Blog : Loramoor

Black Point Sells
David Curry

Black Point Sells

One of the many benefits of this strong vacation home market is that I get to test my theories on a daily basis. These theories were first penned when the market was in rough shape, which was just a few years ago in reality but so much farther away in the minds of 2018 buyers. The theory relating to the off-water lake access market over $1MM was simple. If lakefront homes were plentiful in the $1-2MM range, then off-water homes in same range would suffer. Why buy off water when the same price put you in the front row? In the same way, if $1-2MM lakefront homes were scarce, then off-water homes in the range would attract buyers. Lake Geneva real estate can be quite simple.

Simple as it may be, the theory was difficult for many off-water sellers to understand. During those dark years, most off-water homes that sought to capture a $1-1.5MM sales price ultimately languished on the market and fell victim to the price erosion that is a hallmark of lengthy market exposure. Most of those homes ended up selling, but rather than finding buyers in that $1MM+ range, most of these homes sold between $900k and $1MM. Buyers rejoiced, sellers wept.

Over time the entry level lakefront inventory dried up, leaving available only true cottages on small lots in modest settings. As that inventory shrunk, buyers turned their attention to the off-water homes that meant something. A slip, a view, a pool, some privacy. Maybe a combination of all of those. In the fall of 2016, I printed the sale in Loramoor for $1.625MM. Then another sale in Glenwood Springs for $1.1MM. Then, in 2017, a super high priced print with no slip in Oakwood Estates north of $1.2MM.  In 2017, another in Maytag Estates in the same range. Then a sale in Fontana north of $1.3MM. The market was moving, and buyers were once again looking for off-water properties simply because the on-water options were so scarce.

Last month, a new offering in this range. This one on Southland, or Black Point, as the tax records would show. $1.699MM for a few acres of wooded bliss, some terrain, a pool and a slip, a large home with pedigree, outbuildings and more. This was a property that the market rarely offers, mostly because it has no true rival. There are locations where off water homes will sell upwards and north of $2MM, but those associations are rare and historically light on inventory. The Lindens, Black Point, The 700 Club, Loramoor, Glen Fern. These are the rare associations, made that way by decades of low inventory and highly polished homes. These are the associations that matter to this segment, and this particular home was among the most rare inside even unique settings.

That’s why a buyer whom I was pleased to represent jumped. We closed on the house last week for full price, which is nothing to be ashamed of. In this context, full price was required, and full price was still less than the seller had paid for the home in the fall of 2011 when the market was in awful condition.  To further prove the strength of this off-water market, consider the home that would come to market just a few weeks ago in the 700 Club. That home hit the MLS at $1.495MM and promptly received multiple offers before finally settling at a contracted price that is rumored to be far over the ask. The market doesn’t always love off-water homes over $1.5MM, but if you give the market something unique in a highly desirable setting, the buyers will find it.

To this buyer who let me guide them through this curious segment of our vacation home market, I thank you. There’s an opportunity at this property to transform it into something without equal in our market, and I’m hopeful that the end reality matches your unique and exciting vision.

Loramoor Sells
David Curry

Loramoor Sells

Most of the players in this game are endless and unflappable cheerleaders.  I did this! They say. I’m amazing! Others chime. Such is the business of self promotion. Without this promotion, no one would know anything about any of these players.  Aside from a news article once in a while, no one will spend much time considering your success. In the real business world, this is fine. To quietly go about mining dollars is the preferred way, but alas, the rules of this game do not allow quiet success.

I engage in this self congratulation often. I write this blog to educate and entertain, but also to make sure the reader knows which player in this game is indeed the most meaningful.  Heck, I write a whole magazine dedicated to this market, and as a fortunate aside, this player. Some pose with their real estate signs as though they’re prom dates, others plaster their names on their cars, while others still want to watch you while you grocery shop. No matter the platform, we’re just playing by the rules.

But sometimes, there’s no praise to be given, no praise to be asked for. There’s just a sale and a seller and a buyer, and that’s that. This is what happened last week when I finally closed on my aged listing off of South Lakeshore Drive. I first listed this home two years ago, and throughout that time I asked for listing extensions and price reductions more than I’d like to admit. I worked to sell this house, and ultimately I did sell this house, but I did a miserable job at it.

