Decrease in Inventory
I wanted to elaborate on the decrease in inventory really quick, since it’s fresh on my mind.
A drop in inventory is a good thing from a property value perspective.
When the amount of inventory goes down, the values go up. It’s simply the law of supply-and-demand.
The National Association of REALTORS recently said that inventory in the city of Detroit has decreased 26.5%.
City Workers
I know I will probably catch flack for this, but I don’t care.
Dealing with the city workers in Detroit is almost as frustrating as the property taxes.
Granted, there are some professional ones, but I think they’re grossly outnumbered by the unprofessional ones.
I’ve called the city building and other places like 36th District and Probate Courts on several occasions, only to get sent around in loops, getting sent to the same voice prompts over and over again, and other related madness.
Not to mention dealing with people with attitudes on the phone, etc. It’s just a pain. I know all of them aren’t that way, but a lot of them are.
There’s just a lack of professionalism that just irks the heck out of me with some of the city workers.
Keyword, some; not all.
I’ve been told one thing by someone over the phone, only to call back and be told that what I was told wasn’t true.
Why the Phrase “Nice Neighborhoods” is a False Concept
Yes, there are some neighborhoods (or “blocks”, rather) that are better than others.
Yeah, there are areas in Detroit where there are signs of pride of ownership and everything.
But in Detroit, 90% or more of these “nice neighborhoods” are just a block or two away from a “bad neighborhood.”
That means that even on a good block, your home is a stone’s throw away from where the hoodlums live that are waiting for a house to run in and steal stuff out of.
In fact, the house where my furnace and hot water tank were stolen out of was on a “nice block”; not too far from West Outer Drive, to be exact.
West Outer Drive is usually considered a fairly nice area, by Detroit standards.
In Detroit, unless your home sits in one of the rare areas like English Village (or a few others) where there’s blocks and blocks of nice areas that insulate you from the riff-raff, you’re going to be right around the corner from a bad area.
Financing Concerns
Another reason why we don’t flip in the city, is because there’s a lot of lenders out here that just flat-out won’t lend on mortgages in the city.
Anything like that that’s going to make it tougher to find buyers, is something I’m going to avoid if possible.
Hard Money
And if you’re looking for a hard money loan to flip properties in the city, good luck.
Things might’ve changed in the last couple years, but as of about four years ago or so when I last looked for a hard money loan, they would tell you flat-out that they don’t lend in the city of Detroit.
Finally, if you’re going to invest in Detroit, my last piece of advice is that you only buy brick properties that have 3 bedrooms or more.
So do you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said? Leave a comment below.