I lived in Michigan my whole life until the end of September just a month and a half ago. Our most recent rental house was in Fowlerville, which is pretty close to being in the country, and we'd often commute over to Lansing (~25 mins away) for shopping/eating.
East Lansing is home to Michigan State University, which has a student population of about 50,000. The way I see it, living in a college town has its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it's very bike friendly (a rarity in Michigan) and there's a lot of local businesses that are open late. On the other hand, bars are way too crowded, and the cost of living might be really high around campus (especially rentals). Good luck getting around on football Saturdays. Taking the university out of the equation, East Lansing is a fine enough city, and the state capitol (Lansing proper) is right next door, but you won't find much other than farmland surrounding it.
I'm not sure what your living expenses are like in VA, but in my experience, Michigan is fairly low compared to the national average in terms of housing, and right in the middle when it comes to taxes. Auto insurance is much higher for some reason.
Socially – again, I don't know what your experience is like in VA – I find Michiganders to be generally friendly, but a bit... gossipy? Especially compared to my new neighbors in Colorado. Maybe this is just my experience in suburban areas, especially ones in upper middle class areas. This is probably mitigated somewhat by East Lansing's proximity to a college campus, where I find people to be more open-minded and liberal, but I'm not sure if this is a positive or negative in your book :) Michigan is usually a blue state when it comes to elections, but we're a bit socially conservative, which bums me out.
Weather-wise, it's basically gray and cold from late October-mid April, with snowfall from November-March. Weather swings around a lot though, possibly because of the lake effect from the Great Lakes. Last winter we had a chain of -20 degree days, the year before was a record-setting snowfall year, but the year before that, it seemed to barely fall below the 40s and 50s. Lots of salt on the roads in the winter. The summers are hot and humid, but there are a ton of lakes around for cooling off, and I've generally found them quite nice... that is until I moved to a low humidity area and realized how miserable the humidity can feel by comparison.
There's some beautiful scenery in Michigan if you go along lake Michigan on the west side of the state, or up to the Upper Peninsula, but you'll get the full effect in Summer and Fall.
I don't know any good rental companies in the area (ours was a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend them), but if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help!