First Commercial Loan - Want to Build 3 Spec Homes

[Meghan Holler]

Hi BP Experts!

As someone new to commercial loans, I have a few questions! If you have the time I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Here's the deal - we have an acre with an existing home and we're looking to build 3 spec homes and 1 house for ourselves. 

We're expecting to need a commercial loan (for the 3 spec homes) of about 900k. 

My questions are:

Am I out of my mind to think that this is even possible, for someone who isn't a builder by trade?  We have 3 rentals that we've fixed up, but this is a much larger project than anything we've done prior.

Will the bank consider the value of the land at all - as any sort of collateral against the loan? 

What do they mean when they say they'll loan up to 75% of the appraised value? Does that mean the appraised value of whatever is to be built? 

How much cash should we expect to need to put down? 

I don't want to sound like an idiot when I start talking more in-depth with our banker, so I thought I'd ask a few of my newbie questions here.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

Meghan