Chapel Hill

A 1970 condominium is early for the form here

Michigan's modern condominium framework dates from the 1970s, and a community of this vintage is among the first generation of condominium housing in this region. That has a few practical consequences worth knowing.

The documents are old. A master deed of the early 1970s was drafted before decades of practice refined how these things are written, and it may be less clear than a modern one about what is unit and what is common element — which is exactly the question that decides who pays for things. It may also have been amended repeatedly since, and amendments are recorded instruments: what is recorded governs, regardless of what any summary or older copy says. A title company can produce the full chain.

The reserve practice of the period was different too. Reserve studies as a discipline came later, and a community of this age may have adopted one recently, long ago, or never. Asking when the first reserve study was done is a surprisingly informative question about how the association has been run.

The physical fabric is fifty-five years old, which means the second replacement cycle is well under way: roofs done once or twice, siding, driveways, parking areas and any private roads all within their horizons, mechanicals replaced more than once, and original windows generally changed.

So the single most useful question to ask a board here is 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 a well-run board will answer gladly and in detail.

The era questions apply as they would to any 1970 building: aluminum branch circuit wiring was in use from roughly the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, with the concern at the connections rather than in the wire; galvanized steel supply piping loses flow before it fails; and the pre-1978 lead-based paint disclosure requirement applies. In a condominium, the master deed decides whether piping and wiring are unit or common element.

Compact units, and the bathroom question

A range of 850 to 1,400 square feet is compact, and it places this community in a specific and durable part of the market rather than a compromised one: buyers for whom smaller and lower-maintenance is the point, including first purchases, people reducing what they look after, and — in a university city — buyers who intend to lease.

That last group makes the association's leasing rules a value question as well as a living one. How many units may be leased at once, whether there is a waiting list, and whether the rules have changed recently all bear on what a unit can be used for and therefore on who can buy it. In a university city those rules do change.

Within the community, the bathroom count does more work in setting a price than almost anything else at this size. From one to two-and-a-half is a wide range, and in a compact unit the difference is proportionally enormous because there is less of everything else to compensate.

Michigan listings state the count with full bathrooms before the decimal and half bathrooms after: two-point-one means two full and one half. A listing writing two and a half is using the national convention instead, and the two coincide at one half bathroom and diverge beyond it. Count fixtures at a showing.

Where a bathroom has been added, ask whether the work was permitted — the city's building department holds the record, checking costs nothing, and unpermitted plumbing raises questions about venting and about what is behind the walls. In a condominium there is a further layer: alterations generally require the association's approval as well, and the bylaws say what may be changed.

An end unit has one shared wall instead of two, which is a real and priceable difference that square footage ignores entirely.

Green Road, Domino's Farms and the northeast side

Green Road runs through the northeast side of the city, near the interchange area where US-23 and M-14 meet, which puts a great deal within a short run in several directions.

Domino's Farms Office Park is close by, and a large office campus is a specific kind of neighbor. It generates weekday traffic concentrated at the start and end of the working day rather than evening and weekend activity, which is a different pattern from a retail neighbor and, for many residents, a preferable one. Its grounds are also extensive and largely open, which is much of what makes the immediate area feel as it does.

That ground is privately held, though, which places it in the fourth tier of protected open space — protected by a business's current use of it rather than by any instrument. An office campus is a durable use and this one has been there a long time, but it is a private decision rather than a fixed feature, and it is worth distinguishing from the publicly held nature areas nearby.

The adjoining nature areas are worth establishing precisely for that reason. Publicly held land is the most durable tier; land under a recorded conservation easement is nearly as durable; association common area is real but revisitable and funded by the owners; and unbuilt private ground is protected only by whatever zoning and wetland rules apply. One inquiry to the city, plus a title company report, settles which applies.

The highway proximity carries the ordinary trade-off, and highway noise travels further than people expect at night and in certain wind conditions. An evening visit with the windows open settles it for a specific 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 and tracks neither the municipal nor the postal boundary. 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.

Schools

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

Buying or selling here

At fifty-five years, what the association has already done is the transaction.

For a seller, a record of what has been replaced — roofs, piping, wiring, 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.