He is also interested in leasing the rest of the land in the future for his main office.I also made sure environmental concerns were addressed in the lease as well as specific can and can't do's.The only issue I ran into was the city wanting a grading permit along with drainage plans, we are still in the process of getting that situated.Thank You for your advice @Todd Faulk @Ronald Rohde @Jess Hewitt

I think North Charleston by the airport would be a great place to build new construction 100 plus unit .. get it up and running sell to investment grade operator.

Soil grading and compaction test, depending on type and size of building.9. 

I plan to acquire ownership or control of 7,000 units within the next 7 years through a combination of syndication, joint ventures, and personal acquisitions.Strategy – My strategy it to acquire moderately sized (50 to 150 unit) properties in emerging markets that are currently at a C+ to B- grade, as well as acquire large multifamily (160 to 350 unit) properties in stable areas around major industry and academic institutions that are B- to A- grade.

You have raw land,semi developed,and developed.Raw land is where trees and everything is untouched.Semi developed is usually where they might have torn down the house and cleared some trees.Developed is where it is cleared and graded,utilities and entrance is in place and they just haven't gone vertical with any structure yet.The best use of a parcel of land might not be it's current zoning use.When you want to build on the land will factor into it as well.Example a developer might have gotten zoning and approval for a particular use.Now too many of those properties have saturated the market or the demand is no longer there.Now you have to figure out in the current economy what would work there and what the ultimate rents would be to determine a price for the land.How much dirt you have to move around to get a site ready for vertical improvements is key as well.You can have 2 sets of the same size parcel.One is listed at 300,000 and acre and the other at 175,000 an acre.Looking at face value you would think 175,000 is cheaper.You learn however that with the topography of the land to clear the site ( 3 acres ) will cost 200,000 an acre.The other parcel at 300,000 will cost only 50,000 an acre as it is relatively flat already with little to no brush to take down.So 300,000 times 3 is 900k plus 150k for clearing land is 1,050,000 to get site ready.Land at 175k is 525k plus 600k in clearing costs is 1,125,000 plus the site will take longer to get ready to develop.Land prices are down in mnay areas as well because used to a developer could form an LLC and pay any price and it the project tanked they could walk away non-recourse.Now lenders want heavy down payments,recourse,and cross collateral of the developers existing trophy properties.So now developers are real picky on what price they will pay for a property.I can go much more in depth than this about land development but I don't want to write a book here.If you have a more specific question just ask.I only provided basic info here and does not include anywhere near all development costs.

- Then move on the first round of landscaping (pruning bushes away from house, grading)

That's a good question because in my experience, for appraisal purposes, I was informed the below grade level is not counted in the square footage and the rooms are not added to the room counts; however, the appraisor will count it as a finished basement. 

So this is based on my experience using mid-grade materials to get the most bang for your buck.

Commercial grade of either will be more durable than consumer models.

D.C. isn’t necessarily more per sf, it’s permits on structural adjustment’s and dealing with dcra, can be very hard (though I find dc extremely easy if you don’t need a building permit.) as far as finishes, those are usually about 20% of my budget (labor being the other 80%) and the difference between higher end and building grade finishes is generally negligible (think 5-10k difference on a 150-200k reno.)