Novice investor flips 8 homes in unlikely US boomtown… and reveals how she made a big profit

A Detroit woman destroyed eight homes in Michigan City and told how she made a huge profit.

Chase C. Hunter bought her first properties in Detroit in 2021 after simply searching Google for “best places to buy cheap properties.”

That curiosity led Hunter, who was living in her hometown of Houston at the time, to purchase two properties on the same day in June 2021.

Hunter’s first property cost her $2,000 and the second $1,800.

“The day I closed was my very first time in Detroit,” she says told Realtor.com.

In the years since Hunter has purchased and flipped eight properties and moved to the Motor City full-time.

“It can be challenging to navigate the market if you’re not there every day,” she explained. “Buyers need to understand Detroit’s culture to understand how to invest here.

Detroit doesn’t just have cheap real estate prices. Detroit has the lowest cost of living in America, where a salary of $68,000 is enough to live comfortably

“Investors are coming to Detroit from all corners of the country because the market is like no other,” she told the publication.

Despite the cheap initial price tag, Hunter had to invest $85,000 in her first property to make it habitable for tenants.

The second home cost $130,000 to renovate before she could turn it into her office.

‘I used to buy major renovation works that I had to repair from roof to basement; but right now I’m focusing on things that I can turn around pretty quickly, like cosmetic rehabs,” she told Realtor.com.

“I look for homes in the $80,000 range because you spend less on repairs.”

These properties now need to invest between $5,000 and $10,000 in their renovations.

Hunter has since qualified as a property agent and set up an investment group to help others invest in the city’s property market.

Detroit was called a “surprise boomtown.” by the Wall Street Journal last year, with real estate prices soaring following the city’s infamous bankruptcy filing a decade earlier.

Property prices reached an average sales price of $58,900, but have steadily increased to an average of $217,100 in 2023.

This rose another 10.5 percent, reaching an average sales price of $250,000 last year.

“Buyers, including investors, have taken advantage of the area’s low home prices over the past decade, bringing energy and money to the city,” said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.

But “even after substantial price growth, the average sales price in Detroit still remained high [much] lower than the national retail price of $439,950, Jones explained.

Detroit – the birthplace of Motown – is also seeing huge improvements in its social environment, reaching its lowest crime rate in 57 years in 2023.

However, Hunter said it is still important to choose the right parts of the city to invest in.

“Crime is certainly still a big challenge, it can certainly put you off buying here.

“I avoid really bad areas that would be unsafe for single mothers and children,” she explained.

‘If a building is not functioning well for a family, I move on.’

The so-called ‘Motor City’ was once an industrial powerhouse and home to the largest automakers in the US.

But the demise of the major automakers, coupled with the mortgage crisis, drove millions of people from their homes in the 2000s as their properties were left worthless.

Less than twenty years ago, one in five homes stood empty, as foreclosures piled up and properties on deserted streets changed hands for one dollar.

But as the auto industry – this time with an emphasis on electric vehicles – begins to pick up again, the value of homes in the city has risen rapidly.

Despite the short-term price increases, Detroit still remains affordable, as much of the growth has been catching up after years of decline.

The city, known as the birthplace of Motown music, is beginning to recover after decades of urban decline.

The restoration of the Michigan Central train station, completed this year, was just the latest in a series of urban renewal projects that have turned Detroit into a tourist destination.

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