Advise About Knocking Down a Rehab and Building New near DFW

[Nathan Veech]

I am living in Watauga Texas (near Fort Worth) in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath rehab. 1960s home, everything has to be redone. Foundation has to be leveled, sub-floor needs replacing, walls need to be redone, roof needs to be replaced (including rafters to bring them to code), all windows need replacing (16 windows), kitchen needs to be finished. In other words the whole house needs to be re-done. The reason I bought the house was that it was in my budget and it came with an empty lot. I thought I could rehab the house myself slowly over time (which I am in the process of doing). Then I was going to eventually house hack until I could build something on the empty lot. Most people told me I should just knock the house down, but I couldn't afford that kind of thing myself. Enter my investor friend.

I have a friend that want to get me out of a rehab and into some cash flows, and he currently has some cash that he needs to invest in real estate. He likes the property and location, and told me that he would front the cash to knock down the existing property and build 2 new homes (3 bedroom 2 bathroom ideally) on the then vacant lots. Then we get renters in one and house hack the other one.

He told me he wants me to look into how much it would cost to build 2 new homes on the land and what kind of options we have in terms of size houses, and cost to build and then when we have that we could start talking about making it happen. This seems like a no-brainer to me, this would put me 5 years ahead of my plan, and get me into a finished house with some cash flows to pay down my mortgage, and gets me an opportunity to have a future investor.

I am looking for some advice on what I can do to explore the options available, where I could get cost estimates for building new homes in Watauga (near Fort Worth). If you know any builders or general contractors that I could talk to, or where I could find premade plans homes, or any advice that you think could help I am all ears. I am looking to get the ball rolling as soon as possible the longer I wait the more this could potentially cost, and if I don't get started and finished before winter I may have to wait until spring.

Thanks so much,