When the closing entity simply holds your money in their escrow account after closing you are deemed to have constructive receipt (meaning control if not possession) of the money. 

Finding a PM who can competently oversee major construction is great, I haven’t found one who can in my market yet.

Thats very unusual for residential construction.

Here’s an interesting articlehttps://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2018/10/04/home-prices-michigan-rise-construction-slows/1459488002/

But you might get a premium on rent for a new construction.

Excited to have stumbled upon this awesome community.With that said, I wanted to post about my current situation and how I've found myself here.We purchased a new construction home in a booming area in June of 2018.

I own my own construction company so figure that as an advantage for repairs maintenance but do need to due due diligence as I think some things may be missing - snow removal, lawn mowing.  

We are under contract to buy another townhouse (currently under construction) in an up and coming neighborhood for 275K.

Assuming you have a budget of $1M+ I would recommend that you could start by building your investment portfolio through flipping properties in the SoCal area because the appreciation and quality of construction is pretty good.  

My thinking has shifted to index funds in a well constructed diversified portfolio, which I can do myself and save the fee.