The market is, by all accounts, back to the prior market peak. In many instances, prices have pushed above that peak. Now consider this house that I just sold. It previously sold during the prior market escalation for $1.5MM and change. I just closed on it last week for $925k. That’s a terrible thing, and while I feel relieved that the property is no longer on the market, I know I was rather unsuccessful in selling this home.

The issue with the home was a complicated one. It wasn’t one issue at all, really. It was the perfect storm of trouble. First, a high prior print to chase. Second, an initial and subsequent list price (with another broker, by the way) that was sky high. After that initial list, the market was lost and the owner spent the next several years chasing buyers in the only way that actually makes a material difference: price reductions.  By the time I took over the market had written the property off, and while I thought I might be able to put some shine on the listing I ultimately failed at doing so. The price of $925k was a reasonable market price, but in this case, the buyer won.

I closed on another property last week, also somewhat of an aged piece of inventory. This was my vacant land listing in Loramoor. The lot was quite lovely, just one home from the water with slight views and proper lake rights through the East Loramoor Association. That lot was on the market for a year or two before closing last week for $625k.  In this market, that sale makes perfect sense. It was a nice market rate, with seller and buyer both doing well for themselves. Why would a buyer buy a home in a cottage neighborhood only to significantly renovate or rebuild it, when they could buy this lot in a high end neighborhood and be surrounded by high priced homes? Expect a new home to be built there soon, one that will likely make proper market sense.

These sales prove one important thing about the state of our market. As the lakefront inventory dries up (the lowest priced true lakefront home available today is my listing on Bluff for $2.145MM), buyers will look off water for reasonable values. If the cheapest lakefront is $2.1MM, it only makes sense that buyers in the low buck range will seek alternatives to sparse lakefront inventory. Expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future, as off-water homes in the $900-$1.7MM range find favor with inventory hungry buyers.

Geneva Lakefront Market Update
David Curry

Geneva Lakefront Market Update

This market has a way about it.  Sometimes the market feels slow to me. It feels sluggish, lifeless. It feels as though the last seller has sold and the last buyer has bought, and the rest of the days we’ll just while away, wishing for the way it was. It feels as though we’ve done everything that we were going to do. We’ve sold the last big house. Sold the last lot. Sold the last cheap house. It feels as thought we’ve run out of tricks. And then a new week begins and the market proves why it is the single most robust vacation home market in the entire Midwest.

This week was one of those weeks. New contracts flying. New listings selling. A fresh contract on my lakefront home in the South Shore Club ($4.595MM). A fresh contract on a baseball player’s house ($4.995) in Fontana. A new contract on an entry level house ($1.195MM).  I wrote on that house earlier this week on behalf of a buyer, only to be told the house had just the day before gone under contract. A listing on 68′ in Lake Geneva for $1.799MM, under contract within 24 hours of hitting the open market. A contract on a spec home in Cedar Point ($3.85MM). Two more contracts are still pending,  those on my listing on Jerseyhurst ($2.895MM), and a lakefront in Knollwood ($3.325MM). The market, just when it seemed as though the summer lull was taking hold, has surged.

Of the 28 lakefront homes available today, 7 are pending sale, leaving just 21 available homes.  Lest you think all of the good homes are sold, consider that there’s still a lakefront home available on Geneva Lake priced under $1MM.  We’re going to run out of those homes someday, so if you have vision, it’s time to snap up this remaining bit of aged, cheap inventory. My listing in the Elgin Club ($1.975MM) has no reason to be available today. It should be sold. Perhaps I’m not very good at this game, because I’m failing on that house. It’s a large house on 50′ of level frontage with private pier and fantastic features, and it’s available today.  You should come see it this weekend. My listing in Fontana for $3.2MM is turn key perfection. My Loramoor lakefront for $5.995MM couldn’t be replicated for the price it’ll sell for. The market might be active, but there is value still to be discovered.

Aged inventory has a way of weighing heavily here, and today there is still plenty of it. There are properties entering their second autumn on market, and those homes, in spite of the market conditions, appear ripe to sell right. Let’s go look at those together. Let’s revisit the things the market has passed up time and time again. And let’s be first in line for the new offerings that are bound to make their way to market this fall. Remember, September is only fall in our minds, it’s still summer on our skin.  For now, let’s rejoice in the summer that we’ve had. Let’s be proud of this market, and of the recent spate of sales that will let 2017 be our sixth fantastic year in a row. And let’s realize that in spite of all this activity, there are still deals to be had. Here’s to this place. Here’s to us. Here’s to the last Labor Day weekend you’re ever going to have to spend in the city.

