Diary of a New Construction Project

[Joshua Dorkin]

Back in March 2013, BiggerPockets and J Scott collaborated to release two books -- The Book on Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs (check them out here if you haven't already). As part of the book package, J was planning to do a detailed case study of one of his renovations (even more detailed than he does for most of his projects on his blog). We decided that instead of doing a case study only for those who purchased the books, he'd instead do one publicly here on BiggerPockets.

In this thread, J is going to provide a practically day-by-day diary of his first new construction project, from acquisition through sale -- including pictures, spreadsheets, invoices, bids, etc.

We hope you find this valuable! I know that I'm planning on following it closely so I can pick up a thing or two.

1/5/14 Update: The project is complete . . . read on!

2/19/14 Update: We've taken all the content of this thread and converted it into a free ebook for everyone who may be interested. Get your copy here: Diary of a New Construction Project Ebook

[J Scott]

INTRODUCTION

I'm currently working on my first new construction project in downtown Atlanta (with a partner). While we both have a lot of residential rehab experience under our belts (over 100 projects between us), we have absolutely no new construction experience. The purpose of this thread is to chronicle in as much detail as I can, the process of acquiring an existing house, tearing it down, designing a new house, getting permits, construction of the new residence and finally the staging/listing/sale of the house.

My hope is that this thread will end up being part case study, part diary and (if I don't screw up too badly), part textbook. I plan to provide links to everything that might be useful throughout the process -- pictures, videos, budgets, schedules, plans/drawings, contractor bids, invoices, etc. And if there's anything I don't provide that you want to see, just let me know.

As of this writing, I'm currently about 4 months into this project, but we haven't even started to build yet (you'll see why as we move through the thread). I'm planning to start at the beginning (I've been keeping copious notes), and over the next couple months, I'll try to post updates at least several days per week, and hopefully catch up to real time by the end of the project.

Lastly, I hope this thread will be interactive. There are a lot of BP contributors with new construction experience (Rich Weese, @Karen Margrave, Aaron McGinnis and many others). I hope they'll jump in and provide insight, and I hope others with less experience will ask questions and help us all learn from one another. And again, if there's anything you want me to provide in this thread that I'm not already providing, feel free to ask!