Falling in Love with Lake Geneva - Hook, Line, & Sinker!
For many Buyers, buying your first Lake Geneva Lakefront Home is a process, not necessarily by design, but rather by evolution and serendipity.
Of course the love affair is not the same for all, and some take longer to evolve than others, but it always starts so innocently. You attend a summertime lakefront gathering of a friend or relative (I call this the Hook) and the rest of the story goes something like this
The weather is a perfect 82 degrees under blue bird skies, you have a great time entertaining and basking in the sun while little Johnny “drops” his first ski and is miraculously slaloming, and little Susie finds her childhood soul mate out on the pier. Soon your conversation turns to boats, not just any kind of boats, wooden boats, ski boats, fast boats, ski patrol boats, fishing boats, jetski’s, paddle boats, kayak’s, and ultimately piers and boat houses, and the Lake Geneva Lakefront Real Estate attached to those piers and boat houses, being careful not to pry too deeply into ownership costs or the current market, unless offered.
Now you start thinking about buying a boat. If you buy a boat, you need a pier to tie it too don’t you? (I call this the Line). So, after a fun filled day on the lake swimming, skiing, partying, you’re exhausted and a 1.5 hour drive back to the city doesn’t sound so appealing so you check out the local motel scene, find out everything in downtown Lake Geneva is already booked, but the Grand Geneva Resort has a cancellation and its only minutes down the road… so you pile the kids in the car, check into the resort, and pick up one of those glossy Lake Geneva Real Estate Magazines with all the fabulous lake homes on the cover as you are leaving the lobby.
You get settled into your room, its late, you start surfing the movie channels, kids glued to their iphones, and your wife starts browsing the real estate glossy. Soon you hear her Ooh’s and Ah’s, as she leans over to show you picture after picture of towering great rooms with floor to ceiling windows, soaring fieldstone fireplaces, and gourmet kitchens a chef wouldn’t know what to do with. Then in that soft sultry voice she whispers – “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a lake home of our own someday”… You roll your eyes, mutter a few words of surprise, turn off the lights, and slip under the covers… all the while wishing your honey “sweat dreams”.
Morning arrives, you feel quite refreshed, the notion of owning your very own Lake Geneva Lakefront home has settled in quite comfortably, and little do you know, you are on a mission. You make a secret pact to yourself that when you get back to the city, you’ll start your search in earnest, browsing the internet in stealth – www.LakeGenevaRealty.com, KeefeRealEstate.com, Google, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com are just a few of the sites you will explore.
But over breakfast the subject surfaces again and you obligingly agree to call a Realtor from that glossy magazine, presumably one that proclaims years, if not decades of lakefront experience, and agree to see some homes before trekking back to the city. (I’ll call this the Sinker).
“Can we take a quick look at a few lake homes” you ask? The Realtor hesitates then responds – “When would you like to see them?” You say “In an hour or less because we are on our way back to the city”. The Realtor gasps for air, reaching for their Day Planner, and stutters “I would be delighted to show you around the lake today”, knowing all too well he has only minutes to pre-qualify you and find available listings in your price range and wish list. But this Realtor, being a local professional and knowing the lakefront inventory and cooperating brokers well, is quick to act, and schedules showings on the fly, only to call you back a few minutes later with directions to the first showing.
The intrigue grows with every home you visit, big or small, new or old there is a tale to tell. As your Realtor fills your head with facts and figures, and lore of yesterday, you can’t help to be thankful for the invaluable wealth of market knowledge and lifestyle information you’ve just received. You think to yourself, I would never have been able to assimilate this from the internet in such rich detail – from the dollars per front foot of lakeshore, to the millions spent on bricks, sticks and fabric, to the storied background of past and present lakefront owners, to the who’s who of Chicago’s finest architects, interior designers, builders, and landscapers of these magnificent mansions, to the colorful history of the numerous clubs, associations, youth and religious camps, Lake Shore Path, Water Safety Patrol, golf courses, yacht club, resorts, observatory, schools, restaurants, shops, and last but not least revival of the Music by The Lake series at George Williams College on this world class body of water.
A trusting relationship develops, you exchange contact information with your Realtor, and Hook, Line & Sinker, you have just fallen for Lake Geneva !