Whispering Oaks
David Curry

Whispering Oaks

What is it that makes a lakeside property desirable? Is it the view?  That has to be some of it. Any nice house on any lot is fine, but a nice house with a view is something different. It’s something unique. We can have a nice house in the suburbs, and that’s okay. But what is that house looking towards? What is it surrounded by? More nice houses, I’d guess. Each with a landscape unique but similar, each with some hydrangeas in bloom and a burning bush waiting its turn.  The view of a lake house, now that’s something unique. That’s something special. But is every view as good as the other? Is a lake view on the east shore of Williams Bay the same as a lake view from the west shore of Lake Geneva?

Beyond the view, what is it that makes a house something else? What makes it something more?  We could buy a small lot right now on Geneva Lake for $900k.  The lot would be fine for our lakefront endeavors. We could swim and boat, we could sit by the fire pit and toast marshmallows.  But is an entry level lot with a nice house on it the same as a nice house on a large lot? Is the enjoyment the same? Well, in that, the answer is a resounding sorta. But the larger lot offers more opportunity, more driveway, more perennials, more lawn to run over and patio to lounge on. While nice houses are the same everywhere, the two things that make or break a lakefront house on this lake, or on any lake, are simply the property and the view. On this lake, the distinction between the desirable and undesirable properties is sometimes nuanced, but usually quite obvious.

There’s a house in Lake Geneva on a hill with 140 or so feet of frontage on Geneva Lake. The house sits high on a hill, with ample views looking long down the lake towards the west. This is nice. But is 140′ on a hill as desirable as 126′ worth of level property? If you think the answer is yes, then we’re going to need to sit down and have a deep and honest discussion about frontage. In the same way, is a property next to an association worth the same as a property next to other single family lakefronts? Is a property with an easement for this and an easement for that as valuable as a property with no entanglements?  If we’re looking for lakefront, shouldn’t we look for a nice house, yes, but moreover for a nice lot with level frontage and a deep landscaped lot without any of these annoying easements for access or driveway or something that benefits a neighbor?

Whispering Oaks is a house you might know. There are few homes with log accents on Geneva Lake, and this is one of them. This is also the newest of those existing homes. It was built in 1999 by the current owner, and built to the highest of construction standards. Were an architect called for wood bracing, steal was used. When an asphalt roof would have done just fine, a clay tile roof was installed. Where traditional insulation would have performed okay, fire retardant insulation was used.  An electrical service is an electrical service, until a contractor builds his lakefront dream house- then commercial grade transfer boxes and electrical panels are installed.  Most houses on this lake look nice on the outside, that’s not such a special trick.  What’s unique here is the quality of the construction that you cannot see.

But what you can see is pretty special as well. The great room is massive, anchored on one end by a Montana stone fireplace, and accented with 18″ Canadian Spruce. The windows are something else altogether, huge and wide and tall, showcasing that dynamic view of the lake, from the Lake Geneva Country Club north to the Narrows and east all the way to downtown Lake Geneva. The views on the street side capture the 1.15 acres of perennial gardens, and offers a peek of the Chicago granite driveway that winds from Loramoor Drive.   On the other end of this great room, the open kitchen, with custom cabinetry, and the Viking and Sub-Zero appliances you’d expect. On the main level a three car garage, full laundry room, guest bedroom with bath, and billiard room complete the design. A sprawling stone patio extends the width of the home, offering a robust buit-in grill, fire pit, nightly sunset views, and easy access to 126′ of level frontage.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms, two on the lakeside with private decks, including the master suite with masonry fireplace. The lower level is wide open, a rec room of epic proportions.  In total, we have more than 8000 square feet of well maintained living space. The pier, in case you didn’t notice, is absolutely beautiful, perfectly built for lakeside fun. The outdoor shower is a family favorite, and if you’ve ever taken a cold water outdoor shower you’ll like this shower quite a bit- it’s plumbed to a hot water line in the house- so your last cold shower is in the past.

If you’re in the market for a lake house. Let me show you Whispering Oaks. It’s a terrific lake house, but unlike many terrific lake houses on the market, this one is on the right lot, in the right location, with the right views.  $5,995,000.

