Robert Smith

At Preview Properties, we get a lot of calls about rental properties in Livingston County. Many apartments in the Brighton and Howell areas are running at a higher capacity now, presumably due to the number of people who have lost their homes to foreclosure. But some are also potential first-time buyers who are not convinced this is the right economic time to enter the housing market as a homeowner.

In Livingston County right now, our MLS has 17 properties for lease at or under $1500/mo. Twelve are detached homes, the other five are condos. If you look at the $1000 and under market, we only see three homes and two condos. Of course, not every rental property is placed into the MLS.

Apartments are an option for some people, and you can expect to spend around $800 or more to live in a newer community with some amenities. Things like a washer and dryer in your unit, perhaps a pool and clubhouse, with or without a fitness center. There is also a higher end apartment that has a few three bedroom units, two car attached garage, private entrances, and pool/clubhouse, but they start at $1350/mo, with two bed units starting around $1200/mo. Some communities have waiting lists, too, and it’s not unheard of to leave a deposit if you want to be placed on the waiting list.

Some apartment complexes will let you enter into a six month lease rather than the usual twelve month lease, but expect to pay at least an additional $100/mo to do that. Do you have pets? Expect to pay an extra security deposit (damage) fee as well as a few extra bucks per month. I know that many people I talk to absolutely won’t consider a condo or an apartment. For those folks, if they can’t find what they want through a property listed in the MLS, there is always rent dot com, or good old craigslist.

If you want the amenities like a pool and clubhouse/fitness center, an apartment community is not a bad choice. Of course you won’t have covered parking (unless there are carports-for which you’ll pay extra), but you can forget that $30/month you’re paying to the gym. Also the convenience of a washer/dryer that come with the apartment is good, and repairs are normally handled pretty quickly in a well run community, too. Not terribly important for some things, but it makes a difference if your refrigerator, water heater, furnace or air conditioning goes out.

The tried and true method of looking at the Sunday newspaper ads may work, too, but a lot of landlords are going the electronic advertising route these days. No matter what your housing choice is, be sure to call quickly because the feedback I’m hearing is that affordable units ($1200 and under) are going very fast. If I can be of service with your home search, feel free to contact me.

This past Saturday I volunteered at the Howell Conference and Nature Center’s ‘Save The Wildlife’ 5K. It was a beautiful morning for the runners and walkers, cool and crisp at the start, then sunny and warming as the race concluded. It was also perfect weather for the volunteers, who sometimes struggle to stay warm without the assistance of generating a little extra body heat via exercise.

The 5K course traversed the trails on the property with a decent uphill on both of the first two miles, but the runners had the benefit of a good downhill on the last mile. It was great to see so many ages participating in the run and walks. Excellent support, smooth operation of the race and all of the athletes that I spoke with indicated they’ll be back next year.

The race staff has really become super organized in this third year of the event. This year the organizers went to full ‘chip’ results – start and finish timing – with the B-tag technology. A B-tag is where an RFID device is part of the runner’s bib (number) that they wear. It records their time from when they cross the start mat till the time they cross the mat at the finish line for an accurate event interval. This is different than ‘gun time’ where everybody has the same starting time, even if you’re the last person to cross the start line. Competitive runners certainly prefer a chip-timed event.

The Center has a lot of great activities - a Wild Wonders Wildlife Park, summer camps, a ropes course and zip line and Michigan’s tallest climbing tower. There’s also the new Nature Zone Center, periodic wildlife photo workshops, special events and don’t miss the new courtyard. The families of the participants had plenty to do while they waited for the athletes to finish their event.

The race started promptly at 10am with the first 5K runner coming across the finish line with a time of 19:29. Awards were wrapped up by 11:40am, leaving plenty of Saturday left for other things. Funds from the race will be used for the wildlife rehabilitation center

The Howell Conference and Nature Center is one of the area’s jewels. Great family activities, environmental education, and they are generally the ones called when an injured animal is found. If possible, they’re rehabbed and put back into the wild. They do accept general donations, donations of needed supplies for the infirmary, or gifts through the animal adoption program. You can visit their web site at http://www.howellnaturecenter.org/index.htm, or better yet, drop in for a visit.

An interesting discussion came up at one of my company’s (Preview Properties, Brighton, MI) recent sales meetings. It’s that some sellers may not have to pay the State transfer tax at closing. Here’s how it works, according to Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL 207.526):

You must meet all three conditions.

