My wife and I lived in DSM for a couple years while traveling for a commercial construction company.

The average age of the number 1 single family home owner is greater than 2010 and less than 15 years old and they are now building homes new construction and owning them. the exact opposite of your strategy. older homes are the cheaper ones and unless you have experience I'd build in columbus close to downtown. same reason Toledo and Cleveland don't move the needle and there aren't 100 institutions in those markets. columbus is barely on the radar. 

The deals are messy, agents need a lot more knowledge (like construction cost) - but the commissions are small.

This would probably help since the next one I build I could immediately put for sale and do a short term rental while it sells.I have many years of construction experience and have also done a fix and flip, in addition to building ground up construction, as well as 10 years of entrepreneurial experience running a paddle board rental company... i have a BS in Physics from Georgia Tech , a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from UT Austin, and did Postdoctoral research using Computational Engineering where I designed, manufactured, and tested a shock mitigating metamaterial...

@Tommy Brant I have heard that there is some insurance relief coming into the Florida market, especially for new construction A class properties.

Sell the house as is or use the lot to build new construction and sell for 2.5+.

Typically, older assets have higher cap rates, while better locations and new constructions tend to have lower cap rates. 

We have worked with lenders that offer great DSCR rated to foreign investors on New construction investment property.  

Boulder's superpower is it's politics - they don't allow construction at any magnitude in the city, limiting supply long-term.

I used a 1st lien HELOC to pay off a duplex, now that I have like $5k left, I applied for a construction loan but I was denied cause my DTI is too high.