November 05, 2009

Home Prices in Lake Geneva and Walworth County: Making "Cents"

Posted to Geneva Lake Area , Janis Hartley

A lovely lake view home came on the market in Williams Bay today. It’s a charming home and I was surprised to see that it was listed at $200,000 less than it had been listed for 4 years ago. I knew the sellers had had a firm price in mind at that time and I wondered about the conversation between listing agent and sellers. The current price makes it obvious that the sellers are serious about selling and are facing the market head on.

One of the toughest conversations a real estate agent has with prospective sellers is the “pricing” conversation, which often starts like this: Seller: “We really want to sell our home…but we’re not going to give it away…” When selling a home, there are many factors which affect market value and the eventual selling price of the home: location, size, amenities, features, improvements, and upgrades, the local economic “temperature”, current real estate market, mortgage rates, etc. Some of these factors are controlled by the owner and some are out of the owner’s control. In the Geneva Lake area, location can be a key factor. It’s a fact of life that lakefront, lake access and lake rights properties not only tend to command stronger prices, those prices have not been as susceptible to market conditions. There are certain factors, however, that simply have no role in determining the present market value of a property:

  • What the seller paid for the home has nothing to do with its current market value
  • Money in does not always equal money out. If a property has been over-improved the sellers may realize only a percentage of their improvement/upgrade investment
  • What a neighbor’s property sold for 3, 4, or 6 years ago has no relevance to current values
  • The amount of desired proceeds from the sale of the home has no bearing on market value

When you decide to sell your home remember: the real estate market is the real estate market, regardless of when the home was purchased, and your home is ultimately only worth what a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay.

Posted by:Janis Hartley

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