Correction: Smallwood Cottage with Lake Access (Not Views) for $199,000

Update: We posted this property a couple of weeks ago, with a key misunderstanding.  Our Bethel correspondent corrected the original post, which made claim that this cottage had lake views and was waterfront. Not so, she says. “Its on the end of my block and no where near a lake (although its about 3 blocks from a pond!” Well, perhaps you could get it for even less?

This tidy waterfront cottage  is big for Smallwood. While the lot, like most in the private lake community, is only half an acre, the cottage packs in 4 bedrooms, plus an office, and 2 baths.

The house has been in the same family for over thirty years. It’s not “vintage Smallwood”—this one was built in 1972, which helps to explain its slightly bigger dimensions—but there are updates throughout: bamboo floors, new roof, Anderson windows, and a working fireplace. It’s zoned for residential (rather than just seasonal) usage and owners would have access to the Smallwood lake and pool . I think the bedroom count and the handicapped access make this one really feel multi-generational.

Catskill Castles  GMAP

Asking Price: $199,000
Square feet: 1234
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Land: .500 acres
Distance to NYC: 124 miles; 2 hours, 3 minutes

Smallwood Cottage with Lake View for $199,000

This tidy waterfront cottage  is big for Smallwood. While the lot, like most in the private lake community, is only half an acre, the cottage packs in 4 bedrooms, plus an office, and 2 baths.

The house has been in the same family for over thirty years. It’s not “vintage Smallwood”—this one was built in 1972, which helps to explain its slightly bigger dimensions—but there are updates throughout: bamboo floors, new roof, Anderson windows, and a working fireplace. It’s zoned for residential (rather than just seasonal) usage and owners would have access to the Smallwood lake and pool . I think the bedroom count and the handicapped access make this one really feel multi-generational.

Catskill Castles  GMAP

Asking Price: $199,000
Square feet: 1234
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Land: .500 acres
Distance to NYC: 124 miles; 2 hours, 3 minutes

Friday Real Estate Porn: The Grandest Estate in Bethel, $2.49 mill

The fanciest home in Bethel, within the grand Chapin Estates, have five beds, five baths and 4,460 square feet. That should cover it. It’s so secluded, says the copy, that a pair of bald eagles are nesting beside it. Plus, a hot tub. See you there.

185 Sunset Point, Bethel, NY (Sotheby’s) GMAP
Asking Price: $2.49 million
Beds: 5
Baths: 5
Land: 5 acres
Features: Lakefront, jacuzzi, gated community
Transportation: They don’t let you in here without a limo or something!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Smallwood, NY

In response to our piece about Bethel earlier this week, Sullivan County buyers’ agent and blogger David Knudsen posted a detailed comment about the ins and outs of Smallwood, a Bethel hamlet and private lake community. David’s comment anticipates a lot of the questions a city buyer might have about Smallwood’s range of prices and seasonal vs. year-round housing, so we thought it worth highlighting:

“[A]bout prices .. Yes, you will see some seasonals occasionally listed or selling as low as $35,000. But a more realistic range for a ‘seasonal’ (on community water, not with a drilled well to permit year round use) is probably $55,000 to $80,0000. Something priced ‘too good to be true’ most likely will have either wood rot in sill plates, floor joists or structural members; foundation support issues or problems with old septics or cesspools. Any of those items can be very costly to repair even in a very small house.

In Smallwood, buyers need to pay particular attention to a house’s ‘private sewage system’ (septic or cesspool). Quite a few are old and in not great shape. The lot sizes are also small (seasonals are typically on 50 x 100 foot lots), so if you have a problem septic you may have to put in a fairly pricey aerobic system.

One question I’m often asked is can you convert a ‘seasonal’ to ‘year round’ use by drilling a well (so you have a year round water source.) The answer in almost all cases is ‘no’. The reason is that there are now minimum distances required in code between a well and a septic, and not just between a septic on your property and your proposed well, but between your proposed well and the septic on any adjoining property. On these small parcels, particularly with adjoining houses and septics, you can’t meet the minimums to drill a new well.‘Year rounders’ (houses with already drilled wells) generally start around $90,000 and go up to $140K or so. (More for houses ringing the lake with lake views.)Smallwood can be a great, affordable getaway — particularly for city folks that are looking for more summer use, and content themselves with a ‘seasonal.’