Loramoor Opportunity
David Curry

Loramoor Opportunity

On Monday, I said goodbye to an old friend. I met this friend when I was ten, maybe twelve, sometime around then. This friend was with me through it all, through the good times and through the bad.  We ate together, we laughed together, we chewed steak together.  Alas, this relationship wasn’t meant to last, and on Monday it ended.  It was one of my very favorite teeth, one way in the back, one that I used often. There was no tooth better. But on Monday it was unceremoniously yanked from the back of my mouth and I barely had time to say goodbye. That’s why I didn’t write on Monday.

But today is Wednesday and I’m over that weak tooth. Today is about Loramoor, and about decisions, both good and bad. Like all that candy I ate when I was a kid, and the dentist who decided to drill out every last bit of that poor, deceased tooth.  Today is about the decision to buy a tear down and build yourself a brand spanking new lake house. What a wonderful thing, this new house. It’ll be large enough and fancy enough; it’ll be perfect. You’re not one to live in someone else’s house, you’re the sort that wants your own house, with your own stamp of style and taste. I cannot blame you, as I, too, have built new homes and enjoy nearly everything about living in a new house.

Over recent years, this building boom has touched every bit of our vacation home market. The tear downs that make the most sense are on the lakefront, of course, where properties can be bought with regularity for land value. New construction on the lake makes sense most of the time, but for every two tear downs that make sense there is one that doesn’t. Tear down a house on 100′ of frontage and build new for $2MM or so? Usually a great idea, depending on the location of those 100 feet.  Pay $1.5MM for a house on 50′ of frontage and tear that down? Not usually all that smart. Off water, the same sorts of mistakes are made. Buy a cottage in Knollwood up the road from the lake for $300k and tear it down? Terrible idea, unless you’re looking to stay put for most of eternity.

But the segment that is most interesting when it relates to tear downs is the mid-market of lake access homes with boat slips. It’s not uncommon for a buyer to pay $400-600k for a house in a neighborhood like the Lake Geneva Club, or Hunt Club Lane, or Glenwood Springs, and then tear the house down. In fact, it happens with some frequency. A home on Hunt Club Lane sold in 2013 for $659k. It was a unique house, odd really, with an acre and a half of land and a boat slip.  The lot was not especially close to the lake. That buyer tore the house down and built new, effectively paying $659k plus demolition cost for a vacant lot.

This is one example of a phenomenon that occurs all over this lake, and it’s occurring more and more now that the market is high on buyers and low on inventory. Even the homes that aren’t entirely razed are generally the recipient of some form of major renovation. That’s why the new listing I have in Loramoor makes complete and utter sense. My newest listing is a level vacant lot measuring just under one acre in size, with a transferable boat slip in East Loramoor, a slight lake view, and a location on Loramoor’s dead end lane.  As opposed to the Hunt Club property that was far from the water, this lot is one off the lake (see map above). The asking price is $750k, no demolition required.

On the lakefront in Loramoor, I sold a beautiful lot last fall for $2.075MM. That lot will host an incredible new home this summer. Three doors to the West of my new listing is the old Loramoor stable house. This house was in poor condition for years until an enterprising buyer purchased it and fixed it up. That home is now for sale in the mid $1MMs.  I sold the house at W3036 South Lakeshore last fall for $1.625MM, that with a slip in Loramoor, three acres and a pool. The market context for this Loramoor listing is complete and it’s thorough and it proves that high valuations can and do exist here.

You could purchase a home in Shore Haven for $500k and tear it down. You could. People have. But what you’d be doing is building new in a neighborhood that has a cap of around $850k.  The same is true for the Hunt Club example. It’s rare to have a lake access neighborhood support built value to the mid and upper $1s, but that’s exactly what Loramoor offers. Consider this lot. Consider a new home, built near the water with a slip and a swimming pool and a most exclusive address.  It makes solid market sense, and it’s available today.

Veteran’s Day
David Curry

Veteran’s Day

I grew up in Williams Bay.  I remember my older brother wore black in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected. No one cared that he did that, because he wore black and he went to school and then he went home and he mowed a few lawns. That was his protest. In 2010 when Scott Walker was elected Governor of Wisconsin, I drove to a small bar on the North Shore of Delavan Lake and ate some cheese curds with a friend. This was our celebration. The next day, I woke up and went to work.

