Putnam County schools are gearing up for teachers and students to return to school later this month. The superintendent answered some common questions just this morning. A link to where you can find that Q&A is here:  Putnam County Superintendent answering questions. I believe that the staff and board by offering an at home digital learning program that approximately 800 students have decided upon will give the teachers the space they need in their classrooms to spread the rest of the students out for safety.  The school system has strict guidelines in place for both students and teachers NOT attending in person school with a fever for symptoms of ANY illness. They will utilizing additional spaces in the schools to keep cafeteria spaces from being crowded with no self serve foods.  Scho... 08/03/2020

I've been "real estating" for 29 years now.  Every time that annivesary comes and goes it takes me a while to adjust to that new number.... it's sort of like birthdays these days.  Hard to believe I'm THAT old and have been in real estate for more than half my life now.  just wow.Speaking of wow, the point of this post, in my 29 years of real estate I've never seen a sellers market quite this strong. In my view there are a few reasons for the robust seller's market we're having at Lake Sinclair.  COVID19- I'm sure you are saying "WHAT!?", but the fact is we had sellers who are in high risk age, or high risk because of health conditions both take their homes off the market or are waiting until they deem it a safer time to let people in to view their homes. Beyond that if people are "work... 07/20/2020

Today I got a call from the executor of the estate on one of my listings. They dropped by the price by nearly $25,000. They are ready to close out the estate and move on. It's a rare find on Lake Sinclair with more than 5 acres and over 600 feet of shoreline. Double boathouse, cookout pavilion and storage barn on the property also.The view is fairly wooded because the former owner liked being nestled in the woods, but the trees along the shoreline could be cleared to open the view a lot. Home needs some TLC, but is solid. And for the price it's listed the 5 acres is worth the asking price. Check out this great home now listed at just $225,000. 09/20/2016

I have been dreadfully behind on my market reports. I was so far behind in fact that I got an email this week asking "are you still doing market reports?" So I got busy and hope to catch up by the end of the week, if not next week for sure.Starting with the good news first for 2015 volume was up tremendously. While at the height of the selling "season" last summer we dipped below a year's inventory it was back up to 19 months of inventory at the end of the year.  The best news for 2015 as whole was that 145% of 2014's total homes sold on Lake Sinclair.  The number sold was up from 170 in 2014 to 247* in 2015. December year over year was way down. Perhaps the rainy weather kept people out of the market and maybe it's even the election.  In my experience presidential election cycles are s... 03/09/2016

Unless you've been under a rock you've been hearing about the Zika Virus and the harm it can do to unborn babies and that cases are not in the United States. It's been on the news in an election cycle, which means it's really big news. Now I'm NOT being an alarmist. But living on/near water can certainly mean more mosquitoes. Just a small amount of standing water can breed thousands of mosquitoes. If I am outside and there is a mosquito in a mile radius of me, it generally finds me and bites me.So what to do?  Well first you want to make sure not to have standing water. Even in the bottoms of potted plants. If you water every day and never let it go dry it's an excellent place for mosquitoes to breed. You will want to make sure if you pull your boat out of the lake you don't leave stand... 02/01/2016

I am happy to report that I have a new listing that will be available to be seen very soon.  I hope to get photos soon (please let the sun come out tomorrow) and get it into the MLS.  Meanwhile I did snap one photo of view from my cell phone the day the owners showed me around their home. Check back often and I'll have the full listing details. It will require an appointment. 01/28/2016

It feels like our summer season lasted a bit longer than usual this year. We had a wonderful month of closings right through October. With that said I'll get to the best news first.   We had 32 residential closings on Lake Sinclair in October.  Sales prices ranged from $75,000 to $545,000 with an average of $117/ sq. ft.  At the current rate of absorption we only have an 8 month supply. We have not been that close to a stable market in 6 years. Hopefully it will continue to move in that direction.   In the price department we're moving in the right direction.  It's a very slow pace, but at least prices are going up.  Of course if you are a buyer what this means is that you will want to buy soon, before prices and/or interest rates move too much. The average sales price for a Lake Sincla... 11/17/2015

