I have never really been in a fight. I do remember tripping some kid once, but only after he tripped me. I also remember a friend of my older brothers forcing my head into his parents Cedar Point Park front lawn and making me eat grass. I’ve been in a few verbal fights, but those aren’t fights so much as they are experiments in heated vulgarity. I fought a lot with my brothers during my youth, but those skirmishes can’t be called real knock down fights. So I suppose I haven’t really been in a fight, and with my back failing me It’s likely a safe bet that I never will be.
Fighting a human foe I imagine is tough, but sort of fun. There’s the matching of strength and of wits, but mostly the matching of who landed a punch on the other guy’s glass chin first. You know what fights aren’t fun? The sort where you try to fight a comp. Your sweet, tender little house on XWY Street in Some Suburb, IL is really cute. We all agree on this. And it was, at one point, worth $750k. We were all impressed. And through those recent years, the price has tumbled some. Last month, the home across from you sold as did the one to your south. These homes sold for $400k. It will not be difficult for us to assume what your value is today, primarily because when fighting comparable sales the comp usually wins and you, glass chin and all, will lose.
When I sold a lot in the South Shore Club on Forest Hill last year, the $300k sales price was a shock to many senses, none more important than those senses shocked by the owners of the immediately adjacent lot. That lot tried its best to hold its head up high, to fight off the inevitable pull of that dastardly comp, but on a sunny day a couple weeks ago the concession was made. The sale price of the adjacent lot was not some remarkable sum. It didn’t successfully fight that comp bomb that I laid on Forest Rest last year. Instead, it sold for $310k, a sales price that reflected the damage that the singular comp from a year before had done.
There are other lots on Forest Hill that will likely need to face the music- the horrible, ear gutting, off-key music. By now you’re aware of the price shift that has occurred at the South Shore Club. It should be no surprise to you that the pricing shift came about at roughly the same time as I became involved with the representation of the Club. The quick lot run down goes as follows: There are no available vacant parcels north of the swimming pool. This is a positive for the Club and a positive for the existing real estate in this lakeside realm. There is one lot on Forest Hill, perhaps two, but these lots are priced within concern for those recent comps. That is a mistake, and it is is a mistake that will keep buyers far, far away.
Well not that far away, because lots on the south side of the pool are still available, and they are still beautiful. Perhaps the best two lots remaining in the South Shore Club are number 20 and 27. Both of those parcels just so happen to be listed by me, but I swear this is a strange coincidence. Lot 27 is likely the best lot left here. This lot combines the largest building pad (45 x 95) and a delightful position between two built homes. There is more space here, more room to stretch and reach and breathe. There is a lake view with this lot, and it is close enough to the pool but not so close that it might be bothered by any lingering pool revelers and the noise that they might cause.
The South Shore Club website has been revamped, complete with Geneva Lakefront Realty references throughout. With this new sale and one built home pending sale in the Club, I remain confident that 2012 will see at least one, probably two more home sales and at least one more vacant lot sale. The current strength in the lakefront market is sure to spill over into the South Shore Club, especially now that the pricing reflects such a serious discount. There was a time when real estate in the South Shore Club was priced to reflect a premium over the broader market. That time has come and gone. Today the prices at the SSC reflect a discount over the broader market, so instead of asking you to consider the club at a premium price, we’re asking that you consider it at a discounted price. It’s just like the South Shore Club of 2005, except we’re not fighting the market anymore, we’re making it.
South Shore Club pool photo courtesy Matt Mason Photography, a Lake Geneva wedding photographer.