A Lake Geneva mansion is about to hit the market asking $8.5 million in the luxury resort town where demand is hot and listings rarely go public.
The 7,500 square-foot house at 837 Bayview Drive in Lake Geneva is the third notable home in the last month on the lake to be marketed as “coming soon” before hitting the public market. Houses of that value rarely hit the public market at all in Lake Geneva, where sellers often opt for exclusivity and sell their multimillion-dollar mansions among private brokers.
Two lakefront mansions listed by Compass’s Bob Webster — at $8.7 million and $9.8 million — got contingent offers just three days after hitting the market in early September following a short period listed as “coming soon.”
Gina Nocek, an @properties broker who is representing the sellers at 837 Bayview Drive, said Webster’s success motivated her clients to use the same marketing strategy and use a delayed listing in the Milwaukee-area’s METRO MLS. The listing alerts other brokers that the house is about to hit the market, and it shows up on some listing services before officially going public.
Nocek said she and her clients think they can fetch a higher price by getting more eyes on the property rather than pursuing a pocket listing. The asking price is $1,135 per square foot.
“We felt that we have a better chance of actually driving up the price rather than selling internally,” she said. “I know a lot of Realtors do that, but I don’t know if it’s a benefit to the sellers. Why not put it on the market and get more exposure?”
The five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom house was built in 2018, Nocek said. It sits on a half-acre lot on the Northeast end of Geneva Lake and has two canopied piers.
The listing will go public on Sept. 19, Nocek said, and showings will begin Sept. 20.
Nocek declined to identify the property’s sellers, but she said they are relocating to Florida. Property tax bills are addressed to a trust under the name Peggy Roth.
The string of properties using “coming soon” listings is unique for Geneva Lake, where private listings and off-market sales are common. Of the handful of lakefront homes that sold this year for more than $5 million, just one was listed on the public market, according to listing services.
Real Estate prices on Geneva Lake have been growing in the last few years as inventory has shrunk and demand for second homes has risen. Homeowners are reluctant to sell their valuable lakefront property, so competition can be fierce when listings go public.
“Twenty years ago, I used to see 25 lakefront listings. Now we’re lucky if we see five a year,” Nocek said. “I think since COVID, people are not selling them as much as they used to. And that’s what’s creating the increase in price.”
Webster, who listed two lakefront properties in August using delayed listings, said the process went well for his sellers. Both properties had several showings booked in the first two days of going public, and they got contingent offers within three days. Webster said the properties are under contract and expected to close in mid-October.
Webster described the delayed public listing as an alternative to office exclusive listings, which Compass has been pursuing with its three-phased marketing approach that begins with an internal private exclusive listing. The delayed public listings can give sellers a broader reach than private listings, while giving the property time to generate interest before hitting the market, Webster said.
“We were very successful in getting what I think was the best price and terms for the seller we could, and also at the same time giving all the real estate agents in the realtor community a fair shot at showing it and selling it if they had a prospective buyer,” he said. “And so I think it was a win-win all the way around.”
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Two waterfront Lake Geneva homes hit market asking nearly $10M each