Lake Geneva Commissions

Well, that just about does it. The National Association of Realtors settled the BOMBSHELL commission lawsuit last Friday and now everything has changed. Six Percent Commissions Are Toast, some of … Read more

Summer Regret

A man called me last spring about this time. He had spent his childhood here and now that he was growing quite old he felt an oddly powerful desire to … Read more

Categories Uncategorized

It’s Time

I took a drive this morning. Down a road I know and around a corner onto a road that’s familiar but still unknown to me. As I drove from one … Read more

Stick Season

There’s a marginally popular song today where some guy whines about how it’s stick season in Vermont and that he’s sad because his friends are gone and his girlfriend dumped … Read more

Sometimes

Sometimes spring arrives in February. The ice breaks and the wind blows and the snow melts and the grass greens and the street sweepers sweep to rid the roadways of … Read more

Pier 501 Sells

I’m thrilled to have completed the transaction at pier 501 in Fontana. This sale is the fourth lakefront sale on Geneva to close over $9.5M in the past eight months, … Read more

Lake Geneva Cash Deals

While some are busy struggling to explain how property taxes work, let’s discuss the actual Lake Geneva market. Maybe someday I’ll write an article on how property insurance works, but … Read more

George Williams College

By now you’ve read the articles in Crain’s and the Tribune, so I don’t need to tell you that Aurora University has found a buyer for their cherished George Williams … Read more

Tops

I’m well aware that it’s tedious to listen to me drone on and on about how many homes I’ve sold. I really don’t enjoy it, but I’m just not quite … Read more

2023 Year End Review

After a decline in 2022 that was likely caused by limited inventory, our overall lakefront sales volume rebounded in 2023 to nearly match the cycle high set in 2021. Most … Read more

Happy New Year

It’s close enough to say that, right? I think it is. Something that’s always bothered me is how certain words or phrases ebb and flow in their use and popularity. … Read more

Cheerleader

It can be exhausting to continually cheer for something for a long, long time. This is why Cubs fans were so relieved in 2016 when we finally won the World … Read more

Kid From The Bay

When you’re a kid from the bay you ride your bike to Geneva Street but never across it. You visit Lake Geneva when you’re 45 and still think of it … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

My deaf, blind dog woke me up early this morning. She wakes me up early every morning, though lately it’s not as early as it was this past summer when … Read more

Commissions

You’ve likely seen the headlines out of Kansas, which is a statement that no one in Wisconsin had ever uttered before the recent ruling against several large national brokerages and … Read more

Novembery

I’m not like you. You’re dreaming of bright skies and blue waters. I’m driving through this mist and this gray with my windshield wipers on intermittently and I stop to … Read more

October

On Sunday I boated and maybe you did, too. It was that sort of Sunday. If you could boat, you did boat. One last ride, we all said. The skies … Read more

Pier 501

Every once in a great while, Lake Geneva offers up one of its prized locations. I could argue that each of the large legacy estates that have been listed over … Read more

Time Zones

I’m in Spain right now, sitting in a home crammed perilously into the side of a very old cliff, perhaps 500′ or more above the Mediterranean Sea below. It’s quite … Read more

Cover

On a Thursday it’s cloudy and it’s rainy and the men hurry to work with their shoulders hunched forward and their eyes towards the ground. The rain wets their hair … Read more

Lake Geneva Sales

My son is contemplating going to law school. When I was 20, I did not contemplate this. I was contemplating whether or not I had a house I could sell … Read more

September

There was a battle yesterday. While you were busy driving to work or to school or to coffee or to the store to have your fall pants hemmed the battle … Read more

Flagstone

In the town where I’m from there are all varieties of stone, but only one variety that matters. You call it Flagstone and I call it Lannon Stone and in … Read more

Stoney Hollow

Stoney Hollow at Pier 74 is a magnificent stone and slate Tudor located on Snake Road at the end of private Folly Lane. This premier estate is offered with the … Read more

Oddities

A Lake Geneva summer begins in earnest on Memorial Day Weekend, or so the cultural norm would have you believe. Fire up your grills and don your trunks, when that … Read more

