OK  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Now you can have your choice of three lovely and very affordable cottages in the Saugatuck area.  All three of these are charming and they all have real wood fireplaces!

The first one is "on the hill" in Saugatuck with a great rental history and its very own website at www.saugatuckretreat.com.  

The Hoffman Street home called "La Casaita"  has the advantage of being in a quiet, very desirable area and yet just a few blocks away from all that Saugatuck has to offer.

Located on a standard Saugatuck lot of 66 X 132 with a screened porch on the front and another enclosed porch on the back, this home has a rental history of $1,000 per week during the summer season, two bedrooms and a combined living and dining area with the wood burning fireplace.  Priced at just under $200,000, this is a fantastic deal.

Always wanted a place in Saugatuck?  This is your chance.  Check out additional photos on  www.mysaugatuck.com.

Your second choice is a Darling Douglas Cottage! 

This two bedroom home priced just under $200,000 sports an open concept living and dining area with the wood burning fireplace, pine floors, a huge screen porch and just over half an acre of land with a meditation garden. 

  Absolutely charming and just a couple of blocks to downtown Douglas, Mi.  This home has been used as a primary home but would also be very effective as a second home with good rental potential. 

The third choice on Crawford Street is a totally renovated, brick bungalow located in the quiet town of Glenn halfway between Saugatuck and South Haven. 

This immaculate home  has been carefully remodeled and maintained with hard wood and ceramic floors, newer roof, electrical, kitchen, plumbing, a large dining and living room with the wood burning fireplace, three bedrooms, over half an acre with a garage and an attached shop with 220 service. 

Best of all, THIS HOME IS LESS THAN HALF A MILE down a quiet street FROM THE PUBLIC ACCESS TO LAKE MICHIGAN!  This home is priced at $159,900.

So you decide -  close to all the happenings in Saugatuck or all the restaurants and fun in Douglas or public access to Lake Michigan?  Having trouble deciding?  Here is what you should do.

Check out more photos of the three homes on www.mysaugatuck.com and then email Dee Dee at deehans@ameritech.net or call her at 616 836 8535 and set up an appointment see all three homes. 

YOU CAN AFFORD SAUGATUCK, DOUGLAS, AND LAKE MICHIGAN ACCESS!  Property in the area has never been a better value!

Come on over to Saugatuck, Mi and walk Oval Beach.  There is always free access to Oval Beach after Labor Day and the room rates are less out of season. 

Right now there is a lot of driftwood and fantastic wave action due to the high winds  that recently came in from the West.

 THESE COULD BE YOUR FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND.  

While you are here, drop by Dee Dee Hanson's office in Douglas on Blue Star Highway near Wiley Road and pick up some maps.  While you are there, you can look at all the Saugatuck real estate listings on the big screen in her office.  Three ways to contact Dee Dee - call Dee Dee at 616-836-8535 or email her at deehans@ameritech.net or visit her website at www.mysaugatuck.com   

Dee Dee's blog about at Saugatuck area, Saugatuck real estate, Saugatuck market studies is located on the blog to the right of the little dog.  SEE YOU AT THE BEACH! 

The City of Saugatuck is purchasing 171 acres from the Land  Conservancy of West Michigan who is purchasing the land formerly known as Denison South  from Aubrey McClendon for $20 Million Dollars.  The new land will be added to the original Oval Beach and is located between the current  beach and the Kalamazoo River. 

 It is a somewhat complicated transaction involving $6 Million in donations from various groups and a $12.5 Million Grant to the City of Saugatuck from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.  The grant still has to be awarded but at the meeting today everyone seemed pretty confident that it will be forthcoming at the Board Meeting on Dec 2. If so, the property will close before the end of this year!

Once the closing occurs, the land will be leased to the City of Saugatuck for immediate use and the City of Saugatuck will make future payments to complete the transaction from donations during the next few years in three payments.

A lot of people have been working on this transaction which started out as a gleam in someone's eye in the 1930s and a hope for the City of Saugatuck in the 1950s. 

This is fantastic news and probably the best thing to happen to this area since Oval Beach began.  It was a very emotional press release meeting for the presenters and the audience today at the SCA at 2 PM. 

SOON OVAL BEACH WILL NOT END HERE as it does today.  There will be nature trails and free access all the way to the Kalamazoo River.

The final photo here is the view of the acquisition from the north end of the first Oval Beach all the way to the Kalamazoo River. 

