Crazy.
Not just garden variety crazy. Nope.
I’m talking batsh*t crazy.
I got an email yesterday. From another crack smoking clown, who doesn’t even live here, peddling turn key properties here to unsuspecting investors out of state and out of the country.
This guy has made a career out of shoveling crap Detroit properties with section 8 tenants out the door by the truck load.
But now his game has changed. His email yesterday was pitching a house – GASP – in the suburbs.
Not so fast Sparky.
Now you know, if you’ve followed anything I’ve written over the past say, 9 years, that the SUBURBS here are where it’s when it comes to buying rental houses.
I’m pleased to say that many of you have taken my advice, and are now very happy owners of what I call “Set and Forget” rental houses.
And (initially) I was happy to see that this guy had finally left the Dark Side.
Until I read what suburb he was talking about. It was INKSTER.
For those of you unfamiliar with this area, I’ve included a handy-dandy crime map of the metro area above. The big blob of red to the right is – you guessed it – Detroit.
And the little red square off to the left? Well that’s Inkster.
We like to call Inkster “Detroit without the glitter”. Are you getting this?
Inkster is as bad or even worse than Detroit in many, many ways. Did you read that in 2013 the state of Michigan dissolved Inkster’s school district because it was bankrupt?
Perhaps you did. But I can tell you one place where you didn’t read it though. In the email selling a pair of vacant properties there.
The bottom line is that you need to know WHAT you’re buying. And just as important is that you need to know a lot about WHERE you’re buying it. When you buy a rental house it’s supposed to be forever.
So location is CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR #1!
So beware of the brand new Detroit “suburb” scam.
Not all suburbs were created equal.
