I spent at least two hours last night on a ladder, or at least one half of a two piece extension ladder, my left pocket full of nails, my fingers smeared with ultra sticky Quad Series caulk, and a hammer perched precariously in the crook where the ladder met the wall. I was working, surrounded by a great cloud of mosquitoes. I was attempting to finish the shingle siding on the back of my house, an unfortunate lack of completion owed to the fact that I never go around to the back of my house to remind myself of my unfinished situation. Did I ever tell you about the time that I once framed the entire first floor of a house, by myself, in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, with no heater? The only reason I’m telling you these things is so that you know I’m not thoroughly lazy, because the following words are going to do their best to further that opposing assumption that I know you’ve already made. I’m not really lazy, I promise, but when it comes to me and you and walking to the lake, I’m as lazy as anyone has ever been in the history of lazy.
It’s this walking lazy that makes me work to sell homes based on location first, and finish second. If I’m coming to the lake, and my aim is to have a water based weekend, proximity to the water is my number one concern. Yes, this proximity matters even more than a boatslip. Blasphemy! Not really, just an understanding that I don’t need a boatslip to enjoy weekends in the appropriate manner, though I do need a boat. A buoy will suffice if I’m looking to be near the water, and I’m telling you right now that a home near the water with an available buoy will gather my interest faster than a home with a slip that might be further off the lake. This isn’t because I don’t like slips- I do- It’s just that I don’t like walking far to and from the lake. Again, not because I’m inherently lazy, but because I’m inherently distracted, and if I’m going to make it to the lake, I don’t like to have to commit to spending some extended amount of time there before I pack up my lake themed belongings and stagger the unabridged journey to my far away lake house. I want to walk to the lake and walk back to my house with ease, and without the assistance of a moped or an oxygen tank, and if I forget my sunglasses on the kitchen table, I don’t want to have to weigh whether or not the trek back to retrieve those sunglasses is worth the effort.
This proximity driven existence is one of the reasons that I abhor Michigan, with its high sandy cliffs that impede the ease by which I might saunter to and from the lake. Another serious problem with Michigan is that I know that when I walk to the lake, and descend down a flight of stairs that require me to stop and feign yawning so that I might pop my ears to adjust to the pressure change, there will be no pier waiting for me and no boat in a slip, or on a buoy, or otherwise. Michigan is a place for strange people who like to look at lakes and not use them, and it’s also for people who love sleeping in between sheets coated in sand. I am not one of those people, but that’s not what this post is about, even if all of my posts in some way or another seek to deride Michigan and render it obsolete in the minds of vacation loving Illinoisans. Lake Michigan water temperature last night? 71. Geneva Lake? 75. Eat it, Michigan.
The post today is about proximity, and the high value that should be placed on that defining characteristic of an ideal vacation home. In a hypothetical this morning, let’s pretend you’re looking for a Lake Geneva vacation home. This is a good first supposition. Now let’s say you’re looking to spend no more than $700,000, which is a nice number, but a number that our market can, at times, render annoyingly ineffective. If you’re going to go along with me on this journey, you must remember that a slip isn’t going to be an imperative, because we both know that a buoy will be nearly as good of a replacement, and in trading a transferable slip for a buoy we can increase our proximity, which is our true target. Remember, in this hypothetical, you’re lazy, as am I.
As I scan the recesses of my mind and the opportunities on the MLS, I see 19 single family homes priced under $725k that I would consider to be located within a reasonable walking distance to the lake. There are some others on this list, but this is my blog, and these are my ideas, so I get to randomly hack some listings out of the discussion if for no other reason than because I want to, and because I’m looking out for you. It must be noted that pretty much every lakefront condominium would be closer to the lake than any of these single family homes, with the exception of some at Vista Del Lago. It should also be obvious to everyone who looks at this available list that the Harvard Club is the king of lakefront proximity in this price range, and when you consider that the homes available have views and a transferable slip, well then the discussion and search might as well both be over in rapid succession. But let’s assume you don’t feel like paying cash, as the Harvard Club demands, and let’s look deeper into the available inventory.
My listing at 10 Liechty for $399k is awfully close to the lake, registering as potentially the next closest, along with a listing on Glenview and Wilmette in Williams Bay, the listing on Cain Lane in Wooddale and a newish listing on Walnut in Edgewater Terrace ($575k). The problem, as I see it, with Cain is that the path to the lake is far from direct, instead one winds around the home down a wooden ramp and through some woods to the lake. It’s quaint, sure, but it doesn’t fit my eye as nicely as some of the other association routes do. Beyond those first few in Harvard Club, Summerhaven and Cedar Point, the listing at 104 Lower Loch Vista ($324,900) might very well be the next best option, even if the walk is a bit beyond an amble and leaning closer to a jaunt. Even so, it’s terrific proximity at a ridiculously low price. Same goes for my listing at 68 Upper Loch Vista, a bit more money than 104 Lower, but much, much closer to the lake. So close that our jaunt may have just been reclassified as an amble, and anyone who has ambled to the lake on a sunny Saturday knows the value in such an activity.
Several of these homes have transferable slips, and if you must indulge your pre-programmed desire for a slip, the listing on Linden in Glenwood Springs would suit you just fine as it combines both outstanding proximity and a private pier (not just a slip, but an actual real live white pier). A humble listing on Agaming in Indian Hills and another on Elm in Glenwood both have considerable proximity and a slip, but those slips are just one time transfers, so only buy there if you intend to keep the vacation home for a long time (as in generations). The Agaming listing brings to light another interesting aspect of proximity, and that is in the difference between proximity identified “as the crow flies”, and in actual proximity.
We are not crows. We do not fly, and we mustn’t trespass either. Many times, with many vacation homes that appear close to the lake on a map, the actual access is down the road and around that house and down those stairs, past the blue house, then left by the Lilac tree, to the lake. If you went as far as the white picket fence, you obviously went too far. These distracted routes to the lake are annoying at best, and they render many homes with assumed proximity to be far out of the discussion when you consider the actual path to the lake. Several of the “close” homes in Geneva Manor have this problem, as does the Agaming listing and others. My Oak Shores listing (slip, $710k) is rare, and offers pleasing proximity, but there is a jog in the road that might make using the included golf cart a slightly better idea. Just remember to not only view the map when considering a vacation home, but consult your agent (should be me) as to the actual route that you’d take as you travel to and from the lake and back again.
To search for a vacation home at Lake Geneva is to have made your fine taste and heavenly discernment obvious. But to search only for a home with a slip and in the process disregard proximity would be a mistake. If I were to line up the tangibles that I seek in a perfect vacation home, it’s proximity to the head of the line, followed closely by the quality of the association; whether or not I have a slip or am relegated to a buoy is of little concern of mine. Seek out the amble, and you’ll be rewarded with the Lake Geneva weekends that should, by now, be crowding your dreams.