Investing in Detroit, MI

[Adriana Khdair]

Hello everyone! I am a new investor and a new BP member. I live in Virginia and own two SFH here. Currently, cash flowing deals are very hard to find in the DMV area. I am thinking about investing in Detroit, MI. (Suburbs for cash flow & downtown for appreciation).
Most of the posts I have found in the forum about Detroit are a few years old. If you are from Detroit or have any experience investing there, I would love to hear your thoughts on the current market, PROs and CONs, and its potential for REI. Thank you!

[Adriana Khdair]

Quote from @Joe Hammel:

@Adriana Khdair

Love the market here.

Particularly in the suburbs. Not recommending getting burnt on the sub $50k deals.

The balance of price/roi/location is great. Soundly beating the 1% rule and cash flowing at a great price point.

While the rest of the nation is struggling to find good deals, we have plenty. Even with the lowest inventory our area has ever seen.

It’s arguably the perfect starter market to get your feet under you with solid routine deals and figure out your favorite strategy.

*Best advice*

Try one out, see how you like it. If you hate it, sell it, Prices are going up all year, wouldn’t be hard to sell it and pocket the $10k profit.

If you love it (which I think you will) then save up and buy another!

Don’t fret over the numbers on the first. You don’t know what you don’t know yet. The first one is buying an education with some cash flow, loan pay down, appreciation, and tax benefits, as the icing on the cake.

 Thanks Joe. I am actively looking at different suburbs of Detroit. The problem I am running into is that 1) I am not familiar with safety of certain areas. Realtors cannot advise on that and I am not sure how reliable certain websites are. This will have a direct impact on the type of tenant I get  2) Since there are many deals under 100K, buying 3 or 4 properties can become expensive as they each have to be tied to a separate loans, closing costs and higher interest rates because of the lower loan amounts.  What are your thoughts on this?  I am still very interested in exploring this market and I am confident I will find what I am looking for soon.