All Forum Posts by: George Yu

@Doris Moreno I mean affordable market rate housing is needed everywhere. Go somewhere that fits your budget. Find out how much do you need to rent these units for to be competitive and affordable. Then find out the max you can pay for that land. That price per acre will tell you where you have to go to build. The way you’ll know is wherever you find that price LOL you may have to go a little far out of your city good luck! Don’t be afraid to venture out

@Michael Gansberg hey man thanks we used a HRV system one per four units. The foundation we just used I forgot how many mill Poly and some foam. Yes the GC and subs needed constant attention but after the first building they understood. Tape up all the seams airtight barrier LOL anything that doesn’t catch it the spray foam would.

@Michael Magbalon oh yeah which one was it? Very familiar with Moultrie. Yes it’s time to sell profits are too big not to be taken right now LOL. Sure shoot me a message in my inbox and we will get connected I will be down there next week. You should come to Cairo and see the next development that we’re already broken ground on it’s only 30 minutes from you. 

@Joseph Hummel well thanks. I love value. Receiving and giving. Interesting that you bring that up. I would say try to find a way to do it yourself and commit to it. Eventually the universe will conspire to put the right people and opportunities in front of you and put you on the fast track. I have found that to be the case in my journey. I took a risk myself and once I started gaining traction I met someone or was presented some thing that completely changed my life. Good luck to you don’t give up

@Johnny Kim yes when I have some extra cash on the side this is my next goal. Building needs to change. We’ve been using stick frame construction for too long and there are many other better ways to build that don’t quite yet have the economies of scale but I would like to take a risk on that. Right now all the extra cash that we have is going towards building our future developments. It’s a very cash intensive business so I would estimate in the next 12 to 24 months I will have extra cash on the side that I will be ready to deploy into an idea like this. I have seen some of the modular stuff not super impressed with it it may have to be another ground up development idea

@Michael Ablan I think that’s a good question. I think it’s just one of the cultures that we have in the company. Cost savings and energy efficiencies should come from the top down. Not the bottom up. We should leverage our buying power to bring the cost of utilities and materials down instead of asking those at the bottom to bring those cars down for us. For example if you go out and get a Internet bill right now for your apartment more than likely it will be about $60 a month. Over 56 units that’s over $3400 for the whole apartment complex. We can negotiate with The local Internet provider for a bundled package for all buildings for much less than that. Same thing with the other utilities. 

Building a breezeway instead of a interior Corridor is the way to go. Build as many as you can to get the economies of scale. We are still in rule areas so I can’t speak on what’s best in a city. Yes we only charge market rate rents non-subsidize. I’ve been looking a lot into modular and different building methods especially since lumber prices have been skyrocketing recently. It’s always interest me it doesn’t quite fit our model just yet but I’m going to make a way to make it fit in the near future

@Jason Moomaw yes I hope I didn’t downplay the importance of the them. I dedicated a whole paragraph to that point. When I started Windpouch my previous company that went on shark Tank that was 100% just me and honestly it didn’t go too far. Not as far as this could go.. I was screwed over for about $15,000 early in my business career after college by a partner in another venture so I kind of vowed to only do things myself. I had a very bad taste in my mouth with the idea of partners. Basically if I couldn’t do it myself I wouldn’t try to do it. I’m glad I eventually got over that and starting to realize that there are good partners and bad partners just like anything else in the world. Good luck to you!

@Arthur Neves I'm trying to see how to best answer your very complex question in a couple paragraphs. I mean this could really take one year of time to explain it in detail so I'll try to give you the high-level best I can.. First start small and experiment. Don't over pay for land ever. Find the city within two hours from where you live and look for land no more than 10,000 and acre on the city sewer water electric not in a flood plane.. Get it rezoned and a variance to pack out as many units as possible work with an architect to do so. If there is an existing survey or plat use that. Talk to a civil engineer and have them engineer the site. Ask anyone in the process if they can recommend a good GC that they have worked with you should be able to get some feedback. The land you should not purchase you should put it on a contract with the contingency that you were able to get a rezone and building permit and whatever else they will agree too. Talk to city manager, zoning, city officials about what you want to do have 3-D renderings and 2d floor plan and elevations ready to show. Make sure they agree with what you're going to do and give you their blessing. Once you get the building permit in hand have a community bank ready to go in a partner with a W-2 that is bankable with assets. Be ready to put down 20% equity yourself or have a private investor to cover that. I'm assuming you know how to run numbers make sure the numbers work. Talk to a local property manager to see what your units market rate would rent for and if there is demand and if they will manage it for you when it is completed. Don't let your GC get ahead on the drawls I'm sure you know that. Micromanage the **** out of him or her. Every day you're on the job site for as long as it takes. When the project is 80% finished start marketing it and get it filled up with pre rent. Typically we just collect a deposit that is fully refundable if they change their mind sometimes our projects go past what we initially say because the weather and some people can't wait that long. 

Don't wait for the dip. What exactly will that do for you? You're here to learn the process and the dip won't make it any easier. Going where are you are treated best will make it easier for you. 

@Hubert Chen yeah I guess I'm just from a small town in Georgia. I don't understand California prices. My cousin lives in the Bay Area and his house is over $1.6 million for what I would consider a piece of crap. I told him to sell that thing and invested into my apartments in Georgia. Then in five years he could buy three of those in California if he wanted to.... he has yet to do so

@Ed ZhaoThank you know that was my 36 unit that cost 1.69. It's been two years I didn't look at the numbers but after posting the pro forma from almost 2 1/2 years ago it's 1.69. for 36 one-bedroom units. They were small. 390 ft.². Really was just an experiment. This was built two years ago the article that I wrote on this forum is in regards to a 56 unit part of house apartment complex that we built this year but it was 4.7m. Lumber prices have increased but we have just been absorbing it since that was in the middle of our development. Yeah you should get out of California. I would stay out of that place as well as New York. Plenty of other good opportunities just not in your backyard. There's a lot of ridiculous things happening in those two places lol when you talk about a $1.5 million beat down I can't believe it from where I'm from... If you can make it in California and New York you can seriously make it anywhere lol