About Open Water
Open Water is a family-scale co-hosting company run by a husband-and-wife team on the Lake Michigan lakeshore. When something comes up at your home, you're calling the people who run it, not a ticket queue three time zones over.
The founders
Founders · Investor-focused realtors, Five Star Real Estate
We don't co-host rentals we haven't run ourselves. Jamie and Sarah own and operate their own short-term rentals on the lakeshore, including their flagship MCM Lake House, a mid-century modern lakefront property they renovated top to bottom. It grosses more than $25,000 in a peak month, and it's been featured on CNBC and on their own YouTube channel.
They did the renovation, built the listing, set the rates, and answered the guests. They know what the numbers actually do across a full season, not what a pitch deck says they should do. That's why Open Water works the way it does: design-led, because the MCM Lake House books on its photos; data-priced, because that's how its calendar stays full.
The approach is analytical from the first conversation: filter for ROI potential, analyze cash flow before falling in love with a house, and project revenue conservatively. Between guest stays, Jamie and Sarah are investor-focused realtors with Five Star Real Estate: deal analysis, revenue projections, renovation ROI, and zoning and ordinance compliance are the day job, not a sideline.
Local, on purpose
We know which weekend the tulips bloom, which cleaner to call when a pipe lets go in February, and which township clerk actually answers email. None of that fits on a feature list. It comes with living here, and it's the one thing a national manager can't ship in.
When a guest locks themselves out at midnight or a storm takes a shutter off the house, the difference between us and a call center is measured in minutes and miles.
Small, on purpose
Open Water supports a deliberately limited number of homes, 20 at most. Past that, response times stretch, design gets templated, and owners become account numbers. That's the business we're the alternative to, so we simply don't take every home.
If we're full, we'll tell you, and we'll keep a short waitlist. If your home isn't a fit, we'll tell you that too and point you somewhere better.
Why "Open Water"?
Open water is where you go when you stop playing it safe near shore. Past the breakwall, out where it's deeper and a little less predictable, and where the good sailing is. It's also, literally, the lake: six miles from most of the homes we support, and the reason any of this works.
Whether you own a place, are thinking about buying one, or just want to know what yours could earn, the first conversation is free and genuinely low-key.
Get in touch