If anyone who frequents this board has sold a house in Michigan in the last couple years, any advice is appreciated.

Oy... good luck!

There are a few posters that have sold in Michigan. Do a forum search for either the word Detroit or the word Michigan for their threads in case those folks are no longer around.

We're moving back to Louisville after having been gone almost 15yrs too! We already have a contract for a house down there and are moving in 3 weeks.
Schools were #1 of course. Initially, we only looked at OC, though DH and I both graduated from JC schools. The only JC schools were even thought about had Ballard or Eastern has the "resides" high school. T
Go to citydata.com and post questions. the people there are very helpful. Also, JC Public schools has a school finder feature where you plug in an address and it gives you the ele. middle, and high school. then go to greatschools.net to see test scores.
We ended up in Eastern Jefferson co (Prospect) after deciding much of OC was just too far away. Their are lots of neighborhood straddling the OC/JC line, but none of the houses really clicked for us.

Here is a link that might be useful: Louisville info

I had previously lived in Crestwood. It worked for me because I had a home office/travel kind of job. I could bypass Louisville very easily to get where I needed to go. But, much like you said, I recall it being an awfully long way away from anything fun to do, plus it was a dry county so there were no good restaurants around.

I'll look into Prospect, although my budget may not allow me to find much there. Agreed about Eastern/Ballard from what I read as well.

Thanks for the link and commentary.

Louisville's JCPS just announced new dividing lines yesterday(5/28/08). You may need to double check which school is assigned to prospective houses.

Louisville has some exceptional schools,but have you considered the parochial schools? There are some amazing programs in both elementary and secondary schools. (Nothing against JCPS--both my MIL and SIL teach there.)Louisville has some charter schools and magnet programs that may be of interest also.

You may get more house for your money in Indiana. Good schools this direction also. I teach at a parochial school in southern Indiana.

The whole confusion with the JCPS nearly pushed us into Oldham Co. The uncertainty is nerve wracking. Fortunately, under the new plan, nothing changes for us. Our kids are older (5th and 6th grade next year). Worst case scenario, we'd do private school for a few years. You know that catholic schools are incredibly popular in Louisville. There are are also a few good nondenominational Christan schools and non-religious private schools. The HS magnet program is really wonderful.
After living in the North for so long, I'd forgotten what a actual non-segregated (racially and socio-economically) school looks like. In MD and PA, your kids go to schools with their neighbors. That's good in some ways, but very limited in others.

I'm a public school kind of guy. Went to Milwaukee PS at the height of integration. Plus, call me cheap, but I don't want to pay my taxes and then pay again for schools. We figure we are the most influential part of our kids edumacashun, regardless of the school they attend. Having said that, if we determine we are uncomfortable with the JC schools, we will move to Oldham.

In this whole scenario, I'm more concerned with selling the house in Michigan than with what I find in Louisville.

My good friend (in Western Wayne county) sold her home in 9 days about 2 months ago.

It was listed for #336,000 (paid $365,000 2 1/2 years earlier). They had at least 7 showings during the 9 days. Their house was 80' colonial with a built-in pool (which everyone said would be hard to sell). The inside was not completely updated but extremely clean and freshly painted.

I have to say, I think it was her furnishings that sold the house. All her furniture was from Ethan Allen and her window treatments were gorgeous. The house showed well! The pool/yard were also beautiful.

So.... as I said, they asked $336,000. The first offer was an insulting (to them) $290,000. They countered with $324,000. Agreed!

Then the buyers came back at the 9th hour and said the house did not appraise for the purchase price and pulled the deal. They claimed it only appraised for $300,000.

My friend's employer then "bought" the house from them for $324,000 and turned around and sold it to the same people for $300,000. Good for everyone, bad for the neighborhood.

Know your competition in the neighborhood. Be better than your neighbors. My friend's house showed way better than anyone elses and was the highest priced. Most homes in our 'hood are 80's and haven't been touched since.

Most people who looked at her house had already seen the ten others that had been for sale in our square mile (some for years). Full of wallpaper and old oak veneer cabinets.

Thanks for the success story. I'm very realistic about the sale price range and comps. We have great curb appeal, and a five year old kitchen that shows very well. Admittedly, it's hard to get excited when houses in our hood have been on the market for over a year. Maybe we'll be the exception.

We sold in MI in late 2006. Just when the bottom was falling. Luckily we had been in our 4 bedroom 1 1/2 bath with lake access for 29 years and paid $45,000 for it. Yes, we did take a hit, but only because we had put kids(4) college costs and my Jeep on the house. Wish we hadn't done that, but we had bought a second home (1998) up north (for retirement) and it was a bit tight.
We started price at $189,000, sold at $165,000 with $9,000 back at closing. So actually saw $156,000.
Right before we sold we replaced the kitchen and painted most of the rooms.
The only negative comments were:
Are you going to pave the driveway? No
About that wallpaper on one wall in the dining room? No
Are you going to replace the carpet? No
Will you put up a fence? No
Just look at your home with a very objective eye. I knew what was wrong with my home and it was priced for that and with the downturn, we had to go lower. But DH had just retired and we couldn't afford 2 houses anymore.
Good luck, Kathy G in MI

Boy, is this moving fast. I just applied for the job last Wed, and got a decent offer yesterday, so our move may happen. DW found a subdivision she likes that is next to Lake Forest. Older homes, but decent; more importantly the elementary school just opened in 2007 and feeds into Eastern. I didn't want to be that far out, but we're going looking this weekend. Also starting the process of getting a realtor's opinion on pricing our house in MI as well as exploring all of our financing options.

Thanks for all the wishes of "good luck." We're going to need them.