Originally posted by @Bridget Smith-Osbourne:
@ Christian Hutchinson & @ Mike Carino. Great information guys. I have heard a lot about Woodward Corridor & Cass Corridor. These are definitely two areas I would like to explore. I came upon an article highlighting the plans to redevelopment Southwestern Highschool. Sakthi , an Indian based billion dollar company is planning on creating 650 jobs. Manufactoring jobs/campus and trainining center for new engineers. It' s plans are to expand it's current Southwest Detroit facility. During my site visit I was able to tour this area and not the nicest area in town. I was able to validate that its current operation is up and functioning & next to the abandoned school as the article stated. I will keep a watch on this area to see if it's expansion will launch.
Yes, I have heard of him. Take this whichever way you want, but guys like Strather are a whole different level than say someone like myself or Mike. My operation is a family operation, all of us have FT jobs(IT, Medical, Engineering), and we are pinching pennies together leveraging via your standard 20%-30% down payment, Investor Mortgage, or paying cash for a place to add to the Portfolio of Properties. Working on properties ourselves, or hiring people to do the work. Mike can speak for himself, but from what I understand his situation is similar or more advanced.
Strather gets OPM(Other People's Money), tax credits etc, engineers deals that sometimes do well(Motor City Casino) or others with so-so results(Woodbridge). He is a full-out developer.
If you have access to his deals, and you can ride his coattails, and learn from him that's an opportunity to take advantage of. Google Herb Strather, and you can get a full scope of his dealings and projects.
I don't know what type of Cash and Credit you are dealing with. So whats happening or projected to happen over at old Detroit Southwestern High School, I wouldn't even know or understand how to profit off of something like that...But I can tell you in that part of town on the other side of I-75 there is Mexican Village aka Mexicantown that has lots of properties you can get fairly cheaply, rehab, and then rent them out for a nice return.
Basically, meaning if you had maybe $100K in cash and another $100K in credit you could easily generate $3000-$7000 a month in rental income with moderate effort in 6-18 months. In terms of rentals I do not see people who are Engineers or someone in a White Collar/Gold Collar job living in SW Detroit in the next 5 years in even moderate numbers. To put it in perspective those Interns I discussed. They first will look in Mexican Village because its cheap its near Downtown, it has a density of bars and restaurants. They just see $300-$700/month...They feel its worth a shot. Some actually do decide to live in SW Detroit, but most live the "7.2". Then after looking at a few places they circle back to the "7.2". They pay $1000+ for a place, and they are happy to pay it.
You have to understand Dearborn Heights(New Rochelle), and the Pointes(similiar to Rye or Scarsdale) to place them similar to NY suburbs(I travel extensively for work) which are nice areas aren't far down I-94, nice schools, parks, extremely safe, lots of amenities. Then if they chose the City of Detroit they wouldn't want to live in that section of town, there isn't even a grocery store, gas station or pharmacy within 2 miles of Southwestern HS. Not to mention its surrounded by old industrial factories that are abandoned, warehouses, power plants, water treatment facilities, shipping docks. They would move to Corktown(which is less than 3 miles from Old SW HS), Midtown, Boston-Edison, East Jefferson, or the Villages. All these locations would be less than a 10 Minute drive to this place. SW West Detroit has ALWAYS been a working class community even when Detroit had 2M people and had the highest standard of living in the country.
Again, if you are plugged in with guys like Strather and his deals you are in luck. For people like myself, if $50K goes out the door, I need to start seeing some money in 60-90 days.
Here is the map of the "7.2" here. Thats 7.2 sq miles of Downtown Detroit, and the "Greater" Downtown Area. Once you get outside of those boundaries life gets very interesting. Of course being just on the other side of the street or one or two blocks outside of it is no big deal in some cases(New Center). Then there are other places Woodbridge, and Eastern Market where you will discover why Detroit has the reputation it does.
