All Forum Posts by: Greg Dickerson

Sounds like you need a mentor. You are in a great position to make this happen especially given the market right now. Your businesses are the cash cows that can fund your long term projects. You need to be generating as much cash as you can to scale into multifamily and larger commercial. That's how I did it. 

A lot will depend on your strategy. Hold vs Sell. Best thing to do is educate yourself on the markets and product. You need to learn what is selling where with what floor plans and finishes. Trends are different in different areas of your local markets. Make sure to visit some new developments to get an understanding of what is working best in your market. You can also talk with local rears who specialize in new homes sales. The GC will handle all of the permits and approvals for you if you are targeting shovel ready finished lots. If you're after raw land thats a different animal all together. You want to find a good design build firm to work with as they will help you streamline the process and keep the project within budget during design. 

Utilities are one part of the equation but it really comes down to demand. Developers need to move product so we focus on where the demand is. Rural land is more of a wholesale flipping play vs development. Also not every city or county is will to annex property and as the developer you don't always want that either. 

Procore is great for large commercial projects. I always used BuilderTrend for residential and light commercial. They just purchased CoConstruct so lots of great options there. 

First you do not want to use hard money. Next you should not pay cash for the property at this point as there is a lot of due diligence you need to do before you close on something like this. Make sure to check with the local municipality first to check on permits, zoning approval and to make sure you can subdivide. You can easily borrow form the bank if you have strong financials and good credit. 

You need to determine highest and best use. Then it's all about the numbers. There are lots of variables there. You would need to supply a lot of details for me to come up with highest and best use. You can hire an appraiser to do a highest and best use study or reach out to some local realtors and get some feedback from them but make sure you get with the right ones who are actively marketing new product.

Real estate development is a lot more than just buying raw land dividing it up and selling lots. Real estate development includes renovation of existing structures and properties, building any type of structure ground up, and raw land development. It’s maximizing density, opportunities, and unlocking highest and best use. It’s entrepreneurial creative and includes a lot of different aspects of the real estate business.

The main question you are asking is how do you make money in this current environment. You need to buy or create the land at a price that the construction will deliver the profit at current retail pricing for new builds. You can push the market on the houses right now due to pent up demand especially if you have the right location and the right product. If you can get a GC on board the key will be delivering units while the market is hot so you can push value and make it up on volume however things can turn on a dime if rates go up so you need to be careful and make sure you have multiple exit strategies and perm financing in place if you don't sell.

I did NASCLA and highly recommend you go that route. I used JJ Johnson seminars

 There is a huge learning curve and tons of risk trying to self perform especially if you do not have the experience. It is cheaper to hire a contractor turn key than it is to split profits. This is a very tough time to enter the industry as materials and labor are at all time highs and it's very competitive for the labor. Subs are very leery of working with people they do not know or who are very inexperienced. They will eat your lunch.