Walworth Palms

Siberia has no palm trees. I’ve never been there, but I’ve read about it in magazines, and I’ve watched videos about there, the sorts that take Patagonia clad fly fisher … Read more

New Geneva Lakefront Listing

The thing about entry level lakefront is it’s entry level. Because it’s entry level, it’s like anything that’s so aptly labeled. An entry level sedan doesn’t have a heated steering … Read more

Happy Lake Geneva New Year

The profession of real estate selling is rarely considered to be a noble one. Certainly not noble in the way that doctors and researchers and academics are able to consider … Read more

Merry Lake Geneva Christmas

I had intended on writing something profound, or at least something pseudo-profound, but alas, a breakfast meeting went too long and then I remembered that I had loads of Christmas … Read more

The Mundane

Sometimes, work is boring. My younger brother works in a forge, where I’ve been told he does all sorts of things, but mostly he stands in place and punches in … Read more

Pier 88 Sells

Ah, the unique, uncaged animal that is the upper bracket of real estate. Upper Bracket varies in definition, but it’s easy to assume that it means the top of the … Read more

Meet Hopper

Her life is not without inconsistencies. On one hand, she’ll push back if you try to push her off your side of the bed. She’ll snap at you if you … Read more

Lots Of Lake Geneva Sales

Business has a way of making the participants feel strange emotions. On one hand, I’m super happy and grateful and excited about having a tremendous year this year, one where … Read more

Loramoor Sells

If we’re looking back, as I’m fond of doing, 2009 was a really bad time to list your house. There were buyers, sure, but there was mostly just chaos. In … Read more

Lake Geneva Tax Time

Everything was going as planned. Thanksgiving dinner featured a juicy, perfectly cooked bird- a rarity in a Curry household that excels at baking but tends to err on the side … Read more

Alta Vista Sells

Remember when I said I liked the Aspen Lane sale at $498k? Remember when I said that the main reason I liked it was because the location afforded privacy, and … Read more

Lakeside Thanksgiving

I think it’s good that we give our Federally mandated Thanks next week. It’s good because I have had harvest decorations up around my house for a month or so, … Read more

The War

It was still warm when everyone told us it would be cold. They said that the cold would come from the north, which is where everyone already knew it came … Read more

Aspen Lane Sells

There’s a generally acknowledged acceptance of community. If we haven’t yet moved to a community, be it a town or a subdivision, we search for such a community populated by … Read more

Abbey Hill Sells

A few short years ago, there was a fire. Abbey Hill, the wooden alpine-styled condominiums on the hill near the stop and sock, suffered a casualty. The cause of the … Read more

North Shore Sells

When that one guy went to Alaska to live, he chose a spot with straight trees. Had he been truly rugged, he would have chosen a plot with crooked trees, … Read more

November Markets

I recognize that from time to time, or all the time, I sound like a broken record. I say the same things over and over again, disguised with different words … Read more

November

If given a choice, most people would not say that they prefer November. There’s not much to November. In the progression, August is summer. It is filled with all sorts … Read more

Lake Geneva Market Seasons

Times were, late October had its own feel. Outside, it had a feel, sure, but that’s temperature related and not real estate related. Except back then, those two things were … Read more

Abbey Springs Deal

I hope by now you’ve figured out there’s a difference in the way I sell, and promote, real estate. I have, at any given time, plenty of listings. Right now, … Read more

Lake Geneva Oktoberfest

There’s a website operated by one of my competitors that lists a billion things to do in Lake Geneva. I’m sure it’s helpful. I, too, fall into the trap of … Read more

Variety

The people who make cars make them in silver and black and white and red. Most of the cars on the road fall under one of those four schemes. Is … Read more

Jam

If you pick a basket full of mulberries, you’re in luck. You have a tremendous basket full of mulberries! Your basket full will look luscious, and the contents will glisten … Read more

Old School

I’m not a big fan of the term “new school”. In the same way, I don’t like “old school”. I mean, I do like the part where Frank shoots himself … Read more

Abbey This and That

Google tells me this: Since peaking in the early 1800s, use of the word “abbey” has declined steadily and thoroughly. I would assume the television show would have caused a … Read more

The Backyard

My appetite for the written word isn’t as voracious as it should be. Truth is, I read lots. I read lots and lots. But I don’t read too many books, … Read more

Fall

The boy and his dad. It’s sweet, really. The boy isn’t so much a boy as he is a man, old enough to be one anyway. He’s playing catch with … Read more

South Shore Club Heat

The SSC now has just two developer owned lots left, those at lot 6 and lot 32. Priced at $595k and $649k respectively, they are fair lots and they will … Read more

1530 Lakeshore Sells

The problem with being in the real estate business is that if you’re doing it all the time you lose sight of pretty much everything else. I can remember days … Read more

Sellers

I spend most of my written capital giving advice to buyers. I tell them when it’s a good time to buy, when it’s the right house to buy, when they … Read more

September Schedules

Boating in the summer isn’t very difficult. Neither is walking down the shore path in the morning in whichever direction offers you coffee. Sitting in a lawn chair, watching the … Read more

Interest Rates

In the spring of 2012, I bought this ten acre lot. In the spring of 2013, I finished construction on this home, that sits atop the small hill on this … Read more

Back To School

I’m old enough now that I don’t remember going back to school. I remember it in the high school context, what it was like to wear the new clothes and … Read more