1. The home must be your principle residence and classified as homesteaded

2. The SEV in the year you sell must be less than the SEV for the year you acquired the property

3. The property can’t be sold for more than its ‘true cash value’ when it’s sold

So, if you bought a house in 2006 and the SEV was $74,000 and sold it in 2011 when its SEV was $68,000, points 1 & 2 above are met. The true cash value is established by multiplying the current SEV x 2. In this case it would be $68,000 x 2 = $136,000. If the house sold for $125,000 in 2011, all three criteria have been met, as long as it was your principle residence and homesteaded.

A couple of points. Most electronic public records only go back five years, so you may have to dig through your old property tax statements to find the SEV in the year you bought the property. Make your title company aware that you qualify for this exemption, and provide them with the documentation.

This applies only to the State Transfer Tax of $3.75 per $500 of sale price. On the above $125,000 sale that amounts to $937.50 – not a bad exemption! You will still have to pay the County Transfer Tax of $0.55 per $500 of sale price, or $137.50, but obviously you’re ahead of the game.

Don’t confuse what the law calls ‘true cash value’ (based upon the SEV) with your real ‘market value’. Your Realtor determined the market value when he or she suggested the listing price. Market value can be defined as what a ready, willing and able buyer will pay for a given property. That could be more, or less, than what the State considers ‘true cash value’. In fact it is almost always a different figure.

One final caution. If you take this exemption and were not entitled to it by the criteria of the law, there is a 20% penalty of the tax assessed plus whatever tax is due. So make sure you have the Title Company double check everything to verify that you are eligible to claim this exemption.

My special thanks to Sherry Hinsperger at Sterling Title in Brighton for the clear explanation of how this works.

Feel free to contact me if you are considering the sale of your home. I’ll be happy to put my 13 years of experience to work for you! Get useful info like this by signing up for my monthly email newsletter right here.

I headed out to the Fowlerville Fairgrounds with my wife to take in some knowledge of the soybean. A mere $3 entrance fee (with free parking) and a few free hours were all that was needed. Who knew that there would be so many cute chicks there, too.

There were swap meet vendors, an old Model A, and some tractors on display. We missed the tractor pull and the evening entertainment, but the Historical Village was open, and the soybean displays were interesting.

Being ‘city slickers’, we decided that farmers are pretty ingenious. Who else could get you to buy tickets to ‘cow pie bingo,’ a game where you literally pay to watch where a cow poops. A grid is drawn on the ground and a well fed cow then walks around and does its thing. The grid with the most ‘stuff’ is the winner. As my wife said, “at least we didn’t have to fling it or pick it up.”

And because this is a two-day event, your hand stamp was good for both days. There were a lot of other things going on in the County this weekend which likely hurt the attendance a bit, but it’s an interesting concept and has the potential to grow.

Really, it’s a celebration of farm life, and I was surprised to find that Michigan has over 2 million acres of soybeans planted and that it is our number two crop, adding about a billion dollars to the State’s economy. That’s a pretty good reason to celebrate the soybean, too.

The public was encouraged to line Grand River from Genoa Twp to the Brighton Area Fire Department with American flags to help commemorate the arrival of a girder from the World Trade Center, the centerpiece to Brighton’s 9/11 Memorial. I entered Grand River near Hacker Rd., and saw the first flag just west of Hilton Rd, where a family was out with a flag-laden golf cart and the entire group holding flags, too.

Small groups gathered on both sides of Grand River near the Fire Station, with a larger crowd at the site. People came alone and carrying large flags, or in twos and threes. Families were there with young children, and many veterans and a few presumably active duty troops in fatigues, too. At 12:07, the vehicles escorting the girder came into view. A large contingent of Rolling Thunder Chapter 5 on their motorcycles, a military Hummer, various police cars and fire trucks were part of the procession, as well as the truck with the flag covered girder.

Fire Chief Larry Lane addressed the crowd, as well as Capt. Gregory Mowbray, who was one of the six Brighton Area Fire Department personnel that travelled to NYC to pick up the girder.

The truck was positioned near the memorial, and a lift was used to hoist the girder into place. As each clip on the memorial was attached to the girder, the crowd applauded. Shortly after the last clip was affixed, some in the crowd started to quietly sing “God Bless America.” Many more joined in.

Chief Lane and Capt. Mowbray then presented the folded flag that had covered the girder en route to the memorial site to Jim Lemke, a local veteran and member of the Rolling Thunder contingent. The girder was covered with a black cloth until tomorrow’s formal dedication, which will occur at 9:00 am.

The memorial looks even better than the architectural renditions that I’ve seen. If you’re available tomorrow morning, consider attending the official unveiling. Grand River will be closed at 8:15 am from Main Street to Cross (near the Meijer store), but a shuttle will be running from Meijer’s to the Fire Station. Chief Lane suggested that you try to arrive no later than 7:30 as a large crowd is expected.