New Builds, How to Determine the Juice is Worth the Squeeze?

[Pat Jackson]

New builds.....they seem attractive and sexy.  You get exactly what you want, you have little to no repairs for the foreseeable future, (done right) they'd be in high demand, sounds too good to be true!

I don't hear that much about them in the podcasts or read about them on the forums.  I imagine the margins are thinner, they take really great processes to stay in the black, and you really need to know what you're doing.

I'm looking at a Missouri town, everyone I talk to there says there's a rental shortage.  There's also a new graduate school there, increasing even more the demand for rentals, in this case higher end rentals.

I'm drawn to the idea of a new small apartment.  Just trying to figure out what I don't know.  It seems like numbers would be the same as a rehab, just instead of purchase, rehab, and holding costs, it's purchase, build, and holding costs. Thoughts?