All Forum Posts by: Joseph Amin

Hey Eric congrats on the start of your real estate journey, I work with a lot of investors who are either looking to do ground up construction or purchase spec homes directly form the builder. When doing ground up construction we recommend investors get pre approved for the construction property before buying the lot. too many buy the lot first without knowing if they get approved for the construction loan or know their total financing and closing costs. This is beneficial to know ahead of taking on a project like this as it can easily be tens of thousands of dollars in unrealized costs. Most lenders will factor in 3 major components before approving the construction loan. that includes the builder, the project, and the investor. So we recommend working with the builder and their preferred lender as they have already previously worked together ( approved them and previous projects before). Once you receive approval for the pre construction loan, you can then look for lots now knowing all of your costs and that you will eventually be approved. The best rates are usually given to investors that have built 5 properties in the last 2 years. If you do not meet this threshold you are more luckily to get a hard money loan at much higher rates. When our investors look at spec or ground up , most go with spec build because it can cash flow right away and avoid build time, hidden costs ,and headaches. Those that go ground up are generally looking to build at least 5 per year. Let me know if you have additional questions.

If your'e doing house hacking and rehab find a place where you don't mind spending a year or 2 if its for investment purposes. I neither, instead find where land is cheap and rent is  high. A lot of my investors like SWFL ( cape coral, Lehigh acres , port charlotte and North Port area) within the Texas triangle or outskirts of Dallas, college station or Tyler. I don't do a lot in Texas but those areas have a great price to rent ratio.@Adam Wesley Abrams