Due diligence if investing with a developer

[Peter O'Donnell]

Hello I am a newbie to bigger pockets. 
A friend of mine is considering investing with a developer. The developer is offering a return of 50 %, on funds. With the project scheduled to be 1 year, before funds ( and profit ) returned. As far as I can tell the developer is basically assembling his own private money/Hard money fund, for this project. The project is building a strip shopping center, with mainly fast food tenancies. It is on a main road next to a large, busy service station. Currently a vacant block of land, with approval for this development, in place. My friend insists that this guy can be trusted. I advised against. She however is still interested, and asked for my help in checking things out further. Which I am happy to do. However I have never actually used private money/ or hard money. So I would appreciate any help, suggestions, or maybe a checklist of questions I should ask. Thanks in advance 

[Marcia Maynard]

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! You may want to introduce yourself in the New Members forum too! Set up your key alerts and check out related discussions by following the links below and use the "search the site" feature as well.

Is the property in Australia or the States or elsewhere? I can't speak specifically to your question, but I have close relatives in Australia and I've been to Queensland, so I wanted to reach out. There are of course some differences and some similarities, between investing in the States and investing in other countries. Some concepts are universal, so I hope you get a good response here. I'm going to tag @Engelo Rumora because he is an Aussie and may have some insight for you specific to investing in Australia, or some contacts for you there.

All the best to you and the friend you are helping!