Scugog Detached Homes

A Port Perry bungalow within a walk of Queen Street is the most contested product in the township, because the retirees who move here want one-floor living, the hospital, the library and the waterfront park within reach, and the supply of such houses is fixed. The subdivisions on the edges offer newer two-storeys with garages and are simpler to finance. Island and shoreline homes trade on the water: frontage, dock depth, sunset exposure and whether the road is plowed decide value as much as the house does. Rural Scugog houses are judged on the land, the outbuildings and the services. In every category, the age of the roof, furnace and windows and whether the basement is dry after a spring melt are the practical questions, and rural homes add the well and septic system to the list.

For a town house, confirm the municipal services, the lot survey and whether any addition or garage was permitted. For anything on the lake, get the septic inspected and located, test the well, pull Kawartha Conservation's floodplain and regulated-area map for the lot, ask how the dock and any retaining wall were approved, and find out whether a road allowance separates the lot from the water. For rural acreage, add the well record, the tank age, the entrance permit, winter road maintenance, the moraine and Greenbelt designations on the parcel and the farm tax status. Visit waterfront in late summer to judge the weeds and the water clarity, and visit island and beach-road homes in winter to see how the road is kept.