6434 LL25 Rd

A round-log cottage on the Garden Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula, 432 square feet with one bedroom, one bath and a loft, listed at $150,000. The listing says it sits on a double lot in the Holiday Cove subdivision, a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan with deeded lakefront access, and that the well and septic are newer. The listing’s own aerials show the lot set back from the shore behind two rows of houses and a road, and the photos show an outhouse, a dog kennel and a shed the listing does not list. The annual tax amount is given as two dollars, which is not a tax bill.

The land and setting

The listing gives 0.75 acres, 200 by 170 feet, and names one parcel, 00830005300. The remarks call it a double lot. There is no county record to check either against: Redfin holds nothing for this address, and no tax history or assessment is available.

Waterfront features are listed as Beach Access and the body of water as Lake Michigan, but frontage type is Road, with 200 feet of it. The remarks say deeded lakefront access. The aerial with the lot outlined shows it inland, with houses on the shore, more houses behind them, and a road between those and this lot. The access is a right across other land, not frontage.

The lake photos are taken from over the shore and the subdivision, not from the lot. The remarks describe the property as centrally located on the Garden Peninsula with access to lakes, trails and wildlife, and call it a possible year-round home.

The yard is a mown clearing in hardwood and cedar, with a red barn-style shed at the edge, a chain-link dog kennel in the trees, and a wooden outhouse further back beside a burn barrel. LL25 Road is the frontage. The listing gives no road surface, no maintenance arrangement and nothing about plowing.

The cottage

Built in 2000, 432 square feet on one level with a loft, listed as Craftsman, Cottage style, log construction with wood siding on a brick foundation over a crawl space. One bedroom of 10 by 8 on the first level and one full bath at the entry level.

Inside is one room under a cathedral ceiling, with the kitchen at one end, a daybed and a wardrobe at the other, and a ladder to the loft. The photos show a bed in the loft and another in the main room. Flooring is hardwood.

Heating is forced air propane and cooling is none, though a window air conditioner sits on the deck in one photo. Appliances included are a range and oven, refrigerator, washer, dryer and a tankless water heater. The washer and dryer are stacked in the bathroom beside the water heater.

The bath is a full one with a toilet, a shower and a vanity. Sewer is listed as a mound septic and water as a private well, with utilities for the property listed as Electricity Connected, Propane, Sewer Connected, Water Connected and Propane Tank Owned. The remarks say the well and septic are newer.

The deck at the door rests on loose concrete blocks in the photos. Additional structures are listed as None.

The facts

What to know before you call

The lake is deeded access, not frontage, and the listing’s own aerial shows how far. Frontage type is Road, and the outlined lot sits behind two rows of houses and a road from the shore. A deeded right of access across other people’s land is worth having and worth reading: ask for the instrument, where the access strip is, whether it is a shared path or a specific lot, who maintains it, whether there is a dock or a launch, and whether the neighbors on the shore agree it exists. Nothing in the listing says any of that.

The tax amount is listed as two dollars. That is a placeholder, not a bill, and there is no tax history and no assessment record behind it. Michigan uncaps taxable value in the year after a transfer and resets it to the state equalized value, half of market value, so a sale at $150,000 points to a taxable value near $75,000 whatever the current owner pays. A 0.75 acre residential lot cannot be in the Commercial Forest program, which needs 40 acres, so the figure is a data error rather than an enrollment. Ask the Garden Township assessor for the real bill and what a sale at this price would set.

A double lot with one parcel number. The remarks say double lot and the listing names one parcel and one 200 by 170 dimension. Two platted lots can be combined under one parcel, or the second lot can be a separate parcel that is not in the sale. Ask which, and have the title company confirm what conveys, because “double lot” is the reason 0.75 acres reads as more than it is.

An outhouse, a kennel and a shed the listing does not list. Additional structures reads None. The photos show a red shed at the edge of the yard, a chain-link dog kennel in the trees, a wooden outhouse further back, and a burn barrel. An outhouse on a lot with a newer mound septic is worth a question: whether it is still in use, whether it predates the septic, and whether the county health department knows about it. Ask whether the shed was permitted and whether any of it conveys.

“Sewer Connected” and a mound septic are two different things. Utilities for the property read Sewer Connected and Water Connected, which usually means municipal service. The sewer field says Mound Septic and the water field says Private Well, and the remarks say both are newer. A mound system is what gets built where the soil will not perc for a conventional drainfield. Ask for the septic permit and the well log, when each went in, and where the mound sits relative to the lot line.

The deck sits on loose blocks. In the yard photo the deck at the door rests on stacked concrete blocks rather than footings. On a cottage the remarks call a possible year-round home, ask whether the deck was permitted and what the frost does to it.

Cooling is none, and there is a window unit on the deck. The listing lists no cooling. A window air conditioner sits on the deck in one photo. Ask whether it conveys and whether it was ever installed, because the appliance list does not include it.

The subdivision field says No and the remarks say Holiday Cove. The listing has no HOA and no subdivision in its fields, and the remarks put the cottage in the Holiday Cove subdivision. Platted subdivisions in Michigan can carry recorded restrictions with no association to enforce them. Ask for the plat and any deed restrictions before you plan a garage or a rental.

No county record to check any of it against. Redfin holds nothing for this address and there is no assessment history, so the acreage, the year built, the square footage and the property type all rest on the listing alone. Ask for the parcel number in writing and take it to the Delta County equalization office, which is where Garden sits.

$347 a square foot. At 432 square feet the price works out to $347 a foot, which is land and location pricing rather than building pricing. The cottage is 26 years old, well kept in the photos, and small. Decide what you are paying for before you decide what it is worth.

It has been listed nine days. No price change, no prior sale shown, no market feedback yet.

The road. LL25 Road is the frontage and the listing gives no surface, no maintenance arrangement and nothing about winter. On the Garden Peninsula, ask whether it is county maintained and plowed, because a year-round home that cannot be reached in February is a seasonal one.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. Elsewhere in the Upper Peninsula we have an off-grid log cabin on the Betsy River near Paradise, and at a similar price a knotty pine cabin on 2.5 acres near Grayling.

To ask about this one, call David Bleau at Grover Real Estate on 906-450-3120, or the office on 906-341-2131, and reference MLS 50220106. Tell them where you saw it.