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In the News: 2022 Ice Castles Return to Lake Geneva

Ice Castles Returns to Lake Geneva Discount Tickets Available A magical, frozen attraction is bringing its fairy-tale experience back to Lake Geneva this winter. Ice Castles will return to Destination Geneva National for its third season at the lakeside resort on Lake Como. Opening date will be in January 2022, weather dependent. The frozen experience features tunnels, caverns, towers, fountains, slides, and crawl spaces built entirely from icicles that are grown on site, harvested, and hand-placed by professional ice artisans. This winter, Ice Castles will have a larger, more immersive design and will also offer winter sleigh rides visitors can add on to their experience. “We are excited to bring the magic of Ice Castles back to Wisconsin this winter with an expanded experience,” said Ice Castles' CEO Kyle Standifird. “Our mission is to give people a place where they can escape from the hustle of daily life for a moment and step into a frozen fairy-tale world while creating a fun and safe outdoor experience.” Ice artisans will begin growing icicles to construct the winter attraction as early as November. A team of at least 20 ice artisans will spend about 8-12 weeks building the experience. Ice Castles typically opens in mid-to-late January, depending on the weather and only remains open until late February. While you might think of an ice castle being made out of blocks of ice, these castles are much more intricate. Each ice castle is built by hand and takes thousands of man-hours to create. The daily process consists of growing 5,000 to 12,000 icicles that are harvested by hand and individually sculpted into existing ice formations. The newly placed icicles are then drenched with water creating an astonishing and ever-changing variety of ice formations. LED lights are frozen inside the ice and twinkle to music adding a magical ambiance to the breathtaking interactive sculptures. Tickets to visit the frozen fortresses will be available in December on the company’s website, icecastles.com. Receive 15% off any day time tickets during the 2022 season with the Best of Lake Geneva Discount Code: bestof2022. The Wisconsin location is one of five Ice Castles locations in the United States. The seasonal entertainment company also has locations in Utah, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and a new location in New York. For more information and to sign up for notifications from the Ice Castle CLICK HERE. For a list of fun things happening in Lake Geneva, CLICK HERE.

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BLOG: REAL ESTATE - MLS OR NOT?

DOES THE MLS BENEFIT ME IN THE SALE OF MY HOME? By: Wendy Murphy, d'aprile properties October 7, 2021 I was recently approached by a potential client who asked if it’s beneficial for me to use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in my marketing plan to sell their home or are they better off trying to sell it off-market. As a real estate broker for over twenty-five years, I wanted to share my thoughts on the benefits of a marketing plan that includes the MLS as opposed to selling it as an off-market listing. The real estate markets across the county have seen record sales this year and our local market is no exception. Some speculate the pandemic has moved much of the workforce from office buildings to home offices and the appeal of a lake home has attracted buyers to our area. Many local homeowners have held onto their lake homes for use during this period of time, leaving buyers actively waiting for new listings to hit the market. As a result, demand has outpaced supply for the last year and a half, driving prices up. Sellers who decided to cash out have fared extremely well, seeing lakefront homes selling 30% higher than 2020. To give you a little background about the MLS, it was formed for the purpose of providing exposure for real estate agents' listings to other agents, thus connecting buyers and sellers. When I first received my real estate broker’s license in the 1990s, the MLS’s were all locally based, but they have evolved into a global network of real estate listings that now cover the entire country. It’s not only used by real estate agents but buyers, as well. On the downside, as agents, we have lost control of our data with online real estate portals, including Zillow, purchasing the data and in turn, selling access to our listings to other agents for buyer leads. While there are parts to the new evolution that bothers me, I can’t overlook the many ways that it benefits sellers. In this unique market, most agents have buyers waiting in the wings for listings to come available. When a new listing hits the market, buyers flock to see the home, which often results in multiple offers. It’s been a great market for sellers, but not so much for buyers. Sellers often ask me what the value of their home is, but the true definition of market value is “What a buyer is willing to pay.” The only way to know the real value is to test it in the market. With supply and demand in favor of sellers, the more buyers you can get into your home, the better the outcome will potentially be. One thing is certain, the exposure to buyers that one agent provides can’t compete with the powerful reach of the MLS and their ultimate online network of nearly three million agents. The more buyers that have interest in a home, especially in a seller’s market, like we are experiencing now, the greater the likelihood for multiple offers, and homes selling over the asking price. As a listing agent, I would be putting my needs before a seller if I were to encourage them to forgo the MLS and to work with one of my buyers. It would be to their advantage to list their home in the MLS for all the buyers to see and in the end, if my buyer has the highest bid, then they will be the one to buy the house. While a seller can have a fairly good understanding of their home’s value, they often base it on data that isn’t always accurate. For example, Zillow uses an algorithm to determine a market evaluation they call a “Zestimate.” Their accuracy depends on the availability of data in a home’s area. Some estimates are far too low and others too high, and unfortunately many homeowners rely on this information in assessing their own values before meeting with a listing agent. I recently met a homeowner who shared their sales goal based on data they found online. In the end, we sold it for a million dollars more than what they thought the value was because we let the market set the price through numerous showings and offers from buyers that perceived a higher value. There have been several off-market listings that have sold in our area this year with sales prices that were lower than what my buyers would have most likely paid. I can imagine other agents had buyers willing to pay more as well. If other agents had the opportunity to show those homes to their buyers, I believe the sales prices could have been higher. I have had sellers request to have off-market listings based on privacy concerns, and while I have reluctantly agreed, I did strongly encourage them to list in the MLS, explaining that they could achieve a higher sales price with the broader reach. I understand that some sellers may think the process of listing in the MLS is a burden; however, even if a home is sold off-market, the process remains the same. The home is still shown to potential buyers, although the pool of buyers is much smaller, and there will still be home inspections, and possibly an appraisal if the buyer is to secure financing. Every home sale in our area sets a precedent for future sales and value. For those looking to refinance their home for a change in rate or term, or to cash out and use the money for other investments, family emergencies, happy occasions such as weddings or education, your home’s value is dependent on good and accurate data. And for a house, the MLS is the main source of data for bank appraisers. Online real estate portals, agents, and buyers all utilize the data in the MLS as well to justify values based on similar sales that occur. Your neighbor’s home sale directly impacts the value of your home, and if it is not listed in the MLS, it will be buried in the tax records and not easily found. The market is changing throughout the country and we are seeing the number of homes available for sale increasing in our area. As the supply and demand begin to balance, sellers will find greater value in the power of the MLS, and its reach of buyers and agents across a larger platform. But in the meantime, while it still remains a seller’s market, I continue to utilize the MLS and recommend that my sellers do too. Not only will it help to reach more buyers and potentially have a higher selling price, but it will also enable all of us to accurately capture the sales data that directly impacts the home values here in our area. Wendy Murphy is a Real Estate Broker with d'aprile properties in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She is licensed in both Wisconsin and Illinois and belongs to two MLS's and Boards: Lakes Area Realtor Association and the Chicago Association of Realtors.

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