@Yannes ChiangI really don't feel bad for you ;-) It's coming from a mile away and the tenants expect a 3 percent raise every year so rarely hassle you on it.

In Silicon Valley the termite and property inspections(2) rarely goes over $500.

But in combination with @Brian Burke's advice will minimize the chances of you investing with a Madoff-type syndicator.

What I personally like about Detroit is:1) Affordability compared to LA - I can buy 5-6 good houses (or a combination of 2 family flats etc) for the price of 1 here.   

Was that through your own searches, emails from your agent, combination, or something else? 

Because I don’t want to invest 100% of the $800,000 in real estate, I am thinking of keeping:10% ($80,000) in savings10% ($80,000) in bonds 30% ($240,000) with financial institutions to invest in mutual funds, index funds, and stocks, And the remaining 50% ($400,000) in real estate.My goal is to allocate $200,000 of this $400,000 to acquire a combination of SFR, BRRRR properties and possibly duplex/triplexes throughout the next year or two.

I hear that this rarely happens or that they may force the title to be switched back to my personal name.

We did a ton of work to the CA property, so that combined with the incredible appreciation out there in the last few years, we're sitting on a pretty remarkable paper gain.We've racked up quite a bit of debt rehabbing both the CA and NC properties.

The two properties have a combined square footage of over 4400 square feet.

Many people here are looking for cashflow properties, and that's a rare thing in CA.