But there is a lot of new construction and rehabs.  

If you have deep pockets, I think Austin will eventually reward you, but if you are a newbie in real estate looking to cash flow positive day one or shortly thereafter, Austin is probably not your best bet in TEXAS.  

This is a humongous audience to tap into so you have to take advantage of it sooner rather than later to find great real estate deals and motivated sellers.Your best bet to connect with people quickly is to run Facebook ads and promoted posts.

Hopefully as the rates and the housing market loosens so will some of these guidelines in the HML programs. from talking to hard money funds especially those who operate in more than 10 states, and 5 years of experience with underwriting teams, I'd actually disagree and say new construction is preferred to rehab due to experience level to enter the market. there's BP lenders that will do 15% LTC with 1-2 new build experience.

Ongoing construction projects valued between $26 billion and $30 billion fuel employment opportunities.

Are you doing new construction in Chicago as well or just KC?

They build on site.One thing you mention is construction costs. 

Hey Bigger Pockets community, I'm just starting out in Step 1 (get educated) on what I want to become a successful career in real estate investment.I also currently run an e-commerce business that is currently completely online, but would benefit from having a brick & mortar storefront, and I had an idea that maybe using the investment capital I'm looking to allocate into real estate into a commercial property my business can operate out of until I decide to sell the property in or rent it out to another business.I am obviously very naive when it comes to the complexity of any good real estate deal (especially commercial VS residential), but I'm hoping to spend as much time learning from everyone here who is on their journey as well.My main concern with the idea of buying commercial to operate my business out of it that I might struggle to rent it out afterwards and that there may likely be depreciation in the commercial real estate market over the next 5 years.I understand there is a lot of nuance depending on the local market but I'm guessing commercial is even less of a "safe" bet than finding a solid residential deal to leverage in some way.

That discussion pushed me towards ground up construction, where I finally find myself today.

It may be due to the lengthy pool permitting and construction process. 2025 will be a critical year.