Building an Apartment complex

[Eddie Quispe]

Hello everyone, my wife and I are looking at purchasing land (3 AC) zoned multifamily (R6) and building a small apartment complex. The reason behind is that we can't find any small apartments in our market that fit our criteria and second we would like to own it for 20 years or more, so building a new one will be less maintenance. We have some RE experience (currently own a few) and built a duplex in the past but nothing this big. Of course we'll put together a qualified team to help us with this task.

I have some questions on this idea though and hope I can tap on your experience and wisdom:

1. We'll start with a 6 or 8 units building on a portion of the 3 AC land as that's all we can finance at this time. The idea is to build additional units as we can afford or look for investor. Is this a good idea or is it better to look for financing/investors to develop the entire 3 AC land right away?

2. The land is located in front of a middle school and behind Lowes and near high end homes. What makes an ideal location for an apartment building? How do I determine if this is an ideal location? Are there any websites that tells you if your market doesn't have enough apartments or too much?

We currently have a couple of SFHs and small Multifamilies (fourplex/duplex) and was inspired by the BP podcast about the small apartment buildings and the benefits it provides. I welcome any feedback and comments.