Learning How to Develop a Michigan Eye

Thanks for joining me on this wild adventure of Real Estate investing. 

I'm Brad. I'm a software pro and IT nerd based in the Detroit metro area. I moved here about four years ago. I haven't quite started to understand all of the basics of the Detroit area, but I've started to form some opinions of the neighborhoods in the area. I'm new to Real Estate investing too.

I've had a chance to started to get settled in. I have driven a lot around the metro area and begun to learn a great deal about the neighborhoods here. I'm really struggling with learning about the neighborhoods here. I've had a tough time gauging how good a neighborhood actually is for a lot of reasons. But the biggest seems to be that there is just such a huge difference in most of the homes available.

Why is that?

Well, climate. Climate is huge. I come from the desert. Everywhere I went in Albuquerque it was almost always hot, dry and sunny. The buildings were nearly perpetually sun drenched, and it caused the paint of the buildings to wear out quickly. The constant blowing of sand also forces the buildings to be painted in earth tones to avoid their colors from becoming faded and stained from the sand.

Here in Michigan life is really different. It is almost always wet, damp, and we really get a good mix of weather. This seems to cause a lot of wear and tear on the exterior of buildings in the area. It also causes buildings to wear out and, in my poorly informed opinion, to quickly become less attractive:

Above is a picture of the Oakland mall in the Northern Detroit suburbs. This mall has been around for quite a while, and honestly needs a remodel. A lot of the homes in the area were built as early as the late 1800's, and some of them were built a lot later. How do you adapt to this when most of the homes from where you come from are less than 30 years old? What things are unique to a Michigan property that impacts my decision to buy?

The name of this game seems to be buy low, improve, sell or rent high and repeat. The trouble is that I just don't understand what would look good to a Michigan buyer as opposed to someone else. Here it just doesn't seem practical to constantly wash the exterior of the building, and painting every few years doesn't seem to be a common practice. I've also head stories of a lot of people building and furnishing basements just to turn around and have their investments ruined with a nasty rain storm or flood.

So, fellow Detroiters, here's what I would like to know:

- Do  you have a tolerance for the exterior of a building to appear weather worn? What are some things that you do to make the outside of a building be cleaner and pop in Michgan's often gray months?

- Do you view a furnished basement to be more of a liability than an asset? I keep hearing about "sump pumps" - whatever those are.

- A lot of neighborhoods here seem to be either really good, good, bad or really bad. In communities out West they tend to fluctuate in cycles. Bad neighborhoods tend to get attention and churn quickly. Here it sounds like neighborhoods don't move very quickly.

- What's the deal with Pontiac? This city seems to be near a University that might offer a lot of students who need housing. It's also completely surrounded by middle class suburbs. There's a neat zone on Woodward near the North zones. It seems like when you are headed North on woodward you are surrounded by nice houses, but then pass the hospital and it is downhill quickly from there. Why is there such a huge dichotomy between these properties just a mile or two from each other?

- Attached is my "Impressions of Detroit" map. This is the gut feeling I get from each neighborhood in the area. Clearly I could be wrong about each area, and I look forward to hearing about how my impressions might be... incorrect. I look forward to making contacts and friends on this journey. Thanks!

- Brad