1987 Vermont Lakehouse Near Big Pond, National Forest Access — $150,000

The price is $150,000. That is worth sitting with for a second, because this is a four-bedroom house near water in Vermont, and $97 a square foot is not something you see often in that combination. The catch is real: the foundation needs repair. That is the first thing you need to know, and it should be the first thing you price out before you get excited about anything else.

The house is a 1987 build, 1,536 square feet, and it has been with the same family since it went up. It shows that kind of history. This is a restoration project, not a weekend move-in situation. Someone needs to come in with a plan and a budget and treat it accordingly.

The layout puts three bedrooms upstairs along a balcony, with the fourth bedroom downstairs near the kitchen and living room. One bathroom for all of it. The balcony-style upstairs is the kind of arrangement that works well for a family or a group of friends using the place seasonally, everyone with their own room off a shared walkway.

Big Pond is a short walk from the property. The lot backs up to National Forest, which means your view and your quiet are protected in a way that a neighbor's fence cannot guarantee. In summer you have water access close enough to matter. In winter, the VAST snowmobile trail system runs nearby, which is a real selling point in this part of Vermont if that is how you use a winter property.

Bennington is close enough for groceries, hardware, and a meal out. This is southern Vermont, so you are not in the middle of nothing. You are in the woods with a town accessible when you need it.

The bones of this place are oriented toward four-season use: proximity to water, trail access, a National Forest buffer, and enough bedrooms to make it work for a group. What it needs is someone willing to fix the foundation and put in the work to make it livable again.