This week, a new president.  A peaceful transition of power now underway, in spite of the protests of those whose protest is akin to marching with angry shouts towards the sky, decrying the clouds.  I am optimistic for our country, just as I was optimistic after every presidential election of my adult life. Maybe things will change, maybe they’ll stay the same, maybe the government will spend a little less time in my business and more time letting me go about it. Maybe things will be the better or stay the same, maybe the kids who protest will do as I’ve always done.  Wake up, brush my teeth, shower, and put my head down in hopes of accomplishing something.

Will this election somehow skew our real estate market? Will it turn a good thing bad?  There’s no way to know that, but I cannot see how a free-market thinking president will spoil a solid run in the luxury real estate market. Will there be pause in our markets one of these days? Sure. Would that pause occur no matter who was elected last Tuesday? Of course. For now, I look for a stable stock market, and excepting the after-hours trading Tuesday night,  we’ve had just that. I look for fiscal policy that attempts to reign in spending, and we theoretically have that in aim.  Will some Lake Geneva revelers be sad over this election? Yes. Will some be happy? Yes. Will the water still be clear and the sky blue and the market prized for its remarkable strength? Duh.

This week, two closings. One at Stone Manor. The ground floor unit at Stone Manor, the unit that I first listed two years ago, has closed. The price for all those square feet in that building that Otto Young built? $5.995MM.  I assume that sale is now the most expensive condominium to ever sell in the state of Wisconsin. But that’s an assumption because I don’t particularly care if it is, or it isn’t. It’s a terrific sale for the lake and a terrific sale for the owner of that iconic unit. I was pleased to represent that family in the process.

Another closing, that of my large off-water listing in Loramoor. $1.625MM was the print for that large parcel with boatslip, swimming pool, auxiliary garage, and loads of square footage. That was a rare offering in this market, the unique off-water home that plays like a small estate but still offers the owner lake access and a slip on Geneva. It’s a nice sale, and I was happy to be involved.  As a staggering aside, those sales have pushed my 2016 sales volume to nearly $49MM, a total that represents an all-time annual high for Walworth County. The next closest “competitor” has tallied just over half of that total. It’s humbling and unexpected, and I’m not dumb enough to think I’d be in this strata if not for my clients and customers who trust me with their Lake Geneva moves.  I enjoyed playing the underdog so much I’m not certain how to react to the blessings of this year, but I think I’ll just keep my head down and work.

Finally, Veteran’s Day.  A sincere thank you to every veteran who has ever served. It’s a sacrifice that I didn’t make, and a sacrifice that very few I know have made.  The only sacrifice I made this week was in ordering a John Deere Gator and NOT opting for the front storage rack.  I’m thankful for those who have bled and died so that I can worry about selling condos at Stone Manor, and worry about boatslips and association rules and limited inventory. What a pitiful list of things to worry about. Thank you to our veterans who gave their time and their lives so that college kids can weep in the street and so this kid can pursue his dreams in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

Loramoor Sells
David Curry

Loramoor Sells

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 lots, and this is what they haven’t been able to find. My sale on Lackey Lane  ($4.375MM) fit that mold. The sale last year on the hill in Fontana for $5.1MM, too. Those sorts of homes are what the market wishes for, and yet that sort of home is what we haven’t been able to offer. Inventory concerns are real, and on Geneva right now the ideal inventory is what I’m describing today.

The curious part of this hole in the inventory is that the inventory has existed, but it hasn’t been built. It’s raw land, or it’s a tear down, but it does exist and it has existed for much of the past two years. There were two sales on Sidney Smith, then a sale on Lackey (of a tear down). Then, the vacant lot in Loramoor that I sold less than two years ago came back to market earlier this year. The key to building a new house and being all-in for less than $4.5MM is in buying the dirt for around $2MM. If the dirt is more, your budget is blown before you put a shovel in the ground. If the dirt is considerably less, you don’t have the sort of property that can support that elevated target price, no matter how shiny your Wolf oven is.

This is why when a buyer asks for an entry level tear down, I question the math of it all. Yes, it’s true that you can buy an entry level tear down somewhere around $1.1MM right now. But what have you bought? Likely the answer is around 50′ of frontage. That’s nice frontage, and if you wanted to buy a tear down for $1.1MM and build a new house for $700k, that might be a good idea. But what if you’re looking to buy $1.1MM dirt and then build a $1.4MM new house (5000 square feet x $300ish/ft)? Then you’ll be $2.5MM into a 50′ lakefront lot and again, I’m not concerned about how terrific your kitchen island is because that price doesn’t make much sense. The investment was a bad idea before it started.

