Hello. Architect getting into investing & development

[Nick Roberts]

I'm an architect in Durham, NC working toward expanding my business into real estate development and investing. I started my firm four years ago with a focus on residential design with some small commercial mixed in. We've been doing a mix of custom residential projects - single family renovations, additions, new builds, etc. - as well as developer driven urban infill projects - small apartment and condo buildings, duplexes, ADUs, site analysis studies, etc. I also have years of experience swinging a hammer and working for a GC. Job sites are one of my favorite places to be.

I've become much more interested in the financial side of projects and wanting to get much more involved in real estate development and investing. A friend who is an architect/developer recommended I check out Bigger Pockets and I've been listening to podcasts and reading the site almost daily. The amount of resources here for learning are incredible. 

I joined the forum for networking opportunities, local meetups, potential partnerships, and as another resources for learning and asking questions.

Are there any other architects here who also do real estate development and investing?

[Nick Roberts]

Quote from @Jackie Carmichael:

Curious — are you leaning toward starting with a personal project (like a small rental or flip) to get your feet wet, or do you see yourself jumping straight into ground-up/infill developments?

Thanks for the question, Jackie. I don't think I'm leaning one way or the other, and would like to be involved in both. I'd love to do both at the same time, ideally I'd like to get into house hacking as a personal project, while also doing infill developments as a joint venture. The house hacking route might be challenging with young kids though.

Since you mentioned ADUs, I'm also considering building an ADU in the backyard of my current home, which we are quickly outgrowing, then renting both the ADU and primary dwelling. I need to do some market research on rents and talk to some GCs I know about construction costs, but our current home has doubled in value since we bought it 6 years ago, and that's not considering the renovations we've done to increase from a 2 bedroom to 3 bedroom home, so we're trying to figure out how to use the equity to our advantage. Some accidental house hacking I suppose. One option is just to sell and get the equity, another option is to rent it to get some cashflow (plus an ADU rental if it makes sense financially) while still being able to leverage the equity for cash on more deals. Lots to consider...

@Ken M. Architects over designing?? Never. At least we're used to our beautiful work being mangled by a rabid GC during VE, right?

@Terrance Hill Thanks for the welcome!