While few people would ever consider buying a building without understanding the physical condition of the structure, many valuable properties along rivers and lakes, or with private streams or wetlands, are being purchased with little investigation into the quality or values of those resources.
Depending on the property specifics and region, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in property value is sometimes dependent upon the water resources. Surprisingly, even sophisticated buyers sometime overlook proper due diligence in regard to those resources. This can be an expensive gamble for buyers.
As any good real estate professional will tell you, there are few properties without some hidden defects and the sooner those are understood in the purchase process, typically the better the experience for both buyer and seller.
Complex amenities like streams, lakes or wetlands may appear “fine” at certain times during the year, but actually may be plagued with hidden problems such as severe disturbances in the watershed, high water temperatures, excessive sediment, dangerous contaminants, dewatering problems or prior “treatments” that damaged the health of the system. And THI knows from experience that ponds, lakes and wetlands can have a myriad of problems which in short order can result in a practically dead system, save the algae and pond scum that blooms in abundance every year.
The Function of Diligence is to Verify, Verify, Verify
While anecdotal opinions like “it’s a great fishery” or “the stream is in great shape” or “the lake is just beautiful,” have their place in marketing literature and casual conversation, this type of information does not replace appropriate professional diligence. Neither do pictures of big fish caught “just last week.”
By developing technologies tailored specifically for assessment of freshwater resources, THI is now able to offer the low-cost, reliable water-resource due diligence assessments with the fastest turn-around time in the industry. These services are available for all U.S. property owners, buyers and real-estate professionals. >Contact Us
