Another Detroiter makes the cycle

[gvidas]

WDWOT is usually a great place to start, because it's easiest to use.

You can search the Registry of Deeds for free by name [[click through a few pages and scroll down to "public login"), or pay $6 for 15 minutes to search by address or other categories. And then you get to pay $2/page to look at the documents full size. Kind of a crappy deal, but sometimes it's necessary.

Also for free, you can look up the current taxes on a property [[which includes the taxpayer's name, according to the city assessor's office). You can even request a receipt for the last payment of taxes, which will give you the full name and mailing address of the person who most recently paid the taxes.

In the event that the properties are owned by a business, our fair state maintains a website where you can look up the contact person and mailing address for a business entity.

Note that it is fairly common to sell a building and not notify the assessor's office, meaning the tax bills [[and usually also WDWOT) will have the previous owner's name on file. My free-and-usually-good-enough strategy for finding a current property owner is to get a starting point through the "pay your taxes" website or WDWOT, and then check with the registry of deeds [[for free, since it's a name) to see if there was a transfer or sale to a new party.

[7miledog]

Ghetto culture destroyed it? This is our grandparents' narrative. I thought we understood now that when people of means withdraw their resources -- whether it's because of racism or because of criminal lending practices -- neighborhoods get disinvested. To blame "ghetto culture" for the decline is like blaming your cold on a cough.

I'm sorry, but I call bullsh*t on this statement. "When people of means withdraw their resources" gives people an excuse to live like animals? Poverty or a lack of resources is no excuse for a lack of pride. THAT is the narrative of our grandparents; have pride in how you live. Yes, unfortunately, ghetto culture did destroy this city.

[jimmyr]

I don't follow that "poor" people act like this. This is a subculture not found in other poor communities in Michigan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiga..._capita_income

Why don't Oscoda, Roscommon or Montcalm have Detroit's same issues?

Relevant:

[Dumpling]

Gvidas, thank you so much for putting links into the ownership resources
in your post.

As for the other posts, although Detroit has a high crime rate and young
African Americans show up as the perps on the news often [[not to mention they squatted in the house across the street from me), it would be wrong and simplistic to give them the whole credit for the poor shape that Detroit's housing stock is in.
For an example there is the house that I lived in when I started my job
with the City of Detroit. Another City of Detroit employee lived there at the
time with his common law husband. [[sic) We were both renters. The
other CoD employee was forever asking the landlady to do any of a long
list of repairs. She wouldn't. He asked her to sell him the house. She
wouldn't. He bought another house and moved out. After that,
coincidentally, city inspectors started coming by and writing notices to correct violations, with fines attached.
The landlady rented the vacancy to an African American Muslim. The
Muslim prayed frequently, burning incense to pray within at least five
times a day. [[Not on point but adds flavor to the story). As for myself, my family needed more room and less stairs at that point in time. It was also true that the ancient electric service was failing in my upstairs apartment. The ancient breaker box would only let one outlet at the back of the apartment have electricity so there was one extension cord to which everything electric for my apartment was attached. So I buy a Warrendale, Detroit house at the top of the market in early 2006 and leave my old place with the bad electric and the wonderful wafting aromas of incense. The old
place is on the City of Detroit demolition list now. Sure, probably scrappers
have gutted it by now but that would just be the frosting on the cake of the
story of its decline.

[ordinary]

Gvidas, Thanks also. I would like to ask you and Dumpling a question here . We've done some calling around and found out we can go through a broker for a cash out, or we can list it and sell it on the market. We [[my siblings and I) do not want to put a "For Sale" sign out in front for fear of scrappers seeing that as an open invitation. If we do list it, that is, put it on the market rather than going through a broker, is it mandatory to put a "For Sale" sign out front?

[acer_ventura]

I think I was pretty clear that when people have legitimate complaints and phrase them neutrally, I don't have a problem with them picking up and leaving the city. In fact, I admire them for having tried in some of the tougher pockets of the city. As for this person ...

Attachment 15604

I think it's pretty obvious that by the time the average city dweller gets ready to jump ship, they're no longer describing their personal battlefield with any level of neutrality, anymore.
But like an earlier post mentioned; there goes one more taxpayer that cared -regardless of whether you liked his story-telling ability...

[FlyOnTheWall]

Why do we want to fight and flee rather than sit down together and try to figure out how to live together?

In my experience, both sides need to want to set down together. In this case, one side doesn't seem to want that.

[Dumpling]

Am positive that putting a "For Sale" sign in the yard is optional but
I am not a realtor so I don't know what would be the best way to sell
your house.

[Bill Simpson]

When I buy rental properties in the tougher areas, I use the jail cell approach. I come in and find the toughest thug on the block, kick his ass up and down the street, and let everyone know there is a new boss in town. Then I hand out doobies to all the adults to make friends with them. After that I have the proper balance of fear and friendship. I only had a problem one time and had to pistol whip the big thug again to re-establish my dominance. If you need my help in your area, just ax. The police chief won't admit it in public, but he's happy I'm helping to run the thugs across 8 mile.