That’s why the market has a sweet spot, that of a $2MM type lakefront lot possessing around 100′ of frontage, and on top of that it’s reasonable to build a $2MM or so new home. The market, with the sale on Lackey and the sale on the cliff in Fontana, has proven it can absorb new construction of a higher level in the $4-5MM range. With this known, if you’re a buying in the $4 range why wouldn’t you just build a new house? The answer is confounding, usually related to a distaste for the building process, or perhaps a lack of patience to wait the 10-16 months to have a build completed.  The thing buyers forget is that the house they’ll end up with for $4something will be exactly and precisely the home they wanted all along. There’s a wait involved, sure, but the outcome is individualized perfection that the market also appreciates.

Last Friday I closed on the Loramoor lot that I brought to market earlier this year. The seller had great hopes for that property, but life changed and focus shifted. That shift allowed a new buyer, a young family with eyes set on the lakefront, to find their way to the parcel that will hopefully be their lake home for decades or generations to come.  They paid $2.075MM for 110′ of frontage and 1.43 acres, and that’s something that will always make sense on this lake. The trick now will be to keep the all-in budget in that $4MM range, and once that happens the buyer will end up in a home that the market simply couldn’t offer. Want to find that $4MM new construction on Geneva? Then it’s time to get a bit dirty and build it.

New Loramoor Listing
David Curry

New Loramoor Listing

Sometimes, 50 feet of frontage just won’t do. It’s tough for me to write that, but it’s true, and the market has proven it true time and time again. If you have a certain budget, let’s say somewhere under $2MM, you will generally aspire to lakefront. This is good. This should be your goal. But lakefront under $2MM can be difficult, troublesome, remarkably underwhelming. That’s why buyers often turn to the off water market in hopes of finding something in this range, and many times, they find something reasonably nice.  They find a cool house with a pool, like my sale last summer in the mid $900s on Main Street. Or they find a super fantastic house for $2.2MM without a pool and without a slip, like the one that sold in Knollwood last year. Or they find a house without a pool but with a slip, and they pay $1.35MM for it because it’s sort of nice and they like it, which was the case recently of a sale off Maytag Point.  Buyers don’t always want private frontage, because they want more house or more land or more charm than lakefront on a budget can offer.

Loramoor Lake Geneva

Good thing for these buyers, because I just listed a new property in Loramoor.  Loramoor is a fantastic association, whether on water like my vacant 110′ lakefront lot ($2.34MM, buy it and be smart), or if you’re off water in one of the association homes.  But while off water has some association homes, and they are all desirable and generally worth $1MM+, they are not all created equal.  My newest listing is at W3036 South Lake Shore Drive, in Loramoor. That address should tell you something. This home isn’t inside the association off the primary drive, rather it’s located directly off of South Lakeshore, with 3.3 manicured acres and a private gated entrance. This home has nothing to do with association living as we know it at the lake. This home is an estate, with a house and grounds that qualify the lofty assignment. At $1.895MM, it can be yours.

Loramoor Lake House

The property itself does tell much of the story. There’s the brick pillared entry with gate, the private drive, the 3.3 private acres. But there’s also a detached garage, measuring at least 3 cars worth with a finished upper level for use as an office or bunk room or studio, should you be an aspiring artist. There’s an in-ground pool surrounded by an intensely large stone patio. There’s an outdoor kitchen with grill and refrigerators and enough counter space to entertain as many people as you see fit. There’s that lawn, that huge, sprawling lawn, and there’s a water fall feature that you’re not expecting. The small playhouse is finished as well as many homes that I sell, though it’s small, so it’s a playhouse, and it’s doubtful your children or your friends’ children will appreciate the wainscoting on the ceilings.

The house itself is roughly 5000 finished square feet, with six bedrooms and five bathrooms and a three car attached garage.  The house is formal in design, but supremely functional as a lake house for a large group of family and friends. The kitchen is appointed nicely with SubZero and granite.  It opens out to a breakfast room, which opens to a screened porch, which commands a spectacular view of the pool and grounds.  The upper level is loaded with bedrooms, some owning their own bathrooms. The master is on the main level, which is good in the event that your knees have been bothering you. The lower level is a game room with wet bar (for easy pool service), and of course there’s a bedroom and bath down there as well. The space walks out to that backyard where the action is.

