What is meant by the term “deep water” property? That’s a question people often ask when purchasing waterfront property. They want to know what constitutes “deep”. Unfortunately, there are no standards for when the term is used. When I first began selling waterfront property, I asked around to see what others used to make that determination about a piece of waterfront property. It turns out that to some people, (agents included) 2 feet of water at low tide is considered “deep”. Many of us, would like to hold to a higher standard and not use the term “deep water” unless the depth is 4 feet at low tide.
The picture gets further muddled because there are some properties that have deep water right at the end of their dock but just down river there is a sandbar that can only be traversed at high tide. Some people use the term “true deep water” meaning the property has at least 4 feet of water at low tide and the property can be accessed at all tides. The important thing to remember in all this is that there are no monitoring agencies checking out these claims. This is definetely a case of buyer beware!