Rentals in Traverse City a good idea?

[1eyedjack]

In your search engine, google worked for me,punch in Mich property tax estimater. It should give you a rough est.

[Rapunzll]

TAXBAIT- I live in East Bay Twp, about five houses outside the city limits. My houses value is close to your parents, maybe $135,000. and my yearly taxes are around $1,400. Outside of town can be a lot less. I think Leelanau County is also less expensive tax wise than Grand Traverse County.

[TaxBait]

Originally Posted by Rapunzll

TAXBAIT- I live in East Bay Twp, about five houses outside the city limits. My houses value is close to your parents, maybe $135,000. and my yearly taxes are around $1,400....

That has to be for owner-occupied or taxable value far below SEV. When owning a rental or second home you are hit with an extra 18 mills shool tax. The poster was asking about buying rentals.

In general you can figure taxes in the TC area at roughly 1.25% of sale price + 1% for non-homestead and 1.75% in city limits + 1%. Since you're at only 1%, I suspect you've owned you home a while and are not being taxed full SEV or East Bay is alot cheaper than other townships around here.

[Rapunzll]

Duh! I don't know how I totally zoned out about the rental aspect, sorry!

I have a foot in two states at the moment, but am going to make darned sure that I am home in TC enough to keep my house as my primary residence. A co-worker told me how badly she is being hit with taxes on her deceased mil's home in Boyne City because it is not a primary residence. I can't afford to take that hit. Hopefully if I price my home correctly, it won't sit on the market forever.

[VisitUpNorth]

Well I am also a native of the area and own a Vacation Rental company. We have had a very promising time with our rentals both last year and future reservations booked for Summer 2008. The market here for short term rentals is great if you can live with a short season. First and foremost I think you need to want to retire or hold on for the longer investment to get something to be a good investment in a 2-4 month season at best. I say 2-4 because there are weekends in the fall and sometimes in the winter depending where you are located. That being said the days of having a place just up here and knowing it will rent are very limited. It has to be exceptional, something special or it has to be on the water (directly on the water) to be a good vacation rental. As one of the other posters mentioned we are going through a time where there are specific areas that do not allow short term rentals but this has happened in other areas in the country as well as other specific areas in Northern Michigan and with time tends to turn itself around. On another note Traverse City area was described by our governer at the opening of the film festival as the bright spot in Michigan with this tough ecconomy. I believe that to be true and because of our beautiful area and people still wanting to come and enjoy all we have to offer I think that tourism will help us through this rough time. If there is anyone thinking of purchasing in this area for rentals you should really talk to a property manager that can keep you abreast of what is and isnt a good investment at this time in our area.