Building and Selling New Construction Homes

[Matt Diebold]

As a part of my real estate investment strategy, I am exploring the possibility of building and selling new construction homes.  I am looking to connect with anyone who is using this strategy as well as looking for some ideas where I can source information on using this strategy.  Any information would be much appreciated.

[Doug Smith]

We have 2 business arms...one is a real estate flipper/builder, and the other is a licensed mortgage company that, among other things, finances such spec builds. The former started with flipping and slowly moved into ground-up construction. From a lending perspective, financing is very difficult to obtain until you have a track record of at least flipping houses. I don't know your background, but as long as you can show a progressive increase in the difficulty of flips up to major, major rehabs, you'll be able to make it happen. Have you flipped or built properties before? I would start there. If not, I would start with a strategy of doing a series of progressively more intense rehabs and then, finally, do a tear down and simply single-family home with a GC. That's how our investment side got started and it's how I advise our borrowers that come to us for ground-up construction financing to do it. I hope that helped.