Deauville Parrish

A two-part name usually means two recorded plats

A neighborhood carrying two names of this kind almost always means one of two things, and the difference matters.

Either a listing system has combined two adjacent subdivisions under a single heading, or a single development was recorded in phases under related names. Either way, more than one recorded plat is likely.

That matters more than it sounds. Two adjacent plats can differ in build year, builder, lot size, housing form and — most consequentially — recorded restrictions, since restrictions attach to plats rather than to marketing names. They can also differ in what association, if any, applies, and in what it costs.

The consequence for pricing is direct: a sale in one is not automatically evidence for the other, and a comparable analysis drawn from the combined heading may be averaging across two products.

The recorded plat settles it. The Washtenaw County Register of Deeds holds each plat under its own recorded name with its own lot count, dimensions, restrictions, proprietor and date, and a title company will confirm which plat a particular address sits in.

So the first question for anyone buying, selling or valuing here is which recorded subdivision the property is actually in — and, if the two are genuinely separate, whether the comparable being relied on is in the same one. This is a general lesson worth carrying: names are marketing, and the recorded plat is the legal identity.

A 1990 build sits inside the polybutylene window

This is the single most consequential era question in this region's housing, and a build around 1990 sits squarely inside it.

It was inexpensive and easy to install, and it developed a reputation for failing at fittings and joints. Some of it has performed for decades; some has not. What matters is that a house of this age may have it, and the only way to know is to have the piping identified by material during the inspection rather than inferred from anything at all.

Where it has been replaced, that is a documented selling point worth stating plainly rather than leaving for an inspector to discover — it removes the largest question a 1990 house raises, and buyers in this county have learned to ask.

At around thirty-five years the first full replacement cycle has passed and the second is beginning. Original roofs are well past a typical asphalt shingle service life, so a roof here should have been done at least once — ask when, by whom and what warranty came with it. Original furnaces, air conditioning and water heaters are long beyond expectancy. Original double-glazed windows show seal failure as fogging between the panes.

The item specific to this period is exterior cladding and its edges. Hardboard and early composite products perform according to how their ends, edges and penetrations were sealed and how the ground drains away, and thirty-five years is long enough for careless detailing to have declared itself. The bottom courses and anywhere a deck meets a wall are where to look.

Tri-levels and bi-levels, and why the square footage misleads

These forms confuse people because the vocabulary is inconsistent and because they price differently from what their stated square footage suggests.

A tri-level, or split-level, arranges the house on three half-story levels connected by short flights: typically living space on the entry level, bedrooms up half a flight, and a family room and utilities down half a flight. A bi-level, sometimes called a raised ranch, puts the entry on a landing between two full levels instead. Listings use the words interchangeably even though the layouts differ.

The measured area is where it matters. The lowest level is usually partly below grade, which means it may or may not count toward the official finished square footage depending on how far below grade it sits and how an appraiser treats it. Two houses with identical usable space can therefore be listed at different square footages, and comparing them on that number alone misleads in both directions.

For a buyer that is an opportunity, because usable lower-level space in a split is consistently underpriced relative to the same area upstairs. For a seller it is a reason to be precise about which part of the stated area sits below grade, because a surprise at appraisal is worse than a smaller number stated up front.

The form also has a distinct buyer pool. Some people find the half-flights awkward; others value the separation of living and sleeping space that the layout produces naturally. That means a wider spread of outcomes than a colonial of the same area, and it means comparables should be drawn from the same form rather than from the neighborhood at large.

Wherever a lower level is finished and partly below grade, check the grade falling away from the building, the downspouts discharging well clear, and the base of the finished walls for staining — and ask whether the sump pump has a battery backup, because a pump without one is useless in the storm that causes the power cut.

One-and-a-half to three bathrooms in a compact house

That spread across houses of 1,200 to 1,600 square feet is wide, and at this size bathroom count does a great deal of the work in setting a price.

Michigan listings state the count in a shorthand worth knowing: the number before the decimal counts full bathrooms, with a bath or shower, and the number after counts half bathrooms, a lavatory and basin only. So one-and-a-half means one full and one half; two-point-one means two full and one half; two-point-two would mean two full and two half, which is a fixture group more than a quick reading suggests.

A house with one full bathroom is a specific market, and it is a real constraint for many buyers. It is also the most commonly addressed one — adding a bathroom is among the most frequent improvements made to houses of this vintage, and a tri-level's lower level is where it usually goes.

So the questions are how many bathrooms a house has now, whether any were added, and whether the work was permitted.

For a comparable analysis, houses at the two ends of this range are not the same product and should be matched rather than averaged. The difference is proportionally larger in a compact house because there is less of everything else to compensate.

One Ypsilanti address, four possible jurisdictions

A Ypsilanti mailing address in this county can mean the City of Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Charter Township, Superior Township, Augusta Township or Pittsfield Charter Township — each a separate government with its own board, tax rate, services, zoning and assessor.

A mailing address is a delivery route, not a jurisdiction, and it settles nothing. The tax rate differs, sometimes substantially, between them for otherwise identical properties, which is why comparable sales must be matched on municipality or the analysis imports an error nothing in the paperwork flags.

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. It is worth getting in every case, and particularly where a listing describes a property only by the mailing address.

School assignment follows a fifth line of its own, tracking neither municipal nor postal boundaries. Ypsilanti Community Schools, Lincoln Consolidated, Ann Arbor Public Schools and — across the county line — Van Buren Public Schools all have boundaries in this area. Match comparable sales on district, which is one of the larger drivers of price difference between otherwise comparable properties.

What to look up before a showing

The Washtenaw County Register of Deeds holds the recorded plat or master deed: the lot or unit count, the dimensions, the original restrictions, the proprietor and the date.

The year built sets the entire inspection agenda. The 1960s and early 1970s raise aluminum branch circuit wiring, whose concern is the connections rather than the wire itself, and galvanized steel supply piping, which corrodes internally and loses flow before it fails. Anything before 1978 carries a lead-based paint disclosure requirement. The late 1970s to the mid-1990s raise polybutylene supply piping — the single most consequential era question in this region, identified by looking rather than by inference. From the late 1990s onward none of those apply, and the ordinary arc of first-generation components arrives instead.

The recorded instrument matters second, because it decides whether a property is a platted lot or a Michigan site condominium — a distinction 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.

Both answers take an afternoon. Anyone selling here should have them in hand, and anyone buying should ask.

Buying or selling here

Which plat, and what the piping is. Those two questions cover most of what a buyer needs to settle here.

For a seller, the recorded plat name resolves the ambiguity the double name creates, and documentation that the supply piping has been replaced answers the largest question the build era raises. A dated roof is the third. All three are things a well-advised buyer will ask about, and none is expensive to obtain.