Christmas Trees

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In the 1980s, Christmas trees were not especially easy to find. They had trees at the wood boat shop on Highway 50, and then some more trees a ways down … Read more

Ready For Sale

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I’d like to think, after twenty years in this chair, that I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen sellers and buyers of all makes and models, the good, the bad, and … Read more

Ski Towns

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When you grow up in the Midwest, you are taught certain things. You are taught that the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings or the Detroit Lions … Read more

Winter Rules

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It was fall on Saturday and winter on Sunday. It’s winter today, and it’ll be winter tomorrow. In fact, the odds are stacked heavily in favor of it being winter … Read more

Go Kart Track

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You’ve likely already read the article. Lake Geneva Mansions Are Having A Year.  Crain’s likes to talk about Lake Geneva, but only sometimes. That’s because the Crain family is from … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

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I’ve written it often. So often, in fact, that it probably doesn’t seem like I’ve written it at all. It’s about perspective, this life of ours. It’s about perspective gained … Read more

Small

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When I first drove to the Driftless, I didn’t know what it was, or where it was, or anything else about it. I knew only what I had been told, … Read more

The Rent

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I’m staring out my office window at an automotive repair shop. This shop just opened, even though the sign says Opening Soon. Will that sign be replaced with a Now Open sign? … Read more

About Your Agent

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The business of listing homes is a curious one. If we were going about this business of finding a broker and an agent, we’d assume we’d look at our options … Read more

W

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My older brother had, and likely has to this day, the largest Mark Grace baseball card collection ever assembled. I believed the Cubs when they said Jerome Walton was the … Read more

Gloom

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Both of my grandmothers are now dead. They’ve both been dead for a while. My Grandma May didn’t complain about much, or if she did she didn’t see fit to … Read more

Habits

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The magazines are stacked in my den, stacked in my living room, stacked in my office. Some, still, are pushed under the back seats of my cars, those magazines that … Read more

Temptation

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As I understand it, Door County is a place where you go because you want to eat cherries while spending the better part of a full day searching for a … Read more

Steady

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Anxiety is a common affliction in the real estate world. Those not living in this world cannot fathom what might be so difficult about making buckets full of money while … Read more

Car Shopping

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I need a new car. My car is older now, though if you saw it just after a washing and you were standing some slight distance from it you’d be … Read more

Sail Lake Geneva Wisconsin

Regrets

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I like to brag about certain things. For instance, I have a black SuperJet and there’s very little chance that you do as well. I have one, you don’t. It’s … Read more

October Drive

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The Saab 900 was gunmetal gray. The roads were straight, the path clear. North. That’s all I needed to do, bearing East when possible, but mostly just North. The Saab … Read more

Market Timing

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Earlier this year, I wrote an email to an owner of vacant lot. I told him should be be interested in selling, there was a likely premium awaiting him. He … Read more

To Farm

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The tractor is more important than everything else. The barn matters some, but not so much that you’d particularly miss it if you didn’t have it. The gravel driveway needs tending … Read more

North Lakeshore Sells

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Sometimes, there’s not much to write. There’s a seller and a buyer and they get along and they’re both honorable and they complete a transaction. Sometimes, the house is perfect, … Read more

Walworth County

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There’s a problem in Walworth County. It isn’t that our fields are lush and our lakes wet.  It’s not that our towns are busy and our streets are clean and … Read more

Inventory Alert

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What we need now is something to sell. We’ve sold it all. We had a basketful of things, some with deplorable structures, others with superlative structures, and then we’ve spent … Read more

700 South Lakeshore

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There are homes that you know. Stone Manor. You know this place. You know the Driehaus property and the Wrigley cottages. You know where the Pritzker’s live at their Casa. … Read more

Loramoor Sells

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It seems to me that what this lakefront market really wants is newer inventory in the $3-5MM range. There are buyers in that range seeking newer homes on reasonably nice … Read more

Rain

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There’s a front to the north and it’s high and it’s deep and it’s dark and it’s nearly here. I can see it from this window, and I saw it … Read more

Normalcy

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The vacation is over. It wasn’t all week, it was just two days. Maybe three, if you count the last day. There were fish caught and steaks eaten. Devoured, really. … Read more

To Vacation

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I have now, rather unfortunately, decided that I don’t know what it would be like to take a vacation. I don’t understand the concept, not in the least. In the … Read more

Eternal Summer

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In the middle of my living room is a large fireplace. It’s made of bricks and stone, mortar and sweat. Next to the fireplace there’s a basket of sorts, a … Read more

Boat Lake Michigan?

