I dropped a HUGE sack of money for a house last month. You'd better believe that I checked every jot and tittle of the deed and the associated documents, because that house represents a substantial portion of my net worth.
These folks either let themselves be lied to, or they knew that the lakefront wasn't theirs. Now that someone actually has the temerity to buy the property and ask them to buy it from him, and he DARES to try to make a profit! The NERVE of that man!
And what was one of the first responses on this thread? A thinly-disguised call for someone to commit arson.
This deal is eminently fair--and it seems that the owner of the parcel is willing to negotiate. But the homeowners don't want to bother with that--and many so-called conservatives here on FR seem to take the stance that property rights are sacred right up to the moment that others' property rights are personally inconvenient to them.
Notice that there's one guy in the group actually trying to cut a deal. He apparently understands the concept of "property rights."
How many homeowners are on the lake? What are the odds that not one of them got a survey for their mortgage company? Simple statistics argue that they knew they didn't own any of the lake or the property abutting it.