There were a mix of houses in the development, ranging from poor to fairly nice.

However, they don't seem to have the traffic issues too badly yet, due to really large highways and there doesn't seem to be all that many affluent people moving into the City (actually heard mixed things about that).

But, that's where a lot of my perspective comes from.That said, most of the "bonuses" we offer are based around long-term motivation as opposed to tactical rewards; in other words, keeping the crew happy in general as opposed to rewarding them for a specific task or job.If you can do enough properties to keep your contractors fairly busy throughout the year, a lot of this motivation will come naturally -- good contractors who know that performing well will generate a lot of extra work will tend to do the right thing because doing so will mean lots more work in the future.But, there are plenty of other things we do to ensure that our contractors would rather spend time working for us (and doing a great job for us) than working for someone else or not doing a great job for us:- In terms of financial bonuses, we like to mix it up and keep our contractors hoping -- as opposed to expecting -- incentives.

Trent no offense but you are talking about a pipe dream.So you have zero experience yet want a huge payout.I have worked for developers assembling land.My biggest project was on about 25 acres with a 600,000 sq ft mixed-use retail project with an after build value of 150 million dollars.Money is tight right now and unless you have an awesome piece of land most developers are doing repositions where they can reface a shopping center and make new again.This cost much less money than building from scratch.New development has a bunch large down requirements as construction projects are required in phases for lending.What I have seen happen is they bought a piece of land as a group.Leveled it with the first phase of money and then starting putting in pipes and concrete and the second round of funding fell through.They could line up more funding but it is much more expensive then what they had before and the percentages would affect to much the partners that have already put in money.So in those types of situations the partners would much rather wait for the lending environment to get better to get reasonable terms for the next round of funding to finish the project plus rent rates will have most likely improved by the time it is built instead of right now and concessions will be down.Holding costs while waiting is a concern but is balanced against other factors.The anchor for a big project like that will wait a few years if the location is that good.If it is a sub par corner the anchor will cancel their commitment and move to a better location instead of waiting for that one to be built.If you like development go work for a firm with experience and put in your time learning the ropes.To think about this other stuff is a waste of time.

I've experimented with MLS with mixed results.

They are built spec, not custom and mixed neighborhoods instead of upscale.

I've used them with mixed results.

This stems from mixing up yield versus return.

I am in dade/broward county and also keeping an eye on west florida.It is a mix of C and D areas.

That said, mixed-use properties are one the best for an SBA loan, but even if you were to owner-occupy the space, the loan amount is very low which will be a turn off to a lot of banks.