 

We really appreciated David’s inside take, so we gave him a call to get more Smallwood info.

Vintage Log Cabin in Smallwood/Bethel for $90,000

Taken out of context, I wouldn’t have guessed that this two bedroom log cabin in Bethel’s Smallwood community was built in 1936.  Given the size I might have thought “house trailer,” but like many of the homes in this Sullivan County lakeside hamlet, this little guy has some cute period details.  The stone fireplace is original and there’s a stone basement as well. The fenced-in lot is small and only semi-private, like most of the tiny lots in Smallwood, though it does claim a free-standing gazebo. There are two screened-in summer porches, including one off the back that looks spacious enough for snoring guests. Love the striped shutters!

The cottage is currently used for three seasons, so it would need to be winterized for year-round use. Some homes in Smallwood only have running water from October through April, but this house has its own well, which means all year water access.

The $90,000 asking price puts at the high-end of the middle range for Smallwood. You can pay less for a bungalow that would need more work or find something above $100,000 that’s fully updated and winterized. This cabin is in move-in condition, but I can also imagine doing an update and some decorating that would play up the 1930s bungalow vibe. Goodbye poker-playing puppies, hello waterfall furniture and lucite bowls?

Smallwood Cabin (Baer & McIntosh Real Estate) GMAP

Big Bethel Porch for $275,000

Wow, that’s a big porch you’ve got there. I can’t decide if this porch plus house in Bethel looks fun or ostentatious. I’m sure most second homers could make good use of a 400 square foot wrap-around porch, but the proportions seem just a little bit off to me. Is there such a thing as too much porch?

Located in a new-ish gated community, The Birches at Bethel Farms, this 3 bedroom, 3 bath home also comes with 5+ acres, pond views, and the possibility of finishing off the lower level into more living space. The interior is tasteful, if a bit generic, with granite counters, high ceilings, hardwood floors throughout and lots of light. How would you make this one your own?

Stats and pics after the jump.

Town of the Week: Bethel

Bethel got on our radar when a reader alerted us to its offerings — not just on the nature front but the cultural front as well. Most famous for being the real home of the Woodstock festival, that concert site is now a cultural center within walking distance of many of Bethel’s offerings. The town encompasses the hamlet of Smallwood (a former Christian community that several folks have written in to ask us to cover), as well as Black Lake, White Lake and a few other teeny hamlets. Lots of good water in the area, but we find it a little light on the architectural charm, unless you’ve got a couple of million for a gated estate — there are plenty of those for sale, built at a more hopeful time in the American real estate market.

Our Bethel correspondent purchased an adorable cabin here which she now rents out, and has written in to sing the hamlet’s praises.
—
Weekending at the Real ‘Woodstock’

West of the Hudson and far from the more popular upstate destinations of New Paltz and Rhinebeck lies the best kept secret of the Catskills: Bethel. Blessed with varied real estate, swimming and boating lakes, historic sites, and beautiful scenery, Bethel is full of family activity all year ‘round.

When we purchased our cabin in the fall of 2010 we thought of it as nothing more than a quick and inexpensive getaway from Brooklyn.  Our place is in a hamlet within Bethel called Smallwood.  Most of the cabins are nearly identical due to the popularity of cabin ‘kits’ from Sears in the 1930’s when most of the places in Smallwood were built as part of a private vacation community. Of course, most of them now have additions of porches, screen rooms, and lots of cobbled-on additions. Most of the cabins here are seasonal, meaning they run on town water which is only turned on from April till October, after that its pretty impossible to stay unless you have your own well. Our street is half and half; partial summer residents and part year round residents. We’re the rarity, weekend people who come up all year around. My husband is a fan of the fall foliage season, while the kids can’t get enough of the peaceful calm of winter (oh, and the sledding, snowman building and skiing!).

There is so much to do in Sullivan county for families of all ages. At the Woodstock concert site they’ve built a gorgeous outdoor concert facility where family pak lawn tickets can be had for as little as $60 per family. On the immaculate lawn where the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin once played you can now enjoy the sounds of Elton John, Selena Gomez, and the New York Philharmonic. The annual July 4^th family Philharmonic concert complete with fireworks is always a hit for all ages. Kids play and roam while adults enjoy the music and a picnic dinner.  The museum is also really a class act and thoroughly air conditioned for a humid or rainy afternoon.

Most communities up here have some sort of lake.