i have mentioned it before on here, but years ago, a colleague and i invested in a handful of baltimore shell row houses to flip. he had been successful in hiring former felons in work release programs to do most of the labor on properties he had flipped previously. if they missed a day unexcused, they knew they were going back to jail. almost all of them were thankful that somebody would hire them and give them a solid day's pay. they were cheap and good workers. shells were going for $5000-$35,000, and the properties were selling in a month for around $160,000. at the time, we looked into doing the same thing in detroit, but decided against it.
this article talks about how cheap properties are in detroit (and have been for years). one very young kid owns a block of properties. that is fine. but, where the issue lies is that many of those properties arent vacant. the houses have tax liens on them. many of them are sold on the steps of the courthouse for just a few thousand dollars. the residents are forced out with no place to turn.
could you guys do this? im sure you can justify it to yourself; those people decided to spend their money elsewhere or decided not to work instead of paying their taxes. why should they get a free ride when everyone else has to pay taxes? i couldnt do it to people though.
could you guys?
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/27/detroits-young-gentrifiers-face-a-daunting-task-in-buying-500-homes-evicting-poor-residents
this article talks about how cheap properties are in detroit (and have been for years). one very young kid owns a block of properties. that is fine. but, where the issue lies is that many of those properties arent vacant. the houses have tax liens on them. many of them are sold on the steps of the courthouse for just a few thousand dollars. the residents are forced out with no place to turn.
could you guys do this? im sure you can justify it to yourself; those people decided to spend their money elsewhere or decided not to work instead of paying their taxes. why should they get a free ride when everyone else has to pay taxes? i couldnt do it to people though.
could you guys?
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/27/detroits-young-gentrifiers-face-a-daunting-task-in-buying-500-homes-evicting-poor-residents