Property in US

peetee

peetee

peetee

Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2004
Posts
6,739
Location
The Toilet
Well as a spinoff from the other property thread with a link someone posted I am now VERY interested, as a 21yr old student to buy a cheapo property in the US, go over with some friends and do it up, it could be like a holiday home for us..

http://www.realtor.com/search/search...01291ed957aa5c

What is detroit like etc? Any other things we would have to pay up for? General assumption most of those propertys are repos other than ones that say FIRE DAMAGED etc, so they are in fairly good order and have just been repossessed?

Should we pick a street and make an OCUK holiday home community there?
Would be cool being able to go buy a gun and play with it in the back yard too!
 
is that $500 no overheads etc, need a bit of work on it and thats it?? in what way is it dead?? no possible rentals?
We are thinking about buying this between a few mates for a holiday kind of home, or something like it.. theres some decent bungalows for $100.. :) flights from up here(newcastle) can be had for £300..... ill assume detroit doesnt have good weather?
 
peetee said:
is that $500 no overheads etc, need a bit of work on it and thats it?? in what way is it dead?? no possible rentals?
We are thinking about buying this between a few mates for a holiday kind of home, or something like it.. theres some decent bungalows for $100.. :) flights from up here(newcastle) can be had for £300..... ill assume detroit doesnt have good weather?
Click to expand...


Detroit doesn't have good anything - it's a dump and it's losing population at a rapid pace. Infact the entire MidWest is being choked for resource and wealth which is having the effect of migration to the wealthier coastal states on the east and west. Hence the rising cost of property and rents and lowering of wages in these areas as people flood in for jobs and accomodation. (New York, Washington, LA, San Diego, San Francisco).

It's a tricky one, I definately agree that now is a good time to buy property in the US but the hard part is figuring out where. If I had to pick a place right now it would probably be Miami where beach condo's have dropped in value anywhere from 30-70% though still a feat at $200-$300k
 
Detroit is a hole I'm afraid - unemployment running at 20% or something now that all the car factories have closed down. Those properties are $500 for a reason, the land alone should be worth more than that but isn't - that should tell you something about the area.
 
Detroit is a dump.

Also be aware that you need to pay property taxes on US homes.
It's similar to council tax, but is dependent on the appraised value of the home so if the home goes up the tax goes up.
This can run to several thousand dollars per year, certainly for the people that I know who bought over there.
Even if the home is cheap now you could be paying a significant amount of tax in a few years.

EDIT. I would also point out that prices are still currently dropping significantly in areas such as Detroit.
Trying to catch a falling knife is never a great idea.
 
Last edited:
hmm, iv said we should probably look for somewhere further south atleast then it would be better for sunshine etc, although it is level with northern portugal so ill assume its not too cold.
It would really be for lads using as a holiday home so wouldnt exactly ened to be incredibly great, as it would generally mean a cheap holiday and one of those cool things.. Maybes we should look at getting something for a few grand somewhere further south.. near a uni/college whatever they are called..
That sound like a decent idea?
Hmm tax on property value.. well we wouldnt exactly be making the propertys into mansions, after all we're northern lads, we love dossing it.

Another suggestion is looking at somewhere with greenlands around it, so its fairly isolated? would tax be humped up much having much more land do you think? we wouldnt utilise the land to be honest though.
 
peetee said:
Would be cool being able to go buy a gun and play with it in the back yard too!
Click to expand...

As an aside, I think I'm right in saying that most (probably all in fact) US cities do not allow you to fire firearms within the city limits - so playing with it would most likely get you arrested, that's if Detroit still has a police force that goes into those sort of areas ;)
 
Last edited:
peetee said:
...although it is level with northern portugal so ill assume its not too cold.
Click to expand...

Ha, I think you should take a few minutes to understand the Gulf Stream before making any more such assumptions! I only hope you going to do way more research than you've done so far before buying in the US.
 
scorza said:
As an aside, I think I'm right in saying that most (probably all) in fact US cities do not allow you to fire firearms within the city limits - so playing with it would most likely get you arrested, that's if Detroit still has a police force that goes into those sort of areas ;)
Click to expand...

And when I was living in the US my visa precluded the possibility of ever even touching a hand-gun.
 
clv101 said:
Ha, I think you should take a few minutes to understand the Gulf Stream before making any more such assumptions! I only hope you going to do way more research than you've done so far before buying in the US.
Click to expand...

Its already been said above that it does get hot, i know theres other factors affecting temperatures etc, it was the fact i saw snow in a picture and saw it was near canada.. iv stated it would be a holiday kind of home, for over summer if we do get somewhere, so aslong as its warm then :) Obviously i/we need to do some heavy research, but I asked here because i know theres a lot of people a hell of a lot more clued up than me on these things, so I would find out pretty quickly if it was even worth doing research, and as it stands it probably isnt for detroit, maybes somewhere a bit closer to the coast, or little further south.

Any recommendations anyone? Think its an OK idea for a group of lads to purchase one of these places while they are cheap, just as a little 'hobby' or 'adventure'.

Go over, get somewhere, do it up a bit, have some fun there, kind of keeps us together while we grow up if we drift apart we can still catch up with each other and set time aside to go there? Added bonus if the property market ever picks back up in said areas we could be sat on something worth a conciderable amount financially, which has also given us good memorys?
 
peetee said:
General assumption most of those propertys are repos other than ones that say FIRE DAMAGED etc, so they are in fairly good order and have just been repossessed?
Click to expand...

No.

They will be boarded up, heavily vandalised and looted and probably inhabited by junkies at one point or another.

For that price, expect it to be one of many in a street or area full of houses in the same condition.

It would be cheaper to knock what is left of the house down and build a new one.

Not saying all this to put you off, just to be aware of what you are getting. Like you say for that price it's throwaway money, you could probably doss in it for a while although I don't see why you would want to live in that condition for any amount of time and you could gamble the land value might increase in time.
 
already made assumptions that they would probably be vandalised and the junkies etc, so was keeping my eye out for newly added ones, also already thinking of ways to keep it free of junkies while not being lived in.. mm big metal shutters :p :)possibly with motion webcam or something.

Was also another reason why i asked about somewhere away from city, since it will be for lads we can make our own fun, more so in the countryside, figured this was less vulnerable to vandals etc, though burglarys would be a problem..

I figured it might be fun to do somewhere up, to the point of it not being too dossy.
 
as haircut says you will end up paying thousands in property tax for a really crap place that will probably be burnt to the ground or used as a crack den.
 
I lived in Detroit for 3 years...it's a poo-hole...too much crime, too much drugs, not enough white people, not enough work, not enough education...not enough money...although the Red Wings kick serious butt!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom