All Forum Posts by: Kevin Martin

Is the attic vented? I'm not sure in other states but here in Florida we have to run energy calculations that specify the min. requirements for insulation, windows energy numbers, A/C specs, ect. The whole house gets entered into the program with the specs and it either passes or not. I would ask for a copy of the energy sheets, if not then you can go to the city and ask for a copy.

@Steve McGovern thanks for the advice! 

Hello BP world! This is somewhat of a basic question but I thought I would throw it out there. Obviously, the more offers you put out there the more chances you have of getting an offer accepted and I agree totally with this.  How do you find an agent/realtor that is willing to write up offers that are going to get denied 98% of the time? I believe they can save time by calling the sellers agent and submitting a verbal offer but I don’t think that is always the case if it’s bank owned or depending on who the owner is. 

I don’t like wasting people’s time because I dont want others to waste mine but 100 offers written up by an agent to get 1 or 2 accepted for 3% commissions doesn’t seem like it pays the bills for agents. Anyone have some good perspective on this?

Hire a professional to get a conceptual site plan and see what potential your land has for development.

I would say somewhere in between expansion and hyper phase but does it really matter? Buy Low, Sell High!

Yes provide a detailed scope of work and some basic plans if you can. Contractors don't want a "guide" they want to know exactly what you want so the job goes quicker and smoother. You want to be the old man in the Gieco commercial dangling the dollar on a fishing pole only to snatch it up at the last second. :) JK kinda....

Obviously the risks have come true in this deal but I'm just curious if everything went as expected what was your return on the 200k loan for a 2nd position?

@Manolo D. & @Kyle H. Curiosity is great and even a little criticism too; I think I might look at "cost/s.f" differently then what some others might but in the end all that matters is the total dollar amount it costs for a project and what goes into the bank.

The land, overhead, and profit is not included in my cost/s.f. and in this situation he is getting 3 lots for 4k. That comes out to around $1300 per lot which in this case isn't going to throw a cost/s.f estimate off by that much. Everything else needed to build the house is included in my number. Permit fees, utilities, concrete, wood, labor,grass, cleaning, the mailbox, plans, engineering, builders risk, ect. ect. 

I dont include the land, commissions, closing costs, overhead, profit, and other items in my cost/s.f. because its highly variable and in my opinion the only reason to use a cost/s.f. is so you can make quick decisions on the front end to see if a deal is worth it or not. Yes,  you can add up all your costs at the end of the project and come up with an "ALL IN" cost/s.f. but would you be able to use that number in the future as a basis if it was partly based on variable costs? 

The last true SPEC we built came out to 130k for a 3/2 with a total sqft of 2016 sqft (conditioned & non-conditioned). We didn't self perform any work, used all legal subs(liability insurance and WC), payed for most of the materials but did go to some subs for labor and materials. Below are a few pictures. The buyer did pay for some extras (misc. items less than 5k I believe) and I backed out our credits to come up with our true cost of 130k. This comes out to about $65/sqft before land, overhead, profit, commissions, and closing costs. 

It for sure can be done at this price if you are building standard/entry level homes but if you are a builder charging an investor at $65k/sqft "all in" you wont make any money unless you have some serious serious volume. 

@David Moore That is awesome! So the MLS does work in this market? I always hear all the good stuff is off the MLS but I guess you just need to be persistent and know your local market. Congrats again!

@David Moore Congrats! Deal looks great. Just curious, how did the deal come across your desk....MLS, marketing, wholesaler, drive by, ect?