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I often wonder what the connection is between the Chicago Tribune and the state of Michigan. Is it simply that the Tribune is a newspaper in Chicago and Michigan is … Read more

Pleasant View

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When you see a wolf, it’s best to tell someone. See something, say something, they always say. That’s why that little boy cried Wolf! Except that he didn’t actually see … Read more

Summer

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I remember the days when I would travel to the country to our north and engage my distant relatives-in-law in debate. I argued once against their odd brand of socialism by using … Read more

Sunday Shoppers

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The grocery store on a Friday night is busy. It’s always busy then. The parking lot filled to capacity, the shopping carts all in use. The carts with the wobbly … Read more

Wisconsin flowers

It’s Time

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It’s a bit embarrassing for me to admit this. I didn’t do it on purpose, nor did I expect such an incredible, showy display. I didn’t mean for this to … Read more

Pursuits

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I lived in Geneva National for a while. In a few different places, at a few different times, with a few different goals in mind. I lived in a house, … Read more

Pikewood

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Freshly under contract, here’s a tour of this magnificent property on Geneva’s north shore.   https://youtu.be/BwTVZ6DiTBc

The Ash

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The oldest man with some knowledge of trees died 11 years ago. Other men lived longer, but those men didn’t know anything about trees when they were younger and for … Read more

Woodhill

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https://youtu.be/bA2iU_Vo07M  

Categories Uncategorized

Swimming Pools

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I’m old enough to remember when owning a swimming pool was a bad thing. It was a liability, that pool. If a seller had one, the Realtor would exclaim, what … Read more

Affordable Lake Geneva

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Take to the highways and county roads this summer and you’ll notice plenty of things. You’ll notice that semi drivers often change lanes with relatively little warning, which is especially … Read more

Rabbit

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My dog eats rabbits. He hears them in the grass. He smells them on the air. He sleeps at night and dreams of rabbits and then he wakes up and he … Read more

Staycation Madness

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In life, much of our time and energy is spent justifying our established positions. If I’m a Democrat, I spend some energy defending my positions, no matter whether or not … Read more

Home Improvement

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The seller had a tree in her yard that had died many years ago. The tree first lost its leaves. Then it lost some branches, and then, some bark. The … Read more

Manhattan

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I generally agree with the concept that what happens on the coasts will someday find its way to Lake Geneva. This is the case with both good and bad. New … Read more

Bits and Pieces

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I’ve decided to change the major theme of my magazine. Instead of Summer Homes For City People being a Lake Geneva lifestyle magazine that features writing from yours truly and … Read more

Boxed and Burlap

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I was in Chicago Wednesday. It was a crisp spring day, the sky and water in a matching shade. The city, when viewed from the approaching interstate, no matter which … Read more

Lakewood Estates

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I was the first broker to try my hand at selling the new Harbor Watch condominiums on downtown Lake Geneva’s waterfront.  I believe the year was 2002, because I was … Read more

Spring

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Spring started a couple of months ago. I guess it was in March. March is when spring starts, the calendar says. Before that, it’s winter. And when spring ends, it’ll … Read more

South Shore Club Lot

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Increasingly, buyers build what they want, where they want, oblivious, either ignorantly or happily so, to the fact that their build is pricing them right out of the market they’ve … Read more

Sail Lake Geneva Wisconsin

Trust Fall

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A sudden twinge of pain. A shallow breath. A pain here, another there. The symptoms of something, but of what? A quick google search reveals what you already suspected. You’re … Read more

A Walk

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I walk these woods. Those woods. New woods and old woods. Your woods and my woods.  I walk them all. I walk them in the rain. My mood on pause. … Read more

New Ideas

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I can’t imagine a life where I am forced to sell terrible real estate. Real estate itself, the business, is bad enough, but if I were forced to sell things … Read more

Instant Summer

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As I understand it, when the temperature drops in Florida panic ensues. Someone rushes to the store to buy supplies. Another person hurries out to throw blankets on the orange … Read more

Sellers, Wake Up

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I suppose we all pick and choose. We pick the data that supports our positions, whether the decisions involve personal choices or business decisions. We pick the favorable bits, discard the … Read more

Ski Granite Peak Wausau

Ski

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I’ve been sitting at this desk for 20 minutes and I can’t think about anything to write about. Not a single thing. Part of the problem is that I’m tired. … Read more

Just A Dusting

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It’s snowing again. And the coffee tasted the same. The man at the corner with the portable Stop sign waved, but he didn’t want to. The FREE AIR at the … Read more

Woodhill

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By now, everyone knows Basswood. It’s a street on the lake, or it’s the street on the lake, either position is acceptable though the latter is preferred. On a  lake … Read more