A collection of Lake Geneva's finest properties.
Sold! Sea grass limestone and white oak floors (with a break for wool in a guest suite or two) run throughout the more than 11,000 square feet of this home. A main floor master suite on the east end of the home is warmed by one of the home’s five masonry fireplaces. If you sit in the great room, your gaze isn’t quite sure where to wander. You could find the fireplace, with it’s cut-limestone surround. Or you could look to the obvious, through the huge lakeside windows and onto that divine lake. Or up, to the white oak walls and Douglas Fir balcony. Or away from the lake and the fire, and onto the serene driveway side, with that steel atrium and the custom fixtures that illuminate. In spite of these views, this home isn’t really something you see as it is something you feel. $10,995,000
SOLD! You won’t find Burr Oaks farm unless you’re really looking for it. An understated entry gives way to a winding cobble driveway that dips past untold numbers of trees and flowers and shrubs and grasses. Beyond the Ussurian Pears, the Pin Oaks, near the Honey Locust and just to the edge of the prairies where the cone flowers bloom brilliantly, you’ll catch your first glimpse of this renovated 1890 cream city brick home, tucked inside a flowering garden that perfumes your arrival. The renovation of this estate was performed by local craftsmen with an eye towards refined luxury without concern for cost. The home is divine, the grounds unrivaled, the pool and pool house are simple summer perfection. 174 acres of immense privacy with pond prairie and pasture, minutes from downtown Lake Geneva. $4,999,000
Sold! Once in a great while, a property is presented to the market that is so known, so revered, so celebrated, that no superlative description is required. These are the legacy properties that occupy not only the finest lots on the best streets and feature the highest grade architecture and finishes, these are the iconic properties that are so respected because of both what they are and what they represent. Today, for what is believed to be only the third time in its 115 year history, Glanworth Gardens, the preeminent estate on the premier lake in the Midwest, is being offered for sale. Replete with 40 acres of gardens and forest, 621+ feet of level frontage, and featuring an estate home with 14,145 square feet, this is the preeminent lakefront home in the premier lake in the Midwest. $39,250,000
Just Listed! For all of the attributes that a home in Fontana might possess, privacy is not typically high on the list. But what if you were in Fontana and you owned a sprawling 19.5 acre wooded lot? What if you were walking distance to the Lake Geneva Yacht Club and to the Abbey Springs golf course, and still immersed in delicious, rare, privacy? 1081 South Lakeshore Drive offers just that. Beyond the entry gate and up the winding driveway you’ll find this luxurious residence spanning more than 8000 square feet, built to a most exacting standard by Scherrer Construction. The gardens and pond and tandem bluestone patios are a summertime delight, but the five fireplaces prove this is a home for all seasons. An added bonus is the original Clear Sky Lodge theatre that still graces this magical estate. $4,250,000
The most recent articles from the Lake Geneva Real Estate blog…
Market Fundamentals
I’ve been chewing on the recent spate of articles involving both the demise of the iBuyer and the slow down in transactions involving real estate investors, and I think it continues to warrant further discussion. Never mind that I’ve been right about both of these things, I take only a measured dose of solace in…
Christmas Vacation
I never met John Hughes. He apparently owned a condominium in Williams Bay and was a frequent breakfast patron at Daddy Maxwell’s, which should put the two of us on favorable terms. At Christmastime, I make a point to watch four Christmas movies, two of which were written by John Hughes. It’s A Wonderful Life…
Seasonality
Many years ago I rented a condo on Siesta Key. My son was a baby and my business was seasonal, so it made good sense to spend most of the time that connected Thanksgiving and Christmas in another place. I learned many lessons during that trip, mostly about Red Tide and about driving great distances…
Happy Thanksgiving
Remember when I told you I was going to write about the things I’m thankful for? I was going to work on being grateful. I was going to really, really try. But then, I wrote a few bits about little silly things and I wasn’t really all that grateful. I’ll keep working to be better.…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
At the beginning of this year, I spent considerable amounts of time telling people that my sale of the Driehaus Estate for $36,000,000 had little to no bearing on the value of their entry level lakefront home in Knollwood. There were many who believed that the sale would mean a tailwind for all lakefront homes,…
Lake Geneva Restaurants
This is my SOS. Except my ship is my town and that makes the situation far more dire than if it were just my ship in trouble. The Lake Geneva restaurant scene is bad. I know this. You probably know this. Almost everyone who has spent any time here knows this. Since Medusa closed their…
RIP
Well, my least favorite buyer has died. I don’t usually write about fatalities here, because it’s morbid and in spite of my fatalistic worldview, I prefer to keep this site a bit lighter than those darker corners of life might desire. This buyer wasn’t very old, which made the death that much more tragic. When…
Idle Hands
If I’ve accomplished nothing else in my life, I’ve certainly succeeded in identifying the many reasons people buy Lake Geneva vacation homes. I’ve rambled about gibberish, tried incredibly hard to bite my tongue when miserable properties sell for all of the money, and wandered around in subtle tones when sellers do stupid things and reap…
Knocking
There’s a summer wind blowing through my October window again. It shouldn’t be, but it is. And it’s not really blowing. It’s knocking. It’s pulsing. And the curtain is dancing and it might be annoying or it might be romantic, I can’t tell, and the door is shut, but it’s loud and it’s bothered. The…
Villa Hortensia Sells
One of the interesting things about cliches is that they only become cliches because they’re used very often. And one of the reasons they’re used very often is because they’re generally mostly accurate. Like, the early bird gets the worm. That’s true because if you’re up early you’ll eat all of the worms that crawled…
Burr Oaks Farm Sells
In case you couldn’t tell, this was a really special property. I was proud to represent this lovely seller and their stunning farm. Sometimes selling a property isn’t an easy decision, but when a perfect buyer arrives on the scene and excitedly accepts the unique privilege of ownership, well, then, things are just better. Congratulations…
Lake Geneva Market Update
Well, I continue to be wrong about this market. Or, perhaps, as Christian Bale as Michael Burry said in The Big Short, “I’m not wrong, I’m just early”. The market is no where close to running out of steam. Every time the supply side gives the demand side a shot to prove them wrong, the…
