As you come up over the hill on Route 97, about halfway between Callicoon and Hankins, a large cell tower has risen out on the Delaware River ridge. Upon some research,  it turns out that it is an AT&T tower, however, “others can sign on.” Hopefully Verizon does. That is a notorious dead spot for cell service, and the way it is positioned, it looks like it will cover quite a large area.

Because of the mountains, cell service as always been a bit sketchy here in Sullivan County, and although it has gotten much better,  it is still pretty hit or miss in some areas. If cell service is important to you, then obviously make sure you have a bar or two on your phone while in the houses you are viewing. Verizon is by far the most reliable around here, and even if you only have a very weak signal, all is not lost. Verizon makes network extenders or signal boosters that hook up to your internet and GPS. I have on in Callicoon, and it turns almost no signal into full bars.

Internet is another hurtle for buyers in Sullivan County. All the main roads have Time Warner Cable, and they have done a fairly good job in some of the more rural, secondary areas. However if it does not pay for them to hang  the wires, they don’t. There are stories of people literally within a few hundred feet of the end of the cable line, who have been refused by the cable company unless they pay an astronomical fee. Unfortunately Time Warner Cable is the only game in town, and they act like it.

As far as television goes, the satellite companies are just as reliable if not better than cable, however the bug-a-boo is internet. Satellite companies offer a version of “high speed” internet, however the fees are high, and there are bandwidth restrictions and lag times that make certain activities impossible. If you are using it to check email and surf the web a bit then it is serviceable.  For anything else, (Netflix, any sort of web chatting, or even YouTube) it is choppy and slow. Verizon has been promising upgrades so VIOS will come, however that has not happened yet.

So it is something to keep in mind while searching for that cabin on the stream. If you want to be totally un-plugged, then no worries. However for those of you who still need to conduct business and maintain a connection with the outside world, where the cable line ends or where the cell signal disappears could make a the difference in buying or not.

The dead of winter is not normally a robust time for people to be looking for lake front property, however I am fielding a few inquires, and I was out with a couple last weekend looking at a few properties. We looked at one on Hunter Lake. Some  pictures and info are below.

I've always liked Hunter Lake. It has a different feel to it then a lot of other lakes here in Sullivan County. It has a nice mixture of Adirondack and blue collar. There is a really nice campground at one end of the lake, and a few beach areas where non lakefront owners can access the water. They do allow motorboats and jet skis, so during the day the lake is pretty livley, but they have wake restrictions in the evening.

 It is the kind of lake where families have been going for generations, and an August weekend evening in 2012 is really not that different than one in 1973. Park Lane on the back side of the lake is a dirt road with smaller homes and cabins that dot either side of it. There are some newer houses there, but most are of the cabin variety. Cabins with screened in porches and picnic tables. On a summer weekend those porches host a variety of activites–from a quiet evening with a good book to a spirited game of Scrabble with the kids. Kids with summer tans and mosquito bites. I'm sure as evening falls over the lake, an observer would have a difficult time determining which decade it is. Timeless. And how apropos–because when you are there that is the one thing that you stop paying attention to. Time.

There are a few homes for sale on Hunter, but this one is a new favorite of mine. Now it is a seasonal. The plumbing under the house is exposed, making it unusable in the winter, but more importantly making it MUCH more difficult to finance. Banks are leary of seasonal homes. I know a few that will lend on them, but with more money down, and higher interest rates. However it is lakefront for under 150K. Even with the downturn this is rare.