Dani Hallsell | Next Chapter Living | LIVgreat Real Estate

  For many clients I work with, the housing question has quietly doubled. It's no longer only "What's next for us?" It's also "What's next for Mom?" 👵 Assisted living waitlists are long, costs keep climbing, and many parents simply want to stay near family without giving up their own front door. One option is getting more attention across Washtenaw County: the Accessory Dwelling Unit , or ADU. 🔑 What an ADU Is An ADU is a small, independent home on the same lot as a primary single-family house. It has its own kitchen, bathroom, and entrance. There are four common forms: 🏠 Detached: a stand-alone backyard cottage or carriage house. 🧱 Attached: an addition built onto the side or top of your home. 🛋️ Internal: a converted basement, attic, or wing, often called an in-law suite. 🚗 Garage conversion: turning an existing garage into a livable apartment. For an aging parent, the detached or garage-conversion options give real separation. You can be...

  This week, I'm sharing an article from our friends at Vanguard Title 🤝 — a great resource if you or someone you love is navigating the sale of a home inherited from a family member. Losing a loved one is hard enough without adding real estate confusion on top of it, so I hope this helps bring some clarity. 💛… If you've recently lost a loved one and inherited their home, deciding what to do with the property can feel overwhelming during an already emotional time. 😔 Before putting the home on the market, there are several important questions to answer about ownership, legal authority, and the documents that may be needed to complete the sale. One of the best places to start is by understanding how the property is titled. 📜 The way ownership was established can determine what happens next, including whether probate is necessary, who has the authority to sell the home, and who will need to participate in the closing. Here are five important questions to consider before selli...

  If you've ever helped a parent — or a client — face the prospect of leaving the home they've lived in for decades, you know the moving boxes are the easy part. The hard part is everything underneath them: the memories, the guilt, the sibling disagreements, the grief that shows up disguised as "just keep it for now." 💭 That's exactly the territory I got into with Achla Karnani , owner of Caring Transitions Ann Arbor , on this week's episode of the LIVgreat Podcast 🎙️. Achla has built her business around the messy middle of downsizing and estate transitions — and after this conversation, I'm more convinced than ever that Realtors and transition specialists need to be working hand in hand, not in separate lanes. 🤝 🧭 An Unconventional Path Into This Work Achla didn't start out planning to help families sort through a lifetime of belongings. Her path ran through higher education administration (12 years at the University of Michigan), then a Master of...

  Every year I keep an eye on the big national surveys that track what buyers actually want, because the headlines are useful — but the local numbers are what matter when you're standing in a lot in Chelsea or Dexter deciding whether to build. Homes.com just released its 2026 "What New Home Buyers Want" survey, and paired with the latest Michigan construction data, it paints a pretty clear picture for anyone weighing a new build here in Washtenaw County. 📊 The national picture: function over flash Homes.com partnered with Good Run Research and CMI Research this spring to poll more than 3,000 people aged 25+, all with budgets of at least $250,000, who either bought a new single-family home in the past two years or plan to in the next two. A few findings stood out to me: 🎨 Personalization is king. Roughly 70% of buyers want full structural and aesthetic customization — they're treating a new build as a canvas, not a template. 📐 The sweet spot is a 4-bedroom, 2.5-bat...