All Forum Posts by: Seth Holmen

Thanks! It’s just north of St. Charles in Campton Hills, IL. 

Hello BP World! I'm new and wanted to say hi. I'm an architect in the Chicago area with love for all things building and investing. I currently work for a corporate real estate investor / developer. I'm personally in the process of my first "investment" property. I developed raw land and building my own house and doing all of the work myself. I found a beautiful piece of land (12 wooded acres) at a great value. It was unimproved when I bought it (no access or utilities). I'm currently about 75% done with the house and making  a hard push to get it move in ready by the end of summer. 

Here are the numbers:

12 Acres = $82,500

Construction Cost = $187,500 (This is 95% material costs only since I'm doing all of the labor) 

• 2,100sf 4 bed / 3 bath (+900sf of attic space for future finished space + 500sf covered porch) 
• The costs per/sf are fairly high due to the land development costs. I had to build a 1,000ft road to get into the property, remove 200+ trees, drill 740ft well, install septic, bring in utilities.   

Total investment = $270,000 

Appraised Value from bank = $440,000 

Sweat Equity (+$170,000) 

The land was purchased with a family loan and the construction is being done with a conventional construction loan. We will move into a 30 year mortgage once the home is complete. We will basically have $0 into the house once we move in since our sweat equity covers the down payment. Down the road will be to do a hybrid BRRR strategy where I will pull some additional equity out of this house and look for a 2-4 unit multifamily.