Fremont · Trading Up
Trading Up in Fremont
Buy first or sell first, decided with your numbers. Two transactions, one plan, one person holding both clocks.
Out Here the Upgrade Is Usually Ground
Inland, the thing people trade up into is rarely more rooms. It is land, and what the land will let them do.
Somewhere to keep a few animals. Room for outbuildings, a workshop, equipment that currently lives outside. Space between you and the next house. A garden that is a project rather than a border.
That is a different search from a bigger house, and a listing will not answer most of it. Acreage on a page tells you the size and nothing about whether the ground drains, what the buildings can carry, or whether what you are picturing is permitted at all.
Animals and Buildings Are a Township Question
This is the one that catches people, and it is worth settling before you fall for a property rather than after.
What you may keep, how many, and what you may build is set locally and varies from one township to the next. Chickens, goats, a pole barn, a second dwelling: none of those are a given simply because there is room for them, and the rules differ across the area rather than following the county line.
There may also be deed restrictions on the parcel itself that have nothing to do with the township. A buyer who assumes space equals permission can end up owning exactly the right amount of land and not being allowed to do the thing they bought it for.
It is a straightforward thing to establish in advance. It is an expensive thing to discover afterward.
What I Walk Before You Offer
My office is here, so walking a property is not a trip I have to arrange.
I check where the lines truly run against the record, what the ground is like at the back rather than at the gate, how it drains after a wet spring, what the outbuildings can honestly still carry, and who maintains the road.
And I will tell you what needs confirming with the township before you commit, rather than guessing at rules on your behalf. Where something needs checking with them or with your attorney, I say so.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before. Land is a real part of that rather than something I do occasionally.
Before You Commit to a Plan
Tell me what you want the land to do, not just how much of it you want. That is the question the listings never ask and the one that decides whether a property works.
More about the town is on the Fremont area page, the order the two transactions go in is at trading up, and the land side is at land in Fremont.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I keep chickens or goats on a property out here?
Sometimes, and it is set locally rather than being a given because there is room. What you may keep, how many, and what you may build varies from one township to the next, and there may be restrictions on the parcel itself as well. It is straightforward to establish before you buy and expensive to discover after.
How much land do I actually need?
That depends on what you want it to do, which is why the useful conversation is about the plan rather than the acreage. Ground that drains, sits right and is permitted for what you have in mind beats a larger parcel that does none of those. A listing tells you the size and almost nothing else.
Are the outbuildings worth anything?
They are worth what they can honestly still be used for now, rather than what they were built for. A sound building you can put to work is a genuine asset and worth paying for. One that is past it is a roof you have inherited, and it is better to know which you are looking at before you offer.
Fremont
What trading up 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.
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?