All Forum Posts by: Nik Moushon

@Nathan H.

You will 100% need an architect. You can't do this without one. This should be your first professional you get on board. Period. Reason being is the building code for a motel is different than an apartment building. You can't do a true due diligence study without know what you have to change and add. You don't have to have the plans completely finalized but theres a lot more than just walls an paint you have to take into account....like adding sprinklers if your building is old enough that it doesnt have any. 

The architect will also help you get contacts for a GC and get it bid too. This should be the first place anyone starts when doing commercial development, especially beginners. 

This could be a fun project. Best of luck!
 

 There are lots of different ways that architects price projects. a percentage of construction costs is one way. This percentage varies with the type of project (i.e commerical, residential, hospitality, medical etc), the scope of the project and the complexity. The percentage can range of 3-5% all the way up to 15-20%. This usually isnt used when doing renovations though, mostly new construction. Another is hourly, usually with a cap and then theres usually just a lump sum based on what the architect thinks they can get it done for and still make a profit. But all of these vary from office to office and city to city. There is no set expectation on what it should be. There are too many variables. Best way is to find a couple different firms in your local area and ask for proposals. A lot of firms will do this for free. This will give you a feeling of whats the going rate for work in your area. Just remember pretty much every firm is going to be swamped and in high demand right. So expect higher than normal prices for work and the fact that they might not fit you in for 3-6 months. 

I don't understand your thinking here. You keep referring to the "adults only" crowd that is in Vegas as the same group of people you are targeting. That if it works in Vegas, it will work for you. But you are not in Vegas. You are an hour outside a Vegas. Who wants to go to Vegas to do "adults only" types of things and have to drive an hour to their bed at 2am after drinking all day?  If you really think that you can compete with taking the "adults only" crowd away Vegas in enough number to support and recoup the massive amounts of cash that you are dumping into this. 

Did you actually do a pre-application meeting with the County before you bought the land? Do you know if you even meet all the zoning codes for all the different business types you are proposing on one parcel of land? Do you know if you can get a liquor license for your place?Did you have any educated professional do any research for you on any of this or was this all on your own? 

Yes, Apple can charge $1000 for a phone because they have spent decades produce a BRAND NAME that is known WORLD WIDE and has a WORLD WIDE buyer. Its also a product that the user gets to keep and use on a daily basis. You have none of that. So to say that since Apple can do it, you can do it? Is whats absurd. 

Just because you have a bible thumping youtube page does not translate into a mass following on a youtube page on glamping. In fact, after finding several youtube videos titled "The Cult of Dante Fortson #Survival Story" and other along the same lines....tells me enough. 

I'm done here.

 What you would be looking for is called an "Expert Witness". I would suggest mediation before litigation (or even arbitration is another option). If you do litigation or arbitration I would get a lawyer. Don't do this alone. Even if you think its a slam dunk case, odds are, you will lose or not get nearly what you should've. Its just really hard to navigate the legal field if you have literally zero experience in it. 

You also cant argue from the fact that their design wasnt the best option. Because technically it worked and thus its just you argue over opinions then. Its that they didnt follow your design, took it upon themselves the redesign, and then constructed it without your permission to vary from the original design. Though a good portion of this is on the GC you can also remind him that he should go after his truss designer who didnt look at the drawing. He can mitigate some of his losses that way. 

Not going to be fun fighting this one. Good luck.

@Dante Fortson

First off, you didnt explain ANYTHING with your first post. You came here, stepping up on a pedestal and shouting look at me and what I did. There are literally thousands of those kind of posts put on this site every week. So how is anyone supposed to distinguish you and your post from any other post? You didn't go into any detail. At all. Wtf kind of responses did you think you were going to get?

Second, yes glamping is different than camping...kind of. Only in the sense that the host provides more amenities and a higher quality "tents". BUT, the demographic BASE is the same. Yes you will get both extremes where you will get the hard core campers that would never stay at your place and you get the people would would only stay at your place and never do traditional camping. But that middle, in between, your base, is what will pay your bills. The higher end people that only glamp are those that give your profit. But you cant have profit without the base. I've done a **** ton of research on this for myself. So maybe I'm off on the Vegas market but even if I am, you still need your base to be successful. 

And I don't know what Vegas you are looking at but everything I see today is that Vegas was moving more towards being a family-friendly place, along side the traditional adult get away. Not that its going to turn into Disneyland but if the city is trying to promote that and increase its own tourist demographic towards getting more families then you should too. But having an entire, already extremely niche and new venue, even more niche by cutting out families AND pets is just an extremely poor business decision. You'll be a nice shiny new thing that quickly fades. Besides, if Vegas (the anit-kids and anti-pet) is your main draw, and you are focusing on the adults that dont have kids or pets (at least with them) how many of those people want to drive an hour from Vegas to their beds at night? Odds are it people with families and not adults that come for "adulting" time in Vegas. 

Third, I didn't say you were incapable of succeeding. With the very limited information you provided and the way you presented it, you made it sounds like you were just jumping in and buying land without actually doing any feasibility studies. 

Fourth, I don't care if you charge $200/night. If you don't know what all your up front, construction, and operating costs are you cant properly do a pro forma to evaluate what your profit margins are going to be. 

