If the world of television Realtors has done anything to help the real estate profession, and I say this fully understanding it is a literary and imaginative stretch, it has indeed uncovered a dirty little secret about selling real estate. While many agents will profess their greatest joy is watching the face of Joe and Mary New Home Buyer as they glide across the entry to their new home, the reality is that agents are in this business to make money. Or, to put it a better way, to pay bills. This should not come as a shock to anyone anymore than it should come as a shock to learn that most dentists probably choose their profession because it too will pay their bills, not because they love the way their office smells. As agents everywhere struggle to make the tattered ends of their financial lives meet, there has been a marked shift in the way agents present themselves to the general public.
Depending on your individual market, these shifts may be obvious or subtle. Agents typically work one particular segment, unless you’re selling New York, then you work at selling Manhattan apartments one week, Connecticut estates the next, California condominiums on weekends, with a dash of Boca intercoastal thrown in. But only on Thursdays. Aside from TV brokers who love themselves to the point that they feel indispensable in any transaction, anywhere, most of us who have had any staying power understand we should focus on one market segment and one only. I have spent my career narrowing my gaze to such an extent that it has cost me millions upon millions of dollars of sales volume. A seller called me a few years ago to sell a million dollar home on a lake 20 minutes southeast of here. I didn’t call him back. I’ve had customers ask to look at homes in Elkhorn and I’ve been so ambivalent in my response that they had no choice but to work with someone else. I have, by careful design, ignored business that doesn’t fit my eye. If we’re in Lake Geneva, that real estate had better be a Lake Geneva vacation home or I’ll have very little interest in it. To be sure, I am only good at selling what I actually love.
This obsession with the lake caused me to miss much of the subdivision boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when I was content to sell lakefront condominiums at a clip of several per year while other agents shifted into full subdivision mode and moved dozens of cornfield lots each quarter. I’ve also let market weariness keep me from selling certain developments, which is why I failed to sell anything in Geneva National from 1996 through 2001- the market was just too difficult to decipher during those five lost years. I’ve successfully weaved my way through 15 years of selling real estate primarily because the object of my affection has never changed. I’ve always loved selling Lake Geneva vacation homes, and I’ve forsaken all others in an attempt at following the desires of my heart.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve found that the Lake Geneva vacation home market has become a bit clogged with agents who “specialize” in Lake Geneva vacation home sales. While I once counted myself a proud member of a group of perhaps 30 agents who regularly sell such homes, a few searches on the Internets reveal that I am no longer a member of a select group, instead I’m just one face in an ocean of Realtors who all profess an undying, unwavering dedication to this very vacation home market. As the broad Walworth County real estate market has slowed, the Lake Geneva vacation home market remains a bright spot, and as such agents like so many Snook have been drawn to the spotlight positioned squarely above the lake.
And now for the unfortunate discovery that led me to write this essay this morning… Last year, there were 64 sales involving lakefront and lake access residential homes on Geneva Lake (all of these stats are per MLS). 64 sales means there were 128 transaction sides in total for 2010, as one sale has the potential for two agents to combine on it with one working for the seller, the other with/for the buyer. If everyone today is a Lake Geneva specialist, and a vacation home expert, the true proof of such a claim will lie in these transaction numbers. I, David Curry, represented 12 transaction sides involving the Lake Geneva vacation home market during 2010. That’s a number I’m proud of, particularly when those sales included four lakefront sales. One other agent in Walworth County also completed 12 transaction sides, tying me for the 2010 lead. In spite of the advertisements and claims they broadcast, just three other agents had in excess of 5 transaction sides affecting the Lake Geneva residential vacation home market. The other five hundred or so agents combined for the remaining sides.
To be fair, there are, by my determined count, as many as 30 agents who will regularly sell solid numbers of Lake Geneva vacation homes. Many of these agents represent the best and brightest that our community has to offer, and I’m pleased to count myself as part of this elite group. As a potential buyer, or seller, what these aforementioned numbers show is that one cannot trust in advertising alone. If you’re looking to buy or sell a Lake Geneva vacation home, and you’re ruining the future of my children by not working with me, I only ask that you pose this question to your self proclaimed Lake Geneva vacation home specialist: Just how many Lake Geneva vacation homes have you sold in the last year, and how long exactly have you been doing this? If the answer involves more stammering than statistics, I think you know what must be done. And please don’t fly one of those Selling New York ladies out here to ask their opinion on your Lake Geneva vacation home search. Just assume they’ll think whatever you’re looking at is a great deal and that it is tres fabulous.