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I am listening to the Audible version--first hand account of white guy, new grad of Michigan, who carries lot of angst about the wealth and race chasms in US and lacks a focus for how to live his life...comes from blue-collar family himself and decides he will buy a house in Detroit up for foreclosure, rehab it, and either live there or sell it while he decides how to live his life...
Just started the first few chapters...
Lot of social commentary about how Detroit represents the best and worst in American culture
But interested to see how it details the symbolic connection between rebuilding a house, a city, and a life...
Audible version has decent narrator but he is not very good at differentiating the other characters w/his voice changes...most of them sound like same person...and whiny...when their words indicate they aren't...
Just wondered since so many people are interested in buying/flipping homes and many have gone through the auction process although that seems more to be used by businesses than individuals for their personal use...
Flippers need to consider if the flipped house will sell at all. Unfortunately, Detroit is a bottomless money pit.
There are many in Detroit that would laugh heartily at a general statement like that - some areas of Detroit have drop-dead gorgeous homes & stacks of buyers looking to get in. Actual castles for pennies on the dollar.
Is the "average" out-of-town buyer gonna find those homes for $500 via a web search? Prolly not - not for $500, and not without knowing the neighborhoods. It's really no different than statements like "you can't buy a *good* used car for less than $xx,xxx.". Sure you can, people do every day - sometimes it's luck, sometimes it's skill (doing repairs others don't care to do, finding "diamonds" others walked right past, being first & knowing a deal when you see it) - or sometimes it's a once-in-a-lifetime deal.
One or two *exceptional* deals in things like cars, or real estate - or finding a great job - can totally change your life. Being the dude with a $200 house payment when your peers pay $1500 for housing, not having a car payment, when your peers pay $500 /mo for new cars, making bank when your peers get scraps. Someone does win the lotto every week - being that guy should be a goal, as long as there's perspective- and you understand there might be actual physical labor and financial hardship involved in *pushing* those lotto-balls into the "winner" tube. And, of course knowing that there *are* plenty of laborious money-pits out there that will leave you broken & penniless... This is the American Dream after all - some retire at 50 & others work at wal-mart to supplement their social security.
There are many in Detroit that would laugh heartily at a general statement like that - some areas of Detroit have drop-dead gorgeous homes & stacks of buyers looking to get in. Actual castles for pennies on the dollar.
Is the "average" out-of-town buyer gonna find those homes for $500 via a web search? Prolly not - not for $500, and not without knowing the neighborhoods. It's really no different than statements like "you can't buy a *good* used car for less than $xx,xxx.". Sure you can, people do every day - sometimes it's luck, sometimes it's skill (doing repairs others don't care to do, finding "diamonds" others walked right past, being first & knowing a deal when you see it) - or sometimes it's a once-in-a-lifetime deal.
One or two *exceptional* deals in things like cars, or real estate - or finding a great job - can totally change your life. Being the dude with a $200 house payment when your peers pay $1500 for housing, not having a car payment, when your peers pay $500 /mo for new cars, making bank when your peers get scraps. Someone does win the lotto every week - being that guy should be a goal, as long as there's perspective- and you understand there might be actual physical labor and financial hardship involved in *pushing* those lotto-balls into the "winner" tube. And, of course knowing that there *are* plenty of laborious money-pits out there that will leave you broken & penniless... This is the American Dream after all - some retire at 50 & others work at wal-mart to supplement their social security.
OK, I'll take your word for it.
I'm just saying there's a reason why my company closed out the company branch in that area a few years back.
I'm just saying there's a reason why my company closed out the company branch in that area a few years back.
Detroit of 7-10 years ago is not today's Detroit. Heck, Detroit has changed pretty drastically in the last TWO years. Downtown and Midtown have near 100% occupancy for both rentals and businesses. There are only a few empty skyscrapers left and they are all either being currently rehabbed or in the case of the old Detroit Free Press Building, the rehab will start this fall. Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans, Fathead, etc... has tons (meaning thousands) of people working from home because there isn't enough office space.
Neighborhoods are improving. A few years ago, you could still steal a mansion in the Boston-Edison neighborhood. Compared to other cities, Boston-Edison is still a steal (IF you can find a property for sale), but prices have increased pretty dramatically. Indian Village is probably the most solid. 500K and up there.
Are there neighborhoods in really bad shape? Sure. Some of them will never recover. But some neighborhoods where you could buy the sub $10,000 house now have flipped homes selling around or about the $100,000 mark. The city continues to improve every day.
Unfortunately, the media only shows the bad parts of Detroit and ignore other neighborhoods:
(Disclaimer- not my pictures- linked to the source)
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