Look: these investors are NOT buying homes. They are buying urban lots improved with utilities to the lotline, that just happen to have hovels sitting on them.
In due course when Detroit somehow makes a recovery the land will be worth something. The houses will be torn down if they don' t burn down in the meantime.
Do you expect Detroit to become a ghost town? Detroit is going to become a ghetto like the one in Paris, where all the unemployed live in government housing.
LOL, RAOTF! I have personal knowledge that this has been a popular, but totally failed, real estate strategy in Detroit since 1962. The key to economic success within the city limits of Detroit lies within the saying, "But for the absence of goats, Detroit is a third world city!" Some day, with all the vacant, trash strewn lots with tall grass, Detroit will be a economically viable environment for raising large numbers of goats.