It’s obvious that the purchase of any Lake Geneva vacation home installs the buyer as a member of a very exclusive club. Whether the purchase is a $200k condo in Abbey Springs or a $2MM lakefront home, the buyer turned owner is part of a small group of other like minded vacation home lovers who deem Lake Geneva not only the most convenient option, but the one that best satiates their desire to spend their weekends in an entirely different state of mind. It is in that simple membership that I find common ground with every buyer I’ve ever represented. I appreciate their goal of capturing the idyllic moments that arise without effort at a vacation spot as bucolic and refreshing as Lake Geneva. Helping buyers achieve that goal is the best reward of my profession, no matter what commenter Frank thinks my individual goals might be.
While I’ve been a facilitator in myriad deals this year, I may be most proud of a sale from earlier this year at the Harvard Club, and now most recently, the sale that I just completed at Belvidere Park. Last Friday, Lake Geneva welcomed another new vacation loving family to the fold when they closed on my Belvidere Park listing for $519k. That family spent the weekend at the new, old lake home, and judging by the photos sent to me that featured their son holding a small mouth bass (or two) on a stringer with the lake glistening in the background, I’d say the purchase has already provided a tangible reward. On a weekend when many young kids might have spent their Saturday afternoons inside malls or inside dens glued to whatever the newest, coolest XBox game might be, this boy spent his afternoon casting a little lure from shore in hopes of catching whatever might feel like biting. For those who cannot understand vacation home purchases, this simple scene should go a long way towards explaining why people purchase them. In particular, why they purchase them at Lake Geneva.
I listed this three bedroom Belvidere Park cottage on September 16th. That same day, I sent out a few select emails to customers who I thought might be interested. The next morning, I featured the new listing on this very blog. Throughout the day on Friday, I had several inquiries. Casual inquiries, and hurried ones. A buyer who I originally thought would have little interest ended up driving straight up to the lake after work that afternoon and purchased the home for full price with few questions asked. What would posses a buyer to act in such a manner? It’s called motivation. It’s a condition that has been rare over the past three years, but it’s making a comeback. For this buyer, the only thing that allowed his boy to spend Saturday afternoon catching fish off of Uhlein’s Creek was his Paul Revere like drive through a darkening September evening. I was certain I’d sell this house, as I made sure to tell everyone who reads this blog. Did I think it would sell to the first person who looked at it? Would you believe me if I said yes?
The Belvidere Park cottage never made it to the MLS. So if you’re a buyer searching for rare offerings and exclusive access to these sorts of opportunities and you’re working with another agent, there’s no way you even heard about this property being available. I was going to put the offering into the MLS, but when it went under contract the first day, there was little reason to do so. Padding MLS statistics isn’t something I’m worried about, so even the sale as of now will not be recorded in the MLS for the world to see. The buyer who purchased the home had only contacted me a couple weeks before this property ultimately became available, and it’s curious to think about a scenario where this property would have sold to someone else, without this buyer having even known about it had he not decided to email me one morning in late August.
I feel blessed to have been part of this unique transaction, and I feel even more humbled by the sellers having trusted me with this very important sale. To the buyer who acted with swift determination, I could not be more grateful. While I enjoy closing properties and paying bills, I truly enjoy watching the behavior of the purchasing families change. Perhaps on Friday afternoons, instead of loitering around school looking for something to do, kids will hurry home in order to get an early start on the brief trip to the lake. Perhaps instead of Saturdays spent reciting the stroke-inducing phrase “there’s nothing to do”, kids will spend them casting little lures into the deep blue waters of Geneva, while parents relax on white piers. Whatever the case, a Lake Geneva vacation home can change your life with the ink of your signature, and if you’re buying at Belvidere Park, the change will be instantaneous.