Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Hello- Thoughts/Opinions appreciated!

So here I am, needing to make a decision, a big one. I'm going to be moving to a new state, Texas, have wanted water in my "retirement home" since I was young, though I don't really fish anymore, and just got back from a trip to TX thinking that I have found the property everyone in the family loves, but am now second guessing the pond.

This property is on 2.15 acres and my jerky video skills in the beginning shows the house which may help with perspective of the size of the pond. If I were to guess, it's probably 1/3 of an acre (complete guess).

I've only done a little reading on pond care, construction,etc. but now it's time to dig in quickly because houses in this market sell fast so I need to make a decision.

The video probably doesn't tell you much, but for you pond pros, maybe it tells you something and I'd really appreciate hearing what that is.

My concerns as a total noob and I'm going to ask the builder...

The trees in the pond, how did they get there? Will they eventually topple because the pond was put there afterwards so now high winds will cause a weakened root mass to fail? Will this cause the pond to drain?

The only end of the pond I could get to on the left side, since the property isn't cleared yet, seemed to be shallow. Shouldn't the pond have a well defined edge where the edge plunges at a high ratio?

Finally, where does it drain (I do know there's a drainage easement along the backside of the property, which is the back of the pond behind that very large tree).

There's probably more but this is becoming a book so I'm hoping a dialogue will start here for me to have more intelligent questions for the builder or perhaps, to have less concerns and just sign the contract.

Thanks in advance,

Bob

[video:youtube][/video]

I think the laws of shared ownership of bodies of water vary from state to state, but I think a common similarity is that if you land butts up to that body of water, you have usage of the entire body of water.

So, the pros or cons of that solely depend on the character of your current and potential future neighbors.

Sunil has given you lots of good advice.

At this point I would suggest making your realtor do a little extra work to "earn" that commission. Have them pull the plats and property description to fully delineate the ownership of the pond.

Also an innertube and a rope with a weight are a perfectly acceptable "low tech" means of estimating the depth of the pond.

Good luck!

The second pic shown below indicates that the water may not be muddy all the time.






The shared pond though is a real dilemma.

That would be best in my opinion, not to mention...I'm betting the "pond" is more shallow than you'd like just by looking a the images and knowing it's an old natural pond. I'd never want to share a BOW with neighbors. Everyone has grand ideas, or none at all. When it comes time to buck up to maintain it, even marginally, nobody has the money.

Savage, welcome to the forum! You can go back in the historical images in Google Earth to see if the pond grows/shrinks in size. If there are bushes/trees in it, then the water is not very deep at all. If the pond is shared between other properties I would continue looking - any work you do to the pond could be completely undone by any neighbors that own part of the pond. i.e. managing fish, etc., etc.

With the pond being 1/3 acre it can't be very deep if you do the math in regards to the bottom of the pond slope. Plus the trees/bushes growing in it means that it isn't deep at all. Possibly too shallow for any sort of sustainable fishery.