Loramoor House With Pool

But this isn’t just a nice house on a nice lot somewhere near the lake. It’s a house that’s part of Loramoor, so I have a transferable slip here and a slight lake view from the property. If you’ve thought about lakefront here, or looked for something off water under $2MM, this is the house that you should come see. It’s unlike anything in our market, and it’s ready for immediate use. Summer is coming, and it’s coming soon. Ready or not.

Lake Geneva Market Update
David Curry

Lake Geneva Market Update

The ice is weak. It has been weak all season, since it first formed, just that skim coat at first, then more ice, stronger ice, but still weak. It has proven this time and time again, first with the great car-on-ice-caper of Winterfest Weekend, then again with the unfortunate death of a snowmobiler just two weeks ago. This is ice that cannot be trusted. This is the ice that must melt and leave us alone.

It melted two weekends ago. It melted more last weekend. The wind whipped it open in many spots, and those spots grew and shifted as the massive sheets of ice broke free and floated the way of the wind. The ice this morning is weaker still. It will be gone soon, gone by next week, by next Thursday, to be precise. Then we’ll be free to carry on as though the ice never was, because we never liked it, we never needed it, we never trusted it.

Spring is coming, and it’s coming fast. The days are longer. The nights are shorter. The winter market, once momentarily filled with the sort of fear that accompanies a tumultuous stock market, has soldiered on. Is this market just okay? Just barely hanging in there? Or is it robust, bold, strong and decisive, filled with buyers who seem to know what they want and others who, if given seven suitable choices, couldn’t even agree on dinner? It’s both, all things, both filled with motivation and filled with procrastination. As with all markets, the motivated are reaping the spoils of this market that is, as of this morning, in spite of the weak ice that still clings, alive and well.

This morning there are four properties with lake access pending under $300k. This is never a surprise to me, as it should always be an active, consistent market.  Interest rates are low and this range of buyer always has inventory to pick from. Fixer uppers and finished products alike, the former being in that price range with better locations, the latter being farther from the lake but shinier, prettier, less troubling. From $300k to $1MM, just three properties are pending, one in the Loch Vista Club, one in Country Club Estates, and one to a buyer of mine in Glenwood Springs. This market segment is light on inventory, as buyers are interested in $500-600k homes with slips, they just don’t care much for the limited active inventory.

Over $1MM is where the real action is today. The single family condo home on Wrigley is pending with a $1.1MM ask. I showed that home far too many times to not be the broker with the buyer, but alas, life, like primary season, is unfair. There’s a deal on Forest Rest of an off water home just over $1MM, and the curiously goofy little lakefront in Knollwood is pending in the $1.1Ms. Last week, the Dartmouth Woods lakefront home that I tried so desperately to sell last summer finally closed in the $1.2s, and that buyer did well to join that nice enclave of lakefront homes on the north side of Fontana Bay.

The newer lakefront for $2.125MM that rests in the shadow of Vista Del Lago is under contract, that to a move up buyer from another area property. The Conference Point lakefront with an old red brick house and 200′ of frontage closed last week for $3.2MM, which is now our second lakefront sale at $16k per front foot this year. In case you’re wondering, no, that doesn’t make it a trend. While I love that location on the lake, I don’t know as though I’d be a dirt buyer in the $3s over there. That will make whatever is built on that property the most expensive property for at least a mile in either direction of shoreline, and I’m not convinced I’d want that distinction. If I’m a lakefront buyer, I want to be surrounded by like kind properties. That’s why 1014 South Lakeshore in the $7s makes sense. That’s why my lakefront lot in Loramoor at $2.34MM makes sense. That’s why my beautiful lakefront on Pebble Point for $4.475MM makes sense.  I like to sell properties that make sense.

The Lackey Lane lakefront in the $4.5MMs is still pending to my buyer, and a new deal this week brings a buyer to a high $2s home in the Geneva Manor. That’s a home assessed at $2MM, so it’ll be fun when the reassessment of that property is done by the city, based on the new sales price. I have little else to say about that sale.

I will add that our local market loves it when out of town brokers show up with buyers. They generally buy things that don’t make tons of sense, which is why we love them. If you’re a buyer, read what I just wrote again.

