Winnetka Home Sells Off Market for Nearly 6M

A home in Winnetka’s Hubbard Woods sold off-market last week for $5.5 million.

The nearly 6,000-square-foot home at 1096 Laurel Avenue has seven bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms. It sits on a half-acre lot about a mile from Lake Michigan. The sale price came out to $923 per square foot.

It’s the second home to sell for more than $5 million in Winnetka this year, following the $5.6 million sale of a home on Hill Road in February. Both sales were off the coveted Winnetka lakefront, where luxury homes often notch eight-figure sale prices.

@properties Christie’s International Real Estate agent Jena Radnay, who represented both sides of the deal, said the home sold “off-off-market.” Radnay, one of the top Chicagoland agents and a major dealmaker in the North Shore, leveraged her network to connect the buyer and seller without marketing the home through private or public channels.

“A lot of times when I’m getting a new listing, I share it with my buyers right away,” she said. “And if we can make a deal happen before it goes to [the private market] where the seller is getting top dollar and there’s no reason to go to the market, then we’re doing these deals offline.”

On deals like this, Radnay said she sets a sale price the seller is comfortable with and only closes before marketing if the buyer is willing to pay that price. Buyers will often pay more to secure a home before it hits the market, she said. Radnay used the same process for the house at 52 Locust Road in Winnetka, which also sold April 30 for just over $3 million, according to listing services.

Property records indicate the seller is Chicago-based plastic surgeon Michael Lee and his wife, Kirsten. Records that would identify the buyer are not yet public. Radnay declined to identify the sellers or buyers.

The sellers had the home custom built in 2015 by architect Timm Martin, Radnay said. They bought the lot and previous house for $1.2 million in 2013, according to property records.

The stucco-and-stone facade home has a finished basement and finished attic, with an indoor sport court, according to listing information. The primary bedroom features a sitting room and a private balcony overlooking the backyard.

Outside, the home includes an in-ground pool with a waterslide, a hot tub and a patio.

“The backyard was killer,” Radnay said. “It’s really an oasis for kids. The location is amazing.”

Radnay also brokered both sides of the two largest home sales in Illinois history last year, both on the Winnetka lakefront. Real estate executive Jeff Quicksilver sold his lakefront home for $34.5 million, including furniture, in November, following the sale of former Goldman Sachs executive Muneer Satter’s home for $31.3 million in August.