A lot of buyers ask some version of this early on. If I buy the house, who owns the yard?
Alta Vista does. You own the home and lease the homesite under it, and that arrangement is behind nearly everything that feels unfamiliar about buying here, including the title, the loan and the check you write every month.
Who owns what
The home is yours. In Michigan it's titled through the Secretary of State instead of being recorded with a deed, and the state's fee for that title is $90. The ground belongs to the community. Your homesite lease runs a year at a time, and site rent for new buyers was $650 a month as of October 2026.
On paper Alta Vista is a licensed manufactured housing community. The statute still uses the older phrase, "mobile home park", for any land with three or more of these homes offered to the public, so you'll see those words in the citations below even though the streets here are full of new homes on foundations.
There's no owners' association and no board. Alta Vista's owner runs the place, and Clinton Herigstad manages the community office at 2016 Alta Vista Dr. I like that setup. Nobody has ever moved to northern Michigan to attend a condo board meeting.
Where the $650 goes
Rent pays for the homesite and the Lodge, including the great room, event hall, kitchen and fitness room. It also pays for the pool, the pickleball court, the streets and sewer system, streetlights, snow removal in the common areas, the staff who run the place, and the insurance and real estate taxes on the community itself. Michigan's $3 a month specific tax, which replaces the regular property tax on the home, is already inside that $650 here.
Your side of the ledger is shorter but it's real. You pay your own gas, electric, phone and garbage pickup, plus the required $70 a month Spectrum package billed through Alta Vista. You keep up the home inside and out. You mow and clear your own driveway, porch, deck and sidewalk, or pay the community's contractor to do it. And a garage or deck gets assessed by the township as its own small tax bill.
Compare site rent to condo dues plus property tax. Comparing it to dues alone will mislead you, and the monthly cost page lays out that math line by line with the sources.
What you give up
You aren't buying ground, so you don't get whatever the ground does over the next 20 years. Your home's value rides on the home and the community. I can't tell you what these homes will be worth in 15 years, and I'd be suspicious of anybody who says they can.
Financing is different too. Most buyers here use a chattel loan, which is secured by the home and not by land, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported that chattel loans generally carry higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than mortgages. Get real quotes before you decide a payment works.
Rent can move, as well. Michigan's just cause statute says plainly that it doesn't prohibit changing the rent or terms after a written lease ends, and that section doesn't set a limit on how much. I don't know what site rent will be in 2031.
Then there's the community's say over the rest. Alta Vista approves each buyer through a credit and background check, and the covenants cover things like fences, sheds and exterior changes. Under the current covenants you can't rent your home out, and those covenants are being updated this fall, so ask for the latest version.
What Michigan puts in writing
Michigan regulates these leases more closely than most buyers expect.
The community has to offer you a written lease. It can't terminate your tenancy without just cause, and the statute lists what counts. Breaking the lease or reasonable written rules is on that list. So is being late on rent three or more times in 12 months after written demands that you failed to answer in time, and so are condemnation and a change in the use of the community, which is worth knowing about any land you don't own.
Selling is covered as well. MCL 125.2328 bars a community from stopping you from selling your home on site at a price you set, as long as the buyer qualifies for tenancy and the home meets the written rules.
The state's manufactured housing rules get down to the small stuff. You get a copy of the community rules, and proposed changes have to reach you at least 30 days before they take effect. The community has to post its current rent ranges and any added charges in the office. It can't ban "For Sale" signs or require one smaller than 18 by 24 inches, which is the kind of detail that tells you someone once tried it.
I'm a Realtor, not your lawyer. If a clause in the lease bothers you, pay one to read it.
Two documents, before you write an offer
Read the homesite lease and the covenants. Those two control if anything on a website, including this one, says something different. The steps from tour to closing are on the how buying works page, and the residency check can take up to seven days, so it starts right after an offer is accepted. Shorter answers on pets, insurance and renting are in the FAQ.
Checked against the sources linked above in November 2026.
If you want to see it in person, text Taylor at (231) 360-1510 or schedule a tour.
