All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Greg Dickerson

I've been working on my pilot program for the last couple of years. Tiny houses are a different animal (even though they aren't really). I have a few jurisdictions on my side, received a seed investment of $250k and have a former county commissioner at my disposal. Along with an engineering firm at the ready, of whom helped me with the conceptual design.

All of the business stuff, RE stuff, Government stuff has all been a "learn as I go" thing. I'm an electrician by trade and sorting all the "stuff" out has been an interesting adventure. I'm to a point where I'm trying to identify a parcel to start working toward entitlements and round up the remaining capital I'll need to pull it all together. Competing with large developers is quite a challenge.

Money and land are the two things. I have to get the first one done first. Big vision: #1 Tiny House Community developer in the nation.

Good morning BP. I've been browsing on how to become a real estate developer and am looking for some insight. I've been working on a project to tap into the evolving tiny house market and have ZERO clue as to what a real estate developer does exactly. I get the concept of it, but the devil always lives in the details. I have a business plan, conceptual design, financial estimates, etc. etc.

I've read that being able to have access to $5-25MM is very important and since I'm a "no name", just starting out kind of guy there's risk involved and a lot of it. Especially when attempting to work in a somewhat "new" market.

Thoughts?

Happy New Year BP!!

I just started looking into equity types of financing for my startup. I've come across the term Mezzanine Financing, which apparently is a combination of debt and equity. Does anyone  have any experience with that type of financing? 

@Chris Lopez, yeah he's a Resi agent. I used him for my condo. Very MLS kinda guy. He's cool, I dont have any issues with him.

I'm a frank person, much to my own chagrin. I'll look more on the commercial side and see about reaching out to Rodolfo.

Thank you!

@Chris Lopez I wonder if that's why my real estate agent has ghosted me? He realized that this project has started putting him outside his wheelhouse and cant really hack it anymore?

@Chris Lopez - Thank you for the reply. I was able to find one property that I REALLY want using Reonomy, but am at a standstill with it right now. I do agree with you some the data they have. Cold calling is a full time job and certainly not something I can invest large parts of my time in. If only there were someone who likes doing that sort of things and works off a referral type fee basis? 

Any chance you and your group might be commercial brokers I should start networking with? 

Hey BP! 

I'm still out here working on a tiny house community template and getting the first one done is always the biggest hurdle. Right now, I'm trying to nail down a parcel of land in the 15+ acre range in the Denver market. Would anyone have any suggestions on where to search for off-market properties? I've looked into Reonomy, but they're soooo expensive.

Hi @Jim Johnson! 

I've been an advocate and entrepreneur for tiny houses for the last couple of years. You're absolutely right on the issues regarding tiny houses and the lack of apparent code for these structures. I'm right in the middle of working to create a template community for tiny houses. I'm working to flush out all of these concerns WITH the governing bodies, to the degree where I'm working to identify a proper parcel of land and the remaining capital to pull it all together. I partnered with a third party inspection and certification company who has been successful in getting building officials to sign off on their processes that combine many IRC requirements and ANSI code.

I'm also working with the Tiny Home Industry Association, who is a group of diverse individuals, (https://www.tinyhomeindustryassociation.org/board-of-directors/) working to engage the appropriate regulatory bodies like the IRC, IBC, ANSI, NFPA, etc. to start developing tiny house specific code. If the [tiny house] industry is able to self-regulate and manage the quality of construction of these structures, there will be no need for HUD to step in, like it did in the infancy of the mobile home industry back in the early 1970's.

If you'd like to discuss further, I'm ALWAYS willing to discuss tiny houses!

Thank you all for the valuable input. It sounds like I'll need to get a Starbucks!

@Matt Convery Even still!  The land is off market, so we're still trying to sort out if they're even willing to sell and working on the entitlement aspect.