Prospective Sellers, Homeowners, & Realtors

Whether you are ready to sell your home, or are looking to buy a home in the Arbor Hills community, please make sure that your realtor understands that this home is part of a planned unit development or PUD and is not a R1 residential home. Likewise, if you are the realtor. Our Bylaws do however state that these homes can only be used as single family residential homes. At the close of the sale of the home, Select Community Management, Arbor Hills' management company, must be contacted and the existing homeowner's Association account balance must be fully reconciled. At any time, Select Community Management can be contacted regarding questions about community management, the Association, Association homeowner accounts, and the current cost of Association dues.

Prospective Sellers

It is in your best interest to ensure that the people who are looking to purchase your home know that it is part of the Arbor Hills Condominium Association. The Association does much to enhance community living and promotes the interests of the Arbor Hills community. If you have the Arbor Hills Bylaws and Neighborhood Policies in print, you may want to let your realtor know that you have it, and make it available for prospective buyers to review. You may also want to direct them to the Arbor Hills web site, if your realtor or prospective buyer does not already know about it.

You may be concerned that by letting people know that your home is part of a condominium association, that it may make it less attractive for buyers. Please be reassured, that this is generally not the case. By disclosing the information about the condominium association early on in the process, you will be better able to attract better candidates more suitable to purchasing your home. Hopefully, this will enable you to find buyers who are well able to afford purchasing your home and ensure a smoother closing because you are selling to an appropriately informed buyer.

Prospective Homeowners

Please be aware that although Arbor Hills homes are in many respects like any of Ann Arbor homes zoned as R1 residential homes. However, this community was designed, built, and zoned as a planned unit development or PUD. The community was planned with private common elements belonging to the Association, of which each unit has an indivisable but equal interest. This means that all homeowners are responsible for contributing to the maintenance and management of these common elements through the Association dues, which are billed out twice a year. Depending on your financial situation, the Association dues along with property taxes may be factors in your decision to purchase a home in this community.

The Association common elements include several woodland and wetland common areas throughout the community, the private streets, street lights, curbs, drains, stormwater management system, and mailbox stands. The Association also provides some services to the Arbor Hills community privately, like street cleaning, snow plowing, and stormwater sewage as well as a few social events for community residents.

In general, like most other single family homes, the Association does not govern the interior of your home, and you are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of your unit property. With the exception of landscaping, the Association does provide oversight for any modifications to the exterior of your home, along with some policies to maintain community aesthetics. An alteration and modification form should be submitted for approval prior to completing any alterations and modifications to the exterior of an Arbor Hills home including the replacement of roofs, decks, and fences. Please carefully review the Decks and Fence Tips, Neighborhood Policies, and the Bylaws posted on this web site for additional details.

Property taxes for Arbor Hills homes are assessed twice a year by the City and the County, once in July and once in January, and are referred to as Summer and Winter Taxes, respectively. Current property tax information including past tax assessments on Arbor Hills homes, can be found at the following web site. Please be aware that in general, the taxable value of a home is capped to increase annually at a maximum rate of 5% or the current consumer price index, whichever is lower, until the home is sold. Once a home is sold, the taxable value is readjusted to the state equalized value at the time of the sale. The City's online property tax database is accessible on-line.

As a prospective homeowner make sure that you do research on whereever you choose your new home, regardless of whether it is in Arbor Hills or not. Carefully review the information reported to you from procedures often required by the mortgage companies, like title searches and home inspections to make sure that you are well informed about your home purchase. Please review the Arbor Hills Welcome Packet that is available online and is personally distributed to new neighbors soon after the news of the sale reaches the Arbor Hills Welcome Committee. Also consider viewing some of the recent Arbor Hills newsletters online.

Most importantly, know your rights. The following article explains loan rescission, in the case that something vital regarding to your home and mortgage was not disclosed properly.

Loan Rescission Article

Prospective Realtors

If you are considering assisting or currently assisting a client with the sale or purchase of an Arbor Hills home, please be forthcoming with the buying party about the status of the home in relation to the condominium association. Because Arbor Hills is a planned unit development, there are many beneficial facets to the homeowners in this community. For example, since snow plowing is a service privately provided by the condominium association, typically when there is a heavy snowfall, the private roads in Arbor Hills are cleared relatively quickly by comparison to public streets. Because the Bylaws allow for the regulation of community aesthetics and accountability for proper unit maintenance, homes are generally well maintained. Regardless, the fact that an Arbor Hills home is part of the Arbor Hills Condominium Association would be reported on a title search and is mandatorily disclosed at mortgage closings. For questions regarding closing paperwork, Association account status for the unit being sold or purchased, the current cost of Association dues, or for more information on the Association, please contact the management company, Select Community Management.