Selling Your Old Hickory Lake Home: A Seller's Guide

Selling a home on Old Hickory Lake is a different job from selling a typical house, and the difference is not the view. It is that part of what your buyer is buying does not belong to you. The dock sits on federal land and water under a permit; the strip of ground between your lawn and the waterline is owned by the United States; and the piece of paper that tells a buyer where they stand can only be requested by you, the current owner. Everything in this guide is the paperwork side of that — what you actually own, what the Corps requires at a change of ownership, and what to clear up before the listing goes live rather than during an inspection period.

What are you actually selling on Old Hickory Lake?

Start with who runs the lake, because half the internet gets it wrong. Old Hickory is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project — the Nashville District owns and operates the lock, the dam and the lake. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says it plainly: "The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) owns and operates Old Hickory Reservoir." The Tennessee Valley Authority generates power for this region, but it has no ownership of Old Hickory, no management role and no permitting authority here. TVA's site posts the Corps' lake-level data as a courtesy, and TWRA itself sends readers there for daily levels, which is exactly why so many sellers and buyers arrive believing TVA runs this lake. It does not, and every rule below is the Corps' rule.

Now the land. Old Hickory was bought under a minimum-acquisition policy — the Corps' 2016 Master Plan calls it the Eisenhower Policy — that "limited acquisition to a line or series of lines along tangents located at or near the 451 foot contour at the dam and extending to the 464 foot contour at the upper end of the lake." The Master Plan's own summary of the result: "a very narrow fringe of land around the lake." Normal pool is 445 feet, so almost everywhere on Old Hickory that federal fringe is dry ground above the water's edge, and a private lot ends at that surveyed line rather than at the water.

The line is a metes-and-bounds fee line, not a readable elevation. The Corps' own response to public comment on the 2020 plan says acquisition "did not follow a specific contour" — it sits far back on flat ground and close to the water on bluffs, which is why two neighbors can have very different amounts of public land in front of them. It was "originally surveyed, established, and clearly marked with signs on metal or wooden posts and blaze marks painted yellow on trees between 1982-1984," and the Corps re-marks a section of it every year; owners, the Corps notes, "apparently mistake the re-marking for a new survey." Old Hickory has no federal building setback from that line (local codes still apply), and disturbing the markers is destruction of government property under 36 CFR 327.14.

Since 2020 there has been a rule that lands squarely on a sale. Before a new permit is issued, "the line must be clearly identified, and if not, the new owner must utilize a licensed surveyor and provide a stake survey." The Corps "will provide information, including bearings and distances"; the survey itself is at the owner's expense. If nobody has identified your line in decades, that is a step standing between your buyer and their permit — worth knowing before it becomes a repair-request conversation. No dollar figure for that survey is published anywhere, so treat any number you see online as somebody's guess.

One more legal fact that shapes every sentence a seller writes about the dock. In the Corps' words, "These uses of public lands and waters that are permitted to adjacent landowners are privileges, not rights." Permit Condition 1 states the permit "is a privilege granted by the United States"; Condition 8 says it "does not convey any property rights either in real estate or material"; and 36 CFR 327.30 says issuance conveys no real estate or personal property rights or exclusive use rights. Non-renewal or revocation "will require removal of any permitted facility(ies) at the owner's expense." A dock is a permitted privilege attached to the shoreline, not a fixture you convey.

Does the dock permit transfer to your buyer?

No. This is the single fact most likely to surprise both sides of a lake contract, and it is written into the plan without hedging: "Shoreline use permits are non-transferable. A new permit may be issued to a new property owner after he or she submits a completed application and the required fees. The permit will be issued only after the fee is paid." There is no assignment, no transfer form, and no version of this where the permit simply follows the deed.

The permit conditions carry the mechanics. Condition 23: "Upon the sale or other transfer of the permitted facility or the death of the permittee and his/her legal spouse, this permit is null and void." Condition 29 puts a notification duty on the transaction — the seller or the buyer notifies the Old Hickory Lake Resource Manager "prior to finalization" — and then starts a clock: "The new owner must apply for a Shoreline Use Permit within 14 days or remove the facility and restore the use area within 30 days from the date of ownership transfer." Fourteen days is short enough that it should be on the closing checklist, not the to-do list.

Permits are normally issued for a five-year term and are revocable when the public interest requires it, so "the last owner had a permit" is a starting point for a buyer's application, not a guarantee of its outcome. What a seller can do is make sure the permit on file is current, in the right name, and free of open items — which is what the Realtor Letter further down exists to tell you.

