Retail Construction Project questions

[Victor Kapustin]

Hi all, I've got raw, commercially zoned land at an intersection near me that is perfect for 6,000 to 9,000 sq ft, 3-4 unit Retail Strip center.  I would need to buy 1 - 1.3 acres of this land to make this work.  I'm meeting with Commercial Lenders this week to discuss financing options.  I'm turning to this community for some guidance on the below general questions:

1)  Is this a bad economic time to be considering a new Retail construction? (even if there is demand for it in the area?)

2) For those that have done something similar in the recent past, besides the Land purchase and construction costs, what were the other big ticket line items from the project (Legal, Engineering, Architecture, CPA, etc)?  I'm trying to build an accurate Project estimate.

3) What was the sequence of events from Project conception to completion? (pay for engineering/architecture drawings, city approval, loan qualifying, land purchase, etc)

4) How long did it take from buying the land to a fully cash-flowing property? 

Thanks!

-Victor

[Henry Clark]

You need to be able to answer these questions before your talk with a lender.  Don't answer these.

Does it make money?

Have you done a layout of the building and property on a piece of paper?

What are your revenues and expenses?

What is your market outlook?

Have you talked with Planning and Zoning?

How long will this project take?  What is your Construction interest estimate?

What debt structure are you looking for?

How much money do you bring to the table?  Do you have $600,000 "cash"?

What is your experience?  What are you missing above?  Have you scoured Bigger Pockets for this info?

On and On.  Do you have a package put together.  You should do at least 5 of these deal analysis before you think about doing a deal.  Make most of your errors on paper, versus on your first deal.