Trinke’s Estates Sells

If my fishing boat didn’t have a fixed t-top, what on earth would my children climb on while boating? Without this top, with its metal structure and canvas awning, my daughter wouldn’t be able to scale the side of it and dangle from it, leaning out over the water in a most dangerous fashion. Without this top, my son wouldn’t be able to hang from it, with his legs lifted up towards his chin, his full 100 pounds testing the welds that some guy melted together in some sweaty shop down south. Without this top, what would I do with the hand that isn’t clutching the steering wheel? These are important questions, but most important is the fact that my boat, and it’s t-top, can’t make it under the Trinke’s bridge.

I spoke very highly of a long ranch in Trinke’s Estates for quite some time. That ranch was, and is, boring. It’s long and featureless, appealing in design perhaps only to someone who appreciates that stark brand of mid-century inspired architecture. I showed the home many times. Each to a different buyer, each time attempting to explain how this property- this one acre lot- was rare. The lot was large, the distance between the home and the lake not all that daunting, the grassy ex-airstrip that provided that direct route rather pastoral. The associations that ring Geneva Lake are many and they are incredibly varied, but most of them line up with some immediacy to the lake, with homes in a row, each with its own smallish lot. Trinke’s is different, with large lots and wide open spaces not typically available near the lake for a reasonable ransom.

This home sold last week for $565k (not my buyer nor seller), and I think I’m a fan of that sale at that price. The lot is large, and I suppose if a buyer is seeking to remodel the home or tear it down, either option is reasonable as long as the expenses are appropriate. Would I be afraid of having $1MM total into this location, if it afforded me a new house? Not at all. Do I think the tendency, if building new, is to spend more than $435k? Absolutely. I think the best use of this home is to remodel it, and keep it as a mid-century design. There are spaces here that can be improved without the implementation of a wrecking ball, but that’s a decision that must now be made by the new owner, and I am not he.

That praise heaped, it’s time to pour some cold water. The question here isn’t of the home, or of the lot, or of the superior access provided here. The issue is of that boatslip. The boatslip is inside the Trinke’s lagoon, leaving some question as to what size and style boat will fit under the footbridge. My boat cannot fit under it, and my boat is a small 22′ center console fishing boat, not some behemoth that is used to being turned away at low crossings. Fixed top arches will not fit under this bridge, so if you had designs on a gleaming Cobalt with matching stainless tower, you just might be out of luck. Since the access is somewhat restricted, can we treat this boatslip the same as we might treat the same size slip that extends out into the lake from a traditional cribbed pier? Nope.

In the same way that owning a dockominium slip at the Abbey Harbor to accompany your off-water home isn’t the same as owning a lake access home with a boatslip waiting at the end of a short stroll, owning a slip inside a lagoon with limited access isn’t the same as owning a big open slip on a big white pier. There are Geneva Towers condominiums attempting to sell with slips located in the, for lack of a better identifying term, Leatherlips Lagoon. These slips are not as valuable as slips on the open water for the same reason that slips in Trinke’s aren’t as valuable. If I have to be told not only how long my boat can be, which is a typical restricting item, but also how tall it might be and how high my own head can extend beyond my windshield, then I’m not a full price buyer. Slips in lagoons are nice, in the absence of a better arrangement.

Restricted slips of this sort really only exist at these two lagoon style harbors, so it isn’t something that a buyer will have to become all that accustomed to. However, if the object of your vacation home affection has a slip in one of these two spots, it’s best to not treat that slip as an equal to the bigger slips that extend into the main lake.