Beginner - Net Zero Quadplex New Construction

[Levi Ramirez]

Hello BP, this is my first post, though I’ve been a long time off and on lurker.

I am a 23 year old Arizonan looking to get into real estate investing. The method I was to use seems a bit different to me, and I’m curious about viability and scalability.

I want to build a quadplex ICF ( insulated concrete form) zero energy all electric home with a large solar array to cover 100%+ (optimistically with excess for energy buyback) of energy needs and househack it using a new construction fha multi-family construction loan. I also want to hire an architect to design it with full building materials, auto cad blueprints, etc in which I own the right’s in order to build copies of the design when I want to scale using the same construction company in order to build familiarity with the build and reduce long term construction costs.

From the architect, I also want two different designs.

A. For Young adult couples looking for a home for their small family.

B. For Two single adult roommates with 2 master bedrooms and one half bath for guests.

Potential selling points for tenets.

Below average cost of living.

Green technology.

ICF provides amazing sound dampening from both exterior and tenet neighbors.

My questions are:

1. How can I leverage my home equity with a new construction in order to scale? ( cash out refinancing, heloc?) Can new constructions be appraised with a market value above construction cost for ‘instant’ home equity, and do you think this style of building will be able to do that?

2. How should such an energy efficient home be leveraged for both my benefit and the tenet.

How should I charge for utilities?

My thoughts:

1A. Split the solar array into 4 equal parts and Put meters on each unit and charge tenets by kWh produced by solar at or under current rates and for excess provided by the electric company at standard rate.

1b. Split the array into 4 equal parts and Put each unit on a meter and allow the tenets to set up a normal relationship with the energy company.

( IMO I think these methods could be the most beneficial to the customer)

2. Single meter. Charge a flat rate utilities fee for each unit and roll it into the rent and set up a contingency fund for potential months where the solar array doesn’t produce enough to cover the entire energy needs of the home .( this method appears to be potentially profitable. Is it ethical or potentially illegal?)

3. I am fully hoping to make quadplex net zero homes my niche. As I earn more experience and capital, I hope to expand into commercial real estate. In the long and short run, do y’all think my niche is viable for good cash flow and long term build and hold strategy?

I know this is a pretty long winded post and I still fell like I’m missing something, but I am wanting to glean as much information as possible from the experts here, so any other thought, advice and criticism is more than welcome.

[Tanya F.]

So good that you're thinking along these lines!
More green building!