A Little Known Reason Why You Should Buy Turnkey in Detroit

What is Turnkey? That means that you buy a house that has already been renovated and it is collecting rent. We sell houses that are turnkey. We assume many risks before we buy a house that most investors are never aware of.

It’s assumed that a danger of working in Detroit is gang violence. But we have had far more run ins with pit bulls than gangs. In this video I briefly tell about a couple of our pit bull experiences. But this blog post goes into far more detail.

There are problems in Detroit with dogs just running loose everywhere. The animal control has short hours, their phone is often busy, and their response is pretty minimal. Emma Hernandez, a nine-year-old, was fatally mauled in the summer of 2019. The neighbors complained repeatedly about that dog that wasn’t kept fenced in his yard. Our renovation crew is on constant alert for a vicious, hungry stray dog to approach them outside. It has happened.

If you bought a house in Detroit and hired a crew to renovate the house, are you insured against dog bites? Do you even want that risk?

There is also big business in Detroit with pit bull fighting. In February of 2020 a large pit bull operation with 21 dogs was busted. This house is in an area that is very desirable for investors. We have renovated many homes nearby.

There are four specific pit bull incidents that have happened with us that could have seriously jeopardized our renovations.

#1. The Stray:

It is not wise in Detroit to be without a gun. There was a stray pit that approached one of our crew members. The dog was charging him as though he were ready to kill. Thankfully, our crew member was very quick to draw his gun. When the dog saw the gun, the dog backed right off. It’s as if this dog KNEW that was a lethal weapon. How did the dog know that?

#2. The Pit Bull Ring Next Door:

We often buy several houses at once. One house most certainly had a pit bull ring next door. The people in and out of that house were very threatening looking. Our crew understandably refused to work on our house until the problem next door was gone. Thankfully we had other houses to work on. We tried to report the problem to the police. We never heard anything. I even tried to report it to the State Police. They seemed bored by my complaint. Nothing happened. I tried to contact the owner of the house, but it was a vacant home with no traceable owner. We assume the people there were squatters. One day a few months after we purchased the house, we noticed that the squatters and multiple dogs were all gone. No time was lost for us because we were working on other houses. Obviously this could have turned badly in several different ways.

#3: The 2 Pit Bulls Inside a House we Purchased:

When we realized there were two pit bulls inside this beautiful home we purchased, we knew we couldn’t work on the house until the dogs were gone. My husband, Pat, who runs the renovation crews, decided to do the right thing and go through animal control. We didn’t know how poorly run and understaffed they were. They understandably needed proof we own the house. This was an issue because Wayne County can take months to record deeds after a closing. I think we finally showed them our closing papers. In the process we lost a few days of renovation.

But the night after animal control finally removed the dogs, the police called us to say someone set fire to our house. Obviously the owner of the dogs didn’t appreciate that we removed his dogs. Maybe he didn’t think to get them from animal control or maybe he didn’t want to do the necessary vet care to claim the dogs and remove them from animal control. But his solution was revenge on us.

This was really unfortunate because we then had to figure out what to do with the house. We were eventually able to collect insurance money. Thankfully we have a good insurance company and we knew to have the right kind of coverage for the least cost. But we were still left with a house with burn damage that we couldn’t renovate for any kind of profit. We did find a buyer through our network of people we know in Detroit. The buyer then did nothing with the house. It still sits there as a vacant eye sore now four years later.

#4. 1 Pit Bull Inside a Garage of a House we Purchased:

We recently purchased a house that had a pit bull in the garage. The dog was chained to the wall. She had a water bowl with no water. She had no food. But we knew someone was keeping her there for some purpose. We suspect she was to be a fighter dog. Why else would she be kept in a garage?

Pat felt so badly for the puppy that he went to a liquor store, because there are so few grocery stores in Detroit, and he bought her a bag of food. Pat also bought her a gallon of water. He took both things to her and slid them across the floor. Pat didn’t know if she was vicious or not so he didn’t dare get too close. It is also very dangerous to go to liquor stores in Detroit. Muggings happen there quite often. We avoid them.

That night our whole family returned to the house with our dog rescue friend. To rescue dogs, this woman will put herself in positions that could get her arrested. Her passion is to save dogs who are being mistreated. Pat was very reluctant to bring all of us, but our girls insisted to be part of saving this poor dog. And we certainly couldn’t have saved her ourself and brought her to my house to potentially eat my poodles!

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Pat kept telling us to hurry up and get out of there. Just as soon as our friend pulled away with the dog, a group of teenage boys came walking down the middle of the street being dragged by a huge pit bull who looked a lot like the one we just took. Pat told us to get in the car but Pat stayed on the front porch. One boy who may have been around 12 or 13 years old broke away from the group and said, “Hey, man, that’s my dog in the garage. I can move it to the alley to get it out of your house.”

Pat replied, “It’s too late. The dog is gone. You can’t leave a dog with no food or water. She’s gone. It’s too late.”

The boy looked stunned. Then he thought about it for a minute and said, “Well, do you mind if I just get my water bowl back?”

The boy was just looking to see if it was true. After he left the garage without his bowl, he yelled up to his friends, “Hey! I’ll have to get you another dog. Don’t worry. I’ll get you another one.”

That too could have gone sideways a million ways. It did not thank goodness.

We Absorb Risks

There are multiple other risks we also absorb before you even buy the house. Each of these things could have gone differently. A lot of our success has to do with the relationships in Detroit that Pat and I have built. Pat also has a way with all kinds of people and dogs. People naturally like him as do dogs. That can’t be learned, I don’t think. Pat is also incredibly instinctual about his surroundings. And while I’m at it, he’s also lucky. Good things happen for him wherever he goes. He is very positive and optimistic.

We have heard many, many stories of investments going badly for people. We have gotten many investors to buy our turnkey houses after their own learning mistakes trying to do it themselves. The stories of what went wrong are far ranging. Mostly they have to do with lack of experience in Detroit. They always have great financial intelligence, but that just doesn’t always translate to Detroit-specific intelligence.

Buying a house in Detroit is never risk free. We know that. But we do absorb most of the risk that costs people their entire profits. So of course we highly recommend that you buy a house turnkey. And we recommend that you buy it from us!