Lake Geneva Market Update

I think we need to establish a few rules today. These are very simple rules, but they have been confounding the market for a long time. Buyers mostly present in the same way. They present as though they are smart, shrewd, fiscally sound and otherwise intelligent. While they are likely all of those things in real life, real estate is not real life. Real life finds you at the grocery store with a coupon, buying the cereal that’s on sale, because that’s the one that’s usually on sale and therefore that’s the one that you like. Real life has you opting for the vacation in Cancun, because it’s so much cheaper than the vacation in the Bahamas, and you know the ocean is pretty much the same. This is your real life.

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Your real estate life? You still act like you’re super smart, but your actions in real estate are something that cannot be hidden. You buy something, the world knows it. You sell something, we know that, too. If you’re making a move in real estate, say, in the city of Chicago, there’s some anonymity to that move. There are a lot of people, after all, and you can buy something bad without many people noticing. At Lake Geneva, it’s a small market, and a smaller world. It’s impossible to hide what you’ve done here. We know what you did last summer.

That’s why we must have rules, to spare you the shame of a dumb move. For instance, rule #1: If you’re buying a lakefront house, you had better not be buying a shared pier. It’s so simple, this rule. If there’s a white pier in front of your home, and you’re paying lakefront prices for that lakefront property, then the only person with permission to lounge on that pier had better be you. The neighbor up the road has an easement to use the pier? Run for the hills. See, super simple- don’t buy a shared pier unless you’re buying some remarkable structure for below retail, or if you’re buying in an association type setting with no delusion that your purchase is private frontage. Paying private frontage retail AND you have a shared pier? Interesting.

The next rule is similar, but different. Instead of allowing another owner access to your pier, this one has to do with another owner traipsing over your property to get from point A to his point B. If your desired lakefront lot has a lakefront easement over it, I’d skip it. These easements come in various sizes and shapes, and are not all created equal. If, say, a neighbor has a tiny little strip of land that runs over the far edge of your property, and that easement allows them to gain access to the shore path, that’s not really a big deal. If that easement is large enough to loiter on, and the easement spills from your land onto another person’s pier, this is bad news. Remember, shared piers- Bad. Easements- Bad. These rules are not very difficult.

There are properties pending today, lots of them. There are some lake access homes pending sale including one in Oakwood Estates and another two in Country Club Estates. There’s a cool little cabin on Aspen Lane pending sale, and another little cabin in Oak Shores waiting to close. There’s a little joint with a slip and a view pending in Wooddale, priced in the low $600s. A home in Shore Haven just sold for $860k, which was a great price for that seller on that home. There are some other homes on that street that seem ready to sell, and I’d be tempted to buy a cheaper one and throw a big renovation on top of it rather than buy something that’s farther from the lake, but that’s just me.

There’s a small lakefront in Cedar Point Park for $1.3MM pending sale, and that one has some shared things, and I don’t like sharing. There’s a large home off Glen Fern pending, one with a slip and a big lot but no lakefront or lakeview. That’s listed just under $1.5MM, and it would make a fine primary home, or a nice, large vacation home, whichever. It’s in a high rent district, so I’m a fan of that property and that sale, even if the house itself does need to be de-1990-ed. (Update, that home just closed for $1.37MM)

The lakefront on the side of the cliff in Fontana (actually Walworth Township) is pending, with a list of $1.7MM. That’s a neat old house with a great lake view and 100′ of frontage. On paper, it’s really a nice deal, presuming it sells sub $1.5MM. I showed that house many times over the last few years, and never had any success in talking a buyer into it. The house needs a lot of work, and even once that work is finished the access to the house from the road will forever be tricky, as will the access from the house to the lake. It’s a good house for someone, and we can all be thankful that it doesn’t have a shared pier, or shared frontage.

A house in the Birches just sold for $2.4MM. The house was mostly log cabin-ish, so if someone wanted to get their Minocqua fix in Lake Geneva, they’ll now be accomplishing that. Was it a great deal? Nah. Was it a fine deal? Sure. It was a nice house, so even if the frontage was steep, it’s okay. The spec home in the South Shore Club that was built on lot 3 just closed as well, for $1.645MM. That sale is very important for the SSC, as it re-establishes the floor that I’ve seen develop over many years. There are two other homes for sale on that street, Forest Hill, but not a single home available on the circle that views the lake and the pool. This is a wonderful situation for the SSC to be in, as the inventory that has plagued the club for the last six years has finally been cleared. There’s a foreclosure coming back to market there in the next few weeks, but that’ll sell and simply add to the momentum here.

Lastly, I’m pleased to announce that I have a contract pending on my large lakefront listing on the North Shore. Listed at $5.995MM, this is, by a million miles, the best dirt available on the lake. 5.3 acres with 234′ of levelish frontage does not come to market often, and when it does, it’s certain to attract discerning value hunters. That’s what’s happening now, and assuming we can work through to the successful close, the buyer will be situated on one of the top 20 pieces of land on the entire lake. I mean, I haven’t counted them exactly, but I’m guessing. Also, no shared pier.

This weekend, as I said before, will be glorious. Be here.

About the Author

I'm David Curry. I write this blog to educate and entertain those who subscribe to the theory that Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is indeed the center of the real estate universe. When I started selling real estate 27 years ago I did so of a desire to one day dominate the activity in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. With over $800,000,000 in sales since January of 2010, that goal is within reach. If I can help you with your Lake Geneva real estate needs, please consider me at your service. Thanks for reading.

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