Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
Hello,
My wife and I are considering selling our house in Denver, moving to Detroit, and investing in real estate. I have 15 years experience in home construction and renovation, but limited experience in investing. We will have around 150k cash to invest and I plan on doing most of the renovations myself. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
@Dustin Zentz I hope it goes well for you my friend. I can't imagine leaving Colorado for Detroit. Even if you are not in Detroit proper, the weather change would be more than I could stand. Have you lived in the area before? If not, pay it a visit in early Sept when the weather is great here in Colorado and then again in December. It's hard to beat our sunshine here.
WOW! I honestly never knew the weather was a selling point for Denver!
Skiing maybe! Summers beautiful! I used to vacation in Telluride & Durango!
I moved to S California for the weather 20 plus years ago.
I moved to Detroit for the opportunities 6 years ago. Now that was a change! but I could not have accomplished what I've accomplished in any other market.
@Dustin Zentz I hope it goes well for you my friend. I can't imagine leaving Colorado for Detroit. Even if you are not in Detroit proper, the weather change would be more than I could stand. Have you lived in the area before? If not, pay it a visit in early Sept when the weather is great here in Colorado and then again in December. It's hard to beat our sunshine here.
i have visited all major cities in the US and i have never seen more pissed off regular residents than when i was in Colo. ever!
everyone from the people at the airport, to the hills in Breckenridge was just upset at something.
we stopped by a spa place to just check it out and the employee there (incredibly nice) told us that people are upset at the Movie stars raising the prices all over colorado and pricing people out (which makes sense). turned out, that guy was from Detroit metro.
anyway, i tell everyone that the people that we met and spoke while vacationing in Colo were not very nice.
Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
10y
@George P. I think that Denver has so much to offer, if you can afford it. I found myself becoming one of those frustrated people because I spent most of my time making ends meet. I was spending most of my time in traffic, whether it was for work or to drive to the mountains to play. Then, add the fact that to get your kid into a good school, you need to spend 500K on a house. Don't get me wrong, my CO years were some of the best of my life, but we get older and our priorities change. Once that happened, I felt that Detroit offered opportunities that are hard to come by anywhere else. And I gotta say, it feels pretty nice to live mortgage free in one home and have another that will generate $500 per month income after only 3 months of being here. Also, my wife instantly found a dream job in her field within a month (something that proved almost impossible in Denver's highly competitive market).......I do miss those powder days, though.
Investor · West Bloomfield, MI · Member since 2009 · 358 posts · 306 votes
10y
Congrats on the move and the house purchases @Dustin Zentz. Sherwood Forest/Green Acres is a nice area, and all the Tudor style houses are beautiful. Very centrally located as well, as you of course know. Oak Park is a popular rental area, good choice. And today is snowy but sunny, so enjoy it while the sunshine lasts!
Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
10y
Thanks @Alan Brown! Montana sure wouldn't be what it is today, if it wasn't for the bold....My wife is actually from Missoula, I love it there. I've never been to Bozeman, but I've heard many good things. It's on the top of my list of places to eventually buy a place near the slopes! It has most everything Colorado has to offer, but the colder winters seem to keep the overpopulation at bay, which I like.
Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
10y
@Marvin Rice, I couldn't agree more. The homes in Boston Edison, and Indian Village are what really drew us to Detroit, but after moving to Ferndale and driving through Sherwood, we knew that that was where we wanted to start.
Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
10y
@Richard Dunlop, I agree. Detroit is moving fast, but luckily it sill has so much room for improvement and plenty of inventory. Let's just hope it can keep a reasonable, steady pace, and create a sustainable economy.....Fingers crossed.
Detroit, MI · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 10 votes
10y
Thanks @Jean Bolger, It sounds like you have a good thing going in Denver! I'm a musician/artist too and I think that real estate can be one of the best ways to help facilitate a career in the arts.
Wholesaler · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 16 posts · 3 votes
10y
Dustin- Congratulations on such a positive change! I have often though about picking up and moving to an area like Detroit for the very same reason you have, I have seen the renaissance here in Boston where 15 years ago you wouldn't walk in broad daylight into neighborhoods where you cant touch anything for at least half a million, time and patience and knowledge are the three big things that one needs to succeed in the REI arena and you have got it! I love Colorado have visited a few times it must have been hard especially with a young family but something tells me 10 years from now Detroit is going to be a completely different place to live and you will have been one of its earliest REI Pioneers! Good luck would love to hear how your doing out there keep us posted!
Aurora, CO · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
@Dustin Zentz I agree- I'm always trying to convince my musician friends that it's worth putting effort into getting into some property.
I do worry that Denver's current surge in prices is going to squeeze a lot of the 'artist class' out of Denver. That's what happened in Boulder County in the 90's, and why a lot of us ended up in Denver. And frankly, if I were a young artist faced with the prices here I would probably either move to a city like San Francisco or Seattle where there would be more established artistic outlets, or go to a place that had a considerably lower cost of living and a burgeoning creative scene (..Detroit?)
@Dustin Zentz I agree- I'm always trying to convince my musician friends that it's worth putting effort into getting into some property.
I do worry that Denver's current surge in prices is going to squeeze a lot of the 'artist class' out of Denver. That's what happened in Boulder County in the 90's, and why a lot of us ended up in Denver. And frankly, if I were a young artist faced with the prices here I would probably either move to a city like San Francisco or Seattle where there would be more established artistic outlets, or go to a place that had a considerably lower cost of living and a burgeoning creative scene (..Detroit?)