What We Learned Moving to Northern Michigan

Moving to Northern Michigan is a dream for many people but actually doing it inevitably involves some surprises along the way. When I relocated with my wife and two elementary age kids to Harbor Springs in 2015 I definitely learned a lot along the way that would have been helpful to know in advance so sharing my lessons learned here in the hopes it helps other folks to get a head start on their move.

  Avoid a summer move if possible – Housing is usually most difficult to come by in the late spring and summer. If your family situation allows, it may be easier to find a new house in the fall or winter. If you are considering renting you should be aware that summer rentals are extremely scarce given the demand for tourist and seasoning workforce housing in the summer months.

Consider winter driving conditions when choosing a house – Some driveways and even roads can be quite challenging to navigate in the winter (or costly to plow and salt), which can be easy to forget when you are touring the house on a beautiful July day. My wife’s two wheel drive car purchased before we moved from Atlanta, GA couldn’t even get up the driveway of our house after the first snow storm. Even better, it was an Acura and the closest dealership is in Traverse City so we had a bit of an interesting drive on winter roads to trade it in for something that could make it out of the garage.

  Bring your furniture with you – There are not a lot of options for affordable furniture stores in the area. If you’re coming from a city, you may want to consider stocking up on furniture for your new up north home before you go. Otherwise, it can be a trial-and-error process trying to mail order things. 

  Don’t try to book kids summer camps 6 months in advance – Coming from Atlanta, we were used to having to sign our kids up for summer camp in January if we wanted a good location. Boyne Highlands Adventure Camp was a bit confused when my wife called them in January about summer camp rather than ski camp – they told her to just show up with a check on the first day of camp. While it is good to scope out what camps are available, with the exception of Camp Daggett sleepaway camp you don’t need to sign up 6 months in advance

  Everything is NOT online – Information about events and activities, from kids sports to equipment sales and concerts is not necessarily posted online. Word-of-mouth is still a viable way for information to be spread here so just because you are not seeing something posted online does not mean it isn’t happening. Don’t hesitate to reach out to contacts, schools or businesses directly (possibly via phone or in person as people also seem to check their email less often up north!) to find out what is going on.

  You don’t need that security system – When we first arrived we considered installing a security system for the house like what we were used to in Atlanta where our neighbor’s car had been stolen not once but twice and sirens were a regular daily backdrop of life even in upscale neighborhoods. By the time we sold our first house we had to call the locksmith to re-key it as we no longer knew where we had put our key given that we never locked the house.

You probably don't need pest control either – When we moved, we quickly signed up for regular pest control because in Atlanta, if you didn't have it every quarter, things could get out of hand fast. But here, it seems like almost nobody does that. The winter seems to handle most of the bugs for us.