There are many things about the business of real estate that bother me. One revolves around agency relationships, and how agency rules actua…
Gross
One of the things I most dislike about real estate mania is the mania part. I want real estate to make sense. I want pricing to make sense. …
Tops
I’m well aware that people grow tired of having me talk about sales volume. It’s tedious and annoying, I agree. I think that may…
Tell
If a house is listed for sale and then, a short while later, the price is dramatically reduced, what does that tell you? I view this as an a…
Dissent
I’ve been bothered by a comment that was made on this site recently, and I feel the need to discuss it further. The comment implied th…
World Wide Web
In 1995 I owned a Saab 900. It was gunmetal gray, but it wasn’t a Turbo, so I operated as though those two conditions canceled each ot…
Pricing Strategy
One of the great debates in the business of real estate revolves around pricing strategy. Some agents want listings so bad they’ll pr…
Lake Geneva Real Estate Brokers
Five or six years ago, Sotheby’s flew me to New Jersey to meet with their executive team. It was time that David Curry, Local, be intr…
Lake Geneva Valuations
Pop Quiz:
Q. How much is a house worth?
A. Whatever someone is willing to pay for it.
This is how valuations work. If I’m selling my h…
Of Lenders and Bubbles
I remember sitting at a closing in Elkhorn sometime in late 2008. The sale was of a condominium on the water, and it was a pricey one. The …
Inflation
I have a friend who is remarkably smart. It bothers me that he’s so smart. Have a thought? It’s wrong. How could he know it̵…
Summer Homes For City People
There was a time when I really enjoyed putting this magazine together, or so says the faintest of memories. I printed this magazine for the …
Lake Geneva Realtors
In the business of real estate, there is a tremendous emphasis on the broker. The brand. The website and the signs. But at the same time, o…
Risk On
Since I dropped out of law school right before I applied, you shouldn’t consider anything I ever say to be legal advice. Ask your atto…
Chicken
Let’s pretend I’m at a car dealership. Now let’s pretend you can feel my emotions. If you can feel those emotions and you…
Lake Geneva Development
For a millisecond, I thought it would be nice to be a developer. Build something, have people pay you more than your cost, make money. It se…
Williams Bay Boardwalk
If you follow me on any of the social media platforms, you know a few things about me. You know I like to fly fish. This is important to kno…
The Business of Real Estate
I don’t pretend to be a particularly savvy investor. I have friends that are. I am not. I just don’t have the knack for it, and …
Welcome, 2020
I read an article last week about how to write out checks in the new year. If you write 1/6/20 on your check, the article supposed that a th…
Lake Geneva Real Estate Office
There have been many moments over the past 23 years that I’ve wanted to move my real estate office from Williams Bay to Lake Geneva. I…
Out Of Towners
I blame the television for this one. I also blame the internet, but it should be argued that the bulk of this blame lies with the televisio…
Lake Geneva Home Search
You’re not really in the market for a home if you haven’t looked for said home on Zillow. You may have also used Redfin, Realtor.com, and ot…
Chicago
One of the reasons I’m bad at this business is that I tend to give people too much credit. I can’t market gimmicks. I’m in…
Ugly Houses
My cousin recently had a baby. I saw this baby at a different cousin’s wedding over the weekend and my suspicions were confirmed. It&#…
Summer Homes For City People
In case you’re not around Lake Geneva at the moment and would like to peruse the new issue…
Williams Bay Property Taxes
Tis the season for dreading the mail. There’s something nice about the season, relating to the mail, I suppose. Each day, my mailbox i…
Traps
There are things that I dislike about this business. You know this. I dislike the lack of respect that plagues this career, even while I und…
Big Foot Referendum
I went to high school in the basement of a church. To be fair, not all classes were in the basement. Our homeroom was in the kitchen of Cal…
Compass, Et Al
It should come as no surprise that there’s a competition to be what’s next. In this context, we should capitalize What’s N…
Discernment
A few weeks ago, I wrote an offer on a property on behalf of a buyer. This is no feat. There is no trick to this. It’s just a form wri…
Lake Geneva Realtors
There’s nothing that makes me hate my chosen profession more than leafing through a local glossy magazine. There are lots of glossies …
Lake Geneva Buyers
It’s summer of 2018 and you’re in Lake Geneva. You’ve done several things right to make it here. You’ve made strate…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Development Concern
I have a very simple process when it comes to deciding whether or not a development should be approved. If the development is needed, and th…
Pricing Temptation
If you own a lakefront or lake access home in the Lake Geneva market, you’re well aware of the increased broker competition in our are…
Tax Time
If you’re lucky enough to be a Lake Geneva vacation home owner, then you’re unlucky enough to be unwrapping Walworth County̵…
Perspective Sadness
This very well could have been the Cubs Didn’t Get Swept But They’re Still Terrible Sadness post, but that wasn’t really b…
Multiple Offer Sadness
When I dream, I dream of the good old days. Of the days before these days. The days when things were worse. I dream of anxious sellers and…
Lake Geneva Agent Representation
We know lots of things. We know that if we don’t cut our grass once a week it will grow too tall and too thick, and when we cut it aft…
Of Agents and Inuendos
This is serious. You’ve been having the pain in your knee for quite some time. It bothered you during your junior year, but what could…
Shameless
This feels gratuitous, but I have to do it anyway. I could babble on and on about being the underdog, or tell you about how mightily I stru…
Weekend Caller
We need to have an honest discussion. It’s rare, in any business involving sales, to have such a conversation, but converse we must. …
Descriptors
I might have figured out what’s wrong with me. It’s not that I don’t want to write something every other morning, as I hav…
Spring Break
Well, it’s just me here now. Everyone else has left. The roads are quiet. The houses dark, excepting the one lamp left on to ward away…
Lake Geneva Home Inspections
I feel as though I’ve been writing more admonitions than entertainment lately. It must be the time of year; the swelling of interest a…
Summer Homes For City People 2017
January bothers me. It’s a month of clean starts, of new pledges and attempted changes. It’s a month where things seem possible,…
Ready For Sale
I’d like to think, after twenty years in this chair, that I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen sellers and buyers of all makes and …
Lake Geneva Appraisals
You write an offer on a property. You negotiate the offer. You convince the seller to take your counter offer, or the seller convinces you t…
The Rent
I’m staring out my office window at an automotive repair shop. This shop just opened, even though the sign says Opening Soon. Will tha…
About Your Agent
The business of listing homes is a curious one. If we were going about this business of finding a broker and an agent, we’d assume we&…
Regrets
I like to brag about certain things. For instance, I have a black SuperJet and there’s very little chance that you do as well. I have …