Build to Rent 10+ Duplexes on fully owned 5 acres

[Darren James]

I purchased a 4.7 acre parcel that’s walking distance from a high school in a fairly populated neighborhood. It’s surrounded by a B+ neighborhood of SFRs. A few questions:

- How do I collateralize the land to support funding for the build? 7000 sqft lots subdivided go for about 15k in this area. SFRs sell for 200k- 250k. Builds go for $100-$140 per sq ft.

- Would you build SFRs or duplexes? I count the ability to build 12 to 16 7000 sq ft lots. I spoke with the area councilman who advised against multi-family. Not sure if that matters much.

Any advice would be helpful!

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Matthew Paul:

The best bang for your buck would be townhomes , then duplexes , then single family . But pushback from neighbors and the council can be costly in time and money 

Other than the product ..  your land values are so low that you dont have much if any equity as doing the underground (Horizontal) will cost as much or more than the lot values.. so if finished lots are only worth 15k then I would think the 4.7 acres has zero value .. since you will be in the lots more than they are worth to develop them.. this is a common problem in low value lot areas or INNER cities were you can buy lots for 1 dollar to 10k that already exist and have all utls.. Unless we are missing something here. 

@Eric James  U may want to communicate with Eric he does this same thing in I think W Texas and makes it work. but he is totally hands on from what I have read here on BP