Build a duplex or waste of time?

[Aroldo Villarreal]

Hello all,

My parents are willing to give me a big lot in San Antonio, TX. I would like to build a duplex (I'll attach the link below to the plans I'm looking at) so that I could move tenants in there. Do you think it's a bad idea to build new even if the land is being given to me? Will lenders lend enough money to do something like that? Does anyone know how much it costs to build in San Antonio? I bought, rehabbed, and rented a house two months ago and everything so far is going great. I'm not really experienced, any advice would help! 

Here is the link to the plans I'm thinking of buying. 

[Lynn Currie]

Hi @Aroldo Villarreal 

I've been working on a video series to help new investors and I have one that might be useful to you. It walks you through some initial numbers to help you analyze a property for a new construction spec home.

This spreadsheet is specifically built with the sale of the property in mind, but in it I talk a little about how to put the numbers together, evaluating comps (which is what you can do to determine the value of the land) and how to determine what you can build on the property.

Here's a link to the video:
http://vimeo.com/99876448

And here is the spreadsheet:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/a42d0a1c-3f16...

There are a couple of things to think about based on your conversations above:

• Depending on the size of the lots, you might have the option of building 2 duplexes, one on each lot. From what I understand, the City of San Antonio is pretty easy to get answers from. A quick Google search turned up this website https://www.sanantonio.gov/dsd/ If it were me, I'd take a trip down there and start asking questions. You'll probably walk out knowing exactly what you can do from the zoning side. Oh, and protip: bring a book, newspaper, or handy electronic device. You might be there a while.
• If the lots are combined, meaning that they are technically 2 lots, but at some point the city combined them to make them 1, it might only be developable as a single lot.
• If the cost of a new build it too high for the area, you might want to consider having a house moved to the lot. In Austin we're tearing down houses like maniacs. I just gave away a cute, well kept 3/2, 1500 sq. ft house to someone taking it outside of the city. The estimates that I've heard about for moving a house, then re-hooking it up to new utilities, etc. is around $50k.