All Forum Posts by: Bo S.

@Bo S. I sold the 4 acres 2 years ago to a developer with a interest only note with a ballon after 7 years.

@Clifton Kaderli, They're townhomes so no lots to sell. Can build the overall structure, complete the exterior facade and then start finishing individual units as they sell. There are already 2 presells, out of 12, with no marketing and no construction start date. Plan is once there is at least a verbal commitment for funding we could make a hard push on marketing and get at least 6 more presells before work starts. 

I'll send a PM with some info. Thanks

I'm looking for books to learn about new construction homes, and multifamily.  Any suggestions for someone with zero new construction experience?

Hello Arden
I am also building two new town homes in Seattle, would like to know financing options
Thanks
Inderpal chadha

I'm running into a similar situation. Looking at a lot of land zoned for SFH, but starting process to talk to the city planning to convince them to zone for multi-family. Has anyone had success with that?

Orlando, we do this type of loan all the time here in Seattle, where you use the equity in the land as the downpayment. Any of the hard money lenders will do it. If you have a solid relationship and track record, we can sometimes take 50% of the land equity as cash out and then use that for soft costs.

I am not sure if this option is available to newbies. We have done so many deals with our HML that they know we have a ton of collateral and we probably substitute a project gone bad for one of the other 172 properties we own.

If you don't have equity in the land, then your probably taking the risk and paying the soft costs yourself. You could pay architects and surveyors and find out your development plans won't fly. If you borrow money from other investors, you should put your skin in the game and pay the soft costs up front. That should be a standard thing.

Soft costs include your value engineering, paying the architect an upfront 40% down to get site plans, hiring surveyors, and going through your pre-submittal conferences. If everything passes through this stage, then you are looking at a 10-12 week process through the short plat process. Long plats can be longer and can require a public hearing. Every single city is totally different. Like Renton is different from Seattle and that is different from Tacoma.

@Orlando Roche Since I own the land I did look into JVing with a builder with my equity position being the land. With them it was going to take 36 months before I saw any ROI. Maybe I should reconsider short platting and selling.

Hi Everyone:

I am new to this forum. This is literally the first discussion I posted here. We are currently under an agreement of a 4-plex of 1million. We are debating whether it is a good idea to buy this property or find a better opportunity.

We can build 6 floor 12 units (2bed, 1 bath, 800-1000sqft per unit) on this lot. What would be the approximate cost to build such an apartment building.

Also, if we decide to go this path, how to estimate the market value of apartment building? I never bought any apartment building before. Is the estimation of apartment building similar to residential house? Residential property usually uses comparison of similar house recently sold in that area. But apartment building is quite difficult to find such comparables. If it costs 3 millions to build and the value of this building is only 4million, then it doesn't make sense to me.

Can anyone give me some opinion or suggestions?

Many thanks!