What comes off the dock when the house changes hands?

Several things come off by rule at a change of ownership, whether or not anybody at the closing table knows it. Under the 2020 Shoreline Management Plan:

• •Roof access is removed. "Existing stairs and or other access to roofs must be removed or access permanently restricted upon change of ownership." A dock roof may shelter the boat, but it "may not be used as a sun deck or storage area."
• •The sides of a pre-existing enclosed boathouse come off. New enclosed boathouses are not permitted at all; an existing one may remain only while it is structurally sound, and when ownership changes "the new permittee will be required to remove the sides."
• •Boat lifts that do not float with the dock are removed. A lift must be attached so that it fluctuates with the dock and water level "or be removed before ownership changes to a new permittee," and the lift's footprint counts toward the dock's square-footage cap.
• •Unused side floats are removed. Side floats are on the plan's not-permitted list along with diving boards, slides, playground equipment, grills, tables and furniture.
• •Certain licensed land items — a water pump on the government strip, for example — are removed when the license ends with the ownership change.

None of these are negotiable between buyer and seller; they are conditions of a federal permit. The only real choice is when they get handled. Doing it before photography beats discovering it during a repair-request window, and it keeps the listing photos honest about what conveys.

What happens if the dock is out of compliance when you list?

Non-compliance is the one thing on this list that does not wash off at closing. The plan is explicit: "Until non-compliance issues are satisfactorily resolved, the permit will not be reinstated or reissued, even if the property changes ownership. It is the property owner's responsibility to inform potential purchasers of any restrictions imposed by the Corps due to non-compliance with permit conditions." So an open item does two things at once — it follows the property to your buyer, and disclosing it is your job as the current owner.

Enforcement is not theoretical either. The permit conditions provide that "Government representatives shall be allowed to cross the permittee's property ... to inspect ... and, if necessary, to remove an unauthorized structure," with the permittee reimbursing the removal cost within 90 days. That is the downside case; the ordinary case is that a deficiency named in a Realtor Letter gets corrected in the weeks before a listing goes live, quietly and on your schedule.

If your dock is older and larger than today's rules allow, grandfathering may be the reason it is legal. Under PL 97-140 as amended by section 1134(d) of PL 99-662, permits for facilities that existed as of November 17, 1986 may not be revoked except in the narrow circumstances the statute names: the dock or structure presents a hazard, the permittee fails to comply with the conditions of the permit, or the District Engineer revokes the permit when the public interest necessitates. A grandfathered dock "may be repaired or rebuilt to its original permitted shape and size or smaller with permission from the Resource Manager" — never enlarged. And the protection dies with non-compliance: if it becomes non-compliant and is not corrected, "the permit will be revoked, the dock must be removed, and another permit or outgrant will not be issued." A seller with a grandfathered dock has more reason than anyone to keep it clean.

What is a Corps Realtor Letter, and how does a seller get one?

It is the one pre-listing document that answers the dock question in writing, and almost nobody in this market asks for it. The plan describes it directly: "Realtor letters are a valuable tool to inform prospective realtors or buyers of the shoreline classification adjacent to their lot and/or correct any deficiencies with the existing permit prior to sale of the property. These letters are provided to the current owner(s) ... and are valid for ninety (90) days. Generally, Realtor Letters are issued within fourteen (14) days of a completed application."

Read those three details as a schedule. Only the current owner can request it — not the buyer, and not the buyer's agent — so if it is going to exist, you are the one who creates it. It takes about fourteen days to issue, so ask before photography, not after an offer. And it is good for ninety days, which for most lake listings covers the marketing period and the contract. The September 2025 tracked-changes draft of the plan keeps every element of it: current owner, fourteen days, ninety days.

What it gives you is leverage in the honest direction. It states the shoreline classification adjacent to your lot — which settles whether the words in your listing are supportable — and it names any deficiencies in the existing permit, which is your list of things to fix while they are still yours to fix. A buyer who reads that letter early does not spend the inspection period inventing worse possibilities.

What does a compliant dock look like under the 2020 plan?

