Vacation Houseboat Cottages - use house boats as waterfront property?

by Steve
(Cleveland, OH)

We're looking at vacation houseboat cottages, and wonder can we use house boats as a waterfront property?

I currently have a 24ft sea ray weekender and have always wanted a houseboat. 95% of the time spent on the boat is docked, and on occasion it's taken no more than a mile or two beyond the breakwall of Cleveland for some perching, or cruising up and down the Cuyahoga.

I look at a houseboat as "waterfront property", and the slip fee as "property taxes". I could probably enjoy it the whole season tied up at the slip, but just wanted to know... if it's a calm day and forecast, and I don't venture too far out (within a mile or two), is a houseboat a viable option?

I see them in the boat yards off season, but can never seem to find them in the water or who owns them.

Thanks, Steve.

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Reply - Answer
Well Steve, welcome to the houseboat forums, and congratulations on your idea of getting a houseboat as a vacation holiday, cottage style, waterfront property.

As you are probably aware, and if you're home port is Cleveland, you already know that Lake Erie can become a very rough dangerous body of water, especially if you're in the wrong style of boat.

Houseboats are built for calm rivers, lakes, coastal, and inland bodies of water, and some can also be found on the borders of the Great Lakes. I personally would not want to be out in a houseboat crossing one of the Great Lakes on a real bad day :(

However, you could definitely be 1 or 2 miles out on Lake Erie, as long as you kept a keen eye with the current and forecasted weather and water conditions.

If you were to look at houseboats around the world, you would see that many are presently being used a holiday vacation, weekend style, floating cottage, waterfront properties. And they only undock on the weekends, or holiday vacation period.

I know that we occasionally use our houseboat as a floating cottage and entertain at the dock, instead of leaving the marina when the conditions are unfavorable for smooth comfortable cruising.

If you do decide to purchase a houseboat, and get started with the "floating waterfront property" lifestyle, do take a picture of your houseboat and share it with us here.



Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their floating cottage, waterfront property, houseboat lifestyle or experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.


Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats

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