RT-
I'm actually the proud owner of the 12 acre lake that was mentioned in the original post. In fact, I had looked at the property the day before the original posting, and it helped speed up my decision -- I was afraid someone else would read it and grab it. The reason I viewed the property as such a great deal/investment, is because the entire property is only 45 acres, and the entire lake is within my fenceline. I never expected to find a lake that big on a property that small. Until I found this property, the largest lake I could find on a reasonable sized (50-200 acres) piece of land was about 5 acres. To try and answer your question, the value is in the eye of the beholder. I saw sunken timber, numerous coves, nice spawning flats, etc. It looked like bass heaven to me. In addition, we saw ducks and canada geese when we viewed the property. As a hunter and fisherman, I saw a lot of things that I liked -- fish, ducks, geese, deer, turkey, and dove, all on a pretty affordable "small" property. To me it was a no-brainer. The property was priced a little bit higher than other acreage in the area, but not much. I really feel that I could sell the property right now for 1.5x what I paid for it, but only if I marketed it properly -- as a small fishing and hunting property that has everything and has been intensely managed for wildlife and located only 1.5 hours from DFW. We were looking for a place to take our three daughters (9/7/5) on weekends to get some fresh air and learn a little bit about Mother Nature -- we live in Plano, aka The Land of Glass and Steel. Best decision I ever made. My youngest caught her first fish there, and after several trips to "The Farm," my two older daughters now refuse to fish with anything other than lures. We're camping there next weekend. To make a long answer short -- the lake added a lot of value in my opinion. I would have been willing to pay considerably more than I did for my property, but fortunately I didn't have to. I also feel strongly that the size of the lake/pond has a lot to do with it. For some reason, 5+ acres seems big to me and increases the value in my mind...
