Bugs on the islands?
 

As our island house quest continues, we note that very few island properties have screened in porches. Some people have tried telling us that there are very few bugs on the islands. What are island residents thoughts on this? We like to eat outside in the evening....

The main house we're looking at faces east to about 3 miles of open water, but I don't expect a constant breeze (except in a storm like yesterday)...

On the west side of Welch it is rare to encounter a mosquito as there is almost always air moving in off the water. I suspect that the situation might be different on the east side.

I must say we have less bugs on the island. That being said, this past spring we had a lot of mosquitoes. The past couple of weekends we have been outside until nearly midnight without any bugs bothering us. We do keep a big outdoor fan at the house that we use when the bugs are bothering us. That really does the trick.:)

We hardly ever see much for mosquitos. Spiders on the other hand, whoa! Some of the dock spiders could carry away small children. Aggressive too...

It's in the Rattlesnake Island covenant - there are no mosquitoes allowed on the island :) Seriously, it is quite rare to encounter a bug like a mosquito - at least on the West side of the island. I can't speak for any other areas, but I hike the mountain every day I'm there, and it is indeed a rare day when a bug "bugs" me.

I'm sure it's a combination of the breeze, and the fact that - at least for Rattlesnake - the sloping terrain gives very little chance for standing water to accumulate long enough for a crop of mosquitoes to get going. It's probably similar on many of the other islands as well.

Island bugs
 

Depends. We have some swampland on Mink so you will see Mosquitos there, but not in droves. Snorkeled under my dock a few years back while working to replace a power line and when I looked up at the underside of the dock I screamed. Seemed like a gigantic dock spider every few inches clinging to the underside of the dock. Think arachniphobia, the movie! I'm generally not afraid of spiders but that many just inches from my face -- yikes!

Our porch is screened. No worries.

This could be the solution for rowdy kids in restaurants.

I too am on the West side of Welch and rarely do we see mosquitoes I believe due to the predominant Northwest wind. The East side however (I rented there a few years ago) had plenty of mosquitoes!

Now, you want to talk about spiders... Island spiders are on steroids!! Between the tarantula size dock spiders and the daddy long leg spiders who seem to reappear 12 hours after sweeping them all away, we have given in and decided to live in harmony with them!! (like I have a choice!! :D)

Good Luck!

Dan

Broads Side of Rattlesnake
 

There are next to none in my neck of the woods, but I know from hiking, there are some on the northern half of the island.
Think they can be attributed to truck ruts in the island road that collects rain and perhaps the small pond on that end too.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...e_05_035_2.jpg
This pond can be found on the flat area after you descend from the top of the island, heading to the northern end.

We see very little bugs on Welch ( West) I Agree on large spiders! We do have ants. No screened porch and only a few times in summer we have to go in for mosquitos

I do confess that I envy you guys on Rattlesnake with the nice hiking trails..... Right now we're focused on Sleeper Island. If we buy, we'll have to make some Rattlesnake friends so we can come hike. We really like one place on Rattlesnake, but it's priced way too high and the owner doesn't want to talk about it.

Was it the one on the South side, with all of the lattice work in the front?

There are a number of properties for sale on Rattlesnake at the moment.

Yup, the lattice palace we call it... No septic system and it's priced like it has one. Alton island sales pretty closely track the town's appraised value right now (actually the only sales so far this year have been under appraised value). This one is way off the curve. Too bad because we like the decks, the southern exposure and the house is nicely done. Verizon internet access was a little dicey there though.

It's probably worth the $315k asking price with the septic installed.

The people a couple of houses up from us recently bought at over that amount, and the house needed a TON of work - really, lots of work. Otherwise though, the lot is good and the key factor - the septic - is new and installed. I think the property was priced appropriately and the folks got a very reasonable deal in my opinion.

Another house a few up from us sold for $450k last year (or thereabouts), but the house is really beautiful and very well done and didn't need a thing. Again, the septic was new and already installed.

These are some of the comps that can help determine the selling price.

If I were making an offer on the "Lattice Palace" (I like the name!), I'd probably go in the higher 200s, keeping in mind the cost of installing a proper septic system. If it had the septic already in place, as you said, the $315 would definitely be in line with other properties which have sold, and are not far from this one, and recently.

I'm guessing you made such an offer ($270k, maybe?) and it was rejected...

The place has been for sale for a while (at least 2 years, I believe), so one would think they would be more willing to be reasonable.

We got a rough estimate for 30-35K to install a septic system... Plus the house would have to be re-plumbed from it's current graywater/poop burner configuration. I worry that it would be very difficult to get equipment in place too. The hill is so steep behind the house that there is a rope strung through the trees to pull yourself up the hill.

