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The homebuyer deadline calendar
Enter your closing date and get every Michigan deadline in order — the transfer affidavit, the PRE filing, the tax reset, your first real bills. The 45-day one is the easy one to miss.
Build your calendar →Buying a home in Michigan
The purchase itself works like anywhere else. What's different here is what happens around it: a transfer tax at closing, a 45-day affidavit, an exemption you must claim, and a tax bill that resets the year after you buy. This page puts it all in order.
The math
Closing costs
Michigan's transfer tax, recording fees, title insurance, and who customarily pays what — with a calculator for your price point.
Estimate closing costs →After you close
Property taxes
The pop-up that resets your Taxable Value the year after you buy — the single biggest first-year surprise. Know your real number before you offer.
See the pop-up →Rural buys
Land, wells & septic
Buying outside city water and sewer adds homework: the well test, the septic inspection, the mineral-rights question.
Open land & wells →The notes
Shorter reads on the specifics — inspections, first-year bills, the paperwork nobody mentions.
A whole town planned by one woman in the 1920s
Lathrup Village grew out of 1,000 acres that Louise Lathrup Kelley bought in 1923 and laid out as her own planned community — masonry houses, attached garages, and a shuttle to the shops.
Read the note →Buying on Hamburg's chain of lakes? You may help pay for the weeds
Many Hamburg Township lake homes sit on the Huron River chain of lakes, where a township special assessment district bills waterfront owners for invasive-weed and algae control each year.
Read the note →Buying on Lake Diane? It's a lake somebody built in the 1960s
Lake Diane in Amboy Township is a private developer-built reservoir from the mid-1960s, held back by a dam and ringed with small platted lots — facts worth knowing before you buy on it.
Read the note →Garden City: a suburb laid out so every family could grow its own food
Garden City was platted in the 1920s on the English garden-city idea — home lots sized near an acre so each household could raise fruit and vegetables to feed itself.
Read the note →The Lady Bird Deed: How Michigan Passes a House Without Probate
An enhanced life estate deed hands your home to an heir at death outside probate, yet you keep the right to sell it, mortgage it, or tear the deed up tomorrow.
Read the note →The lake the county bought for a dollar
Wiggins Lake in Sage Township sits behind Chappel Dam, a 1920s hydropower dam on the Cedar River that Gladwin County bought for one dollar in 1961 and still owns today.
Read the note →Where Michigan Wants Smoke and CO Alarms in a Home
Michigan's code wants a smoke alarm in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every floor — but for existing homes it only kicks in when you pull a permit or add a bedroom.
Read the note →Benton Harbor's water and the lead-line replacement
Benton Harbor's lead-in-water crisis triggered a full lead-service-line replacement program, and the city's water has since met lead standards.
Read the note →Buying in Ann Arbor's Old West Side? It's a binding historic district
Ann Arbor's Old West Side is a binding local historic district, so exterior changes usually need city Historic District Commission approval.
Read the note →Buying in Canadian Lakes: it's a private community
Canadian Lakes buyers should budget for property-owner membership, dues, and community rules.
Read the note →Buying in Flint? An honest, up-to-date look at the water
Flint's water crisis caused lasting harm, but the city's water meets standards today; buyers should still check service-line history and current reports.
Read the note →Buying in Sugar Springs: it's a private community
Sugar Springs is a private lake community in Butman Township, Gladwin County, with POA dues and rules.
Read the note →The official sources
Michigan Porch explains; the state decides. Transfer tax and the PRE live with the Michigan Department of Treasury; deeds and the transfer affidavit go through your county register of deeds and local assessor. Rates for a specific address are on your town's page. None of this is legal or tax advice — for a specific deal, ask a Michigan real-estate attorney or your closing agent.
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