SailAway Lake House History
We purchased the SailAway lake house in 
March of 2006. We were looking for a house that was on a lake, close to Atlanta, and was a resonable price. After looking for a few years and watching the prices of lake houses go up about 10-15% each year we came across the SailAway lake house. The house was in great condition and needed very little. Whenever I pulled the listing up on the internet the price kept dropping. I called Jodi Payne of Remax and met her at the house. I took a video camera and filmed everything about the house. I was amazed at the condition and location. I drove home scratching my head, because the price for the house was too good to be true. I showed the video to my wife and we agreed the house was a bargain. Jodi had said that any offer that she gets she would take to the owner so the next day I faxed Jodi an offer and in less than a hour I received a call from Jodi saying that we had just purchased the house! I called my wife and told her we just bought a house that she had not seen :-).
The following Saturday I took the family up to see what we had purchased, and the whole family was just thrilled. We then went to work on making the house a home and I went to work marketing the house for rent.
I had heard about how Microsoft Small Business was a great tool for building websites and all the power it had if used correctly. After about 80 hours on the computer playing... this site came to life. We also advertise on other pay sites like GreatRentals.com and LakeRentals.com. I work in the computer industry so I applied a little skill in "Search Engine Optimization" on this site and we place pretty high in Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN.
We rent the lake house out to mostly families or couples looking to get away for a while. I really enjoy renting the house and "knock on wood" have not had one single problem with renters. We have decided that every year we will try to upgrade at least one big ticket item. Our first purchase was the 6-person Coleman Spa that includes a waterfall and mood lights. In March of 2009 we finished remodling the kitchen....purchasing new appliances, cabinets, countertops and flooring. In 2011 we upgraded the master bath. In 2012 we looked long and hard and found a great new pontoon boat that we are renting out. The new pontoon is a Manitou 18 ft with a Yamaha 70 HP motor which is great for pulling the kids around on the tubes.
We are very lucky to have found a lake house so close to Atlanta that we can enjoy it and drive up to check on it. Our drive from Marietta to Lake Arrowhead is about 50 minutes.
Lake Arrowhead plans to create a large water park and game fields for home owners and guests. The plans maybe on hold for a while while this economy recovers. We hope that soon the water park will be installed and the three slides will be flowing.
One important word about the SailAway Lake House is SAFETY. Lake Arrowhead GA is small, but you can ski/tube/wakeboard on the big part of the lake. The area in front of all the docks are "no wake" zones. Swimming with the kids off the dock is not like most lakes that you are in constant fear of someone being run down because the boats are flying. No boat is allowed to travel over a few miles a hour in front of the dock. Lake Arrowhead GA does not allow PWCs so they are not a problem for us.
Lake Arrowhead only fluctuates about a foot in a year. Even with the bad drought in 2008 the lake was only down about two feet. Not bad at all considering Lake Lanier was down over 20 feet at the same time. No septic tanks are allowed and no runoff from construction is ever allowed. The water is clear and one of the cleanest lakes in the southeast US. Fishing is awesome too....we don't fish, but keep hearing stories of bass the length of your arm!