All Forum Posts by: David Bohn

Hey Gavin.  What will the acquisition entail?  For example:  Will these be solely commercial (retail, office, etc) or will you be looking at residential multi-family as well?  Will the be fully constructed, partially constructed, vacant land to be developed, etc.?  I would imagine the team you bring on will depend on the focus of what the fund(s) will be purchasing.  If developing, you will need a full team for entitlements and permitting (civil engineer, survey, architect, etc.).  

Sorry for the additional questions, it will help to understand where you intend to focus the investments to determine what kind of team should be in place.

Hey Denise.  I work / live / play in the PHX metro area, so you've picked a great market I'm very familiar with.  There are some challenges with what you are asking but I'll do my best to get you some direction.  To give you some background, I'm an investor developer, where we do land development projects typically for multi-family housing.  Currently we're working on about 1000 dwelling units all together at different stages of entitlement.

We also are buy/hold investors here in PHX metro.  We typically buy SF homes and rent out, but we have some triplexes and four-plexes.  I don't have much experience with wholesale, except we have worked with some in the past.  The challenge you will find with wholesale is that it's usually more advantageous to have boots on the ground, but again there may be programs to obtain leads without actually living here.  There is definitely a market for fix/flip.  This is another area I don't focus my attention on - we buy/hold long term.  Areas I think would do well are those where people are moving back to or highly desired - Arcadia, Scottsdale, Tempe, Gilbert, parts of PHX, and Chandler / Mesa.  To nail down where there are opportunities in B/C class neighborhoods would be difficult - I'd recommend getting a realtor that works directly with investors and knows where to find what you're looking for.

I'm biased with PHX / AZ, but historically it's proven itself.  There are also many significant businesses coming to the area or expanding, including TSMC, Intel, Amazon, Apple, etc.  You have picked a market with real longevity.

I hope this helps give some direction.  Good luck!

Might be coming in a little late, but we strictly have done entitlement and development projects.  Most of our sites are a little bit larger - 50 unit to 300 unit apartment-style or townhome-style developments.  Here are some of my main criteria if I were to vet out a contractor I'm getting to know:

1.  Experience in the market - how much time and what type of product?;  2.  Communication - how do you communicate scope, costs, schedules, and most importantly, conflict resolution?;  3.  Execution - do you have examples of comparable projects that you executed, were they under budget, were they on time, etc.?;  4.  Costs and value engineering - are you able to discover opportunities for cost savings or time savings?

Of course, your bid will be extremely important, but it would be a challenge to get to the point of executing a bid proposal if we aren't confident in much of the above items.  

Hope this feedback helps.  Best of luck!

 

Opportunity Zone properties can be awesome under the right circumstances.  I have a 52 unit townhome development in Surprise, AZ that we've developed the land and looking to either sell or partner with a builder.

Be sure that this property falls under the criteria needed to actualize the tax benefits.  I'm no tax advisor by any stretch, but I believe there's significant financial criteria to meet such as like 50% of the purchase value needs to be added as improvements to the property.  For example, if you buy for $100k, you will need to document investing an additional $50k min in renovation or otherwise "improving" the property.  

There are other obligations to be met that I would recommend you have both an attorney help you as well as your accountant - both should be fluent in OFZ.

Best of luck!

Strictly that and nothing else, I'd say the Jomax area would be more valuable, but that doesn't make it a better investment.

@Trey Onufrii It's tough to say which one is the better investment without more details, like - cost of each parcel(s), are there utilities close by (especially the Jomax site), what's the terrain like on the hilltops?  What are homes / lots selling for in each area? PHX has a hillside ordinance that's not that easy to navigate, so you may lose SF due to excessive slopes or what the ordinance dictates.

I'd suggest doing a bit more research - can you get a survey of either property?  What's the cost to build - one might be more advantageous because of terrain or soils (ask the sellers for a soils report).  Try and meet with someone at the City to discuss - go to City of PHX Development Services and start there.    There's a bit more information needed to determine if one is better than the other.  

@Kyle Bouldin I am a civil engineer by trade, but I do quite a bit of land development of my own throughout the Valley, including Pinal County.  Currently working on approx. 800 units altogether with various investment groups.  I did a similar thing, instead of a GC, I was an engineer  already in the land development environment and put together my own group to purchase land, entitle, develop, etc.  You mentioned you'd like to get a 1 acre horse property which would also be zoned MF.  My experience has been this is going to be a difficult pursuit - most horse property is located in rural (low density) areas, so you would likely have to rezone the property which would come with opposition from neighbors and possibly unsupported by the municipal general plan.

We have found several niches with smaller high density developments where we've found quite a bit of success.  I'm happy to discuss more with you if you're interested.  Just let me know.

Best of luck on your move out to AZ!

Hello. There are many ways to find land for sale in PHX specifically. MLS will give you some, but you can look online to the City's website for the City owned real estate they have for sale, but those tend be up to highest bid.

I wish there was a catch-all answer to this question, but there really isn't, because it depends on several factors - like what's your price range, what are you looking to do with the property? (build? develop? hold?). I do land development in PHX and surrounding areas, so we tend to purchase properties that have some acreage that we can entitle and develop - that's my expertise for the last 2+ decades. If you're looking to take down a ~$35k property in PHX to hold and sell later, your best bet would likely be to drive those areas and contact the owners (or their brokers) that are selling. MLS or any listing platform may also have some opportunities there for you, or a broker may have some properties that would fit your criteria. Just make sure you do your due diligence (or have a professional help you with it) so you know what you're getting - ie, ensure you don't have easement encumbrances, floodplain issues, utilities, etc.

Best of luck!