On October 16, 2009, a little white cottage with hardwood floors and a generally pleasant disposition was listed for $289,000. Had that October been the October that happened during 2006, that price might have been accurate. But this was 2009, and the market was deep in the emotional recesses of a very difficult economic time. In spite of the market, there were reasons (not any that I subscribed to) that the $289k number might, given the 2 in front of the 8 and the 9, find a buyer who would at least toss the idea of a little white cottage around. I didn’t list that cottage, not then, nor now, but I sold it on Friday to a terrific buyer. The $289k list from October of 2009 ended up being a $170k sale in April of 2011.
The market at the moment is completely random. There is no other way to view it. There are sales of properties that don’t make much sense, either because the house is lame or the price is, or they both are, and there are properties that look on paper as though they should have sold three months ago though the for sale sign still mars the front lawn. There isn’t much rhyme or reason to the market in 2011, but a lack of complete sense has long been a hallmark of the Lake Geneva vacation home market. Properties that shouldn’t sell do, and properties that should, don’t. I spent the weekend in a fevered pitch, fielding offers and sending counters, proof that there are buyers for properties and plenty of properties for buyers. The market isn’t uniformly full of deals, but as with all things real estate, individual opportunities depend on individual circumstances.
And so we come back to 52 Garfield in Cedar Point Park, the little white cottage with just enough charm and 1960s inspired kitsch that it caught the eye of my buyer who had been in the market for quite some time. This property, at $289k, was no deal. But at $170k, I can’t say it was anything but. The price is the lowest sales price in Cedar Point Park (excluding the REO that sold for $167k last year- and was promptly demolished) in nearly a decade, and it was indeed a value. The buyer found a house they liked, and if you’ve been looking for real estate in Lake Geneva, you know that finding a house to like here is not difficult. However, finding a house to like with a price that you like, combined with a seller that actually wants to sell said house, now that’s the true trifecta of Lake Geneva real estate, and it is an elusive mistress. In the case of Garfield, the buyer found something that fit the goal of providing a weekend respite from city life, a respite where children might run in lawns not easily measured with a yard stick, and there they might jump off of white piers into clear water and fish as long as their worm supply lasts. Identifying a property that fits is the first step, but the whole process becomes much (much) more enjoyable both in the near and long term if the seller is willing to play ball.
There are new listings that will sell quickly in any market, and buyers who find what they like would always do well to pursue it with relative abandon, but in finding the deal that fits on all levels, perhaps most importantly price, is something that can only be accomplished or realized after making an offer. The list price on Garfield was $219k when we offered on it. We offered low. Quite low. Insultingly low, at least by some standards. Yet in spite of the low bid, the seller dusted off any cross reaction and negotiated. At the end, the sale came together and both buyer and seller were pleased with their new found paths that allowed a seller to move on and a buyer to move in. The list prices of most of the Lake Geneva vacation homes will not scintillate at first glance. But finding a seller with a serious desire to sell is not always easy when viewing only the list price. If you have a property you’ve been eying, be it a $219k cottage in Cedar Point or a $3MM lakefront estate, I have but one line of advice. Make an offer. Throw the dart and see if it sticks. Ideally, you’d also be having me write that offer for you, and then if the seller took your offer and we were successful in our mission, we’d aggressively high five. But if I had added that my one line of advice would have grown into two, and you can understand how we have to work at limiting verboseness here on this most verbose page.
The moral of the Garfield story- find what you like and then find out if you’ve also found a seller who actually wants to sell. I have been working with several other buyers of late who can easily find what they like, but whenever they arrive at a doorstep and decide to make it their own, the seller has ended up being a seller in name only. A Sino. Regardless of some seller’s ridiculousness, there are deals waiting to be had, both through heavy negotiations and on properties that are listed accurately from the start. A special thanks to my Garfield buyer, I wish you and your family a lifetime of fun at the lake. And a big patriotic congratulations to the guy who shot Bin Laden last week- if that purported $50MM “sniping bonus” does materialize, I have a great idea for how to spend some of it.