‘I Bought a Fire-Gutted Home for $7,500 in an Investors’ Hot Spot and Made $100,000 Profit’

A Detroit flipper bought an abandoned single-family home that was gutted by fire for $7,500 and turned it into a “dream home.”

The once-bankrupt city has become a hot spot for investors, with homes selling for as little as $1,000. Hunter Chattler, 24, is one such investor—once even picking up a piece of property for $500 from a land bank.

Chattler, who documents the startling transformation of his fixer-upper on TikTok, should pocket $100,000, excluding selling costs, from his latest flip. He is also a licensed agent, so he won’t have to pay a broker.

In all, the investor spent $130,000 on renovating the two-bedroom, two-bathroom house in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood—and it took him six months to complete. He will list the house for $250,000, priced for a starter home.

What drew him to the house was not only the ultralow price, but also the good location, which is close to Lake St. Clair and Grosse Point.

“There’s a lot of development around here, and it’s near the water,” Chattler tells Realtor.com®.

From nightmare to dream house

Chattler’s TikTok video shows a 2004 single-family ranch completely gutted from a major fire, with piles of gray ash all over the floor scorched lumber throughout.

“Bought this fire-damaged gem for just $7,500 and turned it into someone’s dream home,” Chattler says in the video.

“People thought I was crazy, but I had a vision and started to get to work.”

The video then shows the house midrenovation, with plaster on the walls, cement floors, and wooden planks everywhere. As the camera pans through the house, it transforms again.

The end of the video boasts the remodeled house—and it’s charming. There are light-laminate wood floors, crisp gray walls, recessed lighting and chandeliers, white kitchen cabinets and island, and modern appliances.

Only a flipper with vision could have seen that, underneath the ash and rubble, the bones of the house were there, with vaulted ceilings, a naturally flowing layout, and decent-sized rooms.

Despite the fire, the home’s foundation and exterior walls were in great condition, as was a full-length basement, which he turned into a third bedroom.

How Detroit went from bankruptcy to boomtown

In 2013, Detroit infamously filed for bankruptcy, becoming the largest municipal filing in history with $20 billion in debt. But since then, the Motor City has rebounded in a major way.

“Investors come to Detroit from all corners of the country because the market is like no other,” says local investor Chase C. Hunter.

Real estate prices bottomed out in the area in 2009, at a median sale price of $58,900. Since 2009, however, sale prices have climbed annually each year to land at $260,000 in November 2024—an impressive 130% rise from a decade ago.

“Buyers, including investors, took advantage of low home prices in the area over the last decade, bringing energy and funds into the city,” says Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.

However, Jones points out, “even after substantial price growth, the median sales price in Detroit was still [much] lower than the national sale price.”

The national median list price in November sits at $416,880, which is just $8,070 lower than last month and just 0.7% lower than last November, according to Realtor.com.

Finding the diamond in the rough

Chattler first noticed the burned-out home in summer 2023, when it was listed for $500.

“This can’t be real,” he thought. The land and sewage hookup alone were worth more than that.

When the listing agent told him there was a lot of interest, he put in the winning bid of $7,500.

“I didn’t want to lose out,” he says.

Chattler, who has flipped more than 10 properties in Motor City since 2021, says the city’s low price range allows him to almost guarantee a profit.

“There are a bunch of deals here, and there isn’t a lot of competition because a lot of people won’t touch Detroit,” he says.

Despite the fire-gutted home’s astonishing transformation, the gut reno had a few detractors.

Some viewers mentioned the lack of windows, others the fact that the house, even completely redone, would still smell of smoke. And still another pointed out that, once a house has had a fire to that extent, it will be difficult to insure.

But many more offered the young flipper praise.

“Look, brother, ” said a commenter named Demetrius. “I think you did a fantastic move and with what you spent you profited nicely. Don’t listen to many in the comments who don’t know how flipping works. GREAT JOB!”

And Chattler, who one day hopes to get into home development, isn’t deterred.

“My goal is to buy a house every one or two weeks. I always knew I couldn’t do the typical nine-to-five,” he says.