We love the decks and privacy but......

Its really nice that the Alton assessment database is online so it's very easy to get recent sales prices to compare to assessment value. Most of the houses for sale on Alton islands are priced significantly higher than what the recent sales vs. assessment values indicate they might sell for.

We didn't even bother with an offer because our real estate agent said it was a lost cause at the price we were willing to offer.

I hear you there! We made a number of offers on different properties - always based on comps. You can't argue with comps :coolsm: But, sellers do argue with comps and their properties are still on the market years later!

Take the comps from Rattlesnake, correct for individual property factors (like the septic system, etc) and the offer should be reasonable. You might even get a quote on the septic installation, or maybe someone already got one (certainly would be a good thing to have as a seller). If the septic work is, say, $40,000 - that puts you in the 270k to 280k range as far as the offer is concerned... and still be in line with the comps, that is.

Offers, assessments, sales etc.
 

As the owner of an island property on the market maybe I can give you some insight as to what a seller is thinking.

Also maybe can give you bug insight as well.

As for issue number 2. There are bugs on the islands. I think there are less bugs Mosquitos for one, but they are less abundant. Especially later in the season. Not. At night though we have plenty of bugs hovering around our lights at night. I thinks major factor is the size of the island. And the exposure to the wind.

As for selling. I am sure many are in financial trouble and some are just moving on and doing something different. Others may have had life changes such as kids off to college or new kids or whatever. What I can tell you from my perspective is, this is our second home it's a vacation property. It's not like we are selling our residence to move and buy another house. It's not as if we have an offer on another house and we need the money to buy it. With that said a lowball offer would not even get a second glance. We can wait, and we will. We have options, like renting the house out, which we do. You may be dealing with someone in a similar situation. It's an investment and we might wait around to see the rebound in the market (if it comes), and see our investment pay off. So for the most part the normal home buying rules don't necessarily apply in most cases. Unless of course somebody is in dire straights. But a house that has lingered on the market may fall into the category that I described.

Good Luck on your search I hope you find your dream cottage!

Are you stuck on alton? There are some fair priced properties on cow presently, plus you get the low tax rate. Gilford properties tend to bring a higher price and bear the tax bill to along with it. Assessed values are crap. I can tell you that the market value on ours is far above assessed value.

Don't underestimate the power of the seller being under water on their property. Many people are not anxious to bring a big check to the closing.

Also consider that people have been putting their properties up for sale at high prices on Winni for an awfully long time, even when the prices were at the high. If someone buys it for the asking price, great. If they don't, what's the cost. They have a place on the lake. The real problem with the strategy these days is the banks are not going to lend the exaggerated selling price which cuts the pool of available buyers.

Actually it's nice that the taxes are low enough to allow this strategy. We're moving from a small "lake" place that is worth similar to winni island places, but the taxes are 8K+...

No need to wait out the market here because you'll lose any potential gains in taxes.

Island Bugs
 

There have been very few mosquitoes on the east side of Bear Island this season at the shore. I have not hiked up to the chapel [St. John's-On-The-Lake] this year. One frequently encounters them in the interior of the island. Found a large female dock spider carrying an egg sack on board our boat - caught her in a jar and removed her. I showed our "guest" to friends and relatives who were staying at our cottage, then released her in the woods with her egg sack intact.

One place I absolutely refuse to swim or even go near is the underside of a dock. There are some very scary beings under there!

We have not had bad mosquitoes this year, even with the lake level staying fairly high, but bad flies and ants.

screen porch
 

It is true that screened porches are rare on the islands, and it is also true that we have few mosquitos on the west side of Welch. That said, we have an old cottage with a large screened porch and we LOVE it! It's our outdoor living and dining room, and it's one of the best things about our place.

Buy a Mosquito Magnet, it definitely helps....

Ants
 

Get Terro! This stuff is great. It can be found at most hardware/home improvement centers.

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pub...R2O9teUA=s90-c
We attached one of these outdoor baits with a screw to the deck rail and the ants are gone. We also put baits under the camp too.

http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/8...00x100-0-0.jpg

Once this cup dried up, I added more Terro Ant Bait from my refill bottle.

At most home improvement stores you can pick up a baited fly trap to hang out of sight.

Good luck!

Better yet, buy your neighbor a Mosquito Magnet. :rolleye1:;)

When I was a kid, my father "the engineer" offered to buy our neighbor a bug light so it would attract the bugs from our yard to his yard. They did not take him up on the offer.