General Contractor seeking insight on Developing

[Marcus Ware]

Hello BP, I've been a residential general contractor for 12 years. I specialized in renovating distressed properties in urban areas. I've decided to become less hands on(hang up my tools) and devote most of my time to the development side of real estate construction. Because of my experience I'm pretty comfortable with this transition. I want to build SF's but want to keep it simple at first and purchase land that has been already approved for building, does this sound like a good idea? Since I'll be looking in areas that I'm not familiar with how do I find out if these areas are ripe for building? As a GC I figured I would just sub out all phases of construction just Iike I would on a renovation, does this make sense when building? or should I setup a more formal bidding process? If I follow zoning guidelines when submitting permits is the process for getting approved to build pretty straight forward? Thanks for any and all input  

[Greg Palmer]

Marcus,

Way to go! I think it's always a good idea to take a step towards managing instead of doing the work yourself, you can produce so much more with that model. I don't know how big your urban area is out there but I know that where I'm from, Portland, OR, there are GC's who do well just looking for infill lots in the city and building skinny houses or whatever the lot will allow. Team up with a knowledgeable Realtor who can give you stats on the market conditions in your area. 

Greg