If you want a pre-listing walk-through of your own dock, this is the checklist the Corps is working from. Size first: the dock plus the moored boat or boats, including slips, may not exceed 700 square feet. A slip dock maxes out at 40 feet in length; one section may be 8 feet wide and the others 6 feet or less; a platform dock with no slip is capped at 160 square feet, or 280 with a personal-watercraft or small-boat lift; a walkway may be 6 feet wide. Nothing may extend more than 50 feet perpendicular from shore — up to 59 feet only in "unusual circumstances" with depth soundings, as an alternative to dredging — and in a narrow cove the limit is 50 feet or one-third the cove width, whichever is less. The Corps reviewed the 700-square-foot cap in 2020 and kept it, with the blunt explanation that "large cruisers and houseboats must be moored at a commercial marina." Docks permitted at larger sizes before the rule are grandfathered.

Then the details an inspector or a permit renewal would look at:

• •Floating construction only — "Fixed piers, fixed walkways, and fixed docks are prohibited." Shoreline anchors and spud poles hold it; a concrete footer may not exceed 25 square feet.
• •"Docks cannot be moored to trees."
• •Only encased flotation, warranted a minimum of eight years — a practical replacement cycle worth knowing before a buyer's inspector raises it.
• •Materials are steel, aluminum, concrete, fiberglass or pressure-treated wood; painted docks are earth tones; the permit tag is visible from the water; reflectors go on each corner.
• •Roofs shelter the boat and are not sun decks or storage. Flat roofs that could be used as a sun deck or patio are no longer permitted (existing ones are grandfathered), and roof overhang beyond three feet counts toward the square-footage cap.
• •A 50-cubic-foot gear locker, which may double as a bench, is the only permitted storage.
• •No human habitation on the dock and no live-aboard moored to it — and the dock or a slip may not be rented, leased or licensed to anyone.
• •Electrical work follows the National Electrical Code and is certified by the state electrical inspector, with a disconnect above flood pool and no floodlights. Solar panels have been allowed since 2020, with no wires across government property and the equipment in a locked box on the dock.

For anything being built or rebuilt: plans must be certified by a licensed engineer, architect or licensed general contractor, the application carries an 8.5-by-11 drawing showing anchoring, lift and electrical details, and construction has 180 days to finish or the permit is void. All moored vessels are listed by registration number on the application, and mooring buoys are not permitted.

Is the shoreline in front of your house dock-eligible?

Whether a dock is possible at all is decided by the Shoreline Allocation Map, not by the deed. Here is how the roughly 440 miles of Old Hickory shoreline are allocated under the 2020 plan:

This is where the commonly repeated half-truth lives. Limited Development is indeed about half the shoreline — but it is sub-classified, and only the Private Docks and Mowing share, about 33 percent, allows a private or community dock. The other 17 percent is mowing only. The plan explains why in its own words: "many areas which may be open to mowing may front shorelines which are impractical for moorage of floating docks because of steep bluffs, narrow coves, shallow water, or impacts to navigation." So the accurate sentence for a listing is about one-third, not half.

Even inside the 33 percent there is no guarantee: "Even though the part of the lake in question may be identified as a Limited Development Area on the Shoreline Allocation Map, this designation does not guarantee that a dock permit will be issued at a specific location within that area." It is decided after a site inspection on location, amount of lake frontage, pool fluctuation, shoreline characteristics, water depth — "the dock must be able to float during normal pool elevation of 445 msl" — and impact on public use. Docks on the main channel are coordinated with the District so commercial navigation is not impeded.

The lot-level tests matter to a seller whose listing implies dock potential. The property must qualify for a residential building permit and directly adjoin public property — not be separated from it by a road, right-of-way, subdivision common area or leased land. It needs proof of ownership and a surveyor's plat, and a minimum of 65 feet of allocated shoreline, where "allocated shoreline" means "the shortest possible lines from the adjoining private property outer corners to the shoreline at normal pool elevation." A wide lot with a pinched water edge can fail that test. Docks must sit at least 50 feet from any other dock, and where existing docks are already closer than that, "no new docks or expansions to existing ones will be permitted." One dock per owner at one location, regardless of how many parcels they own.

The practical seller rule: describe what you can document. If there is a permitted dock, the permit and the Realtor Letter document it. If there is not, the Realtor Letter still tells you the classification adjacent to your lot — which is the difference between "the shoreline here is allocated for private docks under the Corps' 2020 plan" and a claim about dock potential that a buyer's own call to the Resource Manager can knock down mid-contract.

How should the listing itself describe the water?

