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 of news in mind. Last week, I closed on Lot 3 in the South Shore Club. The sale at $360k represented a 20% appreciation from the time when the seller purchased that lot from me two years ago. The seller had planned to build but instead took advantage of another real estate opportunity elsewhere, which left this lot as the player without a chair. It had to go.
And go it did, somewhat quickly, and for that price that didn’t represent a financial gain for the seller but did represent a pricing gain for the South Shore Club. That lot sale proves that buyer interest is up, but that lot sale alone didn’t really drive that point home. The truth is, there have been four sales in the South Shore Club over the past 14 months. Those sales at $1.8MM, $2.5MM, $3.2MM, and $3.575MM do a thorough job at outlining the price structure at the South Shore Club, but moreover they prove the values of the select few remaining lots. Values that I think are on the verge of getting a whole lot better.
There are six developer owned lots left here, out of the original 40. Of those, the prices range from $699k to $990k. Lot 27 is also available, and that lot, tucked into the mature trees that ring the southern boundary of the most primary lakeside semi-circle, may be the best lot left in the entire club. The item of importance today isn’t necessarily the sale of lot 3. It isn’t necessarily the fact that the South Shore Club has never, ever looked better than it does today. And it isn’t the fact that as I write there are 8 boats, polished and gassed and waiting for whichever owner ended up making Monday the last day of their weekend. The action item of today is that the few remaining lots are ready to be sold. Like right now.
Without speaking on behalf of sellers’ that haven’t given me a price target, I am writing today out of speculation. I think the remaining lots are going to be sold at prices that even I would consider to be cheap, and I’m signaling the masses today that offers of all sorts, while they’ve always been welcome, are down right encouraged. If you have been toying with the idea of entering into the lakeside country club atmosphere of the South Shore Club, this is precisely the time to take your offer and whip it at the wall. I’ll bring lots of tape and see if I can make it stick.
And why wouldn’t we want to indulge in these last lots? The pricing structure was a mere concept 15 months ago. It was a theory, based solely on my opinion of the market there. Fast forward to this morning and that theory has become an undebatable fact, with a precise and accurate pricing structure starting at the lakefront and extending all the way back to Forest Hill where the tennis court and playground sit, on a day like today, in perfect condition just asking to be used. If buying in the South Shore Club before the spring of 2012 took a leap of faith, buying there now would be easy for even the most narrow minded housing agnostic.
There are showings in the South Shore Club today. There is a big open house in the works for a few weeks from now, but of all the times to wait on something this likely isn’t one of them. Consider making an aggressive play at one of these remaining homesites, and you just might be surprised to find just how willing the seller is to work with you.