This is even more reason to have your place in the Saugatuck Area. 

 For more information about the area go to www.mysaugatuck.com and click on Dee Dee's Blog to the right of the little dog for more information about the area along with market information.  You can also see all the real estate listings in Saugatuck, Douglas, and the surrounding area on this website.  Dee Dee Hanson can be reached at deehans@ameritech.net or by phone at 616-836-8535.  Dee Dee can send you the listings as they come available.  Lots of good opportunities NOW!

 SEE YOU AT THE BEACH!  

Living in Saugatuck, Mi on the shore of Lake Michigan one of the Great Lakes really puts you in touch with nature.  Lots of wind and waves in the last couple of days.  It has been spectacular !                                                 

What is wrong with this picture? 

 YOU'RE NOT IN IT! 

 Call Dee Dee Hanson at CB Woodland Schmidt at 616-836-8535 or email her at deehans@ameritech.net and you can correct that situation.

Always wanted a place in Saugatuck near Oval Beach?  Now is the time.  Prices have never been better. 

Get your place here and you can be here for the wind, waves, and see the seasons change. 

See all real estate listings at www.mysaugatuck.com  Also read the rest of the blogs to the right of the little dog.

The fall colors are starting in Saugatuck, Mi.  Drop everything and get to Saugatuck, Mi this weekend.  The best time to see the colors is in the morning light and the evening light.  Two great places to go are the Douglas Cemetery on Wiley Road.  (Blue Star to the flashing light - Wiley and east to past the overpass for the expressway to the  Douglas CemeteryThis is actually my second favorite cemetery - the first being in Key West, Florida.  This cemetery is maintained beautifully by the Saugatuck Township.  It is full of Maple trees with charming old tombstones. 

Another great location to see the colors is the drive from Park Street to Oval Beach down Perryman in Saugatuck.  You only get one fall every year and the best place to spend it is Saugatuck, Mi. 

While you are here visit Dee Dee Hanson at CB Woodland Schmidt and check out all the saugatuck real estate on the big screen in her office and pick out your second home.  There are some fantastic opportunities right now in the area.  Then you will never miss fall in Michigan. 

Call me at 616-836-8535 or visit my website at www.mysaugatuck.com to see all the homes available and read all my blogs about the area to the right of the little dog.                                                                                               

Life is short.  You can't be to busy to miss the Fall Colors.  See you soon! 

Just sold my first property directly from a blog.  The client read about foreclosure opportunities in a blog I posted on Activerain and called me. 

We spent a lot of time looking until he was really comfortable with the market.  He made an aggressive offer on this property in Saugatuck, Mi.  Home was listed as a short sale in the MLS. 

It took us all summer but we finally got bank approval and closed yesterday.  HERE IT IS! 

A lovely home with three bedrooms and a finished lower level near Goshorn Lake.  Right near the bike path so he can bike into Saugatuck.  Price - $133,000. 

Due to our perseverance and after overcoming numerous hurdles, this was his reward.  The last sale on this home was in excess of $200,000. 

 Now is the time to get a first or second home in the Saugatuck, Mi area.  If you are interested in Saugatuck Real Estate, specifially foreclosures or short sales,  call Dee Dee at 616-836-8535 or visit my website at www.mysaugatuck.com.

There are new opportunities every day and I can help you find you dream home.  Learn more about the area by visiting my blogs located to the right of the little dog on my website or at activerain.com.  Just go to Michigan and Allegan County, Saugatuck and Dee Dee Hanson.  Let's get started! 

There is a hot market in the Saugatuck area in foreclosures and short sales.  And the owners of properties are pricing their homes TO SELL!  Last week I presented four offers for my buyer clients and three of them were in multiple offer situations!  My clients offers were the ones that were accepted in all three instances. 

Cash is King!  Because it is hard to get the banks to perform in anything like a timely fashion and appraisals are an issue, in a multiple offer situation, the smart sellers will often take a lower cash offer that will close in two weeks instead of struggling through the financing with a higher buyer for two months with the possibility that the price will be struck down in the appraisal process anyway.

Just to give you a little taste of what has been available in the foreclosure market -

Home listed for sale in Fennville, Mi - about seven miles from Saugatuck for $10,000!  Listed only one week and then under contract.

