Detroit files for bankruptcy.

[Kimm]

We all wonder that.

[Classicblast]

There's always the chance given good leadership rejuvenation is possible.


I think anybody on the current city board should be removed and not allowed to run for office any more if it got the point of bankruptcy its time to clean house.

[Phil]

I think it's a lot like the government shutdown we have right now. If you don't get the job done in any other venue you get fired. If you're an athlete you get traded, if you're a coach you get fired, if you're a worker you may get fired, but usually you get relieved of the job at hand. UNION keeps you from being fired in most industrial cases.

But if you work for a boss who owns the company and you do your work poorly you're let go.

That's what needs to happen here with government.

I guess some truckers are planning to block the Capital Beltway. That's interstate 495 I have driven it lots of times. They're going to or are blocking the beltway calling for Obama's resignation.

I don't like Obama at all but that's not a productive way. They're only going to hold up people who want to go to work and end up looking like troublemakers.

[Classicblast]

I can't help but wonder if all these handouts and promises to bring supply to the unfortunate ends up being a way for people to become more dependent. It seems as if that's what happens in such places.

[Phil]

I watched some videos about Detroit in its current condition and its just horrible. I can't believe just how terrible the neighborhoods are.

The guy who does the video is a local man who checks out streets for investors since most investors are out of town people. What he does it check on property the investor is looking to buy and lets you know if it's a good deal.

My dad used to do something similar with antique cars and tractors you could call him to look at it and give you a report if it's a good investment or not.

This guy does that with properties in Detroit. In his video he tells that there's 200 house blocks being sold for 10 or 15 thousand and they're not even worth it. The houses and the streets are just that bad.

And he shows us that in the blog I am discussing. Could you imagine being able to buy a whole block of 100 or 200 houses for $15000? And this man says 'its not worth it'

I know some people with a plan and the ability to sit in some money may beg to differ.

[Phil]

I subscribed to that guy's channel and I couldn't stop watching his videos.

He takes you through these destroyed houses, abandoned or vacant homes that the furnace, hot water tank copper tubes are looted. Drug pushers who are homeless will inhabit a vacant house that still has electricity and plumbing and this man actually has confrontations with such people.

Its incredible that someone like him who wants to try to fix the urban decayed areas of Detroit by helping investors find houses that can be rented and lived in and showing them what to stay away from. Shows them also that if they bought a house for even under 1,000 that there's a mess and the city will fine you as the owner for the mess and if it stays vacant it becomes a crack house and all the problems that go with it.

This guy's channel shows all that his videos are anywhere from 9 to 20 minutes but they're very interesting.

[Classicblast]

I wonder where he would find his investors

I mean obviously you're discussing Urban Decay, and there's a lot of that. Not just Detroit but Detroit happens to have been on this path perhaps longer than some of the other cities and also they are among the nation's larger cities and obviously the capital of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. The motor city.

And that's why the hockey team Detroit Red Wings have a wheel in the midst of the red wing on their shirts.

But the thing is if the houses become inhabited by crack dealers, and bank robbers what would be the motivation to buy those houses? If you plan on leveling the block to build a factory that could make a little sense but to buy a house renovate it and rent it out, how do you convince me to move to blank street and pay I don't know six or seven or eight hundred a month to move my wife and two sons there? How does he sell it?

[Phil]

I would say he finds them mostly through greed. There's a memo out there that you can buy houses for rental property that are being sold for under 3,000 a house sometimes even under a grand.

And that's just it they're in bad shape, not really fixable, continuing to be trashed as clean up effort goes on and not really all that rentable.

The man who makes the videos is there to show you as an investor if this is a good deal or not and what it would take to make it worthwhile or even if it can be made worthwhile.

He is a life long Detroit man and knows the neighborhoods. He is a big guy and definitely fearless as he confronts the drug dealers and homeless people living in the abandoned houses and buildings.

Most of the investors are from outside the Detroit area and have little or no knowledge of the neighborhoods at all. His service sheds insight to that very thing.

I said in my last post that Shea, the man who makes the videos, is a black man about 45 years old maybe 50 and he's very big and tough. He shows us that hot water tanks, furnaces, copper lines and radiators are often stolen.

Shea knows a lot about home repair and has contacts to contractors who can make these repairs without breaking the bank.

In 1 video a woman bought a house for about $800 that's right, a 3 bedroom house for $800.

The living room had been inhabited by crack parties and had the remains of crackpipes and sleeping bags or old coats used as sleeping bags, the water tank gone, the furnace there but the copper lines cut out and removed. What was once the garage was demolished and had been reduced to a pile of garbage left in the driveway, the back yard had more crackpipes and other debris.

Shea explains that the city will soon find out a purchase has been made and hold the new owner responsible to clean up the yard, the house and the driveway costing in probably $10,000. There would be about another $40,000 to make such a place livable and that would be without replacing the garage there just wouldn't be a garage. And all this for a house bought for $800. And to have gotten in that shape the neighborhood isn't very nice.

