All Forum Posts by: Steve Mandelbaum

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Steve Mandelbaum:

This is the same house from last year's build.  This design is all over North Florida.  My front door is angled.  I think in my next revision I am going to change it.

what are you paying to build per sq ft not  including the lot from digout to finish ?
2 years ago in your area we could do these for about 100 a foot or the ones i just finished in Ocala were closer now to 130 to 140 a foot .. but ARV also popped up to 275k when the old ARV was 225k. still thin margins builds all in all.. unless of course your plan is to simply keep them as rentals.

 I am not sure if I will keep it or sell it. There are too many unknowns in the market. I could keep it, sell it as build for rent or sell it to owner occupied.  I am comfortable with any of the scenarios.

I am doing the build myself. I have a builder's license and a plumbing company. The rest is all contractors. At this point, I am not confident about how much it will cost to build. The prices of commodities are so variable.  In a worst-case scenario, I can get most if not all of my money out and just add it to my portfolio.  Rents are strong and the housing shortage here is not getting any better.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence  investment in JACKSONVILLE, FL 

THIS IS THE ACTUAL MODEL, I BUILD FOR $235K. THE RENT IS IN THE $1700+ RANGE
3_2
1,290 SQ FT
WITH A GARAGE

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I LIKE THE BUILD-TO-RENT MODEL. I CAN GET TOP-OF-MARKET RENTS AND IT ATTRACTS THE BEST TENANTS. THERE WILL BE NO SYSTEM MAINTENANCE FOR YEARS TO COME.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I BOUGHT THE LAND AND BUILT THE HOUSE

How did you finance this deal?

SELF FINANCE

How did you add value to the deal?

NEW CONSTRUCTION

What was the outcome?

IT WILL BE FINISHED IN MARCH AND IS FOR SALE.

This is the same house from last year's build.  This design is all over North Florida.  My front door is angled.  I think in my next revision I am going to change it.

This is the lot before any trees have been cut.

The landscape permit was approved.

The building permit has been returned.   We need to add some additional documents and the building review did not approve the drainage.  An engineer must sign it, the survey guy signed this one for me.  I have used the survey guy version before and it was acceptable.

The second house is still under review at the city.

My tree man called and said he would not be able to finish clearing the land.  I have another tree man, but he is more expensive.  My goal was to have the corners of the house pinned by the survey guy before the building was approved.  More on that in a future post. 

The landscape permit went in today.  It's the waiting game...

Hopefully, the drainage will be acceptable.  Generally, they will go by whatever the engineer says.  Missing documents or the wrong version of the documents is usually the biggest reason for the permit being kicked back.  In spite of having a checklist, it always seems to happen.   

I have received the service availability letter from the utility company, JEA.  I know there are services available on the street.  They use an online system called SAGES.  It is not what I would call intuitive.  Fortunately, they do respond to email. 

I am having the trees removed this week.  There are 14 total from the 2 lots.  They will grind and haul off the wood.  

I will be submitting the first permit this week, landscape.

City of Jacksonville Required Permits 

1.  Landscape 

2. Building 

3. A/C (mechanical)

4.  Plumbing 

5.  Electric

6.  Temp electric pole 

7.  Driveway curb cut to the street 

Quote from @Scott Mac:

Hi Steve,

It looks like an easy-peasy build, no jut outs, simple roof line.

Just some of my thoughts--not suggestions.

[1] Will 4 identical homes lower the value of the homes vs. 4 similar-ish fronts and similar-ish sq ft, so as to appear less low scale?

Or do you think it will not matter?

[2] Will the value be more with the [1] car garage or that space as an extra room 20' x 12'-ish?

[3] Small houses equal no stroage space--will you also build sheds to improve the appeal?

[4] Will you use different window mullens, doors, trim and main colors to differentiate the homes, vs. all one type?

[5] Will you use colored standing seam metal on the porch roof to make it look modern or shingles?

[6] Is this going to be a Hardi-board type exterior or vinyl siding?

[7] Are you spec-ing any 24" doors (people like to eat), or is that SOP in the area (because to me the front door looks kind of slim).

I think it's a GREAT design.

I did a little mockup, the colors I used (to me) are more Seattle than Florida, but just to get an idea vs the line drawing--I can see why you think this will be a great rental!

I put in a wider front door (with a sidelight), bout otherwise stayed true to the line drawing.

