Jay –

15-20% in SE Michigan is pretty close to average. No puffing here LOL.

Dennis,

Let me try to help you the best that I can (since I live in the Detroit area and invest there).

~~~I’m thinking about investing in a property at Detroit, however i’m concern about the decrease of population.
A lot of what you read in the media does not directly apply to the rental market. The rental market in Detroit and SE Mich suburbs is great right now, there are a lot of people who cannot get mortgages so they become renters.

~~~For those who have already invested at Detriot, What made you decided to invest in that area?
I decided to invest in the area because everything is on sale, I know the areas, and the # made financial sense to me.

~~~What would be the positive and negative side of investing in that area?
Positives are that there is an extremely low entry cost for the high rents that the right properties will yield. There is no where else in the country that you can make equal returns. The downside is that most likely the properties will not appreciate as fast as other area or it will take a longer time.

Why do you think people would want to live there?

At the end of the day there are still a lot of people living in Detroit and SE Michigan. It will never turn into a ghost town. I do not put much stock into any articles or media blurbs – but here is a recent one on Detroit’s business future.

http://blogs.forbes.com/joannmuller/2011/06/29/detroits-fix-it-men-in-their-own-words/

Best of luck to you Dennis!

-Dan

@portpirate

A 10% return in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs is a very average return – most people get somewhere between 15-20% if they are doing it right. On the flip side, I would be hard pressed to believe anyone can guarantee you Capital Growth. No one can guarantee that – if they do guarantee that I would take a close look at who you are dealing with!

Just my 2 cents – best of luck!

Morpheus,

You are doing what I would recommend all Australian Investors do – who want to Invest in the US…COME VISIT THE AREA!

There is nothing that can replace walking around in neighborhoods and getting a “feel” for the area they want to invest in. Recently a friend of mine from Australia came to Detroit to looks at some properties, and he said it was the best thing he has done in his investment process thus far.

Morph – you are also providing a lot of value to others who may not want to hop on a flight – very well done! Keep it up!

Nice follow up. I agree completely when you say “even after you read it is a good idea to read as much as you can.” You will learn more from doing you first deal then you ever will from reading about it, however, to continually educate yourself on future deals will only be a huge benefit for you later.

I agree with your stance NaughtyJ!

Steve,

Looks like you have taken advantage of what America has to offer! Congrats!

What states do you buy in?

NaughtyJ,

LOL I had to laugh at your post. People can spend way too much time reading articles and less time actually doing it themselves. The best way to learn is to jump in, instead of having paralysis by analysis!

I often see this with a lot of people who “want to invest in the US” they want to get involved, but have to read some more articles to feel fully confident! It either makes sense to you or not, reading 100 articles will not influence that