Build or wholesale?

[Larry Flanagan]

I have a property under contract, its a cruddy house on a nice lot in a nice neighborhood. I'm paying $18,000. The lot is 66 x 249'. I could probably wholesale this as-is for about a $5,000 to $10,000 profit. But I could also see scraping the house and building new. The neighborhood could probably support a new $150 to $175k house. I have no experience with building, but think it could be an interesting & profitable venture. Should I take the wholesale money & run or try my hand at a spec build? How much profit can be expected in a project of that size?