Alpine Condos

The lot-size field in public data is not a lot size

The recorded plat or master deed gives every lot's dimensions alongside the count and the site's extent. Both are free and take an afternoon.

A 1979 build sits at the start of the polybutylene window

Polybutylene supply piping came into wide residential use in the late 1970s and continued until it stopped in the mid-1990s. A 1979 building sits right at the opening of that window, which makes the question live rather than settled.

It was inexpensive and easy to install, and it developed a reputation for failing at fittings and joints. Some has performed for decades; some has not. The only way to know is to have the piping identified by material during the inspection rather than inferred from the year.

In a condominium there is a wrinkle a house does not have, and it is a large one: whether supply piping is unit or common element varies with the master deed, and that decides who pays for a replacement and who decides when it happens. In a forty-six-year-old community, an association that has already re-piped has removed the single largest question about the building — and it will appear in the minutes and the reserve history. Ask directly.

Aluminum branch circuit wiring belongs to a slightly earlier window — roughly the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s — so a 1979 building sits just past it, though it is worth a look given how close the date is.

Lead-based paint disclosure applies to construction before 1978, which puts a 1979 building just clear.

At forty-six years the first replacement cycle is long past and the second is well under way. Roofs should have been done at least once and probably twice. Siding, drives, parking areas and any private roads are all within their replacement horizons. Furnaces, air conditioning and water heaters have been replaced more than once, and original windows have generally been changed.

So the most useful question to ask a board of a community this age is simply what has already been done and when. An association that has re-roofed, re-piped, resurfaced and rebuilt its reserve afterward is in a materially different position from one approaching all of that for the first time — and it will say so gladly.

Trails, a playground and mature trees, and who funds them

All three are association common area, which is real protection while the association holds them and a recurring cost the owners fund — a budget line as much as an amenity.

Trail surfacing needs periodic renewal, and where a trail crosses wet ground there are usually structures with their own lives. Playground equipment has a service life measured in years rather than decades, needs periodic inspection and a compliant surfacing depth that degrades and needs topping up, and carries liability and insurance implications. It is the item most often left out of a reserve study, because it does not look like a building component.

Mature trees are the item people never think of as a budget line at all, and on a forty-six-year-old site they should be. Trees planted with the community are now well into maturity, which means inspection, pruning and eventual removal are ongoing costs rather than occasional ones — and a large tree near a building or a path is one to have an arborist look at rather than guess about. Removal of a mature tree is a four-figure expense.

Canopy over roofs is the everyday version: leaf drop into gutters and valleys, exactly where roofs fail first, and shade that keeps surfaces damp and shortens the life of a covering. On a community with substantial mature canopy, gutter clearance is a several-times-a-year job and it shows up in the maintenance budget.

So the test is whether the reserve study names trail surfacing, playground equipment and surfacing, and tree work as their own lines with dates and figures. Where it does, the association is being run properly.

Off Eisenhower, and the parks nearby

East Eisenhower Parkway is a principal east-west route on the south side of the city, which puts a good deal within a short run and carries the ordinary corridor trade-off: convenience and traffic in the same package, varying sharply with distance from the road and orientation.

Buhr Park and Mary Beth Doyle Park are close by, and both are city parks. Publicly held parkland is the most durable tier of protected open space: not a business that can close and be sold, and not dependent on an association continuing to fund anything. It is the only category that does not need somebody to keep paying for it out of an assessment.

Mary Beth Doyle Park sits in the Malletts Creek drainage, and that watershed is worth understanding for anything on this side of the city. Malletts Creek is the main outlet for stormwater runoff from the City of Ann Arbor, much of it running in underground piping, with close to thirty-seven percent of the land draining to it impervious — which is why it responds sharply to heavy rain rather than gradually. The Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner is the authority, and flood plain status is parcel-specific.

That is a reason for a specific inquiry rather than a general impression: substantial public money has gone into that creek, and the city's stormwater staff will discuss a particular address at no cost.

What the association documents decide

Buying a condominium unit means buying into a corporation as well as a home, and the corporation's condition is not visible at a showing. Four documents settle it: the master deed and its exhibits, the bylaws, the current budget and the reserve study.

