I've never worked a real estate deal with him so I cannot speak to that end of it but as far as a person I like him - I find the no BS, no soft-pedalling refreshing in these days of euphemism.

My quick observation, unless you're a GC building on flat land I think you're $100-$150 Psf low on your hard construction costs for your expected price range; and that's before architectural, engineering, or other soft costs.The only part of town (LA region) that's achieving $1400 psf and has flat lots would be the flats of Beverly Hills, maybe ocean view portions of Pacific Palisades...Good luck.

I have Corian in my own house, and while I love the material (integrated sink, totally seamless, renewable) I don't think it would be  appropriate for a rental property - it can be repaired easily but it's too soft for renters.

One other guy threw out a soft verbal offer and the other guy said, "I'd do it for that too."

If you have an ADU on your property, it's super easy to find out approximately how much you can take out through just a few clicks with only a soft credit pull...A side note: the founder of Figure.com Mike Cagney also founded Sofi and they got pretty some impressive investors.

My back of the envelope number is that it takes $15K in soft costs to add one rental property to your portfolio.

The proposed deal (numbers are just for example sake): - half acre land value = $300K- developer will build 6 SFHs on the half acre (covering all expenses); build cost = $150K / house; total = $900K (6 houses) + $100K (soft costs) = $1M- developer charges $120K for services (to be included in build cost, not separate)- developer will get three of the houses to sell and keep 100% profits (minus land value); houses sell for $330K each = $990K - $450K (build cost of 3) - $300K (land value) - $50K (soft costs) = $190K net profit- landowner will get value of the land paid back and the other three houses (minus build cost); landowner to keep 2 free and clear for STR / LTR- landowner will sell one house to cover the building costs of the other two; $330K (sale of one house) - $150 (build cost) = $180 (profit to cover build cost of other 2 houses); $350K (build cost of other 2 houses + soft costs) - $180 K (sale profit) - $250K (land value from 5 of 6 houses) = $80K cash in pocketHoles?

Doing a roll up loan (land acquisition, soft costs/permit, vertical) over a 3 year cycle is too much risk for any private money lender in this market texture and I'd be confident to say that, even if they are a local HI lender or a lender who is very comfy to lend in HI.

In a general understanding of construction you look at you cost of land, soft and hard costs, estimate the time, project a selling price based on comparisons and market research and figure out your IRR and/or ROI.

I have just moved back to the USA with a great experience under my belt and a soft place to land as my parents are happy to have me stay with them rent free until I decide where to move.My partner is from Belgium and will hopefully be receiving his green card next month to join me.