Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Bought 24 acres 5.5 million put all the streets and utls in and I am building 90 homes right now we are little over half way through sales are still perking along at 2 or more a month for record prices in Canby Oregon.. with an extreme shortage of existing homes new builds are some of the only inventory.. WE chose to up scale and semi custom instead of trying to lower prices we raised them and that strategy has worked our buyers tend to be empty nesters paying cash or almost cash we still get some younger families but not like before the interest rates changed. price points when we started a few years ago for 550 to 650. today we are 675 to 900k plus exact same houses.. Lot costs already established so things are penciling well for our project . we put a small group of investors together for this project I get all the loans personally so we usually have 7 to 12 million out on construction loans .. and I think we will wrap up sales in 24 and building in 25.. these houses are 1800 to 2500 sq ft and sell for 300 to 400 a sq ft retail. No rentals of course.
Another drone shot looking west.. you can see the big foot print single levels on larger lots. We went out of order building phase 3 before finishing phase 2.. but it was the right call we would not be performing nearly as well if we did not have these ultra nice single levels for our empty nester cash buying clients.. sometimes you make the right decision .. It was a tough one I had 20 lots sitting and then went and borrowed another 3 mil to build phase 3.. but had we not we would not be enjoying this great market for us.. we sold two homes last 10 days that were 2k sq ft single level 3 car garage for 800k each.. Even with all the upgrades we put in as standard ( with other builders they are upgrades) these have very nice Net Net profit margins in the order of 25% on gross sales price. My wife and the GC have done a spectacular job in Producing first rate product and then Lori marketing it and bringing in the contracts she is amazing.
Congratulations on your success and thank you for the information on your market and development performance
Thanks Barry its turning out real nice its been wild building through the pandemic with supply chain issues and wild price swings ( lumber) and then the rates doing what they were doing.. I have to admit I was very nervous last fall as sales just stopped for a few months.. Not only us but pretty much every builder.. then January rolled around and well people move they just do no matter the rates.. and we built the right product for those that are not interest rate sensitive or dependant choosing to go high end single levels with most all extras included standard has allowed us to dominate our market at our price point.. The way the project was zoned we had our smaller lots predominately in phase 2. However those models are your 2 story 4 and 2 family homes. I made the decision to pay off the phase 2 lots to my bank so we had them free and clear . And open up space on my credit lines to allow us to build out phase 3 ahead of schedule as phase 3 had all our larger lots and many premium lots ( back up to open space). These lots I can put the big foot print single levels bling them all out and go for the Empty nester that's selling their farm or ranch or larger family home but need a single level and one that is far nicer than the production builders like Lennar. Lennar is in this city big time so i knew i could not go to head to head on pricing with them we had to have basically what is a semi custom home a thank god that strategy has worked very very well for us.. Sometimes you make a call and it goes against you and sometimes it works this one worked it was a big risk with rates and economy and Oregon Pandemic lock downs to take on additional debt to build more lots.
I understand what you mean by "making a call" and living with it. I broke ground on a mixed-use high-rise project in downtown Seattle in the early 1980s. We poured a floor a week on a 38-story building and EVERY week, the prime rate went up a point and stopped somewhere around 19%...so much for griping about today's rates.
The market we were playing to was the new "empty nesters" that were emerging and wanting to sell their homes on Lake Washington or the gold course and move into downtown hi-rise living in a then gentrifying city.
The only thing that allowed the project and me to survive was my "bodyguard" money partner, a Canadian bank that gave us the ability to hold ~130 units until the rates came down from the clouds and some form of rate sanity returned.
I understand what you mean by "making a call" and living with it. I broke ground on a mixed-use high-rise project in downtown Seattle in the early 1980s. We poured a floor a week on a 38-story building and EVERY week, the prime rate went up a point and stopped somewhere around 19%...so much for griping about today's rates.
The market we were playing to was the new "empty nesters" that were emerging and wanting to sell their homes on Lake Washington or the gold course and move into downtown hi-rise living in a then gentrifying city.
The only thing that allowed the project and me to survive was my "bodyguard" money partner, a Canadian bank that gave us the ability to hold ~130 units until the rates came down from the clouds and some form of rate sanity returned.
I just refinanced all my debt.. I was tagged to prime as well.. I had two banks competing for these loans and got my dirt loan redone at 7.5% fixed 3 years NO FEEs other than title insurance and escrow. my vertical which was also tied to prime i got lowered to 7.7% fixed 3/4th point about as good as I can personally get on these type of loans. Truly blessed by this project..
I remember those high interest days but I was selling dirt in those days and it was all owner finance so I did well then.. I did not start developing until late 80s and into the 90s and even then i just built subdivisions and sold the plats to builders or lots to builders.
