But if your goal is to cashflow positive from the Day 1, you may find it very challenging due to current day interest rates, high cost of construction and the fact you won't have the efficiencies of a seasoned developer building at scale.

To rent the home, I would lose about $2,500 per month (based on comparable rents in my area, property management fees, etc).Both options loose the same amount by roughly 2 years, and by this time, I still will not have built up much more equity in the home to make selling it a break even unless there is price appreciation by then.My dilemma is this: I speculate that my home will not appreciate much in the next 3-5 years due to the rapid pace of development in the surrounding area.In 5-10+ years, maybe, but by then I'll have bled $150,000 - $300,000.I have thought about this a lot and feel that I mar'-too close to the problem to see the best solution.

Plus, you get amazing appreciation potential due to how much population growth, job growth, and companies moving and developing here.

Quote from @Marcus Ball: After struggling with local rehab properties in California, I switched to build-to-rent developers and chose a 1031 exchange.

I just talked to a commercial developer the other day that told me Columbus is the next Austin TX!

I'd work on a strategy that returns my capital guaranteed. build to rent direct with ground up developer does this.

Building small units in small counts is expensive development.  

Not as much new construction as infill development, so rehabs and rentals will be the turn primarily.

The population is officially growing again, and there’s been a lot of investment in infrastructure and development in recent years, which makes it unique compared to some other Midwest markets.One thing to keep in mind, though, is that Detroit is very much a block-by-block city.

Begin with the end in mind and work backward to develop a roadmap for achieving your goals.