I have an awesome lot, and design, short on cash. Please advice

[Dennis Nikolaev]

A year ago I bought an awesome 3.500 s.f multifamily lot just east of downtown (east lawn).
I got a design done for it that fit 7 tiny home units (8 Shipping containers) with plenty of parking. Take a look below.
The construction was going to be roughly 600k. (6) one-bedroom tiny homes plus (1) 3 bedroom Airbnb STR projected to gross up to 10k per month. (Solar was going to be financed separately)

However, in the Summer of 2021, I count find builders to do the container building for me (I don't live in Texas, so it didn't help). So I focused on other projects. Skip 9 months forward, I realized that all of my money is tied elsewhere and the lot is simply sitting there bleeding tax money.

I need advice on how to move forward. I'd hate to give it all up and just sell the land.

Dennis

[Nik Moushon]

Quote from @Dennis Nikolaev:

@Nik Moushon Yes the bulk of the income is on the short-term rental 4 to 5 k. The 1 bedroom - $900 each.
Apparently, there are plenty of enthusiasts that pay this money to live in a metal box with tiny windows. I figure this is slightly better. For the STR penthouse, the roof deck, cowboy pool, balconies, and cross ventilation should be enough to set it apart.
On the construction side - the only really expensive item - is that folding door on every container. about 12k apiece.
Please, share where you feel is the weak point?

 I say first, that I dont know your area. So I dont know what the draw to these is there. But with my 10+ years in architecture I can say that container anything is completely over rated. They are not cheaper than traditional stick framed construction, and many cases, more expensive. For a lot of different reasons. Just go search the internet for reviews and you will see that people who build these thinking they will save money are almost always proven wrong by the end of the project. 

The spans in the structure that I can see will require a lot of big steel. This is expensive material and labor. All those solar panels, and more importantly, all the batteries and panels needed for them are very expensive and have a long pay back period for a lot of locations around the country. There are some areas and some circumstances where they make financial sense. You better make sure you really run the numbers on the ROI for them since they are very capital intensive.

I dont care how many "enthusiasts" you think you will attract, they arent going to over pay for a metal box with tiny windows. Maybe if you are next to a large university, where high turn over is accounted for, but a normal market...you'll have high turn over rates. The novelty wares off pretty fast. 

The STR should be the unit that makes you profit and the the LTR units should be the ones that pay the bills. Not the other way around. You have a massive amount of your expenses covered by one unit. You currently are saying that, of your total gross income, that 40% of it hinges on one unit. Even in a perfect world with great returns you wont be able to cover your expenses if your STR doesnt perform the way you are predicting. Again, I dont know your area, maybe there is enough draw, but thats a LOT of weight and risk put on one unit.