One of the interesting things about cliches is that they only become cliches because they’re used very often. And one of the reasons they’re used very often is because they’re generally mostly accurate. Like, the early bird gets the worm. That’s true because if you’re up early you’ll eat all of the worms that crawled out of the dirt overnight, especially if you’re a bird. And in real estate, most of the cliches are often tied to the truth. Like the thing about your first offer being your best offer, that’s generally rather true. Of course if you’re a seller you could decline that first offer and ultimately sell much later for many, many percentage points lower. Cliches can be painful, so it’s best to not ignore them.
Any sale on the lake provides lessons that should be learned from each and every one of them. There are currently some sales ongoing that will teach lessons, but likely only into the future when the market returns to respecting historical advantages and disadvantages offered by certain properties inside certain market segments. The lessons to be learned from Hortensia are many, but these are proprietary. So if you’re a seller and you’d like to learn from this sale and others, you’d be wise to contact me so we can discuss how you should go about your lakefront sale, assuming you’re hoping to achieve a maximum sales price in the most efficient manner.
The rumor surrounding Villa Hortensia’s sale is that it will be torn down. I admit to being biased towards the preservation of history, even though Lake Geneva has very little respect for that bias. Lake Geneva loves to discuss its history. It’ll tell you all about it. We even have our own little museum to explain it to you in more detail, if you’re curious. But Lake Geneva is also keen on tearing down its history once it is presented for sale. This is an established process that we’ve been perfecting since the 1930s, when the grand estates gave way to slice and dice tempo of subdivision mania. It’ll be interesting to see if the rumors surrounding Hortensia are true, and if that once noble estate falls to a wrecking ball, well, then I guess Lake Geneva will remain nearly undefeated in its quest to demolish its history. This 19 acre parcel has C2 zoning and the primary environmental corridor dabbling throughout it, so if a rezone is required you can assume the neighborhood will not be particularly supportive of change to this storied section of Snake Road.
On the Hortensia sale, it was, in the end, not my listing, nor did I represent the buyer. So what I know of the sale comes only through rumor and innuendo and published newspaper stories where the authors contrast this sale to the Driehaus estate I closed next door for double the price of Hortensia. Stay tuned to see what happens with this property, as I’d guess it won’t be too long until we’ll find out if the cliche about smoke and fire is true.
Above, Not Villa Hortensia, rather the Driehaus Estate next door. I failed to sell Hortensia during my listing, to my deep and embarrassing shame.