I more easily track all mileage, buy supplies like light bulbs, batteries, cleaning stuff, grass seed, icemelt, etc through.   

This is a spin-off of a question I posted earlier.What spec LVP are landlords using our there?

LEED can add enough to a project to make it prohibitive for a spec unless price is not an issue.

My spec homes always become my babies, despite my efforts to retain a sound business focus.  

Dragging the cord is why I said "open" - if you have a bunch of trees or swingsets or whatever to navigate, getting the cord to do the right thing gets trickier.I don't like battery electric mowers; I feel the power requirements hit the batteries too hard and will require replacement batteries too often.If you get a gas mower, again, use non-ethanol gas, as fresh as you can. 

Yes ,the new build may be more a spec home play than rental... targeting some existing homes in the area may be better angles.  

My tenants change filters, batteries, are responsible for the first $100 of repairs. 

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:@Patrick Connell  works both ways.. with builders here.. they want the least amount up front so their cash needs are minimized on their HML verticle loans.. so they would rather not pay up front and pay full commish on back end.Believe me the top agents that do this have NO worries of these guys stiffing them.. its uber competitive and they know where their bread is buttered With a spec or production builder I can see that being the case, someone like that more than likely has a solid business model in place.

Well we were over there the other day to replace all the batteries in the smoke detectors and noticed that it had been removed...Besides being rough on the apartment, the other tenants have told me that he's yelled at them numerous times, slammed doors right before they could get to him, etc.

Building a spec home is a situation in which you are going to have a VERY tough time claiming capital gains instead of ordinary income.