The MLS words are checkboxes, and they are more specific than most lake listings treat them. These are the current RealTracs fields:

Two things follow. First, Waterfront Description, Dock and View are three separate fields, so a home can legitimately be View = Lake with Waterfront blank and Dock = No dock, and still be marketed as a lake home. Second, the dock options are more precise than they look: "Dock Permit" on the residential form and "Permit" on the land form mean a permit exists — not necessarily that a dock is in the water — and on the land form "Lake" and "Lake Front" are two different options.

"Summer Access" and "Year Round Access" are RealTracs' own names for the seasonal-cove versus year-round-water distinction, and as of September 2, 2026 RealTracs publishes no written definition of either; no glossary for the terms appears on its support site. The listing agent chooses. "Lake community," "lake access," "deeded access" and "water privileges" have no MLS field definition at all. For a seller that cuts one way: check the box you can support with the permit, the plat and the Realtor Letter, and put the specifics in the remarks where they can be verified rather than leaning on a term that means whatever the reader assumes.

What does Tennessee's seller disclosure ask about the dock?

Nothing. The Tennessee REALTORS Residential Property Condition Disclosure (form RF201, version 01/01/2026) asks about the date of the most recent survey and changes since (item 4); encroachments and easements affecting ownership (5); flooding, drainage or grading problems (10); any requirement to maintain flood insurance (11); damage from floods and similar events (12); zoning violations or nonconforming uses (14); subdivision or deed restrictions (16); a homeowners association (17); and common areas co-owned with others (19). Search the form for "dock," "shoreline" or "Corps" and you get no hits at all.

So the form that buyers treat as the definitive disclosure is silent on permit status, permit compliance, shoreline classification and where the government property line runs. Those come from exactly two places: the Corps, through the Realtor Letter, and a stake survey. The gap is not a loophole to sit in — the plan already puts the duty to inform purchasers of non-compliance restrictions on the property owner. It is a reason to bring documents a form does not require, because the alternative is a buyer filling the silence with their own assumptions.

How much does Old Hickory Lake drop in winter?

About a foot, and that answer is worth having ready because out-of-state buyers arrive expecting a reservoir that empties. Old Hickory is, in the Master Plan's words, "a 'run-of-the-river' project, which experiences minimal annual pool fluctuations. The reservoir's power pool was designed for fluctuations between elevation 442 and 445. Due to navigation and recreation hazards that are present in the lower range of the power pool, the pool is operated in the upper portion of the power pool, typically fluctuating between 444 and 445.5 at the dam." TWRA states it in plain numbers: full pool is 445 feet mean sea level, winter pool 444.

Note what 442 is and is not. It is the bottom of the designed power pool — a floor the Corps avoids because of navigation and recreation hazards — not a winter level anyone should quote to a buyer.

Maintenance drawdowns are a separate thing, and they are periodic rather than annual: the Corps' releases say they occur "periodically, as requested by the Old Hickory Lake resource manager." The dated example is 2023. The lake was drawn from about 445 to 443 feet — held between 443 and 443.5, roughly one to two feet below normal pool — beginning October 30, 2023, reaching target around November 3, holding through November 19, and refilling November 20 through 27, so the Corps could assess shoreline near its recreation areas and do maintenance. The Corps framed it as an opportunity for private property owners to take advantage of a lower level to work on their docks or clear shoreline debris, which is the seller-side use of a drawdown: it is when dock work is easiest. No 2024 or 2025 scheduled-drawdown release exists. Separately, on February 11, 2025 the Corps said Cordell Hull and Old Hickory had been lowered to the bottom of their normal operating ranges ahead of heavy forecast rain — that was flood operations, reported by a single outlet quoting named Corps officials, with no elevation given.

What buyers are really asking about is the cove, not the calendar. At 445 feet the lake covers about 22,500 acres; at 442 it would cover about 19,550. The roughly 3,000 acres in between are shallow cove margins, and the Master Plan describes the shoreline as clayey banks. Coves silt. That is why the Corps' permit test is whether a dock can float at 445 — and why the honest answer to "how does it look in February?" is a fact about your embayment's depth rather than a general statement about the lake.

What flood facts should a lake seller be able to state?

