According to Metrostudy, "Housing construction is at an all-time high in Central Texas, but the pace of new housing stock entering the market can’t justify last month’s jump in sales growth on its own.

With an increase in home/apartment construction to accommodate the even larger generation, the Millennials, there will be a huge surplus of both homes and rental units on the market.

On the other hand, I feel that some of their other funds (for example the ones involving ground up construction) are too speculative for a conservative non-accredited investor doesn't have a lot of extra cash to speculate with.

Do you have any tips on how to maximize the appraisal value without major construction.

I'm thinking I need $1M to build out phase 1 of the project (purchase land, complete horizontal construction, and lease up the units).

Even as a new investor, every body has some type of value to offer, it could be money for one of his investments (which could be less than you ever think it has to be), could be time and effort that you can offer him to find more deals or maybe you have a construction background. 

Here are the laws in regards to this stuff.4735.01 [Effective Until 3/20/2019] Real estate broker definitions.As used in this chapter:(A) "Real estate broker" includes any person, partnership, association, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or corporation, foreign or domestic, who for another, whether pursuant to a power of attorney or otherwise, and who for a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration, or with the intention, or in the expectation, or upon the promise of receiving or collecting a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration does any of the following:(1) Sells, exchanges, purchases, rents, or leases, or negotiates the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of any real estate;(2) Offers, attempts, or agrees to negotiate the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of any real estate;(3) Lists, or offers, attempts, or agrees to list, or auctions, or offers, attempts, or agrees to auction, any real estate;(4) Buys or offers to buy, sells or offers to sell, or otherwise deals in options on real estate;(5) Operates, manages, or rents, or offers or attempts to operate, manage, or rent, other than as custodian, caretaker, or janitor, any building or portions of buildings to the public as tenants;(6) Advertises or holds self out as engaged in the business of selling, exchanging, purchasing, renting, or leasing real estate;(7) Directs or assists in the procuring of prospects or the negotiation of any transaction, other than mortgage financing, which does or is calculated to result in the sale, exchange, leasing, or renting of any real estate;(8) Is engaged in the business of charging an advance fee or contracting for collection of a fee in connection with any contract whereby the broker undertakes primarily to promote the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of real estate through its listing in a publication issued primarily for such purpose, or for referral of information concerning such real estate to brokers, or both, except that this division does not apply to a publisher of listings or compilations of sales of real estate by their owners;(9) Collects rental information for purposes of referring prospective tenants to rental units or locations of such units and charges the prospective tenants a fee.

The development is still under construction  so I have time to do research.

This is for new construction, I want to minimize the development cost, some areas are ridiculous for fees.

What you want to have is enough completed that it doesn't look like a total construction site when you take pictures or bring people through.