Arbor Hills II Superior Township

Two phases, and why that is the first question

Arbor Hills and Arbor Hills II are separate phases, and recorded restrictions attach to plats rather than to marketing names. Where a development is built in phases, each is generally its own recorded instrument, and the restrictions, any association's authority and any assessment can differ between them. Nothing requires them to match.

The phases differ here in ways that are already visible. The first ran 3,400 to 4,100 square feet; the second runs to about 4,700. That is a meaningfully larger product, which means the two phases hold different housing and should not sit in one comparable set without adjustment.

They also differ in build year, which sets the inspection agenda. A 2006 house and a house from the second phase can be a decade or more apart, with different code, different materials and a different amount of accumulated wear.

So establish which phase a specific address sits in, obtain the restrictions recorded against that parcel from the Washtenaw County Register of Deeds, and match comparables on phase as well as on measured area.

One further note on the first phase's timing: it ran from 2006 to 2009, straight through the housing downturn. Developments built across that window sometimes show changes in pace or specification partway through, and sometimes ended with lots that sat unsold for years.

Superior Township, not Ann Arbor

This is Superior Township, a separate government from the City of Ann Arbor with its own board, tax rate, services, zoning and assessor. A great many Superior Township mailing addresses read Ann Arbor, because a mailing address is a delivery route rather than a jurisdiction.

The tax rate differs, sometimes substantially, for otherwise identical houses, and comparable sales must be matched on municipality or the analysis imports an error nothing in the paperwork flags.

School assignment follows a third line again and does not track the municipal boundary.

One to three acres, and large houses on them

Houses of 3,400 to 4,700 square feet on one- to three-acre lots are a specific market, and it behaves differently from mid-market stock in ways worth understanding before pricing.

The buyer pool is narrower. Houses of this scale sell more slowly almost everywhere, comparable sales are scarce, and the spread between a good outcome and a poor one is wide. A properly constructed analysis matters more here than almost anywhere around here, and an automated valuation — which widens for data and does not adjust for scale, lot or quality — is close to useless at this end of the market.

The carrying side is worth pricing rather than discovering. More roof, more cladding, more windows, more heating and cooling capacity — replacement costs scale with size, and on a house of this age that first cycle is now arriving. One item regardless of era: how many heating and cooling zones serve the building, because a single zone across four thousand square feet cannot keep it even and retrofitting zones afterward is expensive.

On the ground itself: a long drive to clear in winter, more to maintain, and where mature trees stand near the house, periodic inspection, pruning and eventual removal at the owner's cost with no shared budget behind it. On a development described by its woodland and mature trees, that is not hypothetical.

And lot shape matters as much as size. One acre and three acres are a threefold difference, and two lots of identical acreage can offer very different usable ground. That is on the recorded plat rather than visible from the curb.

What is nearby, and how durable it is

This position sits within reach of US-23 and M-14, the University of Michigan's East Medical Campus, Domino's Farms and the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

The Botanical Gardens are worth separating from the rest, because they are the most durable thing on that list. They are held by the University of Michigan — an institution whose horizon is measured in generations and which is very unlikely to close and leave. That places them at the top of the four tiers of protected open space alongside publicly held land, and well above an undeveloped private parcel, which is protected only by whatever zoning and wetland rules apply.

The medical campus and Domino's Farms are employment rather than open space, and both are worth assessing for the ordinary institutional-neighbor questions: traffic at shift hours on the specific roads, and any lighting or activity that carries. Both are best judged by being there at those hours.

Where woodland adjoins a specific lot, the ownership question applies as always: publicly or institutionally held land, land under a recorded conservation easement, association common area, or unbuilt private ground. One inquiry to the township or a title company settles which, and the difference moves price substantially.

A house from the late 2000s onward

The first phase dates from 2006 to 2009 and the second is later, so most of this development is somewhere between fifteen and twenty years old — young by the standards of the area.

What is on the list is the first replacement cycle arriving. Original furnaces, air conditioning and water heaters are approaching or at the end of typical service lives. Original roofs are approaching a first replacement. Original double-glazed windows begin to show seal failure as fogging between the panes.

The item specific to construction of this period is the envelope and how water is managed at its junctions — flashing, sealants, and the detailing around windows, doors and any deck ledger. Modern buildings do not fail through their materials; they fail at their joints, and fifteen to twenty years is long enough for original detailing to have proved itself or not.

On houses of this scale, a builder's structural warranty may still have run into recent years. Establish what remains and whether it transferred.

Schools

Assignment here is set by address rather than by neighborhood or building name, and district boundaries in this county cross municipal and postal lines routinely. District is one of the larger drivers of price difference between otherwise comparable properties, so comparables should be matched on it.

Buying or selling here

The phase, the township and the scale are the three things to establish.

For a seller, the specific year built, which phase, the measured area, the number of heating and cooling zones and dated records for the roof and mechanicals are what most change a buyer's confidence on a house of this size. On a large house, documentation carries more weight than presentation.

Not to be confused with

• Arbor Hills · Ann Arbor
• Ann Arbor Hills · Ann Arbor