State design facts and where to look things up; leave the reassurance and the alarm out of it. Old Hickory was "authorized as a multiple-purpose project by the Flood Control Act of 1938 ... and reauthorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1946." Its primary authorized purposes are a navigable channel on the Cumberland and hydroelectric power, with recreation, fish and wildlife and water quality secondary. What it does not have is flood-control storage: "Old Hickory was not designed with flood control storage; however, it does have a small amount of space dedicated to flood surcharge storage (between elevation 445-450). These two terms are often confused." That surcharge space exists to replace the natural river-valley storage lost when the lake was impounded. The maximum observed elevation is 451.54, in the May 2010 flood.

Two cautions on those numbers. For Cumberland River miles 216.14 through 248.44 the floodway shown on the FIRM "was designated using the shorelines," because the dam creates an impoundment effect upstream. And the datums differ: converting NAVD88 to NGVD29 adds 0.23 feet, and the Corps' 451.54 record is not stated in NAVD88 — so do not line 451.54 up against FEMA's 451.4 as if they were the same measurement.

The mechanics a seller can state without straying into advice: a federally backed mortgage on a structure in a Special Flood Hazard Area triggers mandatory flood insurance; Zone X is outside the SFHA; the parcel's zone is looked up at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, msc.fema.gov; and a premium comes from a licensed insurance agent, parcel by parcel. There are no published premium figures for this lake, and the ranges that circulate online are estimates with no source behind them. On the disclosure form, items 10 through 12 of RF201 are where flooding, any flood-insurance requirement and flood damage get answered — answer them from your own records.

What can you do to the shoreline before you list?

Less than most sellers assume, because the ground you would be tidying is federal. Vegetation work on the Corps strip needs a permit even for understory control, and "Cutting trees greater than one inch in diameter at the base is prohibited." Owners who hold mowing privileges may be required to maintain 24 trees per acre. Nothing may be cut in Environmentally Restricted Conservation Areas or on the lake's islands. Fallen trees, driftwood and debris may be removed without approval — which covers most of what actually makes a shoreline look neglected in listing photos.

Erosion control has an approved menu: a vegetative buffer strip, quarry-run riprap, placing existing natural rock (the September 2025 draft proposes removing that option — as of September 2, 2026 it is a proposal, not a rule), and vegetative or bioengineering methods, with gabions only where those methods are impractical. Hard seawalls are not among the listed standard methods. Stairs, walkways, footbridges and chair lifts require a license and certified plans, and footbridges "may not extend below or cross over 445-msl elevation." No new marine railways will be approved. And if a buyer asks whether the cove can be posted no-wake: "No-wake designations will not be given to solely protect private docks" — no-wake areas are state designations enforced by TWRA.

If part of your land carries a flowage easement rather than fee ownership by the Corps, the distinction matters for grading and fill. A flowage easement is land "for which the Corps holds an easement interest but not fee title" — generally a right-to-flood agreement in which the landowner keeps full use of the land subject to restrictions that maintain flood capacity and hold the government harmless. Fill on flowage-easement land needs written Corps approval; minor residential landscaping fill above ordinary high water is handled case by case and capped at one vertical foot or ten cubic yards without an engineer-certified flood-storage offset plan. That ordinary-high-water reference is a threshold for fill, not a property boundary — the boundary is still the surveyed federal line described at the top of this guide.

What if you are selling in a lake community with a shared dock?

Then be precise about what conveys, because community docks are governed by their own arithmetic. "The community association, not the individual members, owns a community dock." They are permitted only on Limited Development shoreline allocated for docks. For a multiple-family development the plan allows "a single facility of up to twenty boat slips," at "one slip per sixty-five (65) linear feet of allocated shoreline suitable for placement of individual private docks." The applicant must be a legally incorporated non-profit association; the development qualifies only once it is substantially complete, defined as twenty-five percent of the units owner-occupied; and the facility must be "for the legitimate recreational use of actual residents and not a speculative venture by developers to enhance marketability." Near campgrounds, marinas and ski areas, "only a community dock will be permitted." Individual slips cannot be rented, leased or licensed.

Run the numbers and the marketing writes itself honestly: twenty slips is a ceiling per facility, and one slip per 65 feet of dock-eligible frontage is the rate, so in most lake communities most homes cannot have a slip. If your home has one, the association's own records — not the listing remarks — are what establish it and what the buyer will want to see. If it does not, say what the community actually offers instead.

There is also a proposal in motion. The September 2025 tracked-changes draft adds a sentence that is not in the 2020 text: "The number of slips will never exceed the number of residential lots with 10 feet of private property adjacent to common area with allocated shoreline directly fronting a Limited Development Area allocated for private docks." That is the Corps' named "minimum frontage" proposal for community-dock eligibility. As of September 2, 2026 it is draft language only.

