Hey Zane, I work for a production builder.

Thus the necessity of needing builders risk. 

Call one of your architects to do the research for you, noone in BP will have all your answers, they are too specific, your architect and the building department will know the answer to those questions. your firm should be able to get quotes from builders mentioned on your profile.

Unless you are building Rental units, the SF Retail market construction market is not doing well, hopefully your builder is borrowing money at sub 10% interest rates.  4 years ago, a lot of builders were only factoring in 3% for total loan costs, I would think that the carry costs would be 10% or more currently.  3.

Builders?

It won’t be fun building unless you or someone you truly trust, not your builder is on site.  

You are 100% on the right track. 2-1 buydowns are attractive options offered by sellers/builders to help improve monthly affordability but in all reality you aren't saving anything. 

Construction costs in NJ are high but we help owner builders design and contract out their build.

it's hard to do that as an agent, easy to do as a spec or volume builder or developer if you have floorplans you like, etc. we build triplexes happy to chat and help you understand the market better here and see if new construction is for you 

If I were to take a poll of all of the investors who came before you and who  implemented similar entity formation structures I suspect at least 90% fail to utilize the correct insurance depending on the status of their project (vacant, builders risk, property etc.), fail to execute contracts with vendors, use uninsured and unlicensed vendors, fail to be added as additional insured (likely don't even know the difference between being a certificate holder and being added as additional insured).