Starting a construction investment company; need ideas

[Paul Center]

TL;DR - Looking for tips for profit maximization and strategies to grow a construction investment business quickly.

Life is getting fun. My business partner (father-in-law) and I have filed for a LLC. His son, whom I know very well is the general contractor/construction manager for another gentleman we know. The guy he knows builds houses with cash (no financing). We are looking to enter the market also. We're located in Oklahoma.

Now for the facts: The houses he's building in the current subdivision are setting the comps for the neighborhood.  The houses are selling for the appraised value. Basically our company gets the financing and after the sale we will clear about ~$25K gross profit after total financing/construction cost for each house. My brother-in-law (GC) will take a flat fee for each house he builds.  The attractive thing is we can get financing for 80% of the appraised value, which is still more than the construction costs, thus eliminating the requirement for any down-payment.

I'm a commercial lender myself, so I've crunched and crunched the numbers.  Our goal is to keep the money flowing back into the business until about house 5 or 6 when we can build a house with cash.  I just don't know yet if it's better to use the profit from each house to borrow less each time, or just stay leveraged out for each house and build a house with cash when it accumulates.

Do any of you have experience with this sort of business and do you have any tips for profit maximization? My goal is different than my F-I-L because he's looking to build his IRA. I'm looking to eventually buy rental properties that will pay off by the time I want to retire (I'm 30). I would like for this business to be profitable so I could eventually quit my day job and become a full-time RE investor (developments/commercial properties, etc.)

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.