Who knows Detroit?

[Chrome]

Looking at some investments in Detroit ( I know those two things don't belong in the same sentence) here is the area I'm looking at:

Ferndale area 102 south on 39 east on 94 north on 75. Pretty much west, northwest, north, northeast of Detroit. Staying south of 696. 

Thoughts on areas that are better than others? Personal experience is what I'm looking for. I already know it is a shitty area, but where is it less shitty? Lol

[jporter12]

All I can offer up is what I was told when visiting the area for GM training, which basically boils down to "stay north of 696."  I think the actual recommendation was to stay north of 10-12 mile Rd. area.  That was just for where it was safe to roam around while visiting.

[zx3vfr]

Yep, agree stay North of 696, even better stay North of 69. hehehehehe....

 

 

you gonna get shot fool....

 

 

 

 

 

Source

Friend who grew up in Warren, was in Ferndale/Oakpark in a fender bender last year, cops wouldn't even come.....

Edited April 10, 2016 by zx3vfr

[DeansZG]

Yep, Oak Park...forget it   I live about 25 miles southwest of there & only venture THROUGH the area 3-4 times a yr..to visit the mid-week bike nites in Royal Oak,  another neighboring city just to the north. wednesday nite is cruisers / thursday nite is for sport bikes, Main st., lots of places to sit, eat & enjoy the eye candy

Ferndale, if you're looking at INside of the city limits....maybe....http://ferndalemi.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm   http://www.zillow.com/ferndale-mi-48220/home-values/

Pleasant Ridge(borders Ferndale to the north) is another alternative.....http://censusviewer.com/city/MI/Pleasant%20Ridge   http://www.zillow.com/pleasant-ridge-mi/home-values/

 

[jporter12]

6 hours ago, DeansZG said:

Yep, Oak Park...forget it   I live about 25 miles southwest of there & only venture THROUGH the area 3-4 times a yr..to visit the mid-week bike nites in Royal Oak,  another neighboring city just to the north. wednesday nite is cruisers / thursday nite is for sport bikes, Main st., lots of places to sit, eat & enjoy the eye candy

Ferndale, if you're looking at INside of the city limits....maybe....http://ferndalemi.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm   http://www.zillow.com/ferndale-mi-48220/home-values/

Pleasant Ridge(borders Ferndale to the north) is another alternative.....http://censusviewer.com/city/MI/Pleasant%20Ridge   http://www.zillow.com/pleasant-ridge-mi/home-values/

 

A coworker was telling me about his first time going up there.  He said he took a wrong turn and ended up in that area.  A cop pulled him over as he was headed into the area, and told him to get out, not to stop at intersections, and just go.  The cop said that they don't even patrol through there.

Edited April 10, 2016 by jporter12

[mojocho]

I lived in Metro Detroit for 12 years. What are you looking to do? Rental, flips, residence, etc? Looking for what price range?

I'd stay away Detroit city. Dearborn usually is good as you get Ford employees. We actually have a rental home that we are looking to unload next year. Canton has good school and is average home prices. Royal oak usually a safe bet. Then you can into nicer homes to the north or lower priced homes to the south.

[Chrome]

I recently started another company in the investment property field. Just flips, no rentals.  Detroit like Columbus has a land bank from the city. Property that has been abandon and the city takes over. In Detroit they auction them off and you are responsible for rehabbing it in a timely manner and finding/selling it for occupancy. The homes are cheap, real cheap. Anywhere from 1k to 5k. You do have to sink between 30-50k into them to make them livable again. They have a shitload of properties available and it peaked my interest. These houses are not in the best of areas much like Columbus as well. I know when I am getting into so I'm not afraid of the "bad" part of town. I have been approached with multiple kinds of weapons in Columbus, pipes, knives, been surrounded in a few living rooms by 3 or more men. I am just not familiar enough with Detroit to start throwing offers out. May have a road trip in my near future. Thanks for all your input so far. Unfortunately the properties are not north of 696. 

[Tonik]

I grew up there. Clearly you know what you are doing. Detroit scares me from the standpont that the glut there is massive. They are tearing down square miles of homes trying to clear some of it up.

Additionally the entire infrastruture has colapsed. The city is bankrupt, the schools are bankrupt. They had to turn off the street lights because the city cant pay the electric bill.

I just dont see many people buying there. Be interesting what your research shows

[whaler]

10 hours ago, Chrome said:

I recently started another company in the investment property field. Just flips, no rentals.  Detroit like Columbus has a land bank from the city. Property that has been abandon and the city takes over. In Detroit they auction them off and you are responsible for rehabbing it in a timely manner and finding/selling it for occupancy. The homes are cheap, real cheap. Anywhere from 1k to 5k. You do have to sink between 30-50k into them to make them livable again. They have a shitload of properties available and it peaked my interest. These houses are not in the best of areas much like Columbus as well. I know when I am getting into so I'm not afraid of the "bad" part of town. I have been approached with multiple kinds of weapons in Columbus, pipes, knives, been surrounded in a few living rooms by 3 or more men. I am just not familiar enough with Detroit to start throwing offers out. May have a road trip in my near future. Thanks for all your input so far. Unfortunately the properties are not north of 696. 

Bad part of Columbus is not even in the same level as bad part of Detroit.  There are many areas that police do not enter and it looks like a war zone.  If one has not seen how bad it it is, you will be shocked.

Stay Safe!

[TimTheAzn]

45 minutes ago, whaler said:

Bad part of Columbus is not even in the same level as bad part of Detroit.  There are many areas that police do not enter and it looks like a war zone.  If one has not seen how bad it it is, you will be shocked.

Stay Safe!

