I’d like to spend my $20,000 in savings to buy multiple properties in Detroit, Michigan. According to realtor dot com, houses in Detroit start at $1, and there are over 20 houses for $100 or less. I will then remove these burnt-out homes and replace them with organic gardens and sell my produce at a farmer’s market.
Can you find three things wrong with the above idea?
Comments
No no no. You are in possession of false information. You can buy properties for $10,000 and tear them down. /
Problem 1) area zoned residential not agricultural
Problem 2) area zoned residential not commercial
Problem 3) cost of demolishing purchased property could be more than 20,000 dollars.
Please tell me you are joking. Gardens in Detroit? Yeah right. any place you buy for that amount of money is going to be in the slums. With the economy, do you honestly think that those produce gardens are going to stay there? People are having a hard time and with the price of food going up, they will be stealing from you left and right. buy them, tear them down and rebuild houses. Or fix them up, but one at a time. Why? Because they are stealing the copper pipes from the houses to get money for food or drugs.
Sorry to sound so horrible, but its the truth. Try buying something in a decent suburb and rent it out. But start slow.
This whole Gardens in Detroit thing is actually really taking off. it’s going on in chicago too. In Detwa (detroit) there are jsut rows and rows of decrepit homes and overgrown lots. many many abandoned homes. in those neighborhoods, many of the low income residents typically shop for food at little corner stores, b/c the Krogers and Publix of the world know how unprofitable a store in teh ghetto can be. So therefore, 1) the food is more expensive for poor residents, and 2) MUCH MUCH less healthy food such as fresh produce is available for sale.
So various groups and individuals have begun growing little crops in former home lots.
check urbanfarming.org for more infor. i used to live in chciago, and there’s a big plot of land (a few acres) right near the infamous Cabrini Green housing projects that seems to be thriving.
The $1 properties are at that price with the implication you will improve the properties not tear them down.
Demolition costs a lot. Not to mention a lot of the properties have contamination issues and such clean up starts around $100K (and if you want to grow food you must do remediation).
If you do succeed in buying and razing buildings and remediating the soil you still would have to contend with vandalism and theft of your gardens. oh and it takes several years usually to build up a customer base to make your effort at all profitable (and believe me farming is not the way to get rich. it is full of long hours of hard physical labor in all weather for low pay).
All that said it is a neat idea, especially if you get people in the local communities involved in your effort and fed the poor.
