General

It wouldn’t have been that hard to find me. The sun was out, the grass was growing, my orange and white Simplicity lawn tractor had at least fifty cents of … Read more

Last winter, I decided to add Netflix to my life. I did this because I, ignorantly, thought that Netflix was a movie genie capable of delivering my cinematic wishes to … Read more

This morning I had a wonderful topic in mind. Well, maybe not wonderful, but at least passable, which is better than the alternative, but still less than wonderful. Anyway, I … Read more

I think it would be fun to write about baseball. Not baseball the game, but baseball the season, the team. To be a beat writer is to be faced with … Read more

If I were to write about those woody things that grow from the ground, those things with bark and branches and leaves, I would probably call them what they are: … Read more

My father has no hobbies. Not a single one. He used to play a bit of golf, but that effort only produced two lasting memories. There was the un-witnessed hole-in-one … Read more

Saturday was a nice spring day. It was so nice, in fact, that I went to the hardware store and bought a trailer hitch ball. It was bright and shiny, … Read more

Someday, I won’t write about the wealth effect. I’ll just write about trees, or fish, or about life and death, probably one or the other, but likely both, on alternating … Read more

There was still snow out there, but really none at all if you compare it to the snow cover from just a few short weeks ago. I found myself near … Read more

I think I can remember the days when pricing real estate was fun. Back then, I could wow and thrill potential customers with the promise of immediate and tangible real … Read more

By now it should be obvious to you; I do not live here and play here because I so deeply love downtown Lake Geneva. In fact, I have taken to … Read more

It was probably January of 2010 when I first hatched this idea. This blog had been doing fine, and some out there found it to be a valuable and quasi-entertaining … Read more

There are many, many things you can do to sell your home. You can put a sign in the yard, because that often works. Or you can hold an open … Read more

There was a little quote on Twitter the other day, attributed to someone anonymous, or at least anonymous to me and to you. She wrote, “okay people who eat popcorn … Read more

After this variety of winter, you’d think I’d welcome the spring. With it comes the sun and the wind, and some warmth that disguises itself as cold when the wind … Read more

Whatever this last weekend was supposed to be- spring, winter, or some hideous spawn of the two- it is thankfully over. This week, whether it finds us warm or cold … Read more

There is a very pretty building in the city of Chicago located at 2550 North Lakeview Avenue. The building is called Lincoln Park 2550, but only because that name sounds … Read more

My wife is generally in a fair mood. She’s from the great white north, which I didn’t capitalize on purpose because even though it’s to our North, and even though … Read more

When a market is down, I have absolutely no problem kicking it. I also don’t like to make excuses for market segments, as I’d rather try to identify the problems … Read more

I am not in the business of manufacturing. I do not make anything, I do not warehouse anything. I do sell something, and I do so through a network of … Read more

Let’s quick pretend you’re looking for a cabin. Not a cabin here, mind you, but a cabin anywhere. Not exactly anywhere, but within this state, somewhere, North or South, East … Read more

Whenever a nurse is about to strap that arm band on me, I warn them. Before they squeeze that bulb to apply the pressure, I tell them that there’s a … Read more

I admit to being less productive when the weather is bad. In the summer, when there’s a big storm, I can work just fine. In fact, I work a bit … Read more

We needn’t look too far back to understand what happened here, assuming we’re the smart ones who know that what happened then is quite important when trying to figure out … Read more

The details of the story are not clear to me, even now. They were never clear to me. The day that my uncle broke through the ice on his snowmobile … Read more

This is the in between. The entry level lake access market is somewhat active at the moment, with a few pending contracts and a few closings already on the 2014 … Read more

My children go to school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This current school year started in very early September, and on those select days between then and now, they … Read more

I’m not exactly sure how many mortgages I’ve obtained. I was 18 when I was granted my first mortgage on my first house, and in the years that have flown … Read more

January. From this vantage point in February, I don’t see much of a different between what I see today and what I saw then, in January. The lake is still … Read more

There’s a special font that mechanics use to spell out their names on their shirts. It has a cursive flow to it, like an old hand written letter from your … Read more

Well, it seems that most of Chicago was scared away from the lake this weekend by that forecast. Thanks a lot, weather personalities. The weekend was rather perfect, with that … Read more

I know that lakerights matter. You probably know it, too. We take this knowledge for granted, that it’s obvious to us in a lake-centric community that it is imperative that … Read more

Thank you. Thank you, too. No, thank you! You’re the best. Thanks. I cannot begin this address with the standard refrain, “My fellow Americans”, because my clients ask that I … Read more

I don’t want to be the sort of person that talks about the weather all the time, but I am that person. Even people who aren’t that person talk about … Read more

