All Forum Posts by: Sergio P Ramos

 Thank you for the advise.  Really thank you. Other builders did make offers. The reason I was able and willing to offer more than my competitors was I had the local builder in my back pocket that had already done the feasibility survey. That's how we knew we could build more than anticipated. The builder could easily take on the project itself. Except I already had the property under contract. And i could not do the entire project alone. Per my original post, "The Pitch". I was originally looking for investors to take on the entire development. Now the builder and I partnered up to take it on.. I hope to learn more as i go. 

Update:

I've been really busy since my last interaction. Lets jump right it! Rule of thumb: I've been told "Never fall in love with a property". Lets add this mistake to my long list of Mistakes. I've named my book of mistakes HOA-M (H.E. double hockey sticks Of A lot Mistakes). However, I'm not 100% sure this was actually a mistake. The "New Development Pitch" turned out to be a really good learning experience. It forced me to reach out to developers, to engineers dozens of local builders and most important like minded individuals. I was wrong to fall in love with the potential of this development. I could not let it go. Negotiation after negotiation. I'm sure the owner was sick of me. I was able to gather several different teams. Each team would propose a new ideas and new creative financing to help both sides reach their goal. On one hand the seller obviously wanted as much money as they could get. The seller seeing the interest in their land, naturally did not want to budge on the price. This is where my mistake comes into play. I liked this land too much. I was willing to pay more than my competition. At this point I've convinced a team that this land was worth it. I'll be 100% honest. I was scared of actually getting the deal done as much as I was to losing the deal. I'm still scared till this day. As of this week we have secured the land. The seller was not getting much traction from the other interested parties. The seller not necessarily settled, Seller simply took the only offer they had. The reason we were able to make the deal work was the seller agreed to take a percentage lump sum up front. The remaining would be paid to them as we sell off the homes built. Now I previously mentioned i was willing to pay more than my competition. Reason being, i had teamed up with a local builder. A builder that knows the area very well. A builder that has built several subdivisions in the area. He knew exactly how many homes we could build and what they could be sold for. The price paid is well below what we should have paid based on number of lots/homes/ that can be built. Of course there are contingencies in place incase something goes wrong. Nothing is a sure bet. Now, was me falling in love with this property a mistake? It kept me pushing forward. Kept me trying to find a way to make the deal happen. It kept me awake at night just thinking about it. TBD! The mistake could be costly. Maybe one day i'll look back and wish I didn't fall in love with a property. As for now. I am over my head. I'm worried, scared and excited at the same time. If that makes sense.

@Kenneth Bell you are 1000% correct. This just makes sense. I was so caught up in the project in its entirety that it never occurred to me that they are 2 separate things. @kenneth life saver. Thank you. I would have never thought of this.

@JD Martin noted. Thank you

@JD Martin i have not done a development project of this scale. I am at a point where I've secured the land. Surveyed the land. Replat-ed the land(room for 31 town homes). I've even reached out to start designing the townhomes) My issue now is: i do not have a builder. My normal GCs simply cannot handle this magnitude. And I do not have investors to take this any further. I am at a crossroads. Do I pursue this? If so, how? Or do I sell off the replatted lots individually? I really wanted to pursue this not so much for the financial benefit but for the learning experience. Ive had such a hard time scaling up my business. However, I'm out of my league here. I can honestly say Im lost.

@JD Martin thank you for this!

What are some key points when making a pitch to a potential investor on a new land development?. Have you ever had a property literally fall into your lap too good to be true??. This is my current situation. I reiterate, I was not looking for this at all. Now here's my problem. I can NOT do this on my own. Hence my post. What are some key points? What comes first? What are some dos and donts? Am I over my head? Most likely. I'd regret it if I didn't give it a try.

Thank you @Jay Hinrichs We'll see how this goes. 

@Marcus Auerbach thank you for that. I have reached out for some quotes. The most expensive was 45k the cheapest was 25k. Prepping the home by removing all hazards. 3k-7k. Donating the home to the fire department is free. I don't think I'd get a charitable deduction due to the fact of it purposely being burned down. I'm not sure on that one yet though.

@Marcus Auerbach no we do not have basements. I sort of wish we did. I grew up in Chicago, so I'm used to basements.thank you for your reply. I would imagine if the home is being prepped before hand to remove all hazards, post burn there should be minimal debris. I would imagine i could have an environmental sample taken to see if im able to simply back fill it. The entire lots level has to be increased. So the concrete slab and post burn debris would in theory be covered up when it's leveled to its seal level height requirements.