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I'm gona +19192381234 that.

we're gonna start our next spec here in march. can't wait!
but you gotta admit that it is fun as hell.

take these #'s for example

ARV=200K

Purchase price of home = 100K

After figuring all of the soft, closing, title, taxes, insurance, points paid, Interest for 1 year and the draw interest...I calculated that you would have around 17K to work with in rehabing the home within the loan and you may have to come out of pocket to finish it.... and you haven't even paid the sell side closing costs and broker fee.

Just my $.02

pre-con is VERY risky as you may already know....however, that's not to say that you shouldn't get involved...you can get involved, but I would never suggest to anyone to try it as an investor unless they have had SIGNIFICANT experience in Development. It is no joke. You can loose your shirt and loose it VERY quick. Its always good to familiarize yourself with the tricks of the trade (because there are TONS) to not only protect yourself, but your investment.

A few ways to get involved are:

build a relationship with a developer.

find ways to service what they need like:
Offer Title Services at a discount
Offer brokerage service
Start a Retaining wall, fencing, irrigation company
if your an engineer offer to take a second look at some plans
If your an architect do the same
If you are an attorney offer some advice on contractual obligations
If your an analyst, draw out some cash flows
If your an accountant, offer to help, create JE's Adjustments, filing, etc.
If you have a knack for construction, get out to the sites and look around.
If you are good public speaker, get in front of the County officials and pitch a project to the county.
Look for the meetings in the county and attend a couple of hearings for development approvals...its public.
If you are a banker, look at the deals, contact the developers in your area, go meet them, offer services. etc.

Development is about getting out there and putting your ear to the ground. you will only learn so much on the interwebnets.

KG

I consult on partnership strategies, Development Strategies, Accounting and IT Infrastructure, Organizational Structures, Operational control, processes, perform financial analysis and cash flow analysis, help standardize company ledgers to create consolidations, HR and Payroll, customer relationships, etc....basically anything that has to do with your business, I can find a way to screw it down tight. build a better mousetrap.

And no I am not a Realtor

well i'm glad ya got it squared up!

Now...take my above post and multiply that problem by 1,977,445,336,112.11 and that's about the amount of things that can go wrong in DEV...and that's not even really a big deal. but imagine some person that rolls out of bed and says to himself "I think I wanna start developing raw land today"

no way absolutely not! :protest: :protest:

if all 20 props are under one ownership and you have one user then great!

QB is a real huge pain in the buttocks when it comes to consolitaded financial statements more than one user and such...you also need to be darn sure that your A/R or customer ledgers are set up properly for each tenant and that rents are being applied to the apprioriate customer and such....and please make sure you are using QB to its capabilities, don't just use it by plugging in Journal Entries...you need to really minnimize the back office work if you really plan on expansion.

If you have the duckets to spend on a high quality software I would most def reccomend Yardi.

you can PM or IM me if you need more detail.

You probably don't want to hear this but....the person uphill has the water right of way...so the only way to check this is to have your lot surveyed to find out what the FF (finished floor) Elevation line is of your lot relative to the property that is draining to your friend's. If yours is higher, which I doubt, then sue the crap out of him...If not you will need to make the appropriate changes to your existing lot.

Temporarily, you can put a catch basin at the rear of the property to catch the water and then istall underground gutters that tie in from your roof and drain then drain to the street.

The other concern is the county that approved such a drainage plan...sounds like the county engineer was drunk when he approved it. I would check with an attorney, but I am sure you can bring suit to the developer, but most importantly, be sure to slap the county with the same lawsuit, and if there is a HOA, slap them too.

I have had this problem as well. from both sides. and usually it settles out of court and the developer just fixes it.

you know...I could write a book on this....but it would be toooooooo long and I probably wouldn't finish it and even if I pulished it not finished, nobody would probably get to the end any way....lol

The last sentance would go something like this:
"....and another thing to look out for................"

Also, I really don't know what to tell you as you have not really pointed out a concern, except a general one.

Learning is good, but you also need to get involved with the "behind the scenes" there is alot more too it than all of the step by step approaches. Go to the engineer meetings, meet with the contractors, meet the planners, municipal councils, lenders, investors, etc...find out what they are all looking for, over time you will find what it is you are looking for, then you will be able to smell the BS a mile away.

KG :mrgreen:

if you signed an assigment contract it sounds like the property changed hands between developers before it was even sold to the original contracted purchaser...

USUSALLY, when this happens is as a result of the developer going belly up on a project or the fact that he can't pay off the contractor. When invoices are paid to contractors for the hard costs, usually the developer requests a release of lein to be signed that is approved and inspected by all parties including, the bank, bank inspectors, county attorney, title company, etc....This release prevents any files, leins, or judgements to be placed on the property after substantial completion.

After Substantial completion the purchase contract usually stipulates 30 days to close or the buyer forfeits the lot and the earnest money. If you have kept to your end of the deal you should be fine...you may even have a case to retain your earnest money.

Additoinally, check with the county and see if you can't drum up a final Bills Paid Affidavit that states that the contractor has been paid in full for the work done....

The other problem you will encounter, is that while you may not find any paper on your lot specifically, some counties, halt the deed transfer over the entire original abstract even before it is broken out to the buyer...so you may be looking at the wrong ownership table.

Hint: contractors for subdivisions are too lazy to file leins over each individual lot, so therefore they tag the entire boundary. And the county is too lazy to differentiate between the two.

Sooo, what you need to do is lean on the assignor to get your money back due to non-performance (as specified in the assignment contract), then in turn they will put the pressure on to release the property from whatever is holding it up. Hell if they really screwed the pooch, you may be able to get the lot and the earnest money back and get some free property. Legal Fees on their end vs. opportunity cost lost on yours. ;)