There is another builder in the area with townhomes that are very nice, have 5 rooms, and would bring a better return on investment, but they are 330k and won't be finished until next year.

They look like generic, builder grade, 2010 fixtures. 

Most of  the major builders use the cheapest ones possible it seems....So what do I know?

They only know how to tear things down, not how to build things up.The mayor of my city was live on Facebook yesterday and I love what he said, "We don't need anymore negative people, I got plenty of those, we need bridge builders.

In large scale new construction you are competing with brand new homes from the builder and they can cut prices and offer incentives that most existing homeowners simply cannot afford to do.  

Does any body knows which banks are willing to refinance and provide home equity now?

and statistical projections in excel along with some more qualitative analysis once I had a short list developed (all based on the BiggerPockets body of knowledge!)

So I currently am on orders to Fort Polk, I wanted to build a duplex the problem comes that no builders will utilize the VA loan and stated that I needed to lend through a bank and then transfer it over through the VA loan.

Builders risk insurance (depending on the condition of the house) can be 1-2k, and definitely don't forget to have some "oops" money when you're calculating expenses as I haven't had a house yet that hasn't had some sort of surprise.

Then we can use national building codes instead of every locality putting a spin on stuff.Look at pre-fab housing, you only need a state cert on the interiors and the time to put those projects together is <50% of running to BDS (in Portland) and hoping you can get thru quick and not run afoul of neighborhood associations.Yes, neighborhood associations serve a purpose, but their main agenda is to freeze everything once they buy a house in the neighborhood.All I have to say is I've taken 6 out-of-state builders to BDS for a pre-app and I'm batting 1.000 - They all walked away.