Fifth, Your Christian Bible Youtube channel, your crypto mining, and your other royalties mean very little when they don't show that you have experience and knowledge in what you are trying to do, which is develop raw land and start/run a business that you've never done before. Since, 2/3 of those obviously say you dont but maybe I'm wrong...again you havent mentioned that either. I'm glad you have that extra sources of income to help you build your dream. Cash flow is key to keeping developments a float and it sounds like you have that covered....assuming that your life style doesnt take up all your cash flow of course. There are sooo many stories of people with deep pockets that think they can make something work just by throwing money at it and it almost always fails. I'm not saying thats you. Maybe you have partners that have the experience and you are bring the money. Nothing wrong with that. BUT again, this goes back to you told us basically nothing except a few tid bits. So what is everyone supposed to do but extrapolate from that?

sixth, You have gone from saying you are doing just a glamground to a full on multi-service venue that stretches across a lot of different business types and models. You are also venturing into areas of building codes and zoning codes that could put a damper on your plans. If you haven't already, I highly suggest you get an architect to do a zoning code analysis for you and to find out what all you can do on your parcel. You might be able to do everything but thats a lot of different commercial business types that might not be aloud in your zone. Let alone all on one parcel. Have you done a pre-app with the county to see if they will buy into your idea?

In my 10+ years of architecture I've seen a lot of great ideas get shot down by the county review boards and thats after the owner has tried do do things with out going through the typical channels and typical procedures. I've helped dozens of clients put together pro-formas, feasibility studies, building and zoning code analysis for a wide variety of development projects that include camp grounds with glamping pads. So yes, I do know wtf I'm talking about and I dare say, probably more than you. Know I don't know your numbers and havent seen your pro-formas. So all I can do is assume you've done them the right way and accounted for all the expenses properly. I'm glad to hear you are being cautious with your development and using a lot of cash up front to not over leverage yourself. I do really wish you the best. I wasnt trying to stomp you don't or convince you not to go forward. Just with the very little information you provided and the way you were posting made it come off as someone who is just jumping on the hype train. You clearly are not that. Its just with my years of experience I saw what looked like some major holes in the development idea. I still stand by them but that up to you to heed them or not, for better or worse. Again, I do wish you the best of luck and success in your idea. 

@Dante Fortson

No kids?! No pets?! Do you even camp? Do you even know what the demographics of campers is? Whatever you do DO NOT have it for adults only. You just killed 75% of your client base. And even if you find a decent base for adults with no kids....75% of those adults have pets. You will fail in less than 5 years if you do. I don't care how many selfie spots you have. You will never have enough clients to meet your cash flow need. The amount of capital needed to put in a campground is ENORMOUS! There are so many infrastructure costs that I know you have not considered. 

The one absolutely horrible thing about Youtube stars are they know how to make a quick buck selling an idea based on a single model and then everyone and their dog thinks its easy to just expand the scale from a single glamping yurt to an entire campground of yurts and just watch the money fall from the sky. 

I'm not trying to crush your dream here but it is very clear you did not do a proper pro-forma before you bought that lot. You are going to be in for a rude awakening on the amount of money that is required here and I'm not talking about your total loan amount. I'm talking about the shear amount of cash needed. I hope you have either a super rich uncle or are planning on having multiple partners. 

Started my first new construction duplex in 2019, survived being shut down, building material price increases, and labor/material delays bc of COVID and finally finished Aug 2021; under budget. Getting ROI over 10% on a new construction.

@Justin Sullivan

First off, you are asking the internet not to give their opinions of your stance when you are asking for their opinions on your stance..... haha that aint going to happen. If you arent wanting to have a discussion on and are open to other opinions and that you are set in yours...then why ask in the first place? I'm not sayin gyou have to change your stance...but just posting something to try and figure out if its ok to pat yourself on the back is pointless. Just pat yourself on your back and keep going on. 

Second, I'm in a similar building profession, architecture. My office has built up reputations and track records with different other professions over 40+ years. Consultants like MEP and structural and fire systems are typical consultants we have that are like a GCs subs. And you better believe we have GCs on our list and even some subs too. 

Third, in this crazy market I can kind of understand your hesitation. Both labor and materials are extremely hard to come by and get on time. This is just something you have to consider now a days. Because at that point its not really about you not sharing with the competition (investor or not) its about getting your job done in a reasonable manor for your client. But go back to a "normal" market and then that argument falls apart for me. If a consultant is in mutually good relationship with us we give each other work all the time. Its a give take...it has to be. If a consultant found out that we werent referring them, how do you think they would react? Thats actively taking potential revenue from them just so we can make sure they have room for us when we need them? Sounds pretty damn selfish to me. At what point are they going to stop referring jobs to you? Its a two way street. A good sub or consultant will do their best to squeeze you into their schedule and give you a fair price. They value your relationship just as much as you value theirs. 

Fourth, Lets face it, if you have someone coming to ask you for suggestions for subs it means only one of two things. They have a job that doesnt need a GC or they aren't going to hire you to begin with. And in this market, if you arent booking jobs/subs out 6 - 12 months in advance now...you arent going to have them on your job anyways. I can guarantee that they are not holding a spot in their schedule for you, just incase you bring them a job. So giving out info on your subs isnt going to be effecting your schedule anyways. Your subs arent going to try and squeeze in some random nobody but they will try to squeeze you in. 

Lastly, anyone that knows how to use Google is going to find your subs. If they have half a brain they will be calling a heck of a lot more people than you to find names. If they are smart they are going to job sites, getting names of the subs AND the owner. They will get to your subs eventually and probably sooner than you realize. So this isnt really about trying to save the best subs (and their schedules) for yourself but maintaining a good relationship so when you need a favor, you know who you can count on.

 How do you budget for damaged furniture? Just part of Cap Ex?

 That would be part of the build cost. Not running expenses.