Thank you. Thank you, too. No, thank you! You’re the best. Thanks. I cannot begin this address with the standard refrain, “My fellow Americans”, because my clients ask that I … Read more

I don’t want to be the sort of person that talks about the weather all the time, but I am that person. Even people who aren’t that person talk about … Read more

On Friday, January 17th, those who measure and then record weather marked that the daytime high in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was 19 degrees. Those counterparts who measure the temperature in … Read more

It’s sad when it’s only the 22nd day of the new year and one of my most important predictions has already been proven untrue. The lakefront inventory, I supposed, would … Read more

There are times when a one week vacation is exactly what the doctor ordered. These are times when we are especially tired, especially cold, especially bored, or especially interested in … Read more

One would think that first understanding, then forecasting market conditions would be a rather important requirement from any agent that any consumer chooses. To be able to understand the current … Read more

Lake access is the great equalizer. The term, Lake Access, also known as Lake Rights, both times capitalized for the sake of importance, is everywhere at Lake Geneva. It has … Read more

Familiarity breed contempt, or so they say. The girl that places my groceries into paper, or sometimes plastic, bags says that, or at least she said that once when I … Read more

I think I miss those old days. Back when a foreclosure was a rare, mostly unspoken thing, back when no one knew much about the procedure except for hardened, narrow … Read more

I dedicate one measly post to a burgeoning appreciation for winter, and this is how I am repaid. It’s -18 in Lake Geneva this morning, and while the view out … Read more

I sat at dinner the other night, on the eve of this new year, looking around from table to table. Mostly, everyone was happy. They were imbibing and gorging, ordering … Read more

There are trout streams in Iowa. They snake through the hills of Iowa’s Driftless, emptying mostly into each other and then into the Mississippi, pushing south and collecting all sorts … Read more

Apparently I bought one of those cameras that only adds 20 pounds to the oldest male in the picture…

For as long as there have been economists, there have been those who tell us that owning a home is a bad investment. This is a popular point of view … Read more

Those are the homes that hide behind high steel and concrete walls. Those are the walls that were erected to keep the traffic from that interstate and the noise that … Read more

Let’s pretend you’re looking for a vacation home. Not a Lake Geneva vacation home, specifically, but just a vacation home somewhere sort of close, but not remarkably close like Lake … Read more

I would normally reserve my year end reviews for January, once the year I’m writing about has actually ended, but today I’m taking liberties. Or at least one, and we’re … Read more

Over the past four years there has been one common question on the mind of nearly every lakefront vacation home buyer. That question, if formed in the mind of my … Read more

I spent one weekend in love with ice. One weekend, out of an entire lifetime. That weekend found me in the Cayman Islands. It was hot that weekend, sunny, too. … Read more

As further proof of the rock solid fact that many consumers are more loyal to their hair dressers than they are to their Realtors, there was a lakefront sale this … Read more

As a child, I didn’t ever go hungry. I didn’t ever go to school in old, torn clothes. I had a pair of new shoes every school year, and I … Read more

Ernest Shackleton gathered his heaviest jacket, his warmest boots, his toughest gloves and his largest hat. His wife handed him the hot cheese sandwich she had just made for him, … Read more

I have several habits, though I could never be considered a creature of those. I wake up at a specific time each day but not for any reason aside from … Read more

I suppose it’s a good thing that so many people are so bad at real estate. Without bad ideas, and bad moves, and horrible, life shattering real estate decisions, our … Read more

Cars. They get us where we’re going. They haul things where those things need to go. They can wrap the driver in luxury, cradling them in the softest of leather … Read more

I was going to write about the Chicago Tribune’s ridiculous attempt at “discovering” the Lake Geneva dining scene, but I’d rather not. It should be enough to mention that they … Read more

What a wonderful legacy it is to leave a Lake Geneva vacation home to your heirs. This lake is dotted with such properties, be those large sprawling estates or simple … Read more

Earlier this year, I decreed that we should no longer look back at YTD figures from the hellish years of 2009 and 2010. I said that we weren’t going to … Read more

I had this impressive stack of firewood delivered last June. My wood guy delivered the cut oak and dropped it in a pile at the top of my gravel driveway. … Read more

On a cloudless day, the summer sort that make even the most ornery people feel like considering a smile, there is little reason to walk onto a pier and romanticize … Read more

There are many things in the works today, and not one of them is deserving of an entire post, so consider this an odds and ends update of sorts, which … Read more

I’m thinking about becoming a doomsday prepper. I didn’t capitalize the title, or the occupation as it seems to be on the television shows, because I’m certain I wouldn’t be … Read more

Sam Zell, facilitator of many great real estate deals and at least one very, very bad newspaper deal, recently spoke of the real estate market. He told the interviewer that … Read more