This is awesome Jay! Congrats and thanks for sharing details on what you’ve been up to. We just got back from visiting family in Bend and camping along the coast. I can’t believe how much Bend has grown and changed since the last time we were there 7 years ago. Oregon is pretty great!
This is awesome Jay! Congrats and thanks for sharing details on what you’ve been up to. We just got back from visiting family in Bend and camping along the coast. I can’t believe how much Bend has grown and changed since the last time we were there 7 years ago. Oregon is pretty great!
Thanks Steve.. we have 3 buyers actually moving from Bend over to our development. One moving for Grandkids and the other 2 for jobs.. We have two folks this weekend from Texas that we are close to writing up as well. Only One so far from CA. which is quite rare as CA was the number one state for Oregon in migration for decades.
Nice job Jay! The company I work for finished up a comercial project not to far away and I took the time to drive thorugh the neighborhood, and it looks fantastic! Who did you guys work with on the excvataion/utilites for the site work if you don't mind me asking?
Nice job Jay! The company I work for finished up a comercial project not to far away and I took the time to drive thorugh the neighborhood, and it looks fantastic! Who did you guys work with on the excvataion/utilites for the site work if you don't mind me asking?
Thanks Roarke,
My first bp member drive by :) dirt work was done by Canby X. they treated me very well. they bid pretty strong for projects in their home town.. Plus their relationship with the city and Canby Utility company goes along way as well.
Just wondering, do you track the ratio of new families buying to investors buying (???)
Home owners 100% at our price points not attractive for rentals.. rents max out at about 3500 to 4k at the most.. There was a little bit of activity in build to rent here in Oregon but not much land prices are to high construction cost to high and rents just dont move up exponentially. If a renter can afford more than 3k a month they are generally buying not renting.
Funny note though we are writing up two contracts this week from folks leaving Texas and coming to our development !!
Well Done Jay. This is a great looking project. You mentioned offering some customization as a way to complete against big builders. Is there a reason that the big builders don't do the same?
Well Done Jay. This is a great looking project. You mentioned offering some customization as a way to complete against big builders. Is there a reason that the big builders don't do the same?
larger production builders generally have an upgrade list that you can choose from with no exceptions. We allow our buyers to make many more custom design decisions.. takes longer to the build the house this way so production builders are more focused on getting the homes up completed we are 10 to 20% higher priced than production builders in our little city.
There is a record shortage of inventory, but there is also a record shortage of demand. Once supply picks back up, we will see major changes in the real estate market.
Don't know how I missed this thread when you first posted it. Thanks for sharing Jay! It's fascinating to hear some 'behind the scenes' detail on a project of this size (also inspirational!)
Those folks who bought in at $550k when you first got started must be thrilled.
Would love to see a follow up once the project is 100% sold out.
Don't know how I missed this thread when you first posted it. Thanks for sharing Jay! It's fascinating to hear some 'behind the scenes' detail on a project of this size (also inspirational!)
Those folks who bought in at $550k when you first got started must be thrilled.
Would love to see a follow up once the project is 100% sold out.
YUp 200k to 300k appreciation in 24 to 30 months is what we have been able to do for our buyers on certain models and certain lots.. My pleasure sharing its my biggest project I have taken on to date .. Looks like it will be about 75 million + at build out..
Sounds like an awesome project Jay! Good luck on it.
BTW, some day you and my dad Bill, who's in Eugene, should get together and grab lunch or something like that.
U recall I met your dad back in about 2005 ish.. It was in your Salem office .. I think anyway. u sure made the right move to KC.. and with your pedigree its no wonder you guys have knocked it out of the park.
Sounds like an awesome project Jay! Good luck on it.
BTW, some day you and my dad Bill, who's in Eugene, should get together and grab lunch or something like that.
U recall I met your dad back in about 2005 ish.. It was in your Salem office .. I think anyway. u sure made the right move to KC.. and with your pedigree its no wonder you guys have knocked it out of the park.
Oh that's right. I guess I'm reaching the age when the memory starts to fade. And thank you, I appreciate the kind words. And great job on that project!
Nice job Jay! The company I work for finished up a comercial project not to far away and I took the time to drive thorugh the neighborhood, and it looks fantastic! Who did you guys work with on the excvataion/utilites for the site work if you don't mind me asking?
Thanks Roarke,
My first bp member drive by :) dirt work was done by Canby X. they treated me very well. they bid pretty strong for projects in their home town.. Plus their relationship with the city and Canby Utility company goes along way as well.
I have worked with Canby X. They really know their AHJ's well, they stay very competitive in area they condiser theirs and do good work. I found them good to work with as well.