But if you put in the effort, Detroit can be incredibly rewarding.Over the last several years, the city has been on a steady upswing: population growth, major corporate investments, and increasing demand for housing are all positive indicators.

There are large areas in the direction of the flight paths that do not have dense populations so it’s mostly a non-issue.

Specifically, there's job growth (Intel, Honda, Amazon, Nationwide, etc) and the population is growing (unlike Cleveland or Cincy).

You could also consider house hacking locally.  

I'm local and looking to see if anyone is nearby and wondering some things like how well BRRRR might work in our market (my feeling is not as well as others).Look forward to getting to know you!

The most sure path for local RE investors seems to be with a near term exit. 

Lower the qualifications.Real estate is extremely local.

Try meetup.com or google your local real estate investing groups.

Just because someone has experience doesn't mean that a local meetup would not be helpful.

Population and job growth just isn't ideal.