I'm in Milwaukee and I have heard of a lot of bad stories involving this type of scenario...mostly involving out of state investors. 

Like I said, I'm not an accountant so you should probably talk to one.

@Jake AndronicoI’ve looked into them but have never executed one.Let me say they will be expensive and complicated.I think what you will find if one is trying to defer $50,000 to $100,000 in gain, it’s not going to be worth the time and trouble.On the other hand, if client is trying to defer gain of $500,000 to $1,000,000, it’s worth the time and trouble.I use First American Exchange for my own account a dozen times and they have been right on the money.Google them and reach out.Arn

While both involve finding and properly securing a site and bringing it to full entitlement, the ground-up process includes the land piece but gets way more involved and complex to execute.The full "Monty" for ground-up development needs to include financial literacy, an explanation of metrics, and how they work.

Maybe just under $600k at 95% accounting for closing and keeping some (tight) reserves.

If you are a general contractor managing the entire project, you need a general contractor’s license, particularly for projects involving permits.Lien WaiverA lien waiver is a legal document signed by your contractor to waive their right to file a lien against your property after they have been paid for their work.

I taught myself Spanish, I already know the construction crews in the area, the realtors, the communities, the land, I have someone managing the property, I have a maintenance crew… I already did an incredible amount of the work involved in finding a deal and turning it around through reconstruction and proper management.

It may create a problem for you later if your bank discovers the account is owned by an LLC that no longer exists.

You will need to find partners, you will need to travel to where you wish to invest, you will need to understand the ins and outs of the business by being actively involved and treating it like a business and not some super passive investment.If you don't want to do that work I suggest you just put that 200k into some sort of diversified mutual fund that can make you 10+% on your money without any of the work of real estate.At the end of the day this is just my advice and I'm only a stranger on the internet.

I'm looking to get involved in this space, too.