Two Lake Champlain Access Points, West-Facing Sunsets, $125,000 — Alburgh, VT

Two separate access points to Lake Champlain on a third of an acre in Vermont for $125,000. That's the thing. Not one, two. You can walk to the water from two different spots on your own lot, and both face west, which means you're looking at the sunset straight on every evening.

The cottage itself is small. 572 square feet, one bedroom, one bath, built in 1982. There's no pretending this is a roomy place to live year-round. It's a seasonal property, and at this size it functions as exactly that. One or two people, a summer's worth of lake time, and enough room to sleep and cook without tripping over each other. That's what it is.

What you're actually buying is the lot and the access. A third of an acre on Lake Champlain with two points where you can get into the water, pull up a boat, or just sit and watch the light change at the end of the day. West-facing lake frontage in Vermont at this price is the headline. The cottage is what's standing on it.

Alburgh sits on a peninsula between Lake Champlain and Missisquoi Bay, close to the Canadian border in the northwest corner of the state. It's quiet up there. The listing doesn't say much about the cottage's condition or what's been updated, so assume what you'd expect from a 40-year-old seasonal structure and plan to look carefully when you visit.

If you want a lake house in Vermont without paying Vermont lake house prices, the math here is hard to argue with. The structure is modest. The setting is the point.