Hi there,
My name is Aladdin - yes, really :) I am from Chicago and have been in real estate development and homebuilding basically my whole life.
I started laboring on job sites for my father's company in the winters/summers of 5th grade, child-labor-laws-be-damned.
From there I learned most aspects of the development and building process including Annexation, Zoning, Civil Engineering, Land Planning, Architecture, Deal Negotiation, Letters of Credit, and the often-dreaded: Municipal Approval process.
Our firm has developed over 1,500 homesites and has built over 1,100 homes since 1995.
We also owned a couple of dozen rentals over the years but sold them in 2005/2006 before the crash.
I found biggerpockets through the podcast as I was looking for something new to listen to on my long drives between sites.
We currently have a few townhome-for-rent projects on the drawing board that I will be posting about eventually.
Nice to meet you all and I am looking forward to engaging in this community.