The master deed defines what the unit actually is — where the boundary runs between unit and common elements, and what limited common elements are assigned to its sole use. That is the most misunderstood part of condominium ownership, and it decides who pays for a great many things.

The bylaws set the rules that govern daily life: what may be altered, what may be parked, whether units may be leased and how many at once, and how the board is elected.

The budget and the reserve study together answer whether the association is solvent. An association with thin reserves and a large component near the end of its life is not cheaper — it is a deferred bill with an unknown date, and it arrives as a special assessment.

Board minutes are where a coming expense, a dispute or a construction defect claim surfaces first, and they are the most informative document nobody reads. I go through the recent ones as a matter of course.

One Michigan detail worth knowing: condominium documents are amended by recorded instrument, so what is recorded governs regardless of what any summary says.

The reserve study test for shared amenities

Where a community has a pool, a clubhouse, courts, trails or ponds, those are real amenities with real costs, and they belong in the reserve study as named lines with their own dates and figures.

A pool is among the most expensive things a residential community can own. Resurfacing is periodic and substantial; the pumps, filters, heater and enclosure are separate replacements on their own cycles; and there is liability, insurance and either staffing or monitoring on top.

A clubhouse is a building in its own right, with a roof, mechanicals and bathrooms or a kitchen, all on ordinary building cycles.

Tennis and other courts need resurfacing periodically, and eventually the base beneath needs reconstruction — much the larger expense of the two, and the one most often left out.

Ponds silt, weed and occasionally need dredging; any outlet structure carries its own inspection duties; and a fountain or aerator is machinery with a service life measured in years.

So the test is specific: does the reserve study name each of those as a separate line? Where it does, the association is being run properly. Where it lumps them together or omits the equipment, the shortfall arrives later as a special assessment.

It is also worth asking how much the amenities are used. Ones a community values are worth what they cost; ones that sit idle are a line on every owner's statement for something nobody uses. And the honest way to compare this community's assessment against another's is to ask what each one covers before comparing the numbers.

An Ann Arbor address is not necessarily the City of Ann Arbor

The City of Ann Arbor is ringed by townships — Scio, Pittsfield, Ann Arbor, Superior and Lodi among them — whose mailing addresses read Ann Arbor. A mailing address is a delivery route rather than a jurisdiction.

Each township is a separate government with its own board, tax rate, services, zoning and assessor. The rate difference between a city parcel and a township one is real and recurring, which is why comparable sales must be matched on municipality. Rates and taxable values both change, so compare the current millage and the parcel's own taxable value rather than a remembered difference; a tax bill arrives on the local schedule, and a lender collects an estimated share of it monthly.

School assignment follows a third line again and tracks neither the municipal nor the postal boundary. There are examples running in both directions: a subdivision with Ann Arbor addresses, Pittsfield Township taxes and Saline schools; and, elsewhere in Pittsfield Township, a community assigned to Ann Arbor Public Schools. Neither is derivable from the address.

Match comparable sales on district as well as on municipality — district is one of the larger drivers of price difference between otherwise comparable properties.

Four tiers of protected open space

Where open ground adjoins a property, ownership is the first thing that decides whether it stays open — but not the only one.

Land held by a public body is generally the most durable, though a public body can still sell or repurpose land. Land under a recorded conservation easement is next — an easement runs with the land, surviving a change of owner and of local board. Association common area is real protection that the owners themselves pay for. Unbuilt private land carries the least protection of the four, but that is not the same as none: zoning, recorded deed restrictions and state wetland regulation can each constrain what may be built, filled or cleared, and EGLE requires authorization for specified activities affecting regulated wetland.

From a window all four look identical, which is why it is worth checking the record rather than the view: ownership, any recorded easement or restriction, the zoning, whether wetland is mapped, and whether a development application has already been approved.

Buying or selling here

At forty-six years, what the association has already done is the transaction.

For a seller, a record of what has been replaced — roofs, piping, drives, siding — together with a current reserve study is worth more than anything inside a unit, because it answers the first question a well-advised buyer of a community this age will ask.