“Soft costs” maybe….insurance, utilities, property taxes, lawn maintenance, etc

I know the market is soft compared to pre '07, but pretty much any great deal is going to move fast in any of the big 4 metropolitan areas in Texas.

Buffalo's a soft market.

To answer your question, yes, you should be able to cover the majority of soft/hard costs (not including closing costs) with the construction loan. 

While I make no claims to know the market here as an expert, its not as soft as the rest of the country at all.

Also, it is a soft inquiry so it does not affect their credit score.

What is making the economy soft?

First the rule is a "rule of Thumb" and you should always run actual numbers to analyze a deal.There are a lot of costs you are not accounting for; primarily soft cost/ holding costs.Here are some of the costs you haven't includedClosing costs x2Transfer taxesloan costspoints on the loaninsurance (builders risk more expensive)ElectricityWaterProperty taxesSeller concessionsStaging costsIn general a round trip of both buying and then selling can cost 15% of a deal easily and 20% if you use hard money and take a long time to rehab and sell.

I already gave @Adam Wright a soft yes on the saginaw library meetup so it'd be great if that works out.  

Most of the time there is not the proper time, condition, and sense of reality for the seller to use this option.You have to be wondering why we go through all this,  well most people know they have to sell "they never could afford the home" your job is to softly help them come to this conclusion.