cooperation with investors

[Elena Davidzon]

I am new to real estate development business, could you tell me if private investors, investment funds can finance project and after buy it

[Jon Holdman]

Unfortunately, its a really complex subject. There are no simple answers. If you are new to development like this, your best bet is to find a buyer for your land. You mention this in your other thread. This sounds like a pretty significant piece of land and that you're looking for commercial development.

If you want to be involved yourself, you need to find a developer to help you. There is a LOT of preparatory work required before you turn the first shovel of dirt. This isn't free, and this will almost certainly be work you must fund yourself. Its extremely risky and the odds are stacked against turning this into a real development.

There are many factors that must go right for this to work. Any one of them can cause it to go nowhere. Having a piece of land is just a start. You will have to do some of the preliminary work just to get the project off the drawing board. Its possible that you might find a lender or investor who would fund this initial work. You're going to pay very high rates or give up a big chunk of the equity.

You're more likely to come up with personal financing (friends, familiy, your own cash, etc.) to get through the initial studies. That includes things like:
- will the city or county support the plan?
- are utilities available and at what cost?
- preliminary environmental and site studies (drainage, traffic, etc.)
- is there any market for what you would develop?
- will the neighbors allow the development?
and, I'm sure others I've forgotten or am unaware of.

Once you have enough information and approval to know that there is a market, and you really can build something on this land, you can start trying to raise money to start the work.

Development happens in two phases - horizontal and vertical. Horizontal is putting in utilities, streets, drainage, doing grading and the like. Also included would be development plans and environmental mitigation. When this is complete, you have buildable lots. Vertical is the actual buildings. Could be the same or different organizations doing these two phases. Once the buildings are complete, they might be held onto by the developer or sold to other investors or their occupants.

If you're interested in this, and have never done it, the Urban Land Institute has a number of books on the topic.