Traverse City Contractor Awards $10,000 Home Improvement Grant to Fife Lake Resident

Yvonna Downey has been keeping up her late father's Fife Lake home as best she can, with windows that need replacing at the top of a list she hasn't had the money to work through. Last Friday, Traverse City contractor Landmark Exteriors changed that: the company surprised Downey with a $10,000 home-improvement grant, selecting her from a pool of more than 500 applicants across Northern Michigan.

She had no advance warning the announcement was coming. "I feel very blessed. I feel very blessed. It's definitely unexpected," she said after learning she had won. The property carries meaning beyond its repair needs. "And this was my dad's home, so that means a lot to me," she added. Her priorities with the money are clear. "The windows are the biggest," she said, noting other work is also needed throughout the home.

Deferred window replacement in a Northern Michigan home rarely stays a contained problem. Failing seals and deteriorating frames bleed heat when temperatures drop below zero, driving up energy bills month after month. Moisture follows, working into wall cavities and structural framing in ways that can turn a $10,000 repair into something far more expensive. For a homeowner managing an inherited property, often on a fixed or limited income without a second earner to absorb rising material costs, that clock ticks fast. The grant gives Downey a chance to stop it.

The 500-plus applications Landmark Exteriors received for a single award make the underlying need impossible to dismiss. That volume, drawn from the nine Northern Michigan counties the company serves, Grand Traverse, Wexford, Kalkaska, Antrim, Otsego, Crawford, Emmet, Benzie, and Leelanau, reflects a regional gap between aging housing stock and homeowners' capacity to maintain it.

This marked the second consecutive year Landmark Exteriors has awarded the grant, which debuted in 2025. The company, incorporated in January 2023 and headquartered at 2282 Cass Rd, Suite B in Traverse City, is owned and managed by Austin T. Bazen, who has publicly committed to continuing the grant annually and hopes to expand participation in future cycles. Despite its brief operating history, the team brings more than 35 years of combined experience in roofing, siding, and windows. Landmark Exteriors holds authorization through Michigan Saves, a state-backed program that requires contractors to demonstrate valid licensure, insurance, and energy-efficiency expertise before they can offer its financing to customers, a vetting process that gives homeowners a baseline of confidence when evaluating bids.

WHERE ELSE TO TURN

Downey's situation reflects a need that several programs address across Grand Traverse County. Homeowners who missed this grant cycle, or who need assistance beyond what a private award can cover, have options worth knowing.

Habitat for Humanity Grand Traverse Region runs a Home Repair program for low- to moderate-income homeowners in Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties. Habitat Priority Home Repairs are available to homeowners with household incomes that fall within 30 to 60 percent of Area Median Income based on household size. Grant amounts are tiered by income level: households at 30 to 39 percent AMI qualify for up to $3,500, rising to $6,500 for those at 60 to 80 percent AMI. Applicants can contact Sallie Krepps at 231-941-4663, option 2, or homeservices@HabitatGTR.org, and applications can be dropped off at Habitat's ReStore at 2487 Rice Street in Traverse City, open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Grand Traverse County administers a home rehabilitation loan program funded through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, overseen by the Grand Traverse County Land Bank Authority. Applicants must be principal residents of a single-family home within the county with household gross annual incomes at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income. The county's Planning and Development Department handles applications and questions.

The USDA Rural Development Single Family Housing Repair program provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve, or modernize their homes and grants to elderly very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards. Because Fife Lake qualifies as rural under federal program definitions, local homeowners are eligible to apply through the USDA Rural Development Michigan office.

For homeowners who do not qualify for grants but need to spread the cost of upgrades over time, Michigan Saves financing is available through authorized dealers. Contractors must pass state screening, including proof of a valid business license, insurance, and technical expertise in energy-efficient improvements, before they can offer the program to customers. That same vetting process is how homeowners can quickly check whether a contractor bidding on their repair work has met a minimum threshold of credentialing before any money changes hands.