When Waterfront isn't Waterfront, or even close.

We've all heard the lexicon of Real Estate used to put a little "lipstick and rouge" on a home's description to garner at least a second look. "Small" turns into "cozy." "Limited only by buyer's imagination" is a personal favorite; it puts the weight of potential back onto the purchaser's shoulders, like an overbearing T-ball coach, "I guess you folks just didn't want to win badly enough" (sorry, Dad). It's almost as bad as using quotation marks too often to get your point across.

But peek-a-view and quarter-inch corridors when you stand on top of the toilet aside, waterfront is waterfront. It's a world of difference from water rights, beach rights, shared private areas, or docks; it means that the only thing in between your flip-flopped toes and the water is personal discretion or an 80 foot drop.

Thanks to a litigious society, and a penchant for John Grisham, there's a warehouse somewhere filled with reasoning behind some of the wording in listing descriptions. But as a Buyer's Agent in Whatcom County, I'm finding playground rules start when the buyer gets out of the car, with a waterfront property in mind, and finds the Emperor fully clothed or, well, nekkid. And the situation is usually about as uncomfortable.

How to avoid this? Find someone who knows the inventory, inside out, and on a personal level, AKA getting out from behind the computer and previewing your home. It's going to save YOU time and frustration, and make the whole experience better.

Travelling to the Louvre, to find that it's been filled with oil paintings by the slightly lesser known FRED Monet, of Cherry Hill, NJ will only breed contempt.

Our website www.realestate.bellingham.net takes information directly from the multiple listing service, and if it's been indicated that a home, condo, or parcel of vacant land is waterfront, the inventory is so vast, these "stretches" are hard to catch. Unless.

Always unless. Unless you've got a great buyer's agent. Your best line of defense is a buyer's agent who knows her or his inventory. And because the profession breeds creativity, we're inventive problem-solvers should there not be any waterfront place that meets ALL of your needs, we'll pull in options from outside the box.

So in summary, waterfront= wading in slowly, or falling at roughly 9.8 meters per second per second to a watery conclusion, possible lifeguard rescue, and get-well cards from your closest of friends.

Any thing else= angry buyer.
Chris McNamara