9-Unit Ground Up Development in Dorchester, MA

[Kevin Menawonu]

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) other investment.

Purchase price: $1,200,000
Cash invested: $500,000

This project is a 9-Unit Ground Up Development in an up and coming area of Dorchester. It's currently ongoing. We'll start framing in January of 2022 and hopefully wrapping up with this project in May of 2022. Interesting thing about this one is, we initially thought it might make sense to sell off as condominiums, but currently looking into whether the numbers make sense to cash out refi. This is our 2nd deal and learned a ton.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

My partner and I honestly just believe in ourselves and our network. We work hard. We are not afraid of not knowing. We believe we can figure things out. Lastly, we're always open to learning.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found this deal through a wholesaler and another local real estate developer. We purchased the property at what they were asking and we believed that the numbers worked for us.

How did you finance this deal?

We raised for the equity portion of this deal and used hard money on the debt side. We wanted to refinance with a bank and try getting a lower interest rate but we never got around to it. That is something I wish we explored as well, but that's something I think we'll have to at least explore on the next deal.

How did you add value to the deal?

So my partner Pierre and I bring a unique skillsets. I'm more of the overall business operations, equity/debt financing, modeling and acquisitions guy. Pierre is a builder. We both have amazing networks that we tap into to help efficiencies on our projects. We are pretty new to the overall game though.

What was the outcome?

The outcome has yet to come to fruition, but our goal is to build esthetically beautiful builds and make a return for our investors.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Oh man! Where do I start...Honestly, being okay knowing that you don't know everything is something that we've had to get comfortable with. Building during COVID specifically has been amazingly challenging. Cost fluctuations have been challenging. Keeping on schedule. Honestly, if I dive in, I'll probably write a novel.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Absolutely. We've worked with great stakeholder all the way around. This industry is a community so we help where we can. If there's anyone looking for recommendations, I'm happy to share.