Inventory hasn’t yet built, just in the way that it didn’t really build last year during this typical spring sales period. I expect lakefronts to trickle on to the market over the coming weeks, as I know I have at least three lakefronts coming soon under my brokerage. If you’d like to know about those before everyone else, you should be working with me. It’ll be fun.

Loramoor Lakefront For Sale
David Curry

Loramoor Lakefront For Sale

My kids like to make time-lapse videos. Some people make time lapse videos over the course of an entire day. The sun comes up, quickly, then it moves across the sky, quickly, and then it sets, quickly. It’s a full day, quickly. My kids don’t make time-lapse videos like that. They make ones that last a few seconds, that feature them doing such interesting things as standing still, or sitting at the island counter. Their videos are terrible. I’d like to see a time-lapse video of the lakefront on Geneva, say, over the period of the last 20 years. It would be fun to go back 100 years, but also very depressing, as grand old homes were razed to make room for subdivisions and associations. If we did have that 20 year video, we’d see new construction abound. All varieties, some small and some large, others monstrous. We’d see large homes wedged next to small homes, and small homes delicately crammed next to large homes. We’d see all sorts of things, and in the haphazard nature of it all we’d see uniformity.

LORAMOOR AERIAL

The magic of Geneva is found in this mix. Old and new, small and large, alternating along the shoreline. But one thing is certain- if we had our druthers, we’d position like kind homes next to each other. We’d have sections of the lake where estates rule the day, and we have that on Snake Road. We’d have areas where large lots rule, with large homes and estately prices, and we have that on Basswood and North Shore Drive.  We’d also have a tidy, dead end lane where large lakefront homes are spaced well and appropriately, where one new home is not out of place next to another.  We have that in Loramoor, and today, you have an opportunity to join that most exclusive lane. Enter Loramoor Lot 7, the obvious solution for any house hunt that finds a buyer seeking new construction in the $4MM or less price range.

I sold this lot a year ago. There’s no secret in that. I sold these 110 level front feel to a buyer who simply couldn’t find what they desired in our existing home market.  We have a noticeable absence of quality homes in the $3-4MM price range. We have plenty of nice properties, terrific lots with old, bad houses, or terrific houses on sub-standard lots. In this parcel, the buyer found what they wanted in the existing vacant land, and knew they could build the exact lake house that would scratch all of their weekend itches.  At 1.43 acres in size, the lot is larger than similar properties that have sold in the last few years as tear downs, and since it was already vacant there would be no added cost involved with deconstructing an existing home. The property was perfect, and unlike others in this range, it is surrounded by ample homes of newer birthdates, very obviously a secure location to add value in a new build. Compare this to a vacant lot in the $2MM price range that’s located next to smaller, lesser priced properties. It makes more sense to have a $3.75MM house next to other houses of equal or greater value and here, in Loramoor, we have that.

 

Loramoor Lakefront Parcel

 

The buyer set about permitting and planning, but when a childhood home was available for purchase, the pull of that powerful nostalgia was too much to resist. The Lake Geneva dream would have to wait, and it’s for that reason that I offer you this wonderful parcel for $2.34MM, available today and ready to build your own dream home on without delay.  The owner has been working with Scott Lowell to design the perfect lake house, and to the right buyer we can include those plans. A sneak peak of the elevation is above, and while you’d be well served to build this home on this beautiful lakefront parcel, you’re free to design your own if you so desire.

 

Loramoor Survey Shot

 

You can buy 100′ lakefront lots on this lake with some routine between $1.9MM and $2.5MM. These lots will host older, lesser homes, and if you like the older home and intend solely to remodel it, then you’ll be making a wise decision. But all too often these older homes are sold and torn down, and in that we must consider our surroundings. If you build a $2MM home on a $2MM lot, and you’re surrounded by $2MM built homes, do you suppose that’s usually a terrific idea? Of course not.  There’s safety in building in a  neighborhood with a proven tendency to support your target value, and that’s why this Loramoor lot is better than the others in this price range. There is no association immediately adjacent, no shared driveway, no sloped frontage or rough landscaping. There is only a beautiful canvas, grassed and treed and ready to host your lakefront vision. At $2.34MM,  there’s value here, and if you’re a buyer in the $4MM range you owe it to yourself to consider this parcel as your first, and finest option.

Because you’re super smart and reading this blog, you know about this property before the rest of the market does. It’ll be available to the masses next week, but in the mean time, I’m happy to show it this weekend should you desire. dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com