The current costs of construction are so high that you can just find more bang for your buck buying as opposed to building.

They're just trying to intimidate you and see if you'll voluntarily cough up a few bucks.

I'm in the Milwaukee market.

On top of the 2 that are ongoing, I'm permitting for 2 new builds, and I noticed that pool prices came down a few bucks, and my truss prices were 30% less than when I started building 6 months ago.  

And make a few bucks a month as a landlord ..

Interesting, I am an active investor, we also have a team and ask OOS clients almost the opposite: we require them to come to Milwaukee and check out some neighborhoods and houses together in order to make sure we are on the same page.

I just used cash to build my first 3 specs no loans at all.. once done and sold then I went to lima got one loan from them.. then went to local bank ( much much cheaper) and got a 3 mil  guidance line and went on to build 30 or so in charleston.. you have to prove the model.. its not like buying a rental where lenders look strongly at your fico  fico is required but not the main consideration like and investor loan and all you need is 20% down or 30% down and a few bucks in reserve that wont fly with spec loans..

Most think they invest in a B, but it is really below median, so a C plus or even C minus.If you want to know if your neighborhood is slipping, track the median price of that municipality/neighborhood against the median price of the metro area or State if you want to Zoom out.Here is an example: Wauwatosa (blue) has been outperforming Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and the US.

That is what I meant, get the best bang for your buck. 

Any type of business income will supercharge your investing.I was lucky that I started in Milwaukee in 2008, but I was always trying to sail downwind", so whatever the market provided.