Increasingly, buyers build what they want, where they want, oblivious, either ignorantly or happily so, to the fact that their build is pricing them right out of the market they’ve chosen. This happens on the lake quite often, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re a lakefront buyer and you wish to build a $12MM home that you might someday wish to sell, it might not matter that you’ll only get $8MM for your home. There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal on this topic, and to spare you the click, it basically explained that if the super rich want a $2MM workout room, or a $1MM master bath, then that’s what the super rich get. In the same way, wealthy folks might buy a yacht for $20MM that they’ll someday trade in for $7MM, assuming they’ve kept good care of it. This is why the super rich can do what they please; because it just doesn’t matter.
But when you tear down a home in Cedar Point that you paid $300k for, this should be something we first think about. If $300k is the land basis, that’s fine, assuming you’re on the parkway or somewhere otherwise special. If you’re in the back of Cedar Point, that’s nice, but that’s not a location that I’d like to cement $300k in land cost. Then, with $300k locked, you build the home for another $400k. It’s a nice enough home, after all, and those marble counters aren’t free. When the house is done your neighbors gather and everyone gushes. They might not have done that black tin ceiling in the kitchen with those red accent walls, but still, they applaud your remarkable, or at least memorable, sense of style. You’re proud, but you’re also $700k into your home, so when you come to me to sell it I’ll get to deliver the news: No one feels like paying over $500k for a far off water home in Cedar Point.
This is why we have to be smart, and we have to be aware of our surroundings. The South Shore Club might have a higher price point than most associations around the lake, but the theory remains. Take into consideration your surroundings and build accordingly. When I was selling the vacant lots in here like so many free hotcakes, some existing owners were none too pleased. Why would I undercut the market like that? How dare I! But what they didn’t realize was that the market dictated those vacant lot prices based on the ability to resell the built inventory. When I sold a built home near the pool for $1.8MM, how could the lot next door be worth much more than $500k? If the home cost $1.2-1.6MM to build, the vacant lot couldn’t really be worth $1MM anymore. The market set the prices and we responded accordingly. The result was a market that has since benefited tremendously from market based pricing.
Today, I have another vacant lot in the South Shore Club coming to market. It’ll be available next week, but because you’re smart and aware, you know about it today. The lot will be priced at $649k, and it’ll be the only lot available in the South Shore Club. Because it’s the only lot available, some owners would like to think the lot could be worth $1MM. It’s the only one available! If you want to play ball in this stadium, this is the price you’ll pay! If you can’t afford it, look somewhere else! These are the utterings of sellers who don’t understand markets. These are the words of sellers who would rather price something at an unattainable level because they have failed to separate their intense love of their own property with the actual conditions affecting their property. I don’t like sellers like that, but I like sellers like this one in the South Shore Club, because our pricing, even when offering something that is otherwise unattainable, makes complete market sense.
So there you have it, the South Shore Club, back in play. If you thought you missed it, you didn’t. Get in now. You could buy some existing house in the South Shore Club, sure, in some boring location with some odd features and strange this mingled with absurd that, or you could buy this lot and make your own retreat. If you love huge master suites, go for it. If you need a dedicated ping pong room, who am I to argue? If your wife needs a quilting room because she quilts, so does mine! Once, for a few minutes. Whatever your aim, bring it here. To the South Shore Club, where I’m offering you a mulligan.