And that's where Shea's videos can inform investors what they're getting for their investment.

[Classicblast]

If you can really buy land with houses on them for under a grand or just over the buyer ought to know there's a problem. Bad neighborhood, crime and destroyed housing. Are people anxious to rent in those neighborhoods? Its pretty well known to be a high crime area.

[Kimm]

If someone had a vision it could be a good thing too. Being that having the desire to fix these neighborhoods could improve against urban decline too.

The big problem is most of the residents are not owners and ultimately dont care as much about the houses.

We have urban decay in our city too. Most of the properties belong to a slum lord. The residents dont care about the house so they trash it but the slumlord then charges a cheap rent to the next person or doesnt raise the rent for a long time in return for not making repairs and improvements. Eventually you have a place that is low rent but thats all it will bear because it has old paint carpet and cupboards and flooring landscape is nothing special and the drive if it has one needs paving but thats not going to happen at the current rent pay.

[Phil]

That's true it s a vicious cycle they neither wants to take care of what isn't directly their concern and the property goes down hill so does the neighborhood.

[Classicblast]

They said the average house sale in Detroit is $5,700 and I know something about houses my family business is in building. I don't work there obviously but I did growing up and I am aware of the circumstances that surround house building.

I remember thinking that was insanely low for an average but then again if this guy finds houses for $2,000 that brings a $300,000 to $151,000 and so on and it could bring the average to that amount if enough are sold for low dollar amounts. And it takes thousands to renovate a house sometimes close to the cost of just building a full new house.

Thunerbird is my brother as you all know there was a project they were working on a while back where they renovated a house and everything was new except the 4 outside walls and I asked what the value to that was he said he didn't need a separate building permit for that parcel since he was refurbishing an existing house not actually building a new house. The cost was actually more but zoning wasn't an issue to do it this way.

[Phil]

I've been following news clips there's 1 on Youtube where a woman was away for a few months and came home to find her house being squatted in.

A resident from the area interviewed said basically 'this is a poor community and if you leave your house for months at a time you should expect that.'

[Kimm]

Im sure it intrigues the greed of people who think that theyre going to get rich buying these places for 5,000 but they don't know the cost or realize how bad the conditions are.

I was telling my dad about what Phil was talking about with these videos my dad was saying something like that too. That peoples ears perk for 5000 houses but it might take 30,000 to fix them up to livable and then you get tenants who arent good about paying rent.

[Phil]

I just watched about 5 of Shea's new videos. He is spreading awareness hopefully that would pay some dividends in the future. Houses in good shape are selling for $4000 and $5000. The catch is they're in destroyed neighborhoods and this guy shows you that. The next rub is taxes are grandfathered in previously to a sale once the property is sold the taxes go up because a new buyer falls in under the new tax laws.

[Phil]

So what happens now? Our federal raises the debt limit so they can spend more and bring us deeper in debt, then Obamacare isnt ready after they closed the book on everybody'S health care. Now we have neither for now. So me, a 42 year old father of 3 plays the waiting game. Then Obama comes out and says existing health care programs can be extended 1 year. This after they had already closed them. We have never been in this degree of ruins as a nation in my lifetime. God grant us that our next president is as dynamic as Reagan or Roosevelt. If we even get an average President we still wont be pulled out of the fire.

I have never before been this concerned. In most cases I feel I can resolve things for myself and those around me. Now decisions out of my control are being made for us and not for our best interests.

[Kimm]

The tax supported ones are still in place...

I wish I had an answer to that post. Its genuine concern but what can we do?

[Classicblast]

Nov 19, 2013 14:07:48 GMT -5 Phil said:

So what happens now? Our federal raises the debt limit so they can spend more and bring us deeper in debt, then Obamacare isnt ready after they closed the book on everybody'S health care. Now we have neither for now. So me, a 42 year old father of 3 plays the waiting game. Then Obama comes out and says existing health care programs can be extended 1 year. This after they had already closed them. We have never been in this degree of ruins as a nation in my lifetime. God grant us that our next president is as dynamic as Reagan or Roosevelt. If we even get an average President we still wont be pulled out of the fire.

I have never before been this concerned. In most cases I feel I can resolve things for myself and those around me. Now decisions out of my control are being made for us and not for our best interests.

That's a pretty good post because my brothers are discussing what to do they have used Independent Health for the family business for years and now their policy has been in cease and desist for a few weeks.

They were pleased with the service, and obviously we should all remember that Obama said in no uncertain terms that if you're pleased with your health care plan you can keep it you aren't going to be forced to switch but that clearly isn't true since the standing programs were forced to cease and desist.

Like Phil said right now there's nether. The Independent Health is saying right now that they don't have the policies in place.

I doubt they have deleted everybody's records it could probably be reset and that is probably what will happen for the year at hand but right now businesses like my family's are in a state of flux with health care and I imagine that all of the factories are too. Factories that are primarily if not fully union and unions that almost exclusively go Democrat in elections. For what its worth.