If you want a clear-cut example of a market experiencing a real estate revival, look no further than Detroit.
Detroit has certainly had its fair share of issues over the years, but things are certainly trending in a positive direction. According to recent research, not only is the market fairly competitive, but the median sale price per square foot in the city is $78 – up 16.4% from just one year ago.
A big part of this concerns property technology, otherwise known as PropTech. In a broad sense, the term refers to the use of any technology that is meant to better the real estate industry as a whole. This can include impacting buying and selling properties, researching them, understanding market trends, performing predictive analytics, and more.
However, as Detroit has gone a long way towards showing its own transformation, PropTech is also about so much more than just one particular short-term advantage. This is true in many different ways, all of which are worth a closer look.
Uncovering Off-Market Deals
One of the unique things that is important to understand about Detroit is that a lot of the most lucrative (or potentially lucrative) investment opportunities are happening outside the boundaries of the traditional market.
Due to the economic activity of the last 20 years, Detroit has a lot of not only vacant properties, but also those in foreclosure as well. It’s also known for areas of the city where many homes have been abandoned.
At that point, finding a property you like and want to invest in is one thing. Finding the owner so that you can get the proverbial ball rolling is something else entirely.
Skip-tracing technology can help investors get ahead of these opportunities. This allows real estate professionals to easily locate hard-to-reach property owners.
All you need is the address of a property. Once you have that, the information can be entered into a prop-tech tool like DealMachine, which offers unlimited skip tracing to find the owners’ names, contact details, and more. This is true even if the property is distressed or fully abandoned. Utilizing technology like this is a great way to open up opportunities for negotiating a deal before property owners even have a chance to think about listing the property publicly.
In addition to the abovementioned factors, many urban redevelopment projects create a dynamic market. True long-term success will depend on your ability to navigate off-the-market opportunities as efficiently as you can.
Streamlining Property Research
As a direct result of that dynamic market, property research and due diligence have become even more important in a place like Detroit than they already are. Conditions constantly change, and you must make decisions based on more than just property values and a basic ownership history.
What are the current zoning laws in an area, and how might they change in the future? What type of development is planned in an area, and how likely is it to actually happen? These are the questions you need to answer, and PropTech tools like BiggerPockets can help reduce the time and effort it takes to answer them.
This will also help you better contextualize a lot of the investment opportunities that you do find. If you’re someone who is looking to purchase a fixer-upper, you might see something different from a property than someone looking into larger-scale redevelopment projects. The more efficiently you can conduct your property research, the more you’ll confidently know which area a property falls into.
Adding Efficiency for Improvements
Detroit’s transformation isn’t just about uncovering opportunities; it’s about capitalizing on them effectively. As investors increasingly focus on revitalization, PropTech tools are becoming indispensable for managing property improvements efficiently and transparently.
Take tools like AppWork, which streamline the entire lifecycle of property improvements. From tracking the progress of renovation projects to coordinating with contractors and ensuring adherence to maintenance schedules, these platforms simplify complex processes. They provide real-time updates and centralize communication, helping investors save time, reduce costs, and avoid common pitfalls in construction management.
In a city like Detroit, where redevelopment often involves extensive repairs or adaptive reuse of properties, these efficiencies can mean the difference between a project that stalls and one that drives returns. As Detroit continues to position itself as a hub for tech-driven innovation, leveraging these tools will be critical for both individual investors and large-scale developers.
The result is not just quicker project completions but a higher quality of work that aligns with the city’s broader revitalization goals. PropTech ensures that improvements aren’t just cosmetic but contribute meaningfully to Detroit’s ongoing transformation into a modern, vibrant urban center.
PropTech is Powering Detroit Real Estate
In the end, Detroit is just one example of an area where PropTech is benefiting local real estate development. Perhaps the most important takeaway from this is that the impact technology will have will vary dramatically depending on the unique strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of an area. How investors use PropTech assets in San Francisco might look totally different from Detroit – that’s the type of malleability and versatility we’re talking about.
Today, property technology is allowing investors to make smarter decisions given all the actionable information available to them. Because of that, the Motor City continues its rise as a true hub of innovation for the 21st century. But more than that, it’s also become a shining example of growth in real estate for the modern era – which is not necessarily something that a lot of people would have predicted even as recently as a decade ago.
When you think about the major gains that PropTech was able to yield for Detroit in a short amount of time, it’s exciting to think about what will happen across the country when other investors get their hands on these assets as well.
Financial Disclaimer:
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. Real estate investing involves risks, including potential loss of capital. Readers are encouraged to perform their own research or consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
