Red Barn Village Sub, Oxford Michigan - 10/29/10 04:27 PM
Red Barn Village Sub in Oxford Township consists of 123 home sites just south of Drahner Rd, west of M-24. Red Barn is an older sub- houses built in the early to mid sixties, mostly ranches and tri-levels, with Lake Orion schools. The neighborhood also features community well and sewer, good sized yards- fences allowed. Excellent location with easy access to both downtown Oxford and Lake Orion.
Some of the area amenities include:
Centennial Park in down town Oxford Polly Ann Trail Seymour Lake Park 2009 was a rough year for Red Barn Village. 7 houses sold ranging from $50,000 to $90,210 (after subtracting seller concessions). … (2 comments)

Southeast Michigan Short Sale BUYER- Beware the Flopper - 10/28/10 11:44 AM
Southeast Michigan short sale buyers- beware of the "flopper." That's right- Buyer Beware. Most of what I've read about flopping bemoans the fact that the poor banks are getting screwed by unscrupulous investors. Sometimes there's an obligatory mention of the risk for the seller this practice causes. But never a word about the buyer. Not the "straw man" 'investor" "flopper" buyer. But the "real buyer."
Let me start out by defining the term "flop" or "flopper." There is not definitive place to look up the current use of the word "flop" and like I mentioned in the first paragraph, most of what … (2 comments)

Woodbriar Subdivision, Oxford Michigan- Newer Housing for Under $200K - 10/23/10 09:03 PM
Woodbriar Subdivision, Oxford Michigan is a 156 home subdivision in Oxford Michigan, south off Drahner Rd and west of M-24. The houses in Woodbriar Sub were built mostly in the late 90's-early 2000's (roughly 1998 - 2002). Woodbriar is made up primarily of colonials; part of the sub has Oxford Schools; part of the sub has Lake Orion schools. Other subdivision amenities include:
3 small parks community well public sewer sidewalks large yards A short distance south of Woodbriar sub you can pick up I-75 and about 20 minutes north you hit I-69. Nearby are parks, tennis courts, ball diamonds, soccer fields, Centennial Park … (4 comments)

The Preserve, Lake Orion Michigan Real Estate Sales - 10/21/10 02:45 PM
 The Preserve, Lake Orion Michigan Real Estate Sales
The Preserve real estate sales, Lake Orion Michigan. The Preserve is a Pulte sub in Southern Orion Township- just west of Baldwin Rd on the north side of Waldon Rd. The Preserve is a desirable neighborhood with most of the houses built in 1996 through 1998 with prices ranging at that time in the $200's but with an occasional home selling in the low $300's and a couple selling for just under $200,000. Most of the homes in The Preserve are 2 story homes with a few ranches in the sub. At the entrance … (2 comments)

Friendship Park, Lake Orion Michigan - 10/21/10 01:21 PM
Friendship Park, Lake Orion Michigan
Friendship Park in Lake Orion Michigan (technically Orion Township) is a 137 acre park located on the northeast corner of Clarkston and Baldwin Roads. Friendship Park is quite a nice facility that is only a half mile down the road from where I grew up and would have been great to have ball diamonds that close when I was a kid.
Friendship Park features 4 baseball/softball diamonds, 2 soccer fields, a sweet play structure, walking paths, a gazebo, the historic Porritt Barn and a nice pavilion which was finished in 2002 and offers indoor bathrooms, office space, … (0 comments)

Orion Oaks County Park Offers Something for Almost Everybody - 10/19/10 06:45 PM
Orion Oaks County Park Offers Something for Almost Everybody
Orion Oaks County Parkcovers more than 916 acres in Lake Orion Michigan with entrances off Clarkston Rd, Baldwin Rd and Joslyn Rd. Orion Oaks boasts 10 miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking, 90 acre Lake Sixteen for fishing or boating (non-motorized boats), bow hunting, and a 24 acre area designated "bark park."


Lake Sixteen is just off Joslyn Rd south of Clarkston Rd and boasts and award winning, wheel chair accessible fishing dock and 120 foot boardwalk linking two trail systems. Since Lake Sixteen was stocked with Northern … (4 comments)

Lake Orion Michigan 3rd Quarter Home Sales- Cold Hard Facts Refute Media Reports Regarding Foreclosures - 10/14/10 07:17 PM
Lake Orion Michigan 3rd Quarter Home Sales- Cold Hard Facts Refute Media Reports Regarding Foreclosures. Which is a fairly nice way of stating that, again, the main stream media is full of shit and spreading alarmist and untruthful information regarding the state of housing sales. I kept hearing all day how foreclosures in Michigan are not only up for the 3rd quarter compared to the 3rd quarter of 2009; I was hearing reports about how foreclosures in Michigan were hitting record highs.
First of all, at least one of the sources quoted counts foreclosure notices as a foreclosure. Many of those … (2 comments)

