Tis the season for one of two things. Ambivalence is the most popular option for mid November. Why pay attention to the market when it’s just so easy to eat pie and pretend your weekends aren’t awful and boring? Sellers find and embrace ambivalence today as well, accepting that the market will slow to some degree from now through the earliest part of 2018. In spite of this holiday pause, there’s reason to doubt that several deals will come together over the next six weeks, as the market never actually sleeps. It just rests its eyes once in a while. Because of this, some sellers will remove their property from market (mistake), and others will just continue on as though everything is fine (it likely will be). But some sellers are November price cutters, and those are the sellers we’re looking for.
Last week I dropped the price of my large Basswood estate from $9.75MM to $8.995MM. This is a meaningful price drop, and it wasn’t easy to achieve. Buyers in this strata should take another look at this property, as it offers too much to be ignored. Large frontage, deep property, perfect location. The house itself is large, easy to understand, and ready to host an easy surface renovation. There are many estates on Geneva Lake. Many amazing estates. But there are very few that are complete. What do I mean by complete? I mean a property that’s large enough to feel important. A house that matches. A swimming pool. A guest house. A large pier. Combine all of those elements and you’ve got an estate. Basswood? It’s an estate, and I just put it on sale.
Another listing of mine that’s been struggling to attract a buyer is my modern home on South Lakeshore Drive now listed at $1,095,000. I don’t feel as though I’ve done a very good job explaining this property to the market. It seems as though, after so much market time, the property should make sense for someone. I know it makes sense in the market. I know it’s a screaming value. The house sold during the prior peak for $1.5MM and change. The house sold at that level because of what it offers. Immense and rare privacy. Loads of square footage over four finished levels of living space. Transferable boat slip. Situated on the lake between massive estates, with lake views and nothing but a few trees between the house and the water. This is a lakefront house without private frontage, and it’s downright cheap. If I’m a buyer around the million dollar mark, this is a house I’m looking at. A tiny smear of lipstick and it’ll be a fantastic lake house.
My new listing on Outing in Williams Bay ($1.699MM) is offered today at a reduced price after initially coming to market just under $2MM. These are the sorts of sellers you want to find. The motivated ones. It’s too convenient today for sellers to sit back and wait for the market to come to them. After all, there are several 2017 examples of this happening for aged lakefront inventory. But I’m writing today to buyers. I’m writing today to those you don’t want to throw caution to the wind. If you’re throwing caution to the wind, other agents specialize in that, not me. I’m assuming there are still buyers who want to find value, and if that’s you, then let’s chat. We can aggressively look for new inventory and pounce if it’s right, but I’d rather comb over aged inventory and see if we can find a seller who’s ready to play ball. The myth of this market is that every seller is overly confident and every seller is holding out. The reality of November at the lake (and December for that matter) is that there are still sellers who are ready to sell. They just need a value minded buyer (and that buyer’s dashing agent) to convince them that the time is right.