Lake Front Property in South Carolina?

[Ed_Geary]

A neighbor with a ramp...Sweet!

Can you back your boat away from the dock with no issues?

I know I'd be hitting one of those.

[5:00]

That water looks REALLY low.

[JoelFett]

That water looks REALLY low.

It is. 5 feet below full pool (360), 3.5 below normal (358.5) depth . The dock is 8 feet at normal though, so I'm good.

And yes, I can back my boat around pretty well. I learned by keeping it backed into a slip for 2 years. Takes practice for sure.

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[5:00]

Waking this thread in case anyone is interested still. We have been looking for several years and three states for our next home which needs to be lake front. We finally visited Lake Keowee, SC a couple of weekends ago with fingers crossed and that is going to be our next living and retirement place. There are three decent size towns within 20 minutes including Clemson and Salem. There are plenty of larger cities including Atlanta within a couple of hours. The Blue Ridge mountains are 30 minutes away. TN and NC are very close as well. The weather is ideal for us. This is a beautiful lake with emerald green water. The reason for this is that when they clear cut the trees they removed ALL of them!!! No wood is decomposing in this lake. The water that feeds it is pristine. This also means no logs or stumps to hit. The shore drops quickly. Off the end of docks from what we saw the average depth was about 14 feet and the lake was down as far as it gets. There are two other lakes there also.

If anyone is looking for a place in that region I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. I noticed most of the boats there are pontoons, probably 80%+. Not a lot of competition for places to surf and play so I am all for that. 26 miles long, 3 miles wide at its widest, 300 miles of shoreline with room for everyone. The one thing that everyone mentioned is that the public schools suck so it would be private school for kids but ours will all be in college by that point and one is interested in Clemson so that works.

[KnoxMojo]

Be careful over there, find a list of rules and regs for each lake that you may want to explore. I say this because we bought a lift from a guy on Lake Bowen near Clemson, they have a no V-drive policy. So I would hate for you to buy a place and not be able to use your boat.

[5:00]

Thanks for the heads up. There were a few V-drives out there on the lake but I will ask. One of the places across from where we were looking had an MC on the lift and the house next door had an older Moomba. Doesn't mean it's okay though. They husband of the realtor that toured us around worked for a lift company. We told him what we had and he didn't say there would be a problem.
I hadn't heard of that rule before but some of these lakes do have a lot of them.

[kennc]

Thanks for the heads up. There were a few V-drives out there on the lake but I will ask. One of the places across from where we were looking had an MC on the lift and the house next door had an older Moomba. Doesn't mean it's okay though. They husband of the realtor that toured us around worked for a lift company. We told him what we had and he didn't say there would be a problem.
I hadn't heard of that rule before but some of these lakes do have a lot of them.

Disappointing to hear about the public schools. I have two in elementary school. Was there a specific area you were or do you think that applied to the entire lake area?

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[5:00]

I am guessing it probably applied to most of the area but I would rather not assume. I put some links below and you can dive down deeper. There are good and bad schools in all counties but it mostly depends on the particular system of that county. When looking at places like this and a nice house on a lake, you have to remember you are a very small bubble where all is looking great. Once you get outside of that bubble things can be very different. I always keep that in mind when looking at places. I was really impressed with some of the towns compared to some of the other lake areas we looked at which was a big part of our decision. Greenville, SC less than an hour away was awesome and plenty of culture. We are in the Washington D.C. area so no matter where we go it will be very different. We can't wait to get out of this area though. Everyone was friendly and two out of the three towns were very nice. The third was very old but it seemed like it was on a bit of a come back trail but still a good place.

It looks like the lake straddles two counties, Pickens on the East and Oconee to the west. Here are the high school rankings respectively.
https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...south-carolina
https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...south-carolina

Here is where we are now for comparison in Fairfax County, VA which is a very good system.
https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...lname=virginia

[pprior]

We looked at keowee. The lake was beautiful but homes in the nicer areas were 800-1M+ and as soon as you left that area it seemed very backwater. And taxes for out of state owners quite high.


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[JoelFett]

Well, since you woke it up, I'll throw my plug in... due to unforeseen circumstances (nuclear power plant shut down) I'm selling my beautiful house on Lake Murray so I can relocate. If interested, let me know. 3 bed, 4 bath 2200 sq ft in Chapin, with the #8 high school in the state (educationally).