Building new homes and investing in rentals

[Jimmy Nguyen]

Hello Bigger Pockets community,

I just discovered you all.  Very late to the party I know.  It's almost like how I just discovered the True Detective series and its greatness.  

I do have an excuse as I have been busy designing and building two energy-efficient homes on my 13 acre farm for the last 3 years.  One of our homes will become a rental/Airbnb property and the second home that we are currently building will be our main residence and have an ADA-inspired in-law suite for my parents.  I had dreams of being an organic farmer when we first bought the property, but I am enjoying the home designing and building process so thoroughly that I want to build custom homes for other people.  I still hope to continue beekeeping and growing cut flowers to keep the land in farm use and to generate a small amount of cash flow.    

As for custom home building, I understand that gaining new clients will be difficult since I haven't built a home for someone else yet and  I don't even have my Class A Builder's License (I'm currently studying for the test).  Another option is to build spec homes, but that will require a loan or bringing in investors, which may be difficult until I get some more experience.  Therefore, I am thinking that I can start investing in rental properties or doing a house flip to get some more income and experience.  Apart from new construction, I do have experience remodeling homes.  The first house I bought, which was a short sale, my wife and I did some extensive remodeling and sold it 6 years later for a nice profit, which then allowed us to buy our farm and build our two houses.  Also for those 6 years, we rented out our basement so I do have experience working with renters.

So now with all my background information out of the way, my question is - In forming a business and writing my business plan, do I combine my two goals into one company? Is it better to combine building custom homes, remodeling houses, flipping houses, and owning and managing rental properties into one business? Or is it best to have two different companies since it seems (maybe incorrectly) that building custom homes and remodeling houses is in a different area of real estate than flipping houses and managing rental properties?  

I am hoping to hear from anyone that has experience doing all of the aforementioned. Thanks in advance for sharing and I look forward to being a positive member of this community.

Attached are two pictures.  One is the first home I built and the second one is the design for the second home which we are currently building.  I hope to get under roof before we get any snow.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Nguyen