NOTKTS

Do you want an acutal broker that will call you every-day and tell you whats-up... or something on a DYI scale?

clkcadet

either/or but i am aware that the stock market should be avoided right now and real estate is booming and always will be. Ive seen land in florida near daytona and i have also seen some land in texas (basically 1 lot @ $2k and the area is developing very nearby with shopping centers and houses just a couple of blocks away!)


just for the record ive seen some of these properties on ebay but i dont think it can be trusted

NOTKTS

The first thought that came to mind was ebay... as for that I don’t know, I would want to physically check it out before I do anything, it sounds a little too good to be true. Some of those on eBay are "scams" in a sense, what I mean is that your bidding on a invitation to buy the lot at a certain price.
As for avoiding the stock market, I don’t know about that. There is always money to be made and always money to be lost for that matter. At the moment real estate is booming... for the seller, at the moment it is a sellers market. I do believe that this bubble will pop shortly *Next 6 months to a year* IMO the market can not withstand the huge amounts that homes and land for that matter are going for. Greenspan... I don’t know if you got a chance to catch what he said to Congress or not, but he did have a few "hints" hidden in his message. And don’t think that I'm saying that real estate is going to not gain value... it always will, I just don't think it will hold out at what it is right now for much longer. Keep in mind; it still is possible to lose money in it, making wrong decisions on where and when you buy.

MJ1133

Do you know of any land that I could invest in in the Houston-Dallas area?

clkcadet

thanks, and what would you suggest for a quick buck basically turn it over and buy another property then another but only starting out with a smaller investment lets say 5k

DropdaChalupa

So say you are to buy a piece of land in a largely undeveloped Florida area. How do you get ahold of say the zoning regulations and other information such as planned developments in the area for say the next 5 years? I wouldn't want to buy a property and suddenly a walmart pops up next to it because of zoning regulations. Any insight into how you determine what is a prime piece of property?

AMGfan

Are you in line for the upcoming GT version, by chance?

NOTKTS

... That is all included in the 5-10 year plans, believe me I already thought about that. In this you can basically see how the city will look another 7 years down the road. And the wal-mart, they already have one about 15 miles away, but a shopping center will be in place under a mile away from the property’s entrance. The piece of property also has a 80 acre lake. The development will be accessible by a 4 lane street with a 30 foot landscaped median. Telecommunications infrastructure with full fiber optic capacity, water mains with booster pumps. Offices for major financial and investment services, plus a large network of business service agencies, create a co-operative business environment that supports the many needs of new ventures in the area. They modeled the spefic area after Lake Nona, I don’t know if you ever heard of them, but its sort of like that. It's mostly the infrastructure that determines it, but also the quality of the area that you are in.

MJ1133

NOTKTS...I know you say that GOOG will hit 300, so do you think that would be a good stock for me to invest in...or should I go for stocks not as expensive?

MDCLS

Hmmm Did you get my PM? How far off of 417 or 192? Thought for a minute you were talking about Harmony until I read your earlier post.

DropdaChalupa

Thanks for the info,
So you can pick up a citywide business plan for free or how much does it cost, im assuming from the city town hall?

Can you delve a little deeper on how you started out? I've heard of people getting friends and family to help partly fund the first operation, getting outside investors, borrowing via home equity, or just having a wealthy family to start. I've been wanting to pursue first on the side with either investment properties or real estate development(mostly townhomes/condos and similar) but have been curious what is the best method for obtaining the capital needed.

Does the foreclosures work like an auction based system where potential buyers start at a low price and bid up or is it just sold at fair market value?

Thanks!

NOTKTS

No... I didnt get your PM If you'd send another one if be glad to respond to it But Harmony is a very small devolpment compared to what I have in store and it is WAY OUT in the middle of no where and there are only a few devolpments planned for it. If I remeber correctly I think it was a 25min drive to the nearest shopping center.

NOTKTS

Well... I'm going to do my weekly sit down tonight and I'll see whats good. I'll let you know what I recommend, just give me a few details.
-Willing Risk
-Long Term or Short Term
-Amount willing to invest
-Potential Yeild

MJ1133

Im willing to take a big risk...
I think short term
Im willing to invest about 2k
I dont kno what Id want it to Yeild as long as im on top im ok...

NOTKTS

I don't believe that they are public info... but maybe they are. I'd do a quick search to see. Well... what do you want to know about how I got started out, I'm willing to help you with any information. As for getting the capitol for a development, a lot of people have what they call "pre-construction" units. They sell them before the area is built; most of them get around 75-85% of the money needed to complete the project. Even sometimes this may sound weird but Insurance Companies will come in and buy all of the available units then wait until they are finished where the prices have been raised about 45-55% and give them to a broker to sell. Pre-Construction is the best way to get the money no questions asked... that is after you have the land and the plans for the community. To figure out what the best approach for getting the capitol... what did you have in mind in size and location?
As for foreclosures... they can either be auctions or the bank sets a price. Normally the bank just wants to get back what the person owed, their only looking to break even in most cases.

DropdaChalupa

Hmmm, yeah I'd like to see if I can get ahold of local zoning and construction records, just as a test.

