first of all, i love property, and "they ain't makin' any more of it". so i believe in buying as much property i can afford! now, does a lake increase the property value. i believe absolutely yes. matter of fact, most accountants will consider it "a property improvement". the reason i know that is because i tried to deduct the cost thru a business blah blah blah, and basically..he said it "improves the value of the property and " ...blah, blah blah now, what i find interesting is not just that a pond improves property value, but if a property owner is smart, when they sell the property, the "pondability" of the property, even without the pond increases the value. what i mean is, if you came to me looking at my property to purchase, i can sell you, say 50 acres for 3k an acre (just an example). now, that 50 acres can have woods, non favorable pond soil, minimal water runoff or inflow of water, cedar glade or whatever. hey, it's 50 acres. BUT, if i had 50 acres, and sold it to you for 3k an acre, an it was a perfect place for a pond, even without a pond on it...i'd be crazy. know the potential of land. what can yo build on it? also, location. for instance, it would take a big chunk of money to buy my piece of property...i am 5 miles from town where i work, built a 6-7 acre pond, can deer hunt, turkey hunt, and dove hunt. i bought it, didn't tell the sellers my plans, and quietly bought adjacent property. if you tell everybody what you want to do, and tell them "hey, this would be a great piece of property for a pond", well, the price goes up. and buy up what you can afford around that property, without telling everyone around there what you are doing...prices go up.
also, i can't imagine a 10 acre pond only costing 20 grand. i agree with big pond. my 6-7 acre lake was about 45 grand, and that was with all of the dirt and clay available on site. well, just blabberin' here, so hope it was useful.
