I have a couple of stories on this topic. Two years ago, a client called, was looking at a property about 40 miles east of Dallas. It was advertised as 40 acres, with a pristine lake. He looked, was interested, but wanted to do more due diligence. He hired me, I met the realtor, evaluated the lake. The lake covered about 15 acres, was 60% covered with American lotus. Eight acres of water was less than 4 feet deep, loaded with coontail. The fishery was okay, but mostly stunted bass and a fairly healthy bluegill population hiding in abundant plant growth. The lake needed work, especially due to the shallowness, which was mainly two to four feet of blackland silt. My best estimate was that it would cost $35-50,000 to renovate this lake to make it like he wanted. He chose not to buy it. Last I heard, a group of duck hunters were looking, and loved it. So, it wasn't worth much to the bass fisherman, but the duck hunters may have found exactly what they wanted.
In 1985 a prominent family in Fort Worth, Texas, built a 50 acre lake on their 1660 acre ranch southwest of town. Spent more than $200,000 on the dam. I have the privilege to stock and manage it for 8 year, until the owner died. His widow kept the place for three more years, but it was more than she could care for. She asked the local bank to appraise it, along with two local realtors. They looked at comparable land sold in the area, and suggested her land, at that time, would sell for $800-850 an acre. She, and her advisors, believed the lake increased the value dramatically. She ran an ad in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, as well as the big cities in Texas. Three people 'fought' for the land, and she ended up selling it for $1,600 and acre. Do the math...all three wanted to buy it for the 50 acre lake. Her savvy parlayed an 'extra' 1.2 million for her.
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