Looking to be on Water? Use the "Water Extras."
One of the primary reasons for putting this site together was control and how the search is presented to you, the one looking for homes. When a prospective purchaser comes to me and wants some sort of water, the MLS provides for at least four different fields that can answer the question. They are water view, water access, water front, and there are values like "community boat ramp" in the community features. My feeling is if it's confusing for me and I do this for a living, how can I ever expect you out a search tool what you are looking for.
A developed a matrix of "what questions do I get asked" when it comes to water. I didn't get them all but the big ones were sailboat, boat-able, bay, beach, lake and river. I know there are more but these are the big ones that account for 95% of the "water" questions.
Here are the definitions in short:
Sailboat Water - Deep, salt, and no bridges.
Boat able Water - Sailboat water AND salt, docks, seawalls, canals, davits, inter-coastal. Note: no sail or bridges are checked.
Bay Front - Bay view, access, and front
Beach Front - Beach view, access, and front.
Lake - Fresh, lake view, access, and front.
River - River, fresh, view, frontage, access.
You can see that there is a lot of overlap. The water extras field only allows for one at a time. If you want a couple different searches running, just pick "Sail Boat" and save the search, then go back and "Refine the search", change the water extra to "Boat able" and save that search with a different name. You have two searches running and when there is an update, you will be notified if it's a "Boat able" or "Sailboat" search.
I left out community boat ramps. From looking at most of the data, there is usually some field that is triggered in "boat able" water.
Hope this helps your search. Call or email me if you have any questions or comments.
