Fremont · Buying a Home
Buying a Home in Fremont
I read the property in person before you spend a Saturday on it, then tell you what I found.
More Choice, More Time, and a Different Risk
On the lakeshore the pressure is scarcity. Out here it is the opposite, and that brings its own way of going wrong.
There is more to look at, it moves less frantically, and you can generally think for a few days without losing the property. That is a real advantage and it is why a lot of people end up buying here.
The risk is not missing out. It is buying something whose real costs you never priced, because nothing forced you to be careful and the price looked like such good value that it answered the question by itself.
The Ground Is Doing More Work Than the House
Out here what you are buying is often as much the land as the building, and that is where the numbers hide.
What the parcel will carry, for a septic system and for anything you have in mind later. Where the water comes from and the age of the well. Who maintains the road, because private means somebody plows and grades it and that somebody may become you. What the drive does in a wet spring, which a June viewing will never show you.
What the outbuildings can honestly still be used for, as opposed to what they were built for. Whether the parcel could be split, which can matter later even if it does not now.
A house is inspected in a couple of hours. Land takes reading, and it is the part most buyers skip because it is not where the kitchen is.
In their words
In their words
Tamara was absolutely the best and easiest Realtor to work with. First time buying a house and she made the process easy to understand and simple. Would highly recommend to anyone in the market!
What I Do Before You Drive Up
My office is here, so walking a property is not a trip I have to plan. I read the ground the way somebody who has to live with it would.
Where the lines actually run against the record, what the ground is like at the back rather than at the gate, how the access behaves in every season and who maintains it, and what the buildings will genuinely carry. If there is frontage on Fremont Lake I read the water the same way I would on the coast.
Then I tell you what I found, including when it means not bothering.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before. I work the lakeshore and inland both, so if you are weighing this against the coast I can tell you honestly what you are trading.
Before You Offer
Tell me what you want the land to do as well as the house, because out here those are two questions and only one of them is on the listing.
More about the town, Fremont Lake and the drive across M120 is on the Fremont area page. The buying process is at how buying works, and if you are comparing against the coast, there is more at waterfront in Fremont.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it really less competitive out here?
Generally yes, and that is the appeal. There is more available, it moves less frantically, and you can usually think for a few days. The risk simply changes shape: nothing forces you to be careful, so the mistakes here are about costs nobody priced rather than opportunities missed.
What should I be checking that I would not on a town house?
The ground. What it will carry for a septic system, where the water comes from and how old the well is, who maintains the road, what the drive does in a wet spring, and what the outbuildings can honestly still be used for. A house is inspected in a couple of hours; land takes reading, and it is the part most buyers skip.
Am I giving something up by not buying on the lakeshore?
You are trading rather than settling, and it is worth being clear-eyed about both sides. You give up being minutes from the big water, and you generally get considerably more house and land for the same money. I work both, so I will tell you honestly which trade fits what you have actually said you want.
Fremont
What buying a home looks like in Fremont
Inland in Newaygo County, where Gerber started in 1927 and where the same money buys land instead of frontage. My office is here.
Fremont is the one town I cover that is not on the lakeshore, and I would rather say so plainly. It has Fremont Lake by town with a public beach, a campground and a boat launch, and M120 runs across to Twin Lake and on toward Muskegon.
The trade is the point. The same budget that gets you a modest cottage on the water will generally get you a house with real acreage here, which is why people who start out searching for lakefront often end up looking at this side of the map.
Buying a Home: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?