Parker Smith Part 2: A 100 MPH Tour of Lake Lanier and What Makes a Lake Lot Worth It

Parker Smith’s first Throttlecast episode ended with an offer: come for a ride on the boat. This episode is the ride. The Throttlecast crew joins the Atlanta real estate agent on his yellow go-fast catamaran for a speed tour of Lake Lanier, then walks through one of his lake listings.

In part one, Parker talked about building a real estate business through his GT3 RS and years of rallies. This time the subject is Lake Lanier: how buyers should choose where to live on it, and why he thinks you can’t do that from land.

A one-hour crash course in Lake Lanier

Parker has taken about seven people on the tour so far. It covers the whole lake in about an hour. Driving to all of the same places would take well over seven hours, he says, and a pontoon, ski boat, or cabin cruiser tops out around 40 mph.

The boat draws looks. It’s one of about five go-fast cats on Lanier, and Parker took an 18-hour course to learn to drive it. Once air fills the tunnel between the hulls, it rides on top of the water with no body roll. It’s quiet enough to hold a normal conversation at 130 mph. “When we’re going 100, you’d think we’re going 40,” he tells riders who expect to be scared. For this run he filled up with 93 octane. On 89, the boat is noticeably slower.

The tour starts on the lower lake, near Margaritaville and the Lanier Islands bridge, then heads toward the dam and past Six Mile and Four Mile, the landmarks locals use on the Highway 400 side. The south end is about 30 minutes from Atlanta. Gainesville is another 20 or 30 minutes north. Browns Bridge Road is the rough line between the north and south lake. At the far north end, the Chestatee River arm runs all the way to the bridge by the Chevron where Atlanta drivers meet before mountain runs.

The seven points that set a Lake Lanier home’s value

Parker has a framework for lake property that he calls the seven points:

• North or south: mostly a question of drive time to Atlanta.
• Deep or shallow water: shallow water means moving your dock.
• View: most buyers want to see the lake, but he estimates only 20 to 30% of Lake Lanier lots have a view.
• Topography: a flat walk to the dock or a steep one.
• Trees and the Corps line: the shoreline is federal property, and the line is different on every lot. With no Corps line you can clear all the way to the water. With a lot of it, you can’t do much.
• Room for a pool.
• Lot width: a narrow, shotgun-style lot puts your neighbors right on top of you.

He thinks this is where many agents fall short. They say they can help on the lake without knowing any of it, and “it’s not normal real estate.”

Busy or calm

Boat traffic is the biggest reason buyers pick one end over the other. South of Browns Bridge Road is very busy, and a boat can take a beating at the dock. The north end is quieter with fewer waves, and a little steeper as the land rises toward the mountains. “It almost feels like two different lakes.” On a weekend there can be ten times as many boats as on a weekday.

More owners live on the lake full time than use it as a second home, and Parker doesn’t see either end drawing more full-timers. Some wealthy owners spend half the year on the lake and drive back to Buckhead for the office on Mondays.

His case for touring by water comes down to one line: “You’re going to the lake to enjoy it from the water.” His first boat-tour client just closed on a home for right around $3 million. One of the hosts called the tour insurance on your lifestyle, and Parker agreed. Without it, someone might spend $2 million, $3 million, or $4 million on a house, buy a boat, and find out on the first weekend that it isn’t what they wanted.

Inside a renovated lake house on the north end

The tour ends at the dock of one of Parker’s listings, which he chose to show the quieter north end. His friends gutted the house to the studs and flipped it. Parker says it went from one of the worst houses in the neighborhood to one of the best. At recording time:

• Four bedrooms, five and a half baths, and about 4,300 square feet on three finished floors, with square footage added in the renovation.
• New siding, roof, HVAC, and water heaters.
• Two primary suites on the main floor for multigenerational living, and a lake view from every bedroom but one.
• A private dock, room for a pool, and a finished terrace level with a half kitchen and a full bath, so people coming off the water don’t have to go upstairs.

His favorite features are the vaulted living room with a wall of windows toward the lake and the primary bath, a large wet room with a rain shower and a tub. He calls the house “new construction without the wait” and sees the buyer as a second-home owner in their mid-30s to early 40s at about $1.275 million.

That price point is the other lesson of the episode. Parker says most Lake Lanier homes start around $1.5 million. Below that, a house usually needs a full renovation or sits at the top of a steep walk to the dock. “No one wants to walk a cooler or a baby down from there.”

Watch the full episode

The full boat tour and house walkthrough with Parker Smith are above and on YouTube. He takes buyers out on the lake by request and helps with homes off the water too.

Parker is a member of The Ride Lounge, the private car club where Throttlecast is recorded. Some members come for the climate-controlled car storage in Atlanta, and others come for the people. That’s how a podcast about cars ends up on a race boat. See how membership works.