Consequently, I am exploring the option of bringing in a local investor as a partner who will have a vested interest in managing the property effectively (skin in the game). 

Having someone with some skin in the game has been a good option. 

But if you evaluate the area, the property, and then aim to make sure you're operating at cash flow breakeven or better, that's where you're going to win big in Detroit.What you're saying is correct, but let's go underneath the surface here.

No matter what you write in your Offer, it's no skin off the Realtor's nose.

", maybe some things are best left silently unwritten.But I suppose as you grow older and more comfortable in your own skin, you change.

The white areas on the wall are where pictures were hung and the wall surfaces underneath the pictures were protected against nicotine stains.  

So, in other words, you want to go behind the bank's back...do you think, just on the surface, that this sounds like a good idea?

Of course, there are still ways to get scammed doing this, but sharing incentives and ownership such that there is skin in the game GREATLY reduces these risks.

Most want some skin in the game.

In Texas AT LEAST you need to have GFCI outlets on all kitchen counter surfaces, outside, garage, bathrooms etc. this home had the outside ones since the pool was relatively new and the outlets were put in when the pool was put in.