who's been successful in Detroit?

[Ralph Noack]

I'm interested in getting on touch with some people that have had good (or bad) experiences in Detroit. Wholesaling, Buy & holds, flips, Multi-family

[Ericka G.]

We've been successful in metro Detroit - I don't mess with the city proper because I feel it is a bit too risky for out of towners; I drove into the wrong area on accident when we first started investing in MI and it really put me off of in-town Detroit. I've lived in the hood before but that was on another level of scary. Sad and scary all at once. Felt like the Hunger Games.

So, I stick to the suburbs near the airport as that works for my niche. You can get basically move-in ready 3 bdrm houses in neat little neighborhoods with decent schools for less than $50k (ours have been $28-52k). In 2.5 years of owning rentals in that area we have found zero crime, excellent neighbors, and lower costs on everything from repairs to food. Heads up: The two major expense watchouts for MI are property insurance and city taxes. I was shocked by how expensive insurance is in MI, a lot of big companies don't write policies anywhere in MI state...but with some digging and scale it becomes manageable. Be sure to get estimates on that before closing a deal.

Also, local property taxes are higher than what I'd expected, so be sure to include that in your calcs as well.