Big Sky Country

I don’t recall being all that impressed with the sky in Big Sky Country. It was a sky, sure, but it didn’t look any bigger to me than any other … Read more

Boat Density Geneva Lake

The last boat study I’m aware of was conducted in 2003. This study looked at Geneva Lake on a number of different levels, including ecosystem issues, farm run-off concerns, invasive … Read more

Fall Market Preview

For the first time all year, my iPhone weatherman shows a forecast with lots of 80 degree temps and even some 90 degree temps. Remember those summer nights from previous … Read more

Summer Scape

I have never been to Florida in the summer. The reason for this abstention is because I have all of my faculties about me, and I have increasingly little interest … Read more

Geneva National Market Update

I struggle a bit with understanding how the news pundits explain housing. If, for instance, sales are up, then housing is doing well. Yay! If sales are down, housing is … Read more

The Watch

I’m always surprised how many people watch properties. They don’t look at properties, necessarily, but they watch them. They look at them online, they drive by them in person. They … Read more

Lake Geneva Corn

I have made a habit of taking one teensy tiny vacation per month. It lasts two days. I load my family into the good old family truckster, and we drive … Read more

Tippity Top

I was a senior in high school. Around that time, I had taken to using an old leather carryall. It was a soft briefcase with a shoulder strap, and I … Read more

Geneva Lake Market Update

In my mind, I develop all sorts of patterns. I think, this blog should be market updates on Monday, huge departures into gibberish on Wednesdays, and market recaps on Fridays. … Read more

Zillow/Trulia Merger

The headline was sensational, the subject near and dear to my cold heart: Zillow Aquires Trulia; Let The Real Estate Hunger Games Begin. So, Zillow and Trulia are on the … Read more

Swimming Time

Babies are fed mashed peas. The pea jar is opened, perhaps warmed so that it is warm, but never hot, and then a plastic spoon labeled BPA FREE stirs the … Read more

Sales Stress

There are many ways to get caught in the wrong house at the wrong time. Almost all of these are honest means, leaving no fault on the owner who was … Read more

Summer Sellers

To be a seller in spring, is to be as a youth, full of optimism and energy, a spout of vision that has yet to be set off track by … Read more

Vacation

If you call your hair cutter lady, or fella, and he or she is on vacation when you call, you ask the receptionist when he/she will return, and then you … Read more

Paying The Ask

I once had a customer who told me that the Lake Geneva real estate market lags behind the California real estate market, but that everything that happens in California will, … Read more

Two Lakefront Sales

Speaking of rising tides, two more lakefront homes just sold this week. One of those homes was sold by yours truly, the other, sadly, by someone else. These two sales … Read more

Rising Tides

There are too many assumptions made in the statement that claims a rising tide lifts all ships. First off, tides are anything but stable. They are predictable, sure, but they … Read more

Gudrun Curry

During the year of 2004, Gudrun was the most popular name given in Iceland to newborn baby girls. It also happened to be the name that a pair of first … Read more

Rain

This rain is getting to be entirely too much. I’m not a farmer, though if you caught a glimpse of my strawberry patch you might be willing to consider a … Read more

West Main Street

I’ll live my entire life without buying Waterworks tile. I have dabbled with buying a Waterworks faucet or two, but even in that I’ve backed off in the later innings … Read more

Southland Sells

Last summer, on a particularly sunny, remarkably humid day, I walked into that house for the first time. It wasn’t much of a house, and the land was wide but … Read more

Lake Geneva Vision

In certain price ranges here for certain sorts of properties, the buyer doesn’t need to possess any real vision. Chances are, if you’d like a nice enough home for around … Read more

The Natural Pool

The business of making pools is, well, pretty big business. A rapidly growing segment of the pool market is in so called “natural” pools. The concept of fixing nature is … Read more

The Route

The roads in Manitoba are really quite simple. Some of the roads run North and South, while the other roads run East or West. This is the entirety of the … Read more

The Transaction

There was a time, not all that long ago, when I bought old houses and did my best to fix them up. I can’t say that I enjoyed this, but … Read more

1014 South Lakeshore

All homes generally do one thing well. In the game of real estate, it’s usually that one thing that makes a house valuable, or otherwise desirable to at least one … Read more

This Weekend

This is either an extremely exciting week, an extremely busy week, or an extremely depressing week, a soul crushing span of five work days. In the winter, it’s easy to … Read more

Escanaba Vacation!

It would be easy to confuse this day with any other that came before it. It’s gray in the sky and cold in the air. It’s wet underfoot. It’s snowing … Read more

Abbey Springs Sale

No one would say that Abbey Springs is an architectural gem. I suppose that’s not entirely true, as people once bought bright blue PT Cruisers and they drove them home, … Read more

Lake Geneva Morel

He asked if finding 230 makes the game any less fun. His question was meant to imply that there would be no fun in finding these if they were, in … Read more

No Leaves

It was a prophecy without a year attached. There was no target date, no decree that it would be on the year that came so many decades, years, and months … Read more

Market Boredom

I admit to being bored with this market. By all accounts, including mine, the market is rather hot. There are pending contracts in every segment of our vacation home market, … Read more

Case Schiller And You

I’m thinking of buying a new boat today. Not some sort of normal, modest boat, but a brand new, super shiny, crazy-fast, prohibitively expensive one. Renters buy normal boats these … Read more

Rain

It’s raining again. Sitting in a dark house, with stone walls and large timber framing that reaches from wall to wall, exposed. There’s rain outside, pittering and pattering against the … Read more