Cambridge

A 25 percent range with three forms means form does the pricing

From 1,200 to 1,500 square feet is a spread of about 25 percent, which is narrow for this county. Most communities around here run considerably wider.

That narrowness is genuinely useful, because it means the units are broadly comparable on size and the analysis can concentrate on what actually differs. And what differs here is form: a two-story home, a townhome and an attached unit are three different products competing for three different buyer pools, even at nearly the same square footage.

A two-story detached home is the reference product with the deepest comparable data and — where it is genuinely detached — no shared walls at all. A townhome stacks its own space vertically with party walls on one or both sides. An attached unit is the broadest category and the one most in need of specifics: how many walls are shared, and whether anything sits above or below.

None of the three reaches the single-level buyer pool, which is worth being honest about in a community with no ranches. People for whom no stairs is a requirement rather than a preference will be looking elsewhere, and a seller should not expect to reach them.

There is also a Michigan question worth settling: a detached two-story home here may be a platted lot or a site condominium, which is invisible from the curb and material for pricing, since a subdivision sale needs adjustment before it can stand as a comparable for a site condominium or the reverse. The recorded instrument settles it.

So the discipline is: match on form first, then on area within the narrow band, then adjust for what the unit faces, whether it is an end unit, and condition. Where area barely varies, those adjustments are most of what separates two sales — and they are precisely what an automated valuation handles worst.

Cathedral and vaulted ceilings have their own agenda

These ceilings change several practical things at once, none of which appears in a listing.

Heating and cooling first. A ceiling that follows the roof pitch rather than sitting flat below it lets heat rise out of reach: the occupied part of the room runs cooler in winter while the peak runs hot in summer. A home with cathedral ceilings on a single heating and cooling zone commonly has one room that is never quite right. Ask how many zones serve the home, and ask specifically about that room in August and in January.

Then insulation and ventilation. A flat ceiling has an attic above it, with room for deep insulation and a clear ventilation path. A cathedral ceiling has neither — the insulation sits in the rafter depth, and the ventilation path is a narrow channel between insulation and roof deck that is easy to block. Where it is blocked or the insulation is thin, the result shows as ice damming at the eaves in winter and heat gain in summer. Both are visible to an inspector who is told to look.

Then access. Light fittings, ceiling fans, smoke alarms and any glazing high in a gable are out of reach of a step ladder, which turns routine maintenance into a job requiring scaffolding or a specialist.

None of that argues against cathedral space, which is much of why buyers choose homes that have it. It argues for asking two specific questions rather than admiring the room.

Walk-out, daylight and standard are three different lower levels

A true walk-out has a door at grade on the downhill side, which makes the lower level a genuine story of the home with its own entrance and full-height glazing. A daylight lower level has above-grade windows but no door: better than a standard basement, and materially less than a walk-out. A standard lower level has neither.

Listings use the terms loosely, and because it depends on where a home sits on its site, some in a community will have a true walk-out and others will not whatever the general description says. It is settled by looking rather than by reading.

Below-grade finished space is generally not credited by appraisers in the same way as above-grade square footage, and how much credit it receives varies. Two homes with identical total finished area can appraise differently depending on how much sits below grade — a reason to expect the appraisal arithmetic to differ from the listing arithmetic, and for a seller to be precise about which part of a stated area is below grade rather than face a surprise.

A finished lower level also conceals what an inspector would otherwise see: foundation walls, framing, and any staining that would indicate past water. That makes the seller's written answer about water history more valuable, not less. Check grade falling away on all sides, downspouts discharging well clear, no staining at the base of finished walls, and whether the sump pump has a battery backup.

Ask whether the finishing was permitted, particularly where a bedroom is in it — egress is the item that matters, and the building department holds the record at no cost.

In a condominium there is a further question: whether the lower level walls and floor are unit or common element. The master deed says, and it decides who pays if water gets in.

A 2003 to 2005 build at around twenty-one years

A three-year build window is tight enough that the units are broadly one product — one code cycle, one generation of materials — which makes an inspection finding on one informative about the others and makes comparable sales unusually reliable.

These are modern-code buildings with modern insulation, modern electrical service and modern egress — and saying that plainly is worth as much as any warning, because it removes most of the inspection agenda older communities around here carry.

What twenty-one years brings is the leading edge of the first replacement cycle. Original water heaters are at or beyond normal expectancy. Original air conditioning is approaching it. Furnaces are generally still within their expected life but not by much. Original roofs are in the second half of a typical asphalt shingle service life rather than at the end of it — which makes this the period when roof condition genuinely varies from building to building depending on exposure, ventilation and the quality of the original work.

Attic ventilation is worth a specific look for exactly that reason, and it connects directly to the cathedral ceilings above: where a ceiling follows the roof pitch, the ventilation channel is narrow and easy to block, and a blocked channel shortens shingle life on top of the comfort problem it causes inside.

Original glazing units begin to show seal failure as fogging between the panes around this age, and in a condominium the windows are usually common or limited common element, so replacement is a building decision rather than an owner's.

The item specific to this period is exterior cladding and its edges. Composite and hardboard products perform according to how their ends, edges and penetrations were sealed and how the ground drains away. The bottom courses, and anywhere a deck or porch meets a wall, are where the original detailing shows.

A community completed in 2005 also finished immediately before the housing downturn, so its early sales record came from a market that no longer exists and should not anchor anything today. Where developer control ran longer than planned as a result, ask when it transferred and what the reserve balance was then.

What to look up before a showing

The Washtenaw County Register of Deeds holds the recorded master deed, and it is public and free: it gives the project's legal name and number, its address, the unit count, and the definition of what a unit is and what limited common elements are assigned to it. The exhibit drawings show the assignments unit by unit.

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.

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. Three distinct versions of the split exist around here — Ann Arbor addresses with Pittsfield taxes and Saline schools; Pittsfield taxes with Ann Arbor schools; and a Ypsilanti address with Pittsfield taxes and Ann Arbor schools — which together show that no direction of inference works.

Schools

Cambridge is served by Ann Arbor Public Schools. District boundaries are redrawn from time to time.

Buying or selling here

For a seller, stating plainly which form a unit is — and whether a detached home is a platted lot or a condominium unit — prevents it being compared against the wrong product in a community holding three.