What is changing in the 2026 shoreline plan update?

The operative document is the 2020 Old Hickory Lake Shoreline Management Plan — Appendix M to the Operational Management Plan, issued under 36 CFR 327.30 and ER 1130-2-406 — which replaced the 2014 plan and was approved by the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division on December 7, 2020 after public workshops in October 2019. That review "determined the locations where private docks may be approved," which is why the allocation map above dates from it.

It is now under revision. A "DRAFT PLAN – TRACKED CHANGES SEPTEMBER 2025" was posted; the Corps held public workshops on January 13, 2026 at Mt. Juliet Middle School and January 14, 2026 at Gallatin High School; written comments were due February 13, 2026. Named proposals include establishing a minimum frontage for residential lots adjacent to common area to qualify for a community dock slip, and removing natural rock placement as an approved means of shoreline erosion control. As of September 2, 2026 no approval release has been published, so the 2020 plan governs everything in this guide. The previous cycle ran roughly fourteen months from workshops to approval, which is the only honest basis for guessing at timing.

What the draft leaves untouched is the part sellers care about most: the permit is still non-transferable, Condition 23 still voids it at sale, the 14-day and 30-day clocks are unchanged, the Realtor Letter is still current-owner-only at fourteen days and ninety days, the 700-square-foot cap stands, and the shoreline allocation is the same 33/17 split. Date the claim when you make it — "under the 2020 plan, which is under revision as of 2026" — and you will not have to walk anything back.

How do you price and market a lake home here?

Price it against the right category, and be able to prove which category you are in. On Old Hickory the categories are genuinely different products: a home with a permitted private dock, a home on dock-allocated shoreline without a dock in the water, a community-dock home whose association holds the permit, and a lake-view home that uses the same public ramps and parks everyone else uses. Comparing across those lines is how a lake listing gets mispriced in either direction. We will not tell you where the market is heading — nobody honestly can — but we will price your home against what comparable homes in your actual lake category have sold for, and make sure the documents support the category we are claiming.

Then market the water accurately and well. Photography that shows the shoreline, the dock and the views (drone and golden hour earn their keep here); listing copy that describes how the home lives on the lake, in terms a buyer can verify; and exposure aimed at people who are actually looking for water rather than a generic blast. The Corps paperwork is part of the marketing, not a separate chore — a listing that can answer the permit question in writing on day one does not lose two weeks to a buyer's uncertainty.

One more piece of timing worth planning around: if dock repairs are on your list, a Corps maintenance drawdown is when the work is easiest, and those are announced by the Resource Manager rather than run on a calendar. If a drawdown is announced while you are preparing to list, use it.

Where do you verify any of this?

The Old Hickory Lake Resource Manager's Office, No. 5 Power Plant Road, Hendersonville, TN 37075, 615-822-4846, OldHickoryLake@usace.army.mil. That office holds the permit record for your shoreline, the fee schedule, and the official Shoreline Allocation Map, and it is where a Realtor Letter application goes. One practical note: the Old Hickory Lake Visitor Center has been closed to the public since the December 9, 2023 tornado, with business handled by appointment — call or email rather than driving over.

For the rest: the parcel's flood zone at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, msc.fema.gov, and a premium quote from a licensed insurance agent; the county assessor's records for the tax picture, keeping in mind that county GIS shows parcel lines and not the federal property line; and, for the rules themselves, the 2020 Shoreline Management Plan, the 2016 Master Plan and the September 2025 tracked-changes draft, which are public documents. The Corps does not publish a dock or mowing permit fee amount, and no public source does — the fee schedule comes from the Resource Manager, and fees are paid before a permit is issued.

How our team sells an Old Hickory lake home

We work this lake, so the lake-specific work happens before the listing goes live rather than during a contract. We help you request the Realtor Letter and work through whatever it flags; confirm the permit is current and in the right name; check the dock against the plan's rules — the roof access, the boathouse sides, the lift, the side floats — so nothing is discovered at the closing table; get the shoreline classification and the allocated frontage documented before the remarks are written; and price the home against comparable sales in its actual lake category. You get an honest net sheet, a price backed by real comparable sales, and negotiation on terms, not just the top number.

And every listing agreement includes a 24-hour kickout — if we are not earning it, written notice releases you within 24 hours. We would rather earn the referral than lock you in.