Drop dead gorgeous four year old Home on 2.5 square acres of beautiful trees located between Saugatuck and South Haven for $155,000 with fireplace, corian, recessed and lighted master bedroom ceiling, buried LP tank, decks, walkout, finished lower level, large 2 car garage, etc. This was also under contract in less than a week. 

Home within walking distance of public access to Lake Michigan between Holland and Saugatuck with see through fireplace between the kitchen and living area, over one acre of trees, trees, trees with finished lower level at $104,900.  This one took about a month and then it was gone too.

Home just east of Saugatuck on 16 tree filled acres listed in the low $40s.  This was gone in less than a week.

The good deals don't stay around very long.

NOW IS THE TIME!  Get yourself a good realtor and get your finances in order and be ready to pounce.  I send my clients all new listings on the day they hit the MLS so they are ready when their dream home is available.  Call Dee Dee Hanson, CB Woodland Schmidt, at 616-836-8535 or email me at deehans@ameritech.net.  Be sure to check out my website - www.mysaugatuck.com where you can search all the homes yourself and read all my blogs.

Have I got a deal for you today!  Wow!  This is FREE - can't get much cheaper than that.

The Saugatuck Douglas District Library has FREE MOVIES with FREE POPCORN every other Thursday night either in the lower level of the Library or across the street in the Old School House.  The Library and the schoolhouse are located at the corner of Center and Mixer in Douglas, Mi. 

Movies start at 7 PM and are generally group by theme.

A new group will be starting August 27th.  These are movies directed by William Wyler and the theme is WILLIAM WYLER'S WOMEN. 

The Good Fairy with Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall on August 27th.

Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda on September 10th.

The Letter with Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall on September 24th.

Mrs. Miniver with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon on October 8th.

The Heiress with Olivia de havilland and Montgomery Clift on October 22nd.

and finally, my personal favorite, Friendly Persuasion with Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire on November 5th.

The first really bad reason  for hiring a real estate agent is that you feel sorry for the agent. 

I can't believe it but I hear it over and over again from sellers of property.  They tell me that they had their properties listed with agents who did nothing to market the property and the property never sold.  So I asked, "Why did you choose that agent?"   The client tells me that the agent had given him a sob story about how much the agent needed the business and the client felt sorry for him. 

My next questions is, "Would you hire a brain surgeon because you felt sorry for him?"    I don't think so!  So the response is, "This isn't brain surgery."  That's right.  The sale of your home is NOT BRAIN SURGERY.  The sale of your home  is just the sale of your most valuable asset and you entrusted it to someone because you felt sorry for him?   Would you entrust your stock portfolio to someone because you felt sorry for him?  Or the education of your children?

Another bad reason is to take the agent who charges the least commission.  Often that is the first question out of a seller's mouth.  "How much is your commission?" 

It would be more important to ask, "What is your marketing plan?"  Do you have broker open houses? with a sit down lunch for the agents?  Do you have your own website?  How many websites will my home be on?  Do you do a visual tour?  How about Youtube?  Does your company have national exposure?  Are you a full time agent who can focus on the sale of my property or do you work somewhere else and just do this "part time". 

This market study for this year since January 1 versus last year from January 1 to July 23, 2009 indicates that it is probably the best time to get a home in Saugatuck Township for quite a while.  The number of sales have decreased from last year as has the average price and median price of homes.

This year 35 single family homes sold in Saugatuck, Douglas, and Saugatuck Township.  Last year to July 23rd, 43 single family homes sold.

Total dollar spend last year were $13,400,000 versus $8,400,000 this year.  Average price last year was $311,000 and this year $240,000. Medium price last year was $280,000 versus $219,000 this year.

Last year three of the sales were lake front homes over $1M while this year only one has been. Currently there are 22 Lake Michigan properties available in Saugatuck and Ganges Townships starting below $1M and ranging up to almost $2M. 

If you have always wanted a home in Saugatuck or on Lake Michigan, now is the time.  There are quite a few great properties available at prices that have not inflated in the last two years.  In addition, there is a smattering of short sale properties and foreclosures that come on the market now and again.

Just call Dee Dee at 616-836-8535 or e-mail me at deehans@ameritech.net.  Then I can send you all the homes that meet your criteria and put you on automatic for any new homes that come on line.  The great bargains don't last long so let's get together so you can learn the market and be ready when your special property becomes available.  Take advantage of this great market.  You won't be sorry you did!

See you soon!