone. In the tight lakefront Lanier market, her determination and competence shined as she delivered a contract win in a competitive bid. In a short due diligence window she amazed us with the expert relationships she had at the ready to get us the answers we needed to make smart decisions fast. Michelle added tremendous value as our champion, and was worth every dollar of commission (something we haven’t gotten to say in the past). We’re very grateful.
Teresa and Mackenzie helped us sell our family home on Lake Lanier, a house our parents built and handed down to us. It was very personal and they handled our... Read more process with a wonderful combination of grace and professionalism. The house carried a price point lower than most of their listings but I never had the sense that they worked any less on our behalf. From beginning to end, they were proactive, communicative, and responsive; in short, they worked hard! Their specialization (and rootedness) on Lake Lanier is also extremely helpful. We appreciated their counsel on all aspects of the sale. Finally, we had to address questions about the foundation and structural integrity of the house. Teresa brought in trusted contractors she's used before to answer our questions well. Teresa and Mackenzie are really good people, we enjoyed working with them, and we'd hire them again! (And we'd recommend them to family and friends.)
Michele was amazing throughout our entire home buying process. She is extremely knowledgeable and helped us understand every step of the way! We would highly recommend Michele for both buying... Read more and selling a home.
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Teresa and her team are absolutely phenomenal and we've now purchased 2 homes, sold one, and referred several friends to these wonderful ladies. They are beyond knowledgeable about Lake Lanier... Read more and have a real expertise surrounding lake life and the variables that go well beyond the home purchase itself. So much of lake life is about the water you're on and the location on the lake, and Teresa's team has taught us SO much about about what to look for in the perfect home. Smart, savvy, responsive, professional, and as it turns out, like a part of our family now, too--just wonderful. This is who you want if you're looking for a home anywhere near Lake Lanier.
Michele was absolutely fantastic in helping us find our weekend getaway lakehouse. We toured multiple properties and she was very helpful in leading us down the right track when we... Read more weren’t even sure what we really wanted. She is crazy knowledgeable and made the buying process as smooth as can be. She has lots of contacts and helped lineup multiple inspections to ensure that what we were buying was of good quality and the value. She truly had our best interest in mind throughout the entire process. There were some difficult decisions to be made and she helped us through all of them. I would definitely recommend Michele to anyone that’s looking to purchase home on Lake Lanier.
Teresa Smith and Mackenzie Scott are the consummate professional real estate agents. From our first conversation to the closing, these ladies were making certain that all the details were... Read more in order and in our best interest. Teresa and Mackenzie have incredible marketing skills for lake property, utilizing far more than just "photos". They were confident, communicative, and available. We always felt we were in competent, knowledgeable hands, and...in the end...we were! Our lake house sold and closed very quickly.
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Teresa and Mackenzie and the Living on Lake Lanier team were incredible to work with! They were all extremely professional and had wonderful communication throughout the entire process. I appreciated... Read more the effort their team put in to market our home, and their responsiveness to showing requests! I would definitely recommend this team to others who are looking for an agent to help them sell their home!
Mackenzie was great to work with. I would recommend her to anyone and hope to work with her again the future. She was incredibly knowledgeable of the market, considerations of... Read more selecting the right home, and overall process. Mackenzie was very helpful throughout each step and made sure to keep my goals in mind. She was very responsive and worked hard to make sure I was taken care of.
Mackenzie and Teresa are wonderful! They’re a great team to work. Mackenzie is light hearted and bubbly and Teresa is sweet and gets the job done. Teresa even... Read more helped with cleaning my fridge and cleaning off window sills last minute before a showing. They both went above and beyond and kept me in communications every step of the way. We sold my house at appraised price. Thank you guys for everything!