I don’t think anyone really wants to be uncomfortable in their own vacation home. Sure, some vacation home ideals find us tucked away in a primitive cabin, far away from the noises of a city or the struggles of our own realities, but do we picture that cabin and imagine it to be uncomfortable? Other dream scenarios place us in small white painted cottages, screen doors on two ends and a screened porch on the front, wooden floors throughout and cramped quarters that make for cozy lakeside living. But is this an uncomfortable vision? Generally no, which is proof again that while we want to vacation and we want to get in touch with our more laid back side, we rarely wish to do so while suffering even the slightest inconvenience.
This is why we buy nice vacation homes here. Some buy old homes, others new ones, and some choose location first and everything else second. Generally, if our budget has a ceiling, we must choose between the things we truly value. Do we want a boat slip? A view? Easy proximity to the lake? Are we tied to one section of the lake that we value, for one reason or several others, more than the other sections? Or do the lake rights matter little, and what matters most is a large kitchen and easy entertaining space with a fireplace and an outdoor patio and a bluestone entrance? If we’re at Lake Geneva, we can almost always find all of those things, but the price can escalate as our individual wants turn into collective needs. That’s why I just sold a house in Shore Haven to a lovely couple from the Western suburbs.
At the $795k list price, the home at N1505 Shore Haven was a home that combined several elusive elements. It was on the South Shore, a desirable stretch of it, and while the home was far away from the lake, on that street the definition of far away changes when the street starts at South Lakeshore and dead ends into a big blue lake. The location was ideal, the slip transferable, the setting rather idyllic- even on a miserable day in March. But for the slip and the location and the superlatives that others used to describe the association itself, the rarity of this home was obvious in the condition, and the finishes. The home was renovated a few years ago, and was now complete with attractive exteriors, perfected landscaping, and the sorts of higher end attributes that seldom present themselves in our lake access market at this price range.
The buyer recognized the elevated finishes, and we offered, we countered, we negotiated, and we bought. When the property closed on Monday for $750k, the buyer neither stole the house nor was fleeced by the seller. The price paid was an accurate market price for a home that can boast several advantages over most of its equivalent comparables. As we sat at the closing, shuffling documents and talking about the summer that will, some day, come, I tried my best to remind that buyer, and now to remind you, that the true magic of a Lake Geneva vacation home rarely has anything to do with the house itself. This is what buyers find hard to imagine.
It’s true that we want to surround ourselves with luxury, which is why we pick and choose through inventory and lock in on the one that most fits our eye, but the simple, forgotten truth is that the experience of Lake Geneva has very, very little to do with the home you choose. It’s important to be comfortable, but it’s a safe assumption that if you’re looking for a Lake Geneva vacation home you already own at least one comfortable, nice home. This is why when we come to the lake we cannot fall into the trap of simply looking for luxury, wherever it may be, and we must, instead, focus on the lifestyle that we’re seeking. Nice homes are nice, but do they really change our lives?
Not really. If they do, then your life was likely miserable to begin with and your malaise is the strange variety that can be cured by nicely tiled showers and Fire Magic grills. The real reason we’re coming to the lake is to live as lake people live. To wake on a weekend morning and think first of our boat and our pier, and think second about how nice it is to walk on our shiny hardwood floors. The first thought should be to wonder if the lake is calm enough to fish on or ski over, rather than walking to the bedroom door and complimenting yourself on your fine choice in Emtek hardware. The idea of a lake home is powerful, and the allure equally so, but we cannot get so caught up in the structure we choose that we forget about the entire reason we’ve traveled North and a little East in the first place.
To the buyer of the Shore Haven home, a big congratulations is in order. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have helped, and I’m hopeful you’ll remember this simple advice: Use this new house. Don’t just use it when it’s convenient. Don’t just use it when it’s sunny out. Use it on Fridays in March and on Fridays in July, and use it on a Wednesday afternoon when the sun is too bright to even contemplate work. Commit to the house and to the lake, and you’ll find that a year or two from now that this was likely one of the best decisions you ever made.