Well, that’s that. I’m proud to announce my latest lakefront sale. While I remember all of my lakefront sales, this one is goin…
Lake Geneva Airports
It has never been a particular goal of mine to fly in a private airplane. That’s really good news for me, because it’s generally…
Sand
The vacation now ended was nice enough. The islands were fine. The water was warm. The villa both impressive and comfortable. Everything was…
The New Year
This was quite a year. I toggled between righteous anger over the state of the world and quiet, head down ambivalence. I think that’s …
University of Chicago
At first I thought maybe it was just Monday. The world was resting, or asleep, or wishing to be unbothered by the thought of another week. M…
Merry Christmas
It’s strikingly obvious to me that without my clients and friends, my family would not be so uniquely blessed. For that, I am exceedin…
Lake Geneva New Construction
The concept of total potential inventory and its role in real estate pricing isn’t something that’s very well understood. And if…
It’s A Wonderful Life
It’s rather disingenuous for me to relate to George Bailey the way I do. I watch this, the best of the Christmas movies, each December…
Real Estate Shorts
Do you know what the word breathtaking means? It means to have your breath taken. Like if you get murdered, that’s a seriously breatht…
Patience
It’s been said that patience is a virtue. If you’re trying to teach math to a child, or trying to train a dog to balance a cooki…
Virgil Abloh
I never met Virgil Abloh. I didn’t own anything from Off-White, the company he founded in Milan almost ten years ago. I’ve never…
Happy Thanksgiving
My wife and her family are Canadians. It’s not their fault, really, they just are, and they do the best that they can with this condit…
The Romantic
Growing old is fascinating. There are things that matter and things that don’t, and when I was younger I assumed that when I was older…
Glanworth Gardens Pending Sale
By now, you’ve heard the news. I have a contract on Glanworth Gardens. While the contract leaves me feeling somewhat sheepish, itR…
California Dreaming
I rather like the classic song California Dreaming, written and recorded by the Mama’s And The Papa’s, or maybe it was just by t…
Lake Geneva Valuations
Pop Quiz:
Q. How much is a house worth?
A. Whatever someone is willing to pay for it.
This is how valuations work. If I’m selling my h…
Lake Geneva Architecture
Several years ago, a good client and friend of mine built a new home in Highland Park. He desired a specific style of home, so he hired an …
Calm
There’s something wrong with the way a summer day makes me feel. I’ve heard stories that some people tell, stories about lazy ha…
Glanworth Gardens Is For Sale
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…
October
I’m starting to dislike September. It’s a fine month, as far as months go, but what exactly is September? Is it summer? Yes. Is …
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Review
The most common method for agents to market their knowledge finds them sending out postcards showing the sold properties in their geographic…
Oscar Wilde Lied
Nevermind that Oscar was an odd fellow, we have canonized many of his poems and words and novels and because of this we remember him. In aut…
Lake Geneva Farmer’s Market
It’s today, and every Thursday through October 28th. You should visit on a nice day. Like today.
South Lakeshore Drive Sells
The business of real estate bothers me. It bothers me quite a bit. From the first day of exposure to the business the agents are taught to b…
Bay Colony Sells
One of the things that’s fun about being in the same business in the same market for so long is that I get to see my own theories play…
Fall At The Lake
Well, that’s that. Summer is dead and gone. My dreams of enjoying it are left mostly unfulfilled, and I know it’s my own fault. …
New Buffalo AirBnB Ban
…A house with the possibility of an income stream will clearly sell for more than one without.
Jessica Lee and her husband, whom she ask
Circle Parkway Sells
Josh Altman and Josh Flagg are morons. There, someone said it. They’re absolute morons. Flagg is rich because his grandmother left him…
Lake Geneva Fall Market Conditions
It was January, I think. An active lakefront buyer client of mine decided to put the brakes on his lakefront home search. The vaccines were …
Back To School
I’ve been writing this blog with intent for twelve years. Twelve years ago, back to school meant something different to me. Twelve yea…
Dartmouth Woods Sells
You might have seen my 7 Dartmouth Woods listing and thought it was just a normal Dartmouth Woods house. This wouldn’t be your fault i…
Lake Geneva Market Discussion
This year, we’ve closed 14 lakefront homes priced in excess of $4.1M (and at least two more that I’m aware of that aren’t …
Seasonal Dysphoria
I really dislike the way I think. If it’s hot I like that, but I like cool better. When it’s cool I wish for it to be hot. If it…
Lake Geneva Market Conditions
When the sun is shining and the smoke has cleared and the market is ripping it’s easy to not care about the question that’s on o…
Just a Cottage
It was once only a dream. It was once a fantasy. Some day, maybe, but unattainable. Years passed and it become possible. A stretch, but poss…
Hillside Drive Sells
Just like the visor light in my car makes me look thin and the built-in camera on my iMac makes me look swarthy, this market is making me, a…
Of Lenders and Bubbles
I remember sitting at a closing in Elkhorn sometime in late 2008. The sale was of a condominium on the water, and it was a pricey one. The …
DJ’s In The Drink Pizza Review
Last Friday, I invited my family to fish fry. You might think that we do this often, being a fish eating Wisconsin family. But we don’…
Fair Oaks Sells
This property didn’t require too much of me. It won’t require too much of the new owner, either. I listed N1822 Fair Oaks at the…
Off White
Grass is green and the sky is off-white. This is what the children of summer will be tought. Even if we don’t teach them, they’l…
Hillside Drive
It should come as no surprise that our travels influence our sense of design and style. If I were to travel exclusively to Manitoba, Canada,…
Inflation
I have a friend who is remarkably smart. It bothers me that he’s so smart. Have a thought? It’s wrong. How could he know it̵…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
A few years ago, I stood with a buyer on a large piece of lakefront on the south shore while the buyer hemmed and hawed and kicked at the di…
The Same
I spent a few days this week in Beaver Creek. I enjoy Beaver Creek, largely because of its relatively unique mix of synthetic cleanliness s…
Lake Shore Sells
I always have the the same reaction anytime a house sells for full price in a matter of hours, and that is to assume that the home was price…
Dartmouth Woods
Here’s a dazzling lakefront home ideally situated between Williams Bay and Fontana along Fontana’s north shore. You’re goi…
Lakeview Sells
I started selling real estate in the summer of 1996. With all due respect to my young self, I see now that I had no idea what I was doing. T…
Challenged
In the early days of our town there was this town and some other nearby towns. None of the towns felt particularly connected, owed in large …
Walcowis Sells
There’s this road on the south side of the lake whose name generates some interesting commentary and even more interesting pronunciati…
Summer Homes For City People
There was a time when I really enjoyed putting this magazine together, or so says the faintest of memories. I printed this magazine for the …