On Friday, January 17th, those who measure and then record weather marked that the daytime high in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was 19 degrees. Those counterparts who measure the temperature in … Read more

It’s sad when it’s only the 22nd day of the new year and one of my most important predictions has already been proven untrue. The lakefront inventory, I supposed, would … Read more

There are times when a one week vacation is exactly what the doctor ordered. These are times when we are especially tired, especially cold, especially bored, or especially interested in … Read more

One would think that first understanding, then forecasting market conditions would be a rather important requirement from any agent that any consumer chooses. To be able to understand the current … Read more

Lake access is the great equalizer. The term, Lake Access, also known as Lake Rights, both times capitalized for the sake of importance, is everywhere at Lake Geneva. It has … Read more

Familiarity breed contempt, or so they say. The girl that places my groceries into paper, or sometimes plastic, bags says that, or at least she said that once when I … Read more

I think I miss those old days. Back when a foreclosure was a rare, mostly unspoken thing, back when no one knew much about the procedure except for hardened, narrow … Read more

I dedicate one measly post to a burgeoning appreciation for winter, and this is how I am repaid. It’s -18 in Lake Geneva this morning, and while the view out … Read more

I sat at dinner the other night, on the eve of this new year, looking around from table to table. Mostly, everyone was happy. They were imbibing and gorging, ordering … Read more

There are trout streams in Iowa. They snake through the hills of Iowa’s Driftless, emptying mostly into each other and then into the Mississippi, pushing south and collecting all sorts … Read more

Apparently I bought one of those cameras that only adds 20 pounds to the oldest male in the picture…

For as long as there have been economists, there have been those who tell us that owning a home is a bad investment. This is a popular point of view … Read more

Those are the homes that hide behind high steel and concrete walls. Those are the walls that were erected to keep the traffic from that interstate and the noise that … Read more

Let’s pretend you’re looking for a vacation home. Not a Lake Geneva vacation home, specifically, but just a vacation home somewhere sort of close, but not remarkably close like Lake … Read more

I would normally reserve my year end reviews for January, once the year I’m writing about has actually ended, but today I’m taking liberties. Or at least one, and we’re … Read more

Over the past four years there has been one common question on the mind of nearly every lakefront vacation home buyer. That question, if formed in the mind of my … Read more

I spent one weekend in love with ice. One weekend, out of an entire lifetime. That weekend found me in the Cayman Islands. It was hot that weekend, sunny, too. … Read more

As further proof of the rock solid fact that many consumers are more loyal to their hair dressers than they are to their Realtors, there was a lakefront sale this … Read more

As a child, I didn’t ever go hungry. I didn’t ever go to school in old, torn clothes. I had a pair of new shoes every school year, and I … Read more

Ernest Shackleton gathered his heaviest jacket, his warmest boots, his toughest gloves and his largest hat. His wife handed him the hot cheese sandwich she had just made for him, … Read more

I have several habits, though I could never be considered a creature of those. I wake up at a specific time each day but not for any reason aside from … Read more

I suppose it’s a good thing that so many people are so bad at real estate. Without bad ideas, and bad moves, and horrible, life shattering real estate decisions, our … Read more

Cars. They get us where we’re going. They haul things where those things need to go. They can wrap the driver in luxury, cradling them in the softest of leather … Read more

I was going to write about the Chicago Tribune’s ridiculous attempt at “discovering” the Lake Geneva dining scene, but I’d rather not. It should be enough to mention that they … Read more

What a wonderful legacy it is to leave a Lake Geneva vacation home to your heirs. This lake is dotted with such properties, be those large sprawling estates or simple … Read more

Earlier this year, I decreed that we should no longer look back at YTD figures from the hellish years of 2009 and 2010. I said that we weren’t going to … Read more

I had this impressive stack of firewood delivered last June. My wood guy delivered the cut oak and dropped it in a pile at the top of my gravel driveway. … Read more

On a cloudless day, the summer sort that make even the most ornery people feel like considering a smile, there is little reason to walk onto a pier and romanticize … Read more

There are many things in the works today, and not one of them is deserving of an entire post, so consider this an odds and ends update of sorts, which … Read more

I’m thinking about becoming a doomsday prepper. I didn’t capitalize the title, or the occupation as it seems to be on the television shows, because I’m certain I wouldn’t be … Read more

Sam Zell, facilitator of many great real estate deals and at least one very, very bad newspaper deal, recently spoke of the real estate market. He told the interviewer that … Read more

Five days a week I drop my two kids, aged 10 and 7, off at school. My thoughtful son, intent on pleasing both his teachers and his parents, gathers his … Read more