Five days a week I drop my two kids, aged 10 and 7, off at school. My thoughtful son, intent on pleasing both his teachers and his parents, gathers his … Read more

I am afflicted with a strange form of amnesia. I remember most everything, though increasingly I cannot remember phone numbers in the way that I once could. For that, I … Read more

Why would someone write an October sales update on October 25th when six days still remain in this month? Because it’s Friday and I have to write about something. October … Read more

Someday, someone is going to spend a lot of time studying the foreclosure phenomenon of the past five years. I don’t know who that someone will be, but I’m certain … Read more

Gym class was never a difficult class for me. I did most things well enough, even if my B- average extended into all things elementary sports as well. I couldn’t … Read more

Wants and needs are difficult to separate. They are not as oil and watery as they should be. My wants and my needs are generally cobbled together in the same … Read more

I needn’t be buried under a mountain of snow to realize that summer is a long, long ways away. I feel it now, sitting here on a fall day where … Read more

Let’s pretend we’re a small town clothing retailer. We name our shop something clever, perhaps something ironic, and we grow beards and wear skinny ties and do whatever we can … Read more

It was difficult last night to drive a distance across the Wisconsin countryside and not see combines trailed by large clouds of dust. These combines eagerly chewed through fields of … Read more

I wanted to act like it wasn’t a big deal. I’d driven boats, after all. Lots of them. Long ones and short ones, ones with small engines and ones with … Read more

Buyers find their agents through various means. Some of those means are intelligent and worthy, others not so much. If a friend refers a buyer to an agent that they … Read more

When you buy a new car, or a used car that is new to you, the salesman will usually take at least some time running through the features of the … Read more

At any point over the last decade, if you were to have found yourself at Lake Geneva, and you were stumbling around the lake in search of prime real estate, … Read more

Even at this close distance, I look back with extreme fondness on the recessionary years. I don’t do this to be vindictive, nor do I do it to dance on … Read more

Crain’s Chicago Business, a publication that curiously lauds business while aggressively embracing a political policy that demonizes the success of those same businesses, made some headlines this week by publicizing … Read more

We have quite a few things to do between now and then. First, we have to work. This is the unfortunate part of our schedules. Then some of us have … Read more

The lake in the summer is what we all know it to be. Blue waves roll on weekends, whipped by wind and watercraft, each wave pushed higher and higher until … Read more

In 1984 Norman Rosenthal decided that being sad in the winter was a legitimate medical illness. His Seasonal Affective Disorder theory supposed that in winter, when things are bad, people … Read more

Another week, another closing that I was and am grateful to have assisted in, another display of the wide gambit that humanity has to offer. In every deal there’s the … Read more

I have a strange feeling today, and I’ve had it for a while. It isn’t the feeling I feel deep inside my molar that cracked a couple weeks ago while … Read more

It was hot yesterday. My office air conditioning stopped working in advance of that heat, and even now as I sit and write, with both office doors open and the … Read more

Over these 17 years, I’ve spent a lot of time at this desk. Not this desk, necessarily, as this desk was only my desk after I bought it in Canada … Read more

I own a somewhat unnerving take on life. I’m young enough to feel that life is long and varied, and that somehow, if I practice enough I’ll find some greener … Read more

During all points of the spring, there is a rush. Buyers rush to discover vacation homes, then to buy those vacation homes, all with the noble intent of being in … Read more

If you’re asking why the lakefront condominium has fallen out of favor with vacation home buyers, I’d offer up several possible scenarios. Some involve cycles, mortgages, simple supply and demand … Read more

I lack very little in this life. I have things and I have family, and I have a roof over my head and some hardwood under my feet. I don’t … Read more

Somewhere between ridiculous, peak-style pricing and horrible, embarrassing 2010 pricing lies the accurate price. But we’ve already discussed this, at length even, so there’s no reason to do so again. … Read more

It is with some fear that I share certain market revelations here. Not fear, in the way, say, that I’d fear a large spider or any sized snake, but fear … Read more

If I had really thought the noise through, I would have known that these were just harmless raccoons. During my childhood, and even adolescent years, I had a bedroom that … Read more

There are at least 12 lake access and lakefront homes pending sale right now. There are 112 lake access and lakefront homes, give or take, that are listed for sale … Read more

My car. It has four bald tires. Two loose linkage thingamabobbers, a tail light that apparently doesn’t work all the time, and some sort of air pump that goes off … Read more

I suppose there can be an initial struggle between lakefront and lake access, between similar price points and similar structures in completely dissimilar geographic locations. If a buyer is looking … Read more

It was once said there there are two things common to each life: Death and taxes. This isn’t entirely true. While those two things are indeed constants, other things that … Read more

