This morning is strange. I’m sitting at my desk, which is not strange. But my shoulders are dry. My hair, purposefully or perhaps haplessly disheveled, seems to be nearly dry. The tops of my leather shoes are medium brown, not dark brown. My toes are comfortable, not damp. And the view outside my office window is one that I have not seen in quite some time. It as, as you may have guessed, sunny today. This is strange. After an April where hopelessness consumed my weather outlook and more mornings where spent drying than dry, there is warm sun shining and warming waters sparkling. It is a better day.
And it was a better week, not counting the rain and temperature. There were sales this week at Lake Geneva, and there is activity. Despite a spring that could make only algore happy, there has been activity that proves summer is drawing near. This is a Friday that several buyers are paying attention to. This is a Friday that leaves just three more until the Friday that matters most, and savvy buyers who choose to shun a future that finds them sweating through summer on suburban decks or city patios. This Friday wrap up might become a trend for the blog, but you’ll have to check back next Friday to see if this style post is more fad than trend. You know, next Friday when only two more inconsequential Fridays will follow.
Remember last week when I told you about a new listing with slip in the mid $600ks? Remember that I said it would sell quickly? Well, not surprisingly, I was right. That property went under contract yesterday after a mere week on the open market. I showed it once, and tried to get several other buyers up to look at it. Several other buyers ignored my warnings and the property is now awaiting a closing to a buyer that is, shamefully, not mine. Even though the deal is not my own, any property selling quickly is a boon for the broader market. Buyers need to understand that even in the softest of markets (which Geneva is not), buyers will still buy quickly and decisively if they feel a property might slip away from them if they dawdle. First time I’ve used dawdle on this blog, thanks for noticing.
A lakefront on the south shore of Fontana showed up as sold in the MLS this week, though the property actually sold in February. The lakefront, affectionately known as “The Vagabond” has been a fixture on Basswood Drive and on the market for quite some time. The sale was good, in the way that all activity is so, even if the price of $1.8MM was lighter than I’m guessing the neighbors would have wished it to be. A lake access home in Country Club Estates ($367,500) also sold this week, for full price. It was a good house for a good price, and the market rewarded the seller with a quick and full price sale. I showed the home the week it hit the market (last month), and knew it would sell quickly, and as with most of my real estate predictions, it did.
The bank owned lake access home on Wrigley in Lake Geneva sold this past week for $740k. I wasn’t overly impressed with that price, as no matter what the home looks like on the inside, it will always be a home with a narrow lake view framed by two garages. As with most bank owned deals, I always think they should sell cheaper. But that’s just me, and I’m just a kid with a Dell laptop and nearly dry hair.
I have two closings today, both small but welcome, and judging by the closing schedules at the local Chicago Title office, as many as 15 other deals are closing today as well. Perhaps the Fontana Shores condo that has been pending sale will close today. Last week the bank owned property in The Birches closed, and in that sale, as with the bank owned sale on Wrigley, there is a lesson to be learned about the way banks negotiate REO sales. The Wrigley property was owned by Peoples Bank- a local bank. The Birches property was owned by Walworth State Bank, also and obviously a local bank. My experience with local banks is that they are great for getting loans from, not so great for buying REO’s from. Local banks tend to negotiate a bit tougher than larger, national banks might. A local bank absorbing a loss on a soured mortgage is a much bigger deal than a national bank doing the same. National banks are used to the losses that foreclosures inflict, whereas local banks, particularly those in communities like Lake Geneva where foreclosures are still relatively rare, have a harder time adjusting to the losses. As such, they’re less than ideal to work with when trying to pry REO properties from them at low prices.
Next week, there will be more sales, and more the next. There will be sales in May, and there will happy families who will now be able to make plans to spend their summer in a way that they’ve never spent a summer before. If your summer plans don’t involve weekends spent at Lake Geneva, then your summer plans are sad and disappointing to all of us. See you at the lake.