Good Luck!

Wow, your mock-up is amazing. It is probably more than the house requires. The ARV is 225k and will rent between 1800-2000 a month. I only spend a $1 if I can get it back or more than the $1.

1.  There will be a left and right model in each location.  They will be painted in different colors. 

2.  The funds all want them with a garage.  It is a balancing act to try to build to the optimization.  I am trying not to reinvent the wheel. I just need to execute a little better and provide a little more value than some of the other builders in town. 

3.  Have not considered the shed.  No one keeps a car in a one-car garage, it ends up loaded with the kids' stuff.

4.  Builder level except I am going to put in window sills, as a practical durability feature.

5.  Architecture 3 tab shingle for the entire roof. Renters at this price point would not notice or care about the metal roof.

6.  I have historically done Hardie lap siding around the entire house.  Many people use the Hardie sheets, the labor is less, but the material costs more per sq ft.  In the end, they are close enough in cost to spend the extra money.

7.  Your front door looks amazing, but I am not going to spend the extra money on it.

Thanks for clicking.  NO, I am not actually going to make sausage.

I am a local developer in Jacksonville, FL and I am going to show you what it actually takes to construct a Build For Rent house in Jacksonville, FL.  I doubt it will be completed in 10 steps, but it was a good headline.  All the tasks and subtasks will far exceed the 10 steps!  Buckle up it will be a fun ride...

I have 4 lots on the North Side of Jacksonville and will be constructing 4 identical houses, there are 2 lefts and 2 rights.  The houses are 3/2 with a garage, 1293 sq ft heated, and cooled,  total square footage 1693 with garage and porch.

My goal is to have the first house completed by April 1, 2023.

I hired Universal Engineering Sciences to help assist me in getting my new construction permit approved by the city of Jacksonville and to run the inspections. The goal was to simplify and streamline the process. We are a small organization and wanted to outsource the process and It has proven to be a huge mistake to use Universal Engineering Sciences. I feel I have wasted money and more importantly, time. I was assigned to a Project Coordinator who has continually dropped the ball and wasted time. She had no idea what she was doing. There was a mix-up in the addressing system with the city and the permit could not be submitted. She called the city and could not figure out what the problem was. She asked me to call the city. I was able to resolve the problem in one call and they asked me if she worked with me and that she confused them as to what the problem was. On 12/16 the plans were submitted to the city. By the afternoon it was returned. I do not monitor the approval site in the city, and I am not on the alert list. Five days later, I was checking on another project and looked up this one and discovered we had been returned for correction. As best I can tell there was an error in the site survey. I sent an updated survey immediately. This should have been caught in the review, that is what I hired Universal Engineering Science for. My experience is that Universal Engineering Sciences reviews documents one at a time. In other words, they stop working on the file until the first error is corrected but fail to mention they stopped working. As opposed to sending me a comprehensive list of corrections as the city does. I have emailed and called her to ask if she submitted the correction. She has not returned my email or phone call and my time is being wasted. The holidays are already a slow time with the city, and they have made it worse. I reached out to their executives via LinkedIn since I could not get anyone to return my call to help me or answer my questions. After doing so, I received a callback.

I thought after my reaching out for help, my situation would improve with Universal Engineering Sciences. It has not the incompetence and poor service have continued. I have to check the city site daily to know what is happening with my permit. In spite of the city sending Universal alerts, I have not been notified by universal of a single change in status or problem. To top it off, today I received a call from Ricky Agee, Universal Engineering Sciences, Florida Director of Code Compliance. He insulted me and called me a p#$%^ and told me the issues with my permit were not his problem. I asked him what am I paying universal for? I explained to Ricky, I signed up for your service, because I was told that Universal gets permits through. Further, Universal claimed to know what the city wants and makes sure the permit is correct the first time. Rick then told me he does 1k permits a year with Lennar. I asked him if he did not want to do business with smaller builders, why did he take my business. He said he did not and proceeded to fire me as a customer. I have 25 builds in the pipeline for 2022 and 2x that for 2023. I will never be Lennar. Anyone in this business knows that there is a time coming when reputation will come to matter again, and Universal Engineering Sciences does not care. They are woefully short in that area. If you are not going to build 1k houses and year and do their job for them don’t bother using Universal Engineering Sciences.

Has anyone had a similar experience with them?