Build multifamily? Or buy?

[Ramon Melero]

I'm in a position where I have my rent paid until March in the San Jose area. I managed to save $120,000 for a down payment to get into a house hack multifamily property. I want to get at least 4 units, but I can maybe afford more.

I have some experience in real estate. I purchased a house in 2014 in Austin with my sister, and sold it in 2018 so I have home ownership experience. 

In early 2019, I was moonlighting 2 full time jobs, when I was able to negotiate remote work for both jobs, and I sold everything I had except two backpacks of clothes. I started looking at my options and I ended up traveling and working from January to September. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again. Maybe after I build and have tenants (hopefully)?

Now I'm in paid temporary housing until March and I want to get into a multifamily property in the Las Vegas area. I'm debt free, 818 credit score. I'm single with no kids so I have flexibility on the location, but I like Las Vegas, and ideally I'd want to buy in an opportunity zone.

I think the better option is going to be to build a new multifamily property. This is a general outline of my plan, let me know if it's crazy

1. 1. Get down payment for land + construction to perm loan, I've seen construction loans LTV around 15%. Right now I can afford $800,000, but I don't necessarily want to spend all of of, unless it's to get more units. This is on top of a $10,000 emergency fund.
2. 2. Find a R3 (multifamily) zoned land in the city with utilities at the curb, or at least very close and purchase it after verifying that it's buildable and purchase it. Ideally an opportunity zone. 
3. 3. Take design rough draft of building plans to drafting engineer to make blueprints and lot placement.
4. 4. Find builder to build property 
5. 5. Move in and rent all the other units. Maybe keep one unit for airbnb/guests?
6. 6. After a year or two & saving up another down payment, use the existing blue prints to find another plot and reuse the plans to make another building

I've obviously over-simplified some of the steps, and it's a work in progress, but that's kind of why I'm here. I'd like to know what holes my idea has. The biggest issue I'm coming across so far is that finding multifamily zoned land is difficult. I haven't prequalified at a lender yet, because I don't want to take the inquiry hit until I have the land figured out. In March/April I wanted to wait a little bit to see if housing prices would be depressed from COVID, but prices have continued to go up.

One of the reasons I'm leaning towards building is that most of the multifamily properties out there are 30+ years old and will cost about the same to build. I have the time to wait for construction and would prefer to have a newer building where I can charge higher rents.