Need assistance with townhouse build/development

[Ralph Noack]

Greetings BP

A month ago I bought a property that had a legal duplex on it for a reasonable price (whatever that is these days). We originally had in mind to fix it up & rent it out to add to our portfolio of rentals. Now that a few weeks have passed, we have decided to knock the house down, sever the lots into 3 & build townhouses, then sell them. It's all going to work according to local Zoning & it's a beautiful property: 66'x124', mature neighbourhood, lots of large trees. There's a good chance that we can obtain another 12-25' in width from the city (an old rail line that runs adjacent to the property).

So the property is ideal for it. Our market is great for this type of thing. Profits should be quite nice. Admittedly, this is a new aspect of investing that I am unfamiliar with. We have done a handful of BRRRRs with construction costs of up to $120,000 on a single house, where I acted as the GC. But this is another level altogether. I'm told to expect $350K-$400K/unit construction costs with city fees. Tarion warranty for new builds (we are in Brantford, Southern Ontario, Canada).

Big money. Large risk. Long, drawn-out project. Likely to hire a builder to look after it.

I have no experience in this. Anyone able to point me in the direction of what type of people I should be speaking with first? City? Lawyers? Developer? Architect?

I know a few builders & designers that I could contact.

I'm not sure if I should tender out the build and hand the entire thing over or get a JV partner or a few partners. We had in mind to raise private money for the project. But if someone has a better way to deal with the financing, I'm all ears.

If anyone has had experience with this kind of thing I'd love to hear from you.