Some are on the water. Some are short-term rental friendly. Some are simply places with too much character for me to keep quiet about. They live here after the post, and they stay here while they are pending and after they sell, so you always know what is actually still open.
A few ground rules I hold myself to: it has to genuinely surprise me when I look closer, and if a find has a catch I will tell you what it is. When one sells I mark it sold and leave it up, so nothing here is a mystery about what is still open. Status is accurate as of the day I updated the page, so ask me before you fall in love.
Available
Fifty feet of private frontage with a newer dock and public access within a mile, on an all-sports lake. It is already renting most weekends in summer and fall, and the seller says the booking history comes with it.
Available
Six acres and 350 feet of deeded frontage on a small inland lake, with the dock, an older pontoon and two row boats included. Get the deed language and the lake rules in writing and this one is remarkable.
Available
Omar Reese worked the line at Dodge Main and could not afford to buy a house, so he laid up concrete block and pressed roughly 20,000 glass bottles into the face of it, because he liked the way light broke through the colored glass. Short-term rentals are licensed here, and the caps matter, so check the block before you count on the income.
Available
A 1946 Quonset Hut with 42 feet of private frontage, running as an active Airbnb with bookings the current owner says transfer. The arched roof earns a second look on its own, and the $50 a year HOA barely counts as one.
Sold
A real cottage on 50 feet of level frontage. Newer roof, updated plumbing and electrical, well tested clean in 2023, and a new septic the seller is paying for. There is a sleeping porch over the water, and some of the furnishings are negotiable.
I expected a dated cabin and walked into cathedral ceilings, exposed beams, and a back wall of glass open to the water. Sixty feet of private frontage on a quiet no-wake lake, a dock, and a new septic in 2021.
A 1968 cabin on a half-acre that backs directly into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, so the woods behind you can never be built on. Two bedrooms, full of character, a short drive to the Lake Michigan beaches.
If you've come across a place on the water that seems too good to be real, email me the address. I'll pull the full story, the numbers, what it's likely to actually cost you to own, and whether it's the rare kind of good or the hiding-something kind. No cost, no catch. Just curiosity, the same way I find these in the first place.
Email Me an Address →I've been in real estate since 2015. Genuine character, on or near the water, doesn't last, and it almost never makes it to a casual Saturday scroll. Watching the market this closely is how I find the ones worth your attention, and how I know what they're really worth when it's time to make a move.
I don't call something rare to make it sound good. It has to have something that genuinely sets it apart. If a find has a catch, I'll tell you what it is. Specific over reassuring, always.
When a find goes pending or sells, it stays on this page with the status changed. You can always tell what is still actually open.
You can follow along, save these, send them to a friend, and reach out only when the timing's actually right. If you tell me what you're after and the timing's off, I'll tell you. That's the whole deal.
I find creative solutions to the hard stuff: the stretch budget, the second-home math, the timing that looks impossible. Fine is a listing. Thriving is the place it turns into. These are the second kind.
I've been in real estate since 2015. I hold a RENE certification, Real Estate Negotiation Expert, and I've worked with 350+ buyers and sellers. I work with people buying in Grand Rapids, people relocating here from out of state, and people chasing a place on the water Up North.
I bought my own Grand Rapids home sight unseen, moving my family from Atlanta in 2024. I know what it feels like to make that call with incomplete information, because I've made it. The Rare Finds are just the public version of how I look at the market every single week.
People are one of two things: fine or thriving. My job is to make sure you end up in the second category.
Tell me what you're after and I'll send the water-adjacent finds that fit, straight to your inbox, often before they're anywhere else. No pressure, no pestering, and I'll tell you honestly if the timing's off.
Type it in and I'll write back myself. It can be about buying, selling, a neighborhood, or something you read on this page.
Got it, thank you. Your question came straight to me, and I'll answer by email.
Rather talk it through? Book 20 minutes or call 404.512.3466.