Investing in Detroit!

[Shayne Hastings]

Hello all, I've currently partnered up with my brother (who lives internationally) to start investing in some real estate. I live in San Francisco but we have been intrigued by Detroit and have put in a few months of research and analysis so far. We are going to visit the downtown areas and surrounding suburbs in a couple months but I'm curious to hear what others have to say that HAVE invested in the area. I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective on the Detroit area and it's development for the next couple years. Thanks so much and would love to connect with any brokers/investors in the Detroit area!

[Drew Sygit]

@Shayne Hastings: I also run a property management company in the Metro Detroit area, Royal Rose Properties. Most out-of-area investors view the entire Metro Detroit area as one market when they think about "Detroit". There's actually a major difference between the Detroit suburbs and the actual City of Detroit.

Suburbs: mostly like any other rental market you can think of, but we have some of the best returns in the country. Just evaluated a property for a client yesterday - price $45k, will rent for $850/month. Where in the USA can you get those type of numbers? 

Detroit: the Downtown, Midtown, Corktown and a select couple of other areas are similar to other urban cities around the country - but they make up less than 25% of Detroit. The other 75% varies between up & coming and "wasteland". Detroit's government has admitted there are 40,000 houses too many, but this is a conservative number. The city was built for almost 2 million people and now has less than 900k. The challenge/opportunity for investors is finding houses in good neighborhoods that are 1-3 years away from revival. 

We encourage intelligent investing in Detroit:)