Where I lend around Highland
Oakland County address, rural property
Highland sits inside one of the wealthier counties in the state, and people carry an assumption in with them: city water, city sewer, paved public roads, a subdivision, a file that looks like every other file. Parts of the township do look like that. A lot of it doesn't. Outside the denser pockets you're generally looking at a private well, a septic system, acreage, and often a road that belongs to the people who live on it.
None of that is a problem. It's just a different loan than the one people assume they're getting. The property is rural in character even though the county isn't, and underwriting reads the property, not the county. When those two things disagree, the disagreement shows up as conditions — usually late, usually at the worst moment, usually to someone who was told this would be simple.
I'd rather have that conversation in week one. Send me the listing and I'll tell you which kind of Highland property you're actually looking at.
What changes on the appraisal and in underwriting
The appraisal is where rural character stops being a lifestyle description and starts being a document. An appraiser working a property with acreage needs comparable sales with similar land, and those aren't always sitting next door. Outbuildings are the other one — a pole barn or a detached shop can be the reason you're buying the place and still contribute little or nothing to appraised value, because value follows what comparable sales support.
Then there's the well and the septic. Depending on the loan program, those can require testing or certification at transfer, and there are separation and safety standards that have nothing to do with whether the water tastes fine. Private roads raise the question of a recorded maintenance agreement. Shared wells need an agreement of their own. Zoning and any agricultural use on the parcel are worth looking at before anyone assumes it's residential all the way through.
Here's the part that actually matters to you: lenders don't handle this the same way. Some carry overlays — their own rules layered on top of the program's — that get awkward about acreage above a certain point, about outbuildings, about the ratio of land value to house value, about private roads. As a broker I'm not stuck with one company's rulebook. Choosing the right lender for the property before we're under contract is most of the job on a file like this.
The tax number you were quoted is probably the wrong one
This one costs people real money in their own head. Listings and lender estimates often carry the seller's tax figure, and if the seller wasn't living there as their primary residence, that figure is the non-homestead number.
If you're making it your primary residence, the Principal Residence Exemption takes roughly eighteen mills off the school operating portion. It applies wherever in Michigan you land — Highland, Milford, White Lake, anywhere. Plenty of buyers look at the seller's number, decide the house is out of reach, and move on from something that would have worked. When I put an estimate together, that line reflects the jurisdiction the property is actually in and the way you're actually going to use it.
Schools cross township lines, and I'm ten minutes away
Huron Valley Schools serve much of Highland, but school district boundaries and township boundaries are drawn by different people for different reasons, and they don't line up neatly anywhere in this part of Oakland County. If the district is part of why you're buying, verify it on the specific address rather than on the town name. It's a five-minute check and it's a miserable thing to get wrong.
On the other piece: I live in Milford, which is the next township over. That's not a marketing line about being "local to the area." I know what the roads out here look like in February, I know these properties, and you'll have my cell number. Everything runs digitally if that's what you want. But if you'd rather sit down with somebody, I'm close enough that it's not a favor.
Loan programs I use in Highland
- Conventional — the usual path, and PMI that can come off later
- FHA — more flexible on credit, with its own well and septic standards
- VA — the benefit you earned, for eligible veterans and service members
- USDA — address-specific, see the FAQ below
- Renovation — 203(k), HomeStyle, CHOICERenovation for a house that needs work
- Jumbo — for the higher end of the market out here
- DSCR and investor — qualified on the property, not your tax returns
- Self-employed and bank statement — for income that doesn't fit a W-2 box
First time buying? Start here.