I rather like the classic song California Dreaming, written and recorded by the Mama’s And The Papa’s, or maybe it was just by t…
Lake Geneva Valuations
Pop Quiz:
Q. How much is a house worth?
A. Whatever someone is willing to pay for it.
This is how valuations work. If I’m selling my h…
Lake Geneva Architecture
Several years ago, a good client and friend of mine built a new home in Highland Park. He desired a specific style of home, so he hired an …
Calm
There’s something wrong with the way a summer day makes me feel. I’ve heard stories that some people tell, stories about lazy ha…
Glanworth Gardens Is For Sale
Once in a great while, a property is presented to the market that is so known, so revered, so celebrated, that no superlative description is…
October
I’m starting to dislike September. It’s a fine month, as far as months go, but what exactly is September? Is it summer? Yes. Is …
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Review
The most common method for agents to market their knowledge finds them sending out postcards showing the sold properties in their geographic…
Oscar Wilde Lied
Nevermind that Oscar was an odd fellow, we have canonized many of his poems and words and novels and because of this we remember him. In aut…
Lake Geneva Farmer’s Market
It’s today, and every Thursday through October 28th. You should visit on a nice day. Like today.
South Lakeshore Drive Sells
The business of real estate bothers me. It bothers me quite a bit. From the first day of exposure to the business the agents are taught to b…
Bay Colony Sells
One of the things that’s fun about being in the same business in the same market for so long is that I get to see my own theories play…
Fall At The Lake
Well, that’s that. Summer is dead and gone. My dreams of enjoying it are left mostly unfulfilled, and I know it’s my own fault. …
New Buffalo AirBnB Ban
…A house with the possibility of an income stream will clearly sell for more than one without.
Jessica Lee and her husband, whom she ask
Circle Parkway Sells
Josh Altman and Josh Flagg are morons. There, someone said it. They’re absolute morons. Flagg is rich because his grandmother left him…
Lake Geneva Fall Market Conditions
It was January, I think. An active lakefront buyer client of mine decided to put the brakes on his lakefront home search. The vaccines were …
Back To School
I’ve been writing this blog with intent for twelve years. Twelve years ago, back to school meant something different to me. Twelve yea…
Dartmouth Woods Sells
You might have seen my 7 Dartmouth Woods listing and thought it was just a normal Dartmouth Woods house. This wouldn’t be your fault i…
Lake Geneva Market Discussion
This year, we’ve closed 14 lakefront homes priced in excess of $4.1M (and at least two more that I’m aware of that aren’t …
Seasonal Dysphoria
I really dislike the way I think. If it’s hot I like that, but I like cool better. When it’s cool I wish for it to be hot. If it…
Lake Geneva Market Conditions
When the sun is shining and the smoke has cleared and the market is ripping it’s easy to not care about the question that’s on o…
Just a Cottage
It was once only a dream. It was once a fantasy. Some day, maybe, but unattainable. Years passed and it become possible. A stretch, but poss…
Hillside Drive Sells
Just like the visor light in my car makes me look thin and the built-in camera on my iMac makes me look swarthy, this market is making me, a…
Of Lenders and Bubbles
I remember sitting at a closing in Elkhorn sometime in late 2008. The sale was of a condominium on the water, and it was a pricey one. The …
DJ’s In The Drink Pizza Review
Last Friday, I invited my family to fish fry. You might think that we do this often, being a fish eating Wisconsin family. But we don’…
Fair Oaks Sells
This property didn’t require too much of me. It won’t require too much of the new owner, either. I listed N1822 Fair Oaks at the…
Off White
Grass is green and the sky is off-white. This is what the children of summer will be tought. Even if we don’t teach them, they’l…
Hillside Drive
It should come as no surprise that our travels influence our sense of design and style. If I were to travel exclusively to Manitoba, Canada,…
Inflation
I have a friend who is remarkably smart. It bothers me that he’s so smart. Have a thought? It’s wrong. How could he know it̵…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
A few years ago, I stood with a buyer on a large piece of lakefront on the south shore while the buyer hemmed and hawed and kicked at the di…
The Same
I spent a few days this week in Beaver Creek. I enjoy Beaver Creek, largely because of its relatively unique mix of synthetic cleanliness s…
Lake Shore Sells
I always have the the same reaction anytime a house sells for full price in a matter of hours, and that is to assume that the home was price…
Dartmouth Woods
Here’s a dazzling lakefront home ideally situated between Williams Bay and Fontana along Fontana’s north shore. You’re goi…
Lakeview Sells
I started selling real estate in the summer of 1996. With all due respect to my young self, I see now that I had no idea what I was doing. T…
Challenged
In the early days of our town there was this town and some other nearby towns. None of the towns felt particularly connected, owed in large …
Walcowis Sells
There’s this road on the south side of the lake whose name generates some interesting commentary and even more interesting pronunciati…
Summer Homes For City People
There was a time when I really enjoyed putting this magazine together, or so says the faintest of memories. I printed this magazine for the …
Fair Oaks
I’ve said it often that I tend to offer lakefront buyers on Geneva a binary choice. They must either choose to have a nice lot with a bad ho…
Lake Geneva Realtors
In the business of real estate, there is a tremendous emphasis on the broker. The brand. The website and the signs. But at the same time, o…
Freedom?
If I were afflicted with both blindness and a rare condition that rendered my ability to sense temperature utterly and tragically useless, I…
RIP
Every person since the beginning of time has ended his or her life with one path or road that they traveled more than any other. There̵…
Limit
I’ve reached it. The limit. My limit. Our limit. The frost on my lawn and my breath stuck in the air, all of it is too much. Our taxe…
Fontana Club Sells
That didn’t last too long. It seems that buyers love the idea of a turn-key lakefront experience, without the typical turn-key lakefro…
Risk On
Since I dropped out of law school right before I applied, you shouldn’t consider anything I ever say to be legal advice. Ask your atto…
Bonnie Brae Sells
Something that isn’t well understood in our market is how the approach to your lake house might impact your property value. For instan…
Birches Sells
Of the surprises that 2020 whipped at our heads, I’d place the fact that I didn’t sell my N1963 Birches Drive listing near the v…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
I used to liken writing this blog to providing color commentary during a baseball game. A sharp line drive to the shortstop. The Cubs in the…
Fontana Club For Sale
Here’s a pretty incredible first floor, double unit at the Fontana Club. There’s nothing but level lawn between your lakefront r…
Southland Road Sells
If you’ve been in the market for a while, or you’ve spent time on the lake at some point during the past 25 years, there’s…
Wind
The wind kicked up again. It was calm two days ago, and calm the day before that. But then yesterday it picked up and today it’s stirr…
North Lakeshore Sells
It’s well known that 2021 buyers hate the Lake Geneva market. They hate it if they’re looking for a $300k lake access cottage, a…