Oxford Lakes, Oxford Michigan Real Estate Sales - 10/13/10 04:52 PM
Oxford Lakes, Oxford Michigan Real Estate Sales
Oxford Lakes subdivision, Oxford Michigan is a platted subdivision neighborhood in the Village of Oxford Michigan. Living in Oxford Lakes is not just an investment- it's a lifestyle. Oxford Lakes subdivision was developed around 115 acre Oxford Lake and its Caribbean blue waters. Oxford Lakes offers a mixture of floor plans ranging from standard ranches to traditional split levels to contemporary to custom housing. Both off the water and on the water housing must conform to subdivision restrictions for the protection of its residents.
In good times you really couldn't touch a house in Oxford Lakes for under $200K. In … (0 comments)

Oxford Michigan Pies Make Bon Appetit's The Hot 10 Best Places for Pie - 10/09/10 03:05 PM
Achatz Homemade Pie Company with locations that include Oxford Michigan madeBon Appetit's "the Hot 10 Best Places for Pie" in the October 2010 issue. According to the article, judges at the National Pie Championships awarded the Cherry pie and Michigan Four Berry pie top honors.
Personally my favorite is their coconut cream pie, though all their cheese cakes are excellent. My mom prefers their Cherry pie, and the Michigan Four Berry pie seems to be popular with most people I know.
Achatz uses mostly Michigan products such as Michigan sugar, fruits, flour, milk and butter. Their food is natural and most … (2 comments)

Rolling Meadows, Lake Orion Michigan - 10/08/10 01:16 PM
Rolling Meadows, Lake Orion Michigan is a Pulte sub conveniently located off Maybe Rd just west of Baldwin Rd in desirable Orion Township Michigan. Home sizes range from approximately 2000 sq. ft. to approximately 2800 sq. ft., built between 1993 and 1996. The sub consists of 3 phases with a total of 265 home sites.
Rolling Meadows has always been a desirable neighborhood- some of the amenities include sidewalks, city water and sewer, subdivision tennis courts and swimming pool as well as a community club house.
Rolling Meadows is also between a 5-10 minute drive from I-75. 5-10 minutes from Great Lakes … (0 comments)

Buying a Short Sale in Oakland County Michigan - 10/02/10 07:17 PM
Buying a Short Sale in Oakland County Michigan
Since at the current time my categories and tags are a mess I thought it would be a good idea to have all my posts about buying a short sale in one place- hence this post. Below are links to blog posts I've written about writing an offer on a short sale, some tips to help make the process go smoother, and what to expect.
Short sales are not for the faint of heart. It will usually take 3-6 months to even know if the seller's bank(s) will approve your offer. The seller has different motivations … (0 comments)

Leasing a House in Southeast Michigan - 10/02/10 12:56 PM
Leasing houses in Oakland and Lapeer County Michigan is becoming much more common these days and handling these transactions has become part of the job of real estate agents. In the past, most of us didn't handle lease transactions. The market was good and most investors just put an ad in the paper and found their own tenants. And to be honest, most Realtors felt their time was better spent working with buyers and sellers because the checks were much larger.
But to steal a line (I believe from Dylan)- The times they are a changing.
The majority of homes offered for lease in Oakland … (2 comments)

Mixing Household Chemicals Can Be Hazardous To Your Health - 10/02/10 10:31 AM
With so many filthy foreclosure homes selling in Southeast Michigan, I thought I would be a good idea to re-blog Jason Channell's post addressing the dangers of mixing some common household cleaning supplies. Also don't forget- when it comes to purchasing items to fix up/clean that new purchase I can get you 10% off coupons for Lowes and coupons for Sherwin Williams.
Via Jason Channell, The House Sleuth (Diadem Property Inspections):
Don't Die Cleaning The House
Cleaning the house? Watch out... mixing common household cleaning products can cause serious injuries. And I am not being silly or alarmist. Some stuff just isn't … (6 comments)

The Failed Sweet Potato Experiment - 10/01/10 07:09 PM
The Failed Sweet Potato Experiment
On July 5 I wrote post called Grow Sweet Potatoes in Southeast Michigan and Recycle Your Old Tires at the Same Time.
In a nutshell, we were attempting to grow our sweet potatoes vertically by stacking tires as the plant grew. It idea was, when fall came we could knock over the stack of tires and WALA! Piles of spuds. 50 pounds per stack!
That was the idea....
All summer, as the plants grew over the top of the stack, we would throw another tire on top and run out to the manure pile (beautiful, 2 … (20 comments)