Wanting to retire with a few cabins in the Western NC mountains.

[John Dallas]

Hi All, looking for a bit of guidance from my fellow travelers.

About to hit 60 and I have left Florida for the NC mountains. The Fl house is a 3/3/3 pool home on the water and its paid for. (worth 850k)

Over the past 10 years I purchased land in the mountains. It took 3 years, but,  I finally navigated the permitting process and now have all the permits I need to build 6 small cabins on a river in the mountains. I would not wish this on anyone. This was very hard and time consuming, but I'm on the other side of the permitting process and ready to build.

I am estimating the 6 cabins will be about 900k to build and will be worth 2x that when built. Cabins should cash flow nicely based on my location and research.

So.... do I sell the Fl house so I have plenty of cash on hand to do my 6 cabins? or Do I turn the Fl house into a short term rental property and look to finance the 6 cabins? I have some cash on hand, but, the Florida house and NC real estate is 90% of  my net worth.

I have fallen down the paralysis by analysis hole and hopefully your thoughts will help me to dig out.

[Brandon Croucier]

It depends on your goals, I would say outsource the management & hold the asset as nobody has regretted owning real estate on a long term basis. 

You could easily get 75-80% LTC on the cabin build meaning you'd need about $200,000-$250,000 CASH, to complete the project.

Take 200k out of the FL house, build, rent, refi & payoff the FL property again would be my best bet about going about it.