Hell, the worst part of Columbus doesnt compare to the worst part of Cleveland imo.

[Chrome]

11 hours ago, whaler said:

Bad part of Columbus is not even in the same level as bad part of Detroit.  There are many areas that police do not enter and it looks like a war zone.  If one has not seen how bad it it is, you will be shocked.

Stay Safe!

 

10 hours ago, TimTheAzn said:

Hell, the worst part of Columbus doesnt compare to the worst part of Cleveland imo.

 

Cant wait! I continue to research it and see what I come up with. May stick with the Columbus market. 

[mojocho]

OK, if you are talking about Detroit proper, then for all the reasons mentioned, I'd stay away...for now. I wish there was a bright spot, but I'm afraid until large large amount of money is thrown at downtown and the river front, then you'd be eating your time and money.

[tyler524]

On 4/12/2016 at 7:12 AM, mojocho said:

OK, if you are talking about Detroit proper, then for all the reasons mentioned, I'd stay away...for now. I wish there was a bright spot, but I'm afraid until large large amount of money is thrown at downtown and the river front, then you'd be eating your time and money.

A large amount of money is being thrown at downtown, midtown, and the corktown area. There are definitely some areas that would be relatively decent places to invest in. 

 

I was going to buy a loft in Midtown two years ago for $200k and now similar units in that building are going for  $350-400k.

The whole Ferndale and Royal Oak area is pretty nice and houses are only sitting on the market for a week or two.

[tyler524]

On 4/11/2016 at 9:51 PM, Tonik said:

I grew up there. Clearly you know what you are doing. Detroit scares me from the standpont that the glut there is massive. They are tearing down square miles of homes trying to clear some of it up.

Additionally the entire infrastruture has colapsed. The city is bankrupt, the schools are bankrupt. They had to turn off the street lights because the city cant pay the electric bill.

I just dont see many people buying there. Be interesting what your research shows

A lot has happened in the city since the bankruptcy. The downtown, midtown, riverfront, and corktown areas have a lot of positive things happening.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/04/5_things_to_consider_about_det.html

 

Check out the new Pure Michigan commercial about the actual city.

 

There are currently  billions of dollars being invested into the city proper with substantial growth and new developments. There are even plans for new skyscrapers downtown and new hotels. Crime is improving quite a bit and last year had the least number of homicides in 40 years.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/02/detroit_transform_since_super.html

 

The city has plenty of problems and sure there are to stay away from but you are not going to murdered, mugged, robbed, or rape just driving into the city. There is still a long way to go but I absolutely hate the rhetoric the people who are unfamiliar with the current situation continue to spew.

[zx3vfr]

4 hours ago, tyler524 said:

A lot has happened in the city since the bankruptcy. The downtown, midtown, riverfront, and corktown areas have a lot of positive things happening.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/04/5_things_to_consider_about_det.html

 

Check out the new Pure Michigan commercial about the actual city.

 

There are currently  billions of dollars being invested into the city proper with substantial growth and new developments. There are even plans for new skyscrapers downtown and new hotels. Crime is improving quite a bit and last year had the least number of homicides in 40 years.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/02/detroit_transform_since_super.html

 

The city has plenty of problems and sure there are to stay away from but you are not going to murdered, mugged, robbed, or rape just driving into the city. There is still a long way to go but I absolutely hate the rhetoric the people who are unfamiliar with the current situation continue to spew.

You cannot polish a turd....

[tyler524]

47 minutes ago, zx3vfr said:

You cannot polish a turd....

New York was in pretty rough shape in the early 80s as well and now look at it. Was it as bad, no but crime was soaring and it was a bleak outlook.

Detroit has a lot of complex issues that will take years to right. From the beginning of a lot of the current major issues stemming from the race riots and white flight of the 60s & 70s to the loss of industry and most recently the corruption of the Kwame Kilpatrick camp. The city proper is fairly large by land area and only has a population of about 600k people. The Metro Detroit area with the suburbs has 5.3 million people. Itso hard for a city that was built for nearly 2 million to sustain when everyone had move to the suburbs. The cities population has declined for 50 years but may actually see an increase for 2016. People are no longer leaving and instead quite a few are moving to the city again. It will take years for things to build out from the downtown and midtown regions to the rest of the neighborhoods.

I shared the same opinion when I started coming to Detroit on a regular basis for work six years ago but that has slowly changed as I have seen the reality of what's going on there. I moved up here a couple of years back to the Metro area and actually planned to buy in the city but due to personal circumstances couldn't. I am about to buy a place up here in the next few months but will more than likely purchase in Royal Oak. I am interested and would move to the city if car insurance rates weren't so ridiculous, and no that's because of the crime. Michigan has the highest auto insurance in the US and Detroit suffers more due to the large number of uninsured and personal injury lawsuits.  

 

[shittygsxr]

I don't buy a property unless I would live in it myself. Worst case if the market doesn't turn the way you want then you have a nice place to live.

Do you know why property values in Hawaii, Colorado and many other beautiful places never crash as hard? No matter how bad things get there is always someone with cash that wants to live by the ocean mountains ect.

I'm killing it in my rental property.  

 

[redkow97]

With the proper financial backing, i wonder if it would be economically viable to purchase large areas of land, develop it, AND hire on a private security company to keep it all from being destroyed.  A gated community in the hood ...or something.

Even better idea might be to buy the surrounding plots as well, then sell them off at an increased value after your 'stronghold' flourishes, or build a wall, and a few properties inside it, then sell off the other interior parcels at a profit.

 

Shit, with Detroit as desperate as it is for money, part of me thinks they would entertain chartering new villages or townships and completely giving up all property rights to the land.  You could be mayor of your own town!