In between discussing the merits of cutting fish free without first twisting their stomachs into knots and researching the shortcomings of other area lakes (ponds), there is something that I … Read more

In one of his races, he finished 38 out of 44. In another, he finished 5 out of 44, though if you ask him he insists that he was indeed … Read more

I wonder if they can feel his footsteps above them. I know I can see him when he’s walking down the concrete path to the pier, clutching his fishing pole … Read more

Even if you make it to Bed Bath and Beyond tomorrow, your Saturday will only be one of two things. If you do have time, and you do make it … Read more

Quick. Let’s pretend we have somewhere around $500k to spend and our singular goal is to get as close to the lake as is humanly possible. If you believed that … Read more

The pursuit of a vacation home is a bit of a paradox. It is in full speed fast forward, always scanning what’s there and watching what’s next and wondering what … Read more

The argument could be made that the Lake Geneva real estate recovery began during 2010. Those buyers who bought at that time did so with some fear, and plenty of … Read more

Every year it’s the same. The struggle of winter. Snow flies and ice clings, to the branches to our streets and to the space where our grass used to grow … Read more

Once upon a time, foreclosures were like small little puppies, the cute sort that wander down lonely streets at dusk hoping for a kind stranger who might take them in … Read more

Solitude is a powerful thing. It is also a wonderful thing, if the solitude is voluntary. I imagine forced solitude is unnerving and bad, possibly destructive. It should be noted … Read more

Over the past three weeks there have been three lakefront closings. We haven’t talked about a single one of them, yet. So if we haven’t yet then it must be … Read more

The cabin wasn’t large. It wasn’t medium sized. It wasn’t even all that small. It was, to be accurate, miniature. The things inside of this cabin were normal sized; the … Read more

When your home is listed for sale on a Tuesday and then on Thursday you have three offers, one of which is at your asking price, what does this tell … Read more

I suppose I shouldn’t be here right now. I should, instead, be cutting down sturdy trees and scraping their soggy bark. I should cut these trees into boards, some big, … Read more

When I was little, my grandfather sat me on his knee. He smelled a potent mix of fresh cigarette smoke, a smell left behind by the cigarette he had just … Read more

I don’t really remember real estate “school” all that much. I went at night, me and a bunch of other people from various walks of life, most of whom thought … Read more

My yard, in a round about way, is very nice. It’s large and unkempt. Rocks litter the dirt patches that surround the home, and weeds fill in where the rocks … Read more

It’s time we talk about the South Shore Club again. I do hate being redundant here, which is why I approach the item of the day with a new piece … Read more

Yesterday started like any other day. I took a bath, because I built a house with a large bathtub and I feel like if not me, who, and if not … Read more

If my fishing boat didn’t have a fixed t-top, what on earth would my children climb on while boating? Without this top, with its metal structure and canvas awning, my … Read more

My second car accident occurred sometime during a snow day in 1995. My first occurred on a dark night sometime during the summer that preceded that winter. That first one … Read more

Sometimes that constant itch that is a symptom of our biggest, boldest dreams simply cannot be scratched by the designs of other people. There are times, like the times that … Read more

I suppose I’m suffering from a case of missing perspective. Not life perspective, mind you, as I have two friends sick with cancer right now, so my life perspective appears … Read more

I do not know what a June bug is. I don’t know what sort of bug it is, but I think it’s a beetle. I also don’t know if it’s … Read more

The flippers are back. They’ve pushed away from their desks at their mortgage broker job or their real estate job, or they’ve handed back the keys to the demo car … Read more

After so much traveling, through the twists and turns and the flat tires and the false starts, and after that one day in February when we spent the afternoon staring … Read more

I am a paid subscriber to many, many ideas. For instance, I believe that you never, ever tug on Superman’s cape. This belief isn’t based on the reasons that you … Read more

I have spent more time wandering than you have. If you’ve hiked the Appalacian Trail without a map, you have not wandered like I have. If you were lost in … Read more

There was a day during 2008, just before the market was to shift, that buyers would look at homes, make offers on homes, and then buy either that home, or, … Read more

It’s true that the lakefront vacation home market has an epicenter. The impact zone, in this vernacular, is the lake itself. The market immediately surrounding the lake, those desirable lakefront … Read more

Remember Jeff Goldblum’s character in Independence Day? You don’t have to admit that you do, but you do. That character was personally flawed; his marriage either in trouble or over, … Read more

I’ve listed one of my great regrets as my unwillingness to play basketball in high school. As I move farther from this decision, the regret grows. Of all the things … Read more

My name is David Curry, I’ll be 35 years old next week, and I live with my parents. In their basement. This is full disclosure, and something you should know, … Read more

If we have 100 buyers, some slowly seeking and others desperately seeking the real estate that their heart desires and their wallet affords, how many of those buyers does it … Read more