Building (literally) a rental portfolio

[Joseph Niedermeyer]

I’m in a unique situation. I’m seasoned in the construction industry and a general contractor license is in my not too distant future. My day job is building material sales (lumber, doors, windows, drywall, block, shingles, etc). As an employee, we get a great discount on materials. If I designed and built some rental units myself, using my discount, I’m probably saving 20-25% on the construction of a unit. My thought is to refinance the construction loan into a more conventional mortgage and pull out any additional equity available to keep building more. Anyone build their own rental houses? Is this a feasible strategy? I can probably build 2-3 units a year as a part of my bigger investment strategy of buy/hold.