The last house I purchased was $227,500 and we put down $85K. 

@Chase Calhoun mainly we work with local builders but we have also purchased from the regional builders as well.

furnished rentals are going to be the ticket here for a while.Also keep in mind and I think this is pretty important as well.  

@Kaleb JohnsonRecommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

If you are in the Tampa area and plan on purchasing there, I highly suggest you connect with @Josh Green.

I'm a fan of using the HELOC to help purchase new property.

In that regard, I can guess estimate if they're selling 400K more (after holding for two years), with the kind of remodelling that they make ( lets say 150K), I guess they make 200K net profit.The software is good for "flipping intel" at the very least.I used it for the last three purchase that I had.

Quote from @Devin James: Gross Margin is an important calculation for developers/builders.Gross Margin = Gross Profit / RevenueWe shoot for a 20% gross margin on our New Construction HomesReal #’s:Home Sales Price: $374KClosing Cost: $18,700Cost of Construction: $258KLand Cost: $30KGross Profit = $67K$67K/$374K = 17.9% Gross MarginCame slightly short of our goal of 20%Homes Values and Build Costs are constantly fluctuatingI wish we had a crystal ball build larger homes. average new build in our market is 2200 square feet, 4 beds, 3 baths, 2 car garage and sells for 515k. construction costs lower if design is good and find the median or average home sale price and push that up. my guess is you built too small. 347k is cheap. we target 429-479k price range in columbus ohio for single family homes and also only purchase close to urban core where premiums are 20% higher and we build smaller like 1500 sq ft where price per square foot goes up. 

Owner occupied loans have allowed us to purchase properties in markets with heavy appreciation, and potential for huge rent increases.

I've purchased about 10 properties for myself and have always use my own broker.