Saltwater or lake · Florida or anywhere
Tell us your boat.
We'll tell you what the dock has to be.
Most waterfront searches start with bedrooms and price. That is how people end up with a good kitchen and a dock their boat can't use. Find Your Dock starts with the boat and the water it will live on, then writes the spec every property has to meet. Any state, any lake, any body of water.
Six questions. A written dock spec. One call from a broker who owns docks on both kinds of water.
What the listing doesn't tell you
Two kinds of water. Two different ways a dock fails a boat.
Saltwater
- Depth is quoted at high water. Your draft has to clear at low tide, with margin, or the boat sits in the mud twice a day.
- The bridge decides the canal. A flybridge behind a 25 ft fixed bridge is a boat that never leaves.
- Minutes to the inlet is the real commute. Thirty minutes of no-wake each way changes how often the boat goes out.
- Dock length is not lot width. A 60 ft sportfish needs a 60 ft dock, and the listing rarely says.
Lake
- The dock may come out in November. On most northern lakes it has to. Budget for it or buy a permitted permanent dock.
- Water drops through the season. Four feet at the end of the dock in May can be two in October.
- Lifts have ratings. The lift that came with the house may not hold the boat you are bringing.
- Permits are local. State, town, and lake association rules decide what you can build, and whether what is there is legal.
How it works
Six questions, a written spec, one call.
- Step 1
Tell us the boat and the water
Saltwater or lake. Length, draft or depth, bridges or dock style, how you use it, and the state, town, and body of water.
- Step 2
We write the dock spec
Minimum depth, dock length or lift rating, clearance, access, and the permit question to ask. Written down, in numbers.
- Step 3
Ben calls
In Florida, Barefoot Realty represents you and searches against the spec. Anywhere else, Ben consults and introduces a licensed local broker.
Florida and everywhere else
One quiz. Two ways the deal gets done.
Florida water
Barefoot Realty represents you directly.
Ben has been a licensed Florida real estate professional since 2009 and a broker since 2017. The dock spec feeds straight into Saltwater Estates' nautical search and a showing list of properties that actually qualify.
Saltwater Estates, South Florida waterfront ↗Everywhere else
Ben consults. A local broker closes.
Ben is licensed in Florida, not in your state. Outside Florida he reviews the dock spec with you and introduces a licensed broker in that market who knows the water. That broker pays Barefoot Realty a referral fee. You pay nothing extra, and you get two people who understand the boat.
Who is writing the spec
Benjamin Hoadley
Licensed Real Estate Broker · FL License BK3222885
Barefoot Realty & Investments, West Palm Beach, Florida
Ben brokers waterfront in Palm Beach County, where the questions are draft at low tide and which fixed bridge stands between the canal and the inlet. He also owns and runs two waterfront rentals on Seneca Lake in New York, with docks that go in every spring and come out every fall.
Few brokers can talk through a 6 ft draft sportfish and a seasonal aluminum dock in the same conversation. That is the whole point of this site.
Six questions. Then you know what to look for.
The spec is free. The call is with Ben. Nothing is listed, sold, or dripped.