Tennessee General Contractor newbie to REI

[Erik Grantham]

Hello all, I’m a long time lurker of the forum and podcasts but first time poster. I’m very interested in learning as much as possible about real estate investing. I am a general contractor with 28 years experience in residential construction and remodeling. I’m trying to learn my best options for investing. At the moment the market in our area is pretty strong and prices are high. There are some deals out there that come along with more education and networking I may be able to get in on. But for the moment I have really been weighing my options on building new to rent for long term investment. I’m looking for advice and input on the best path to take. Currently we can build a 1300 sq ft home with nice finishes for about $115k , with a lot cost averaging $35k. $150k total. Selling price is $220,000  after closing costs and all fees the profit is around $52,000. With this example if I wanted to build this house to rent would I buy the land and get construction loan for $115k and then roll to mortgage financing enough to get my $35k land cost back out of the deal?  Not sure what payment would be but the rent would probably bring maybe $11-1200 mo in my area. At the moment the profit of selling looks good but if the market slows or I get stuck with a spec home I’d like to have options and also looking to the long term.  I’m sure I’ll have many more questions. Thank you