Lake Sinclair, Georgia's best kept secret, with the exception of planned draw downs (one of which is scheduled for this October) by Georgia Power that occur every few years for shoreline maintenance and dam re-certificiation stays at or near full pool.  Many of Georgia's lakes are more than 10 feet below level.  That means many of Georgia's lakes have docks that are out of the water.Of course you don't have to just take my word for it, there is an offical site that posts the levels daily.  The National weather service service maintains this information on their site and it is generally posted for each lake in Georgia by 10 a.m. The last draw down was October of 2011 and one is not currently announced, but they generally come in the middle of winter and last for about 30 days.  When you ... 08/03/2015

For the first time in more than 5 and half years of compiling data for market reports when I ran the numbers for the end of June we had less than a years worth of inventory at the current rate of absorption.  I am delighted for sellers to report there is only 10 months worth of inventory. That's awful close to a stable market where we will start to see some price appreciation again.   Hear that buyers?  Been sitting on fence wondering how long we were going to rock along ever so close to the bottom we hit back in 2013, well looks like it was until May of 2015.Of course I believe we will have our typical seasonal setbacks come winter, but I see the market moving in a price upward direction from here. I just ran the numbers and there's about a 2% bump in price from June's average to the f... 07/11/2015

Recently,  and it wasn't the first time, a potential seller walked into my office with a single piece of paper from the developer they got in the mail back in 1980 when they purchased property at Lake Sinclair.  It identified the property only as Tract XX, Lot XX, no county, no street, no subdivision.  After a few minutes of questions they did know what county they paid their annual taxes to, so it was narrowed down a bit.Then I got on my trusty computer and went to QPublic From there you can navigate to the counties and search by name and find more information about property.  Unfortunately their property was not identified by street on the tax digest, because as it turns out much of the property in that area is still undeveloped and no one has the street as their mailing address and t... 07/08/2015

Many agents won't even talk to you unless you walk in the door to meet them with a pre-approval in hand. But at Lane Realty, because of the multitude of different properties we show and list, we know that might not be the best thing for you.Will you be considering: Georgia Power lease lots Georgia Power strip leases Manufactured homes Modular homes Singlewide Lease lot with manufactured Not all lenders will do all of these properties. So while we don't mind pre-approved buyers you just might be pre-approved with someone who isn't the right lender for you. At this very moment we have a client sitting with one of our lenders in an office to get them pre-approved for THE house they are writing an offer on in the next hour. It's a lender who handles the type of property the buyers are writi... 07/07/2015

Well with firewords being legal in Georgia now my best guess is ANYWHERE!  BUT if you are looking for the only organized gathering for fireworks... Oconee Springs Park! If you attend by car be prepared to park outside the gate and walk.  Bring your own chairs or blanket.  By boat let me show you on the map where Oconee Springs is located on Lake Sinclair. The show should begin around 9:30 p.m.  This is the Facebook post on their page about the fireworks!  I hope you enjoy!  You will need to zoom out on the map to see the location if you need the location.  Any GPS should be able to give you directions to Oconee Springs Park. 07/04/2015

This morning I read a post about how the first half of this year looked compared to the first half of last year.  I say we should wait about another 30 days to figure that out.  22 more days for it to actually BE mid year and then about a week for so for some agents to actually enter the sales data into the MLS system.But I wanted to share with you what the data from May 2015 (you know the 5th month) looks like and of course my opinions for direction and trends.First there were 22 closed water front homes in May, which is fabulous. It's the second highest number of closings in the past 5.5 years and only misses making it a tie with the number one spot by ONE.  In the first 5 months of 2014 there were 54 closing and this year in the first 5 months we've had 78 closings. That's 145% of la... 06/08/2015

