Fremont · Vacation Rentals
Buying a Rental Property in Fremont, Michigan
The township rules come before the house, because they decide whether you own an asset or a second home.
The Honest Position First
Fremont is inland, in Newaygo County, and it is not the Lake Michigan short-term rental market. Pricing a property here on lakeshore assumptions is the way to be disappointed, so it is worth being plain about that on the first line.
What is here is different rather than lesser. Fremont Lake sits by town with a public beach, a play area, a campground and a boat launch, and it has its own small market. The wider draw is space, quiet, and a town with more going on than its size suggests.
The guest is a different guest. Someone who wants a week somewhere calm, or who is here for a specific reason, rather than someone chasing Lake Michigan sunsets. That is a smaller pool, and it is also a less crowded one to compete in.
What Actually Drives Demand Here
The festivals, and they are real anchors. The July festival is officially the National Baby Food Festival, though everybody local calls it the Gerber Festival, with a large carnival and arts and craft vendors. The Fremont Harvest Festival comes in late September, with a hay art competition you vote in by donating canned goods that go to the True North Food Pantry, plus a harvest parade of antique tractors. There is also the Newaygo County Fair.
Those are dated, repeating events that fill accommodation in a town that does not otherwise fill it. If the numbers work at all here, they frequently work around those weekends.
Gerber has been headquartered in Fremont since 1927, which means business travel and visiting family through the year rather than only in summer. A property that suits a longer, quieter stay behaves differently from a July cottage.
And Fremont Lake itself, for the guest who wants water without what frontage costs an hour west.
In their words
In their words
I had a very specific idea of what we wanted. An unspoiled piece of lakefront land on a wooded lot. I quickly learned that finding such a property is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Tamara diligently stayed on the search for our dream property and was always on the lookout for us... When that perfect property finally came up, Tamara knew it was the one. She called us from her car urging us to come up and see it immediately.
Rules, and the Rural Questions
Short-term rental rules are set township by township and they change. Newaygo County is not Muskegon County and the answer for one parcel is not the answer for another. Check before you fall for the house.
Then the things that are specific to renting a rural property, which people coming from a city rental do not think about.
The well and the septic are yours, and a septic sized for a family behaves differently when eight guests use it every weekend. Its age and capacity are a real operating question, not a formality.
The driveway and the road, and who plows them, if you want winter bookings at all.
How far the guest is from a shop, honestly stated, because the review will state it if you do not.
What I Will and Will Not Tell You
I will go and read the property, confirm what the township permits for that parcel, and tell you plainly what it is and what it is not.
I will not hand you a projected return, here least of all. This is a thinner, more seasonal market than the lakeshore, and a yield figure invented for it would be a number you then made a decision on.
And if the honest answer is that the numbers do not work on the property you are looking at, you will hear that. On a market this size, being told no early is most of the value.
Before You Offer
Tell me what the property has to return and who you picture staying in it. I will tell you whether Fremont is the right place for that, including when it is not.
More on the town is on the Fremont area page, land and acreage is at land in Fremont, the general rules are at buying a vacation rental, and the wider numbers question is at investment property.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fremont a good short-term rental market?
It is a different one, and smaller. This is not the Lake Michigan market, so pricing a property here on lakeshore assumptions is how people get disappointed. What works here tends to work around the July festival, the Harvest Festival in late September and the county fair, plus business and family travel tied to Gerber being headquartered here since 1927.
What rural things should I think about that a city rental would not have?
The well and the septic are yours, and a septic sized for a household behaves differently when eight guests use it every weekend, so its age and capacity are an operating question. Then the driveway and the road, and who plows them if you want winter bookings, and honestly how far a guest is from a shop.
Are short-term rentals permitted in Fremont?
It depends on the township and on the parcel, and this is Newaygo County, so the answer for a Muskegon County property tells you nothing. The rules also change. It gets checked for that specific parcel before an offer.
Fremont
What vacation rentals looks like in Fremont
Inland in Newaygo County, where Gerber started in 1927 and where the same money buys land instead of frontage. My office is here.
Fremont is the one town I cover that is not on the lakeshore, and I would rather say so plainly. It has Fremont Lake by town with a public beach, a campground and a boat launch, and M120 runs across to Twin Lake and on toward Muskegon.
The trade is the point. The same budget that gets you a modest cottage on the water will generally get you a house with real acreage here, which is why people who start out searching for lakefront often end up looking at this side of the map.
Vacation Rentals: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?