I am afflicted with a strange form of amnesia. I remember most everything, though increasingly I cannot remember phone numbers in the way that I once could. For that, I … Read more

Why would someone write an October sales update on October 25th when six days still remain in this month? Because it’s Friday and I have to write about something. October … Read more

Someday, someone is going to spend a lot of time studying the foreclosure phenomenon of the past five years. I don’t know who that someone will be, but I’m certain … Read more

Gym class was never a difficult class for me. I did most things well enough, even if my B- average extended into all things elementary sports as well. I couldn’t … Read more

Wants and needs are difficult to separate. They are not as oil and watery as they should be. My wants and my needs are generally cobbled together in the same … Read more

I needn’t be buried under a mountain of snow to realize that summer is a long, long ways away. I feel it now, sitting here on a fall day where … Read more

Let’s pretend we’re a small town clothing retailer. We name our shop something clever, perhaps something ironic, and we grow beards and wear skinny ties and do whatever we can … Read more

It was difficult last night to drive a distance across the Wisconsin countryside and not see combines trailed by large clouds of dust. These combines eagerly chewed through fields of … Read more

I wanted to act like it wasn’t a big deal. I’d driven boats, after all. Lots of them. Long ones and short ones, ones with small engines and ones with … Read more

Buyers find their agents through various means. Some of those means are intelligent and worthy, others not so much. If a friend refers a buyer to an agent that they … Read more

When you buy a new car, or a used car that is new to you, the salesman will usually take at least some time running through the features of the … Read more

At any point over the last decade, if you were to have found yourself at Lake Geneva, and you were stumbling around the lake in search of prime real estate, … Read more

Even at this close distance, I look back with extreme fondness on the recessionary years. I don’t do this to be vindictive, nor do I do it to dance on … Read more

Crain’s Chicago Business, a publication that curiously lauds business while aggressively embracing a political policy that demonizes the success of those same businesses, made some headlines this week by publicizing … Read more

We have quite a few things to do between now and then. First, we have to work. This is the unfortunate part of our schedules. Then some of us have … Read more

The lake in the summer is what we all know it to be. Blue waves roll on weekends, whipped by wind and watercraft, each wave pushed higher and higher until … Read more

In 1984 Norman Rosenthal decided that being sad in the winter was a legitimate medical illness. His Seasonal Affective Disorder theory supposed that in winter, when things are bad, people … Read more

Another week, another closing that I was and am grateful to have assisted in, another display of the wide gambit that humanity has to offer. In every deal there’s the … Read more

I have a strange feeling today, and I’ve had it for a while. It isn’t the feeling I feel deep inside my molar that cracked a couple weeks ago while … Read more

It was hot yesterday. My office air conditioning stopped working in advance of that heat, and even now as I sit and write, with both office doors open and the … Read more

Over these 17 years, I’ve spent a lot of time at this desk. Not this desk, necessarily, as this desk was only my desk after I bought it in Canada … Read more

I own a somewhat unnerving take on life. I’m young enough to feel that life is long and varied, and that somehow, if I practice enough I’ll find some greener … Read more

During all points of the spring, there is a rush. Buyers rush to discover vacation homes, then to buy those vacation homes, all with the noble intent of being in … Read more

If you’re asking why the lakefront condominium has fallen out of favor with vacation home buyers, I’d offer up several possible scenarios. Some involve cycles, mortgages, simple supply and demand … Read more

I lack very little in this life. I have things and I have family, and I have a roof over my head and some hardwood under my feet. I don’t … Read more

Somewhere between ridiculous, peak-style pricing and horrible, embarrassing 2010 pricing lies the accurate price. But we’ve already discussed this, at length even, so there’s no reason to do so again. … Read more

It is with some fear that I share certain market revelations here. Not fear, in the way, say, that I’d fear a large spider or any sized snake, but fear … Read more

If I had really thought the noise through, I would have known that these were just harmless raccoons. During my childhood, and even adolescent years, I had a bedroom that … Read more

There are at least 12 lake access and lakefront homes pending sale right now. There are 112 lake access and lakefront homes, give or take, that are listed for sale … Read more

My car. It has four bald tires. Two loose linkage thingamabobbers, a tail light that apparently doesn’t work all the time, and some sort of air pump that goes off … Read more

I suppose there can be an initial struggle between lakefront and lake access, between similar price points and similar structures in completely dissimilar geographic locations. If a buyer is looking … Read more

It was once said there there are two things common to each life: Death and taxes. This isn’t entirely true. While those two things are indeed constants, other things that … Read more

In between discussing the merits of cutting fish free without first twisting their stomachs into knots and researching the shortcomings of other area lakes (ponds), there is something that I … Read more