Because I’m nothing if not community minded, I’ve been hard at work this year trying my best to quench the market’s thirst for new inventory on the lakefront. It’s not easy, this thirst quenching business, but I’m doing my best. That’s why I currently have seven lakefronts for sale, and another one on the way later this week. I do like listing properties, but it’s quite a bit of work. It’s work to convince the seller that their best interests will be served by hiring me. It’s work to have the photographer out to shoot, work to write the narrative (even when it’s poorly written), and it’s work to set the ads in motion. It’s also work that doesn’t pay a penny unless that work yields results, which makes this work unlike most work that exists in the world of work. Still, it’s good work, if you can get it, and if you don’t mind being paid nothing for that work, which I do.
That’s why I have to sell these places, and sell I will. The newest listing is the one you see up there, and in the image below this paragraph. The house is at 946 Marianne Terrace in the city of Lake Geneva, priced at $2.699MM. The home was listed for a spell last year at $2.975MM, but now it’s on with me and the price is considerably improved. This home was built in 2007 which means it’s newer, and that means it has newer home amenities. There are five bedrooms and four and a half baths. There’s a walkout lower level, a two car garage, and some fancy and shiny bits everywhere you look. The 60′ of frontage is not particularly wide, but it’s more than enough to have a private pier with canopied slip. It’s a terrific lake house, walkable to downtown Geneva, and set up for immediate enjoyment.
Another new listing, pictured below, is in Williams Bay priced at $2.425MM. This home sold five years ago for $2MM, and then the owner set about doing the work that needed to be done. The result is an older lake home that’s now in terrific condition. The 65′ of level frontage is made even better by the 1.18 acres of wooded depth. There are five bedrooms, two baths, a detached garage, a kids playhouse, and a separate guest house with kitchen and bath. The pier is oversized, the lawn level, the setting wooded. It’s on the north side of Fontana Bay, so there are sunsets and sunrises from this spot. It’s good, and it’s not on the open market, so if you’re reading this you’ve done well to find out what’s going on behind these Lake Geneva scenes.
N2201 Bonnie Brae Lane was first listed a couple of years ago in the mid $4MMs, which is why I just brought that to market last week for $3.399MM. With 2.72 acres of delicious deciduous depth and 102′ of level frontage, this place isn’t your ordinary lakefront. The owner fell in love with the quirky style of it all, so he hired Chris Hummel to make it bigger and better still. This is a casual house, built for lakeside fun. There’s a 20′ x 40′ in ground pool, three levels of finished space (not including the fourth floor lookout), and of course the tiki hut boathouse at the lakefront. Don’t forget the detached garage with studio above it, all off that fabulous road that is Snake.
In spite of recent showing activity, my Forest Hills South Shore Club home is still for sale, now priced at $1.675MM. This home is poised to be the most economical home ever sold in the SSC, and it’s ready for immediate occupancy just in time for summer. Lest you forget about 1014 South Lakeshore in Fontana, that home remains on the open market. For that palace I’m seeking the sort of buyer who understands that they’d be purchasing perfection at a price that’s below replacement cost. I’m seeking a buyer who demands the finest everything, but doesn’t want to kill two years of their life dealing with a construction project. I’m seeking a buyer who finds that the best of something really is worth aspiring to, because quite simply, this is the best home available on Geneva today.
With this inventory, the market should be pleased. If I write to you in six months time and I still have all of this inventory, I will most likely then be interviewing for my next job. Until then, I’ll be at home trying to make that heart, or a flower, or something that resembles anything at all, out of expresso and foam.