Any Detroit landlords out there?

Question

Hello, found a house that has a longtime tenant in Detroit. I have property in Oakland , Richmond and Miami Dade do I am not afraid of a low income area. I want to know if the city is landlord friendly and what is customary for landlords to cover, water, garbage, snow removal?

Thanks! Joy

Kristi Mergenhagen · Answer

Hi @Joy Allen!

If you screen tenants and plan to expand in the Detroit area I would be mindful of a recent ordinance that was passed. Landlords with five or more rental units are not able to ask applicants about criminal history during the initial screening process. An applicant must meet all other qualifications for your rental before you are able to run a background check on them.

I hope this information is helpful :)

Best of luck with the house!

Paul S. · Answer

Don't cover any of those - you have about a 5% chance of success being OOS as it is - save every penny.

Drew Sygit · Answer

The City of Detroit requires all rental properties to be registered and regularly inspected. You can read about it here:

https://detroitmi.gov/departme...

The 36th District Court is a bit tenant-friendly, so you'll need to stay on top the eviction process and hire a good attorney.

There are no other landlord fees or rent control issues.

Sam Amin · Answer

Hi Joy,

If you are referring to eviction process then Detroit is a nightmare and not landlord friendly.

Joy Allen · Answer

Thank you for the replies. The eviction question was one thing I wondered about so thank you for that answer. Snow removal? Is that the landlords responsibility? Oakland CA has a 15.00 tax on every 1000.00 of rent you receive and a license is required for another 90.00 annually. If you leave your unit vacant there is a tax for that and rent control, the city gives you a percent you are allowed to use every year( CA has it's own state regulated number) and protected classes can not easily be evicted. Compared to San Francisco this great! I will not go into details but if someone wanted to give me a building in San Francisco that had existing tenants in it I probably would politely decline due to the fact that you must pay tenants around 5,200.00 or more just to move into your own unit or renovate and a general feeling of tenant favoritism.  I can google the regulations but I guess I was looking for a general feel of the city from a Detroit landlord. Thanks!

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Joy Allen you're asking a question with no frame of reference, so it really cannot be answered easily.

Please tell us what you expect when you ask about landlord friendly?

Justin Beavers · Answer

@Joy Allen Detroit can be landlord friendly usually landlords leave that up to the tenant. water bill typical is left in tenants name.

Any Detroit landlords out there?

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