Ok detroit-ians.....

[Katherine Earle]

I know they love to bag on Detroit on their bigger pockets podcasts, but is it truly that bad in all of the neighborhoods or is there some hope on getting some cash flow with a house that I could buy with cash super easily?

[Max Nussenbaum]

@Richard Dunlop is spot-on. While it's certainly possible to go very wrong in Detroit, great opportunities abound if you know where to look. And the fact that many people still hold on to old biases about Detroit just means there's less competition for those of us who are paying attention to what's going on in the city!

The most important thing to understand about Detroit is that the city varies widely on a block-by-block basis. You can't generalize about "good" or "bad" ZIP codes, and in some cases you can't even generalize about good or bad neighborhoods. For example, the block I live in (Virginia Park St between Woodward and the Lodge) is full of beautiful mansions, with almost no vacancy. Go one block north to Euclid, and there are several abandoned, crumbling houses, and many others have already been razed.

Motor City Mapping is a phenomenal resource to analyze block quality in Detroit. We wrote a blog post about how to make the most of it here.

Good luck!