The thing about entry level lakefront is it’s entry level. Because it’s entry level, it’s like anything that’s so aptly labeled. An entry level sedan doesn’t have a heated steering wheel. An entry level tent doesn’t keep the rain out. An entry level remote control drone that your son received as a Christmas gift doesn’t stay in the air for more than a few seconds and it certainly doesn’t stay intact upon landing. This is what entry level is. It’s sacrifice for the sake of owning the thing. If you want to get from point A to point B, entry level cars work fine. If you want to steer with the steering wheel while wearing gloves, your hands stay warm. If you tent in a desert, the rain-proofing isn’t necessary. If you want your drone to look cool on your desk while it charges for the flight it won’t ever take, the drone can do that just fine. And if you want to be on the lake with your own grass that leads to your own lake frontage, where your own pier juts out purposefully into those waters, then entry level works just fine.
Enter Oriole Lane. I just listed it today, and it’s cheap. $1.299MM is the ask, and we’re ready to sell it. It’s a nice enough house, though I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some oddities. There isn’t a garage. There isn’t a true master bedroom suite. There isn’t a huge basement, where you can put a pool table. And there isn’t a Viking stove. There isn’t any of this, but to quote a needlessly famous politician, what difference does it make? You have a sweet garage where you live. That same house, the one that you live in, has a super sweet master suite. It has a pool table in the basement! It has a huge Viking stove and a double-glass-fronted-Sub-Zero. It has it all, or so you think. You know what it doesn’t have? 50 feet of level lakefront on Geneva Lake. You know what else? It doesn’t have a pier. A big sturdy white one in the traditional H style. It doesn’t have any of that stuff, and that’s why you need to come visit Oriole Lane with me.
But that’s only if you’re looking for entry level lakefront that’s priced at what some people have paid for non-lakefront. Last summer, someone paid just shy of $1.6MM for a home off the lake with no slip and barely a view. Why did they do that? Well, because it had shiny and fancy! This home has some shiny granite counter tops, and it has a really nice front sun room that just so happens to open up onto a pretty decent patio. That patio isn’t like the one you have at home, because it doesn’t have a built in grill and fireplace and it doesn’t have that fountain with the LED lighting that changes based on your mood, or the season, or your mood depending on the season. But it does connect to a level grassy lawn that bumps right into that crystal clear water, assuming of course that you don’t take the path that leads from lawn directly onto the pier, where your boat will be sitting waiting to ferry you to dinner at Gordy’s or Pier 290, or into Lake Geneva to walk to Medusa or Sopra. So your fountain and your fireplace really can’t hold an oddly colored LED candle to this lakefront.
There is reason to think this home is going to sell somewhat quickly, and that it’ll sell at a great buy-side price. If you’re looking for lakefront in this price range, in this current market, you’re generally going to be relegated to some association setting that isn’t nearly as desirable as this north shore, Knollwood location. If you or anyone you know might be interested in picking up an economical entry level lakefront, I’m here to help.