Well they aren't selling like hotcakes, but we are steady. 17 homes close in April 2015 that were residential, waterfront Lake Sinclair homes. And for the amount of rainy days we had in March to show property I think it’s a pretty good number. It's just one sale down from March 2015 and it's 4 more than in the same period last year. Speaking of year over year so far 2015 is 146% of the same period for 2014.  We had 38 lake homes in the first 4 months last year compared to 56 in 2015.With the slightly slower number of sales and the slightly higher number of current listings the months of inventory is up just a little to 19.6. That's still a far cry from this time last year, but clearly still a buyers' market for pricing and days on the market if you are not willing to sell for what like ... 05/18/2015

We have had lots of questions about Lake Sinclair with the recent closing of the power plant (Plant Branch) in Putnam County. We've had people ask about the water levels, fishing changes the sale of lease lots and what will happen to the property where the plant is now.Georgia Power management and Land Management recently had a meeting with real estate professionals to give us some of the answers. The dam at Lake Oconee and the dam at Sinclair will continue to be operational and produce power. Waters will continue to be pumped from Sinclair to Oconee and back again as it has been in the past.Final approvals are being given from federal departments for the drawdown and in the next couple of weeks Georgia Power will likely have dates to announce. They know when they WANT to do the draw do... 05/03/2015

In searching on the MLS for listings for a buyer to look at a while back who were shopping within a fairly low budget to be on the lake I discovered several we had not seen and they had not picked out to look at on their saved search. I asked them why they had decided not to look at those homes and they said "well, they looked yucky"  One of those homes I had previously had listed when it sold a few years back and it was charming and anything but yucky.  So I dug a little deeper to discover that the on line impression was pretty darn yucky. The following photos are screen shot taken my my IDX website of antoher agents listing in my local area. This listing is more than $150,000 and this is how it's represented to buyers:The photos you see are the first 5 photos any buyer sees when looki... 04/10/2015

An extraordinary home on Lake Sinclair.  Over 6000 sq. ft of excellence.  Oversized two car garage, roomy master suite on main floor, beautiful sunroom with wonderful wide open views, large gentle sloping lot with 225 feet of shoreline.  Perfect for entertaining, multi-generational family or executive vaction home. Lots of great features.  Right now you're going to get just a little sneak preview, but watch my blog for details next week.  Photo to the right is the sunroom, lots of natural light and a fantastic view. 04/04/2015

I can't speak from personal experience about the local campgrounds, but I've had clients and family and friends tell me they are great.   So I wanted to share some links with anyone who might be interested in checking out camping at Lake Sinclair this summer. I do enjoy day trips to Putnam Beach.  It has a roped off swim area, bath houses, picnic tables and paved roads.  I've had my daughter's birthday party there in the past where she and her friends could go swimming.  There are also boat docks and a ramp for launching your boat as well as camper and tent sites available. There is Oconee Springs Park.  It's also a really nice place.  They even have a little store.  They also have some cabins as well as camper spots. the photos on the right are the beach, cabins, ramp and store from Oc... 04/01/2015

Are you a history buff? Then you will love attending this.  It's at the Plaza Arts Center which has it's own rich history.   Sunday at The Museum: What the Yankees Did to Us March 22 2:00 pm   Renowned author, Stephen Davis, will give a lecture in the Reception Hall and then a light reception will take place in the Old School History Museum. This event is free of charge; however, donations are appreciated.Stephen Davis, a popular Atlanta historian, earned a Master's degree in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. from Emory University where he concentrated on the theme of the Civil War in Southern literature. Dr. Davis studied at Emory under Bell Irvin Wiley, the renowned Civil War author and historian.Dr. Davis is the author of a book on th... 03/15/2015

Warm and inviting well maintained home in good condition. Meticulously maintained with lots of upgrades. Covenants in force in neighborhood, street lights, paved private road, common boat trailer storage area.  3 Bedroom 2 bath Wrap around deck Paved drive .46 acres in Lakewood Subdivision  This lot has the most frontage of any lot in this subdivision with 124 feet on the water walkway to dock, seawall, boathouse with lift and storage room irrigation pump  low HOA fees wonderful landscaping, very low maintenance   You know my sunset shots that I use to brand Lane Realty, many of them were taken from the dock at this property.  Very level lot.  Some of the furnishings may be purchased if buyer is interested.   02/19/2015