With a fall market fully underway, the Lake Geneva vacation home market is already bearing some fruit that might allow someone to reasonably expect a decent fall sales season. Typically I’d tell buyers to watch this sales season with one eye open and the other looking squarely at the last two weeks of November and the first two weeks of December, which would historically be the best time of year to lock in a contract on a vacation home here. The reason that I always look to that brief window is simple. As a buyer, your dearest friend is seller apathy. When seller apathy shows up and takes over the conscious and subconscious of sellers, the chances of a buyer procuring the best possible deal increase significantly. When seller confidence increases, buying opportunities decrease. Likewise, when sellers grow disgruntled at the prospect of a long winter, buying opportunities abound.
This early winter selling window is one that most buyers usually miss. It takes an intelligent buyer to watch properties and pounce when the timing appears right. That doesn’t mean that opportunities don’t present themselves throughout the entire year, as they most obviously do. Rare properties, well priced properties, and properties that are otherwise perfect for specific buyers will sell no matter the time of year, no matter the market conditions. Just a couple weeks ago, I heard about a buyer who bought a lakefront house after walking into a sales office one afternoon. That sort of impulse buy is great for the market, and it will always be a staple of the Lake Geneva real estate diet. But, it doesn’t exactly make for the most intelligent, thoughtful purchase. In contrast, buyers who watch the market closely and hunt down bargains at exactly the peak moment of seller apathy are buyers who tend to find the best properties at the best prices. This time of year it almost always pays to watch the market while angling to negotiate a deal when the sellers have their feet precariously situated on an ice covered sidewalk.
That market hunting behavior is one that I fully endorse, but it might be a tad overplayed this year. I’m seeing and feeling something in the market that is normally reserved for the very worst selling months. Flexibility. Sellers appear to be grasping the seriousness of the market, and they look to be responding in kind. Now don’t get me wrong, there are heaping piles of sellers that dropped anchor in 2006. Through the prism of their rose colored glasses that they purchased four years ago, the market looks great, and their property, even better. They think their property is unique and special and since they love it so dearly, a scenario where buyers won’t feel the same never enters into the inner chambers of their stubborn mind. These sellers, in my opinion, are a dying breed. Most sellers are finding ways to adapt to the market, and when prices present themselves in the form of a reasonable, if low offer, they deal with it as they should and work to come to an agreement with their buyer, even if that offer is no where near what they thought their property was worth.
The flexibility seems to be permeating the market, and that’s a tremendous boon for buyers who don’t feel like waiting until the snow flies to look at vacation homes here. There looks to be a new found rational way of thinking, where sellers are accepting the truths of a low volume market, and adjusting as needed to attract buyers that while plentiful, remain elusive and unmotivated. This flexibility isn’t on display in most list prices, but once an offer comes along, the flexibility that a soft market demands is obvious. Buyers, do yourselves a favor. Consider approaching the market with an early winter mindset right now. Consider floating an offer on a property you’ve been stalking all summer. There are deals out there, and sellers are in their rooms doing toe-touches and splits as we speak.