My primary business is selling land in LA and the Inland Empire to homebuilders and other kinds of developers. 

., if you're not willing to pay for a home inspection then they might assume you're not serious about the home, and therefore they may not invest their time doing a walk through with you).Its definitely harder to get estimates/opinions from contractors without having a relationship with them first, and its hard to develop that relationship without doing business with them.  

If they could get out of their own way of their own regulation or reduce them for developers and charities to be able to build housing from say shipping containers,  or in older commercial buildings without having to do a full upgrade to modern standards.   

Also like Matthew mentions above, each city/state has their own zoning and codes, working with a knowledgeable developer in the areas who would also help you install the container homes would help tremendously imho.

I've purchased many homes, and have had a few rentals, but I've never invested in a developers project.  

Have also developed a good relationship with bank over last few months.

The contractor I spoke to stated his company has worked on several developments of this size.

I may have to meet the owners and just develop some relationships to see how they are getting the ones they own and if they’re interested in selling.

Dont bet on the market, bet on a variable you can control like property management, proper maintenance, well screened tenants, etc.

What's even more is that using the IRR, you can also then make comparisons to a whole lot of other types of Investments.To answer your question, however, please refer to this snapshot:Rather than calculate the IRR for each and every year, I just decided to calculate the 5 year IRR for the numbers you type out in your last post.You really should split it out as I have done in this spreadsheet.First, make a column only for the Buy/Sell, or as I put it, Appreciation.When you buy the Investment, you paid $323,472.Noticed you PAID for the investment.Most people don't really understand Cash Flow so they don't understand that Cash Flow is really just a direction of how cash is flowing.You need to first pick a reference point and then you can figure out how to properly put a sign on the Cash Flow.In this case, we have a Cash Flow of $323,472.HOWEVER, we need a reference point.