I was just watching one of these shows-it was a house in LA. Usual stuff-house was badly deteriorated (was home to pigeons), major structural decay.
Anyway, has anyone ever done a show in Detroit?
My scenario:
-old abandoned, ex-crack house
-purchased for ca. $1000
-major renovation (new plumbing, electrics, walls, windows, kitchen, bathrooms
-sell for $200,000
Have people done this in Detroit? Or is the city so far gone that flipping a house is not p[ossible?
They’re renovators not magicians.
I would think that no matter how nice the rehab, who in the hell is going to pay $200,000 to live in a neighborhood that had a crack house (and presumably would still be a neighborhood in a state of disrepair) in an economically collapsed city? I mean, $200K in my neighborhood in Chicago will buy you a reasonable property, and there’s an economy here to support it.
That renovated wonder would be a real sight to see, standing there all by itself in an urban wasteland. I would bet it would be vandalized, burnt down, or plundered for any materials of any value within days of being completed. Certainly no one would buy it, unless it was with similar houses in an inhabited suburb.
I did see an episode of some flipping show on HGTV or TLC where they flipped a house in Compton or some rough neighborhood. I couldn’t find a reference to it in a quick search, tho.
You guys aren’t speaking from actually visiting the city, I take it. There are in fact decent neighborhoods in Detroit where this kind of thingwould be possible. Detroit isn’t a complete crackwhore wasteland from border to border.
So that were those rehabbed $1000 abandoned crack houses, as per the OP? I am aware Detroit has a few nice pockets, and some pricey suburbs. I used to fly into Detroit fairly regularly on business (although all my business was usually in the nicer suburbs, like Royal Oak). I actually enjoy going to Detroit (and am, in fact, going there this week). But I’d be a bit surprised if somebody was able to purchase a crackhouse for a pittance and then flip it to a $200K property. Maybe I’m wrong, but the types of neighborhoods crackhouses are in are usually not the types of neighborhoods where people with money are going to want to move into, unless they’re “urban pioneers.”
Me and my wife were seriously looking at purchasing a house in Detroit a few years back, and yes I do mean in the crackwhore wasteland area. There were nice houses with very minor issues selling for $300-500 USD for a while, that was the low end you could pick up others for a few grand. We were considering this only because at the time we were doing all work online anyway, so as long as it can get internet access who cares about anything else right? We certainly were under no illusions we would be able to find a buyer.
Well here is the big issue we found out, property taxes. Most of these 300 dollar houses were officially appraised at 60K-70K and up!!:eek: And from what we found out it was going to be a pointless battle to get that appraisal down. God only knows what would happen if you did a reno, it would probably double.