New Lakefront Listing

Simple lakefront perfection is yours with this turn-key lakefront home on 100 feet of impossibly level frontage on Geneva’s South Shore. This immaculate six bedroom home is positioned at the … Read more

Pool Time

I’m sitting at a pool now trying to find the motivation to become a pool person. I can imagine being such a person. Me, sitting by this pool, reading a … Read more

Loch Vista Club

Is there a more perfect lake cottage? I don’t mean in Williams Bay. I don’t mean in Walworth County. I mean anywhere. I suppose there could be, but I doubt … Read more

Work From Home

If no one had to work in a physical office with co-workers and a communal CLIFF BAR dispenser, then it made good sense that people might move to Whitefish, Montana. … Read more

Changes

The way things are now is no longer the way things used to be. That’s what I told him when he asked. I leaned in and explained some more. Golden … Read more

Abbey Ridge For Sale

One of my two complementing agents, Jessica Genrich, just listed this rather fantastic Abbey Ridge residence that includes a separately deeded Abbey Harbor boat slip. This immaculate unit has been … Read more

April

There’s an interesting breeze blowing in Lake Geneva today. It stormed the other day. And then it stormed again a day later. And then it stormed a bit more. Once … Read more

Aspen Lakefront Realty

I suppose my lifelong love of Aspen started last March when I visited for Spring Break. In Aspen, we capitalize Spring Break, because it is nearly everything to us. And … Read more

556 Sauk Trail

Entry level lakefront homes at Lake Geneva tend to have consistent attributes. The attributes we love are those perfect white piers, and that meandering shore path at the water’s edge. … Read more

Lake Geneva Top Agent

I am very tired of telling everyone about how many houses I’ve sold. It’s nauseating, really. I have no idea where the balance is between making sure everyone knows that … Read more

Categories Uncategorized

This Winter

I’m not sure if it’s this winter, or just winter in general, but it no longer bothers me. It’s different. It’s cold, but is it bitter? Bitterly cold, that’s what … Read more

2023

You probably already know I struggle with oversharing on this blog once in a while. That’s why I’ve written about that time I noticed my toenails were less than they … Read more

Happy New Year

From my family to yours, best wishes for a peaceful, healthy, prosperous new year. Any year that starts with my family healthy and ends with them healthy is a pretty … Read more

1991

There aren’t very many things that I can do today that make me feel like I did when I was young. When I was young, I mowed lawns. Lots of … Read more

Happy Holidays

I’d like to say Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas and also Happy New Year, but how can that fit in the title spot? And if it did fit, how would … Read more

Demands

Demands Summer asks too much of me. It doesn’t let me be. It tells me that five o’clock is the time to start something. To go into the water or … Read more

Pier Guy

My wife tells me I should worry less. She tells me that it doesn’t matter what the forecast says. But next Thursday is a high of 26 and a low … Read more

Pastry

There’s this thing about the dark of winter that makes me want to do a certain thing that I know to be detrimental to both my health and my rapidly … Read more

Christmas Vacation

I never met John Hughes. He apparently owned a condominium in Williams Bay and was a frequent breakfast patron at Daddy Maxwell’s, which should put the two of us on … Read more

Seasonality

Many years ago I rented a condo on Siesta Key. My son was a baby and my business was seasonal, so it made good sense to spend most of the … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

Remember when I told you I was going to write about the things I’m thankful for? I was going to work on being grateful. I was going to really, really … Read more

RIP

Well, my least favorite buyer has died. I don’t usually write about fatalities here, because it’s morbid and in spite of my fatalistic worldview, I prefer to keep this site … Read more

Idle Hands

If I’ve accomplished nothing else in my life, I’ve certainly succeeded in identifying the many reasons people buy Lake Geneva vacation homes. I’ve rambled about gibberish, tried incredibly hard to … Read more

Knocking

There’s a summer wind blowing through my October window again. It shouldn’t be, but it is. And it’s not really blowing. It’s knocking. It’s pulsing. And the curtain is dancing … Read more