MARION POWERS
Village Green Realty

"The quality is fabulous, and the attention to detail is incomparable," Powers says. "The drawback is you have no backyard"—a deficiency magnified by the retaining wall behind the house and the fact that the residence is on the inland side of Sheridan Road (rather than on the Lake Michigan side). "You look out back at stone, and that unfortunately compounds the problem of road noise from Sheridan Road out front," she says. "The solution to this problem is going to be the purchase price."

BLANCHE EGAN ROMEY
Bre Sotheby’s

Romey concurs with Powers. Without lake frontage, she says, Sheridan Road is "just a busy street. But if you can go out back to a nice big lawn, you can forget that. You can’t do that here." She notes the property’s three terraces (one built into the slope), but otherwise bemoans the lack of open space out back. "If you’re willing to do without that and you want new construction, this is as nice as any new construction there is. But you can bargain hard because of the back."

CHRIS SMITH
Baird & Warner

"There are a lot of magnificent features here," says Smith, "but there are things [Nikamal] didn’t do." The tile and paint in the six-plus bathrooms approximate the same color scheme (buyers at this level expect more variety), and the kitchen has only one dishwasher (two are now the norm in upper-end houses). Smith’s larger complaint was about a lack of "any evidence of green features," which, he says, "the upper-end buyer wants to see now. It’s cutting edge."

HER BEST OFFER
$3.6 million