This 3-bed, 1.5-bath, 1,386-square-foot property is in a small neighborhood called Shulze, located right next to one of Detroit’s most popular residential areas, Bagley. It is just a short drive from Sinai-Grace Hospital.
The Subject Property’s zip code, 48235, is a highly sought-after area. Zillow’s Home Value Index places the average home values within this zip code at around $97,000, its YOY returns showing a healthy 3.5% as of September 2025. Within 48235, Shulze has an average home price of close to $120,000, a added premium against the Detroit market with its average prices still below $80,000.
- Acquisition Date: August 16, 2024
- Acquisition Price: $90,000
- Capital Expenditures (CapEx): $35,000
- Projected Rent: $1,400 a month
- Actual Rent: $1,350 a month
- After Repair Value (ARV): $160,000 to $192,000. Comp 1, Comp 2.
- Simple Cash-on-cash Return: 8.59%
- Equity Gains After Repair:
The MTMA Team works closely with its strategic partner, Own It Detroit – Mutual Property Management. This relationship with Detroit’s largest property management company allows us to locate unlisted properties with potential, assess them before purchase, and seamlessly assign work orders to the repair crew upon acquisition.
A typical residential real estate acquisition fund does not have this ground-up approach. At MTMA, every member of the General Partner personally participates in the underwriting of each acquisition. One member always walks the properties to be purchased, sometimes more than once.
Our distinct approach allows the Team to excel in many areas:
- Identify undervalued properties not listed on the MLS
- Maximize property potential immediately upon acquisition
- Complete repairs within a typical 3-month window
- Place well-screened tenants in as little as one month
- Manage the property at an exceptionally high rental collection rate
- A tenant-friendly management approach that minimizes turnover
The entire process captures equity at multiple stages: at purchase, at repair completion, when it is rented out, and throughout careful property management, ensuring long-term value creation both in terms of cash-on-cash return, and long term equity growth.
We take pride in the MTMA difference, so our investors can focus on what’s important.
==== Update in September 2025
A lookback to this property’s underwriting metrics will disclose an important truth about the nature of the business we are in.
The value-add process is not an exact science with perfect outcomes. The total cost basis of this property ended up being $$143,062, because the repair costs grew from our original estimate of $35,000 primarily due to a break-in during the fix-up period.
We lost some potential equity we were hoping to capture in our first year of this property.
It is important to review individual projects as they come, as well as to view the portfolio as a whole. We are likely to face statistical errors or events that may set us back. However, the key is to strive to overcompensate by being conservative in our outlook and then to outperform our goals.
The whole portfolio of MTMA 1 returned an average equity growth of above 30% by our conservative estimation. Scale is the key.