Well basically was curious how you started out at first. Did you have a house first, work other jobs and save money to buy first property, did you inherit your first property and then developed it, etc? How did you enfriend local merchants such as construction companies, mortgage lenders, or did you have previous connections already? Did you start with refurbs and flipping and then moved on to developing?

I am just curious because my friend brought up doing some building last year and I was lukewarm because I haven't bought my first house yet (later this year) but it might be a thing to consider in the future. He has lots of connections with construction workers, tilers, plumbers, electricians, etc so it would be a big help.

I don't have anything planned as far as an imminent deal for capitol, I was just thinking perhaps small potatoes at first, maybe a <10 unit condo construction on a few acres with a common area. Any good resources on all the details of building online that you know of? I want to really get detailed really rough average estimates of costs like paving, city sewer, electricity, landscaping, grading land if needed, etc.

That pre-construction is so true now that I think of it. I was recently looking at this highrise condo unit in Milwaukee, designed by Mandell and Skidmore O & M and even though it wasn't built yet nearly all of the units, starting at $1.5Mil were nearly sold out. Makes a lot of sense! I am assuming to do this you would need either a single completed "walkthrough home" or very detailed plans and models available to see. The Mandell group is actually a great model that I look at because they have very high end designs that sell out fast, and they also incorporate things such as old warehouses in run down districts that are in the midst of a revival and turn them into luxury condos, they are quite amazing when they are complete. I really love the whole old warehouse thing but it's not like there are those types of opportunities in many places.

NOTKTS

Well I am ashamed to say it but I dropped out of college when I was 19 in search of making my own money. I don’t recommend doing this to anyone... I consider myself lucky that I came into what I am today. Throughout my highschool I worked with my father and managed to save up around 7K. I learned all the tricks of the construction trade doing a little bit of everything. This enabled me to buy some fixer up homes or "distressed properties" and do all the work myself and make a good amount of money on the turn-around. I bought my first property when I was around 20 and sold it for something like a 10K profit about 2 months later. I did that for about 5 years and started to hire more and more people to help out with the homes... I got to a point where I was selling and buying 5-7 properties a week. This wasn’t the only thing I was doing at the time, I also had expressed interest in Symantec and that’s where I made most of my money, but I still kept going on with my regular business. After I sold my stock in Symantec a few years ago I was able to do a lot more in the land. And I came across about 15 acres of undeveloped beach front land at rock bottom prices and I jumped on it as fast as I could. In this period of 5 years waiting time I met a local guy on a flight and it turns out that he has a local land development, concert supply, concrete place and finish and construction company. We got to talking about potential plans for the area and we traded off for the opportunity to buy the 1st 25 units at cost if he would pull some strings and do the project at his cost. We have now done 3 developments and look forward to having him aboard for the next.

As for your idea for a condo complex, I think that you will be able to fit a lot more than 10 units on 3-5 acres. What I’ve found that there is sort of a so called “secret trade” of community plans that floats around from state to state… they basically trade off plans for new communities. It’s a great idea in theory… and saves you anywhere from 50-500K on design build cost. And as a site that does that will be very hard to find, I have not found any to this day that offer pricing online. From what I encountered you have to call the company and they will give you a quote. A general rule that I have found is about 100-175K per unit build cost (3000sq condo living area 3750sq with garage and such)… and rough cost for land. This may vary for you… I don’t have the famoust clue of what land and build cost are out there.

leggs

Where is a good place to find foreclosures? I recently started going to the county and city foreclosure auctions but would like even more avenues to look, purchase.

DropdaChalupa

That is what I was really looking to hear, it's great to really hear a firsthand account of how someone started out and built his "empire" over the course of time. Sounds like a lot of hard work mixed with a good deal of luck (meeting the man on the flight and symantec turning out so well). Seems like a big part as well is networking to get the right components you need in place for a reasonable cost.

I graduated college a few years back (2001) as a 3D computer designer and have been working my own business in web/graphic design for years and been making good money but I have been feeling the urge to build. I would like to build my company further but I also have a love for architecture and just home design in general hence why I would love to try this out small time and see how it goes and then perhaps move on to a more full time role if it works out. I have realized that as a designer I will probably never make the money that I want by being a designer alone and that is a bit depressing thinking in the long term. I'd like to make a move before I'm settled, married, and have kids where I will be even more afraid to spend money to make money.

So with communities you are saying that "cookie cutter" designs exist that are used in companies all over the US cutting costs? Are there even designs that have pre built frames etc that can just be shipped it and put in place like a puzzle cutting down on building costs? Land here is quite expensive, being close to NYC, Boston, and Providence so I probably would do this in the future, as I am considering move south possibly to Charlotte next year. I think it would give me a better opportunity in the south because they don't have the deep freeze that we have up here in the winters.

I think first I need to do a lot more research on the ins and outs of the construction process so I will know everything from land clearing, inspections, to throughout the building process in detail. I have general knowledge but I wouldn't want to get screwed over or have a project be delayed where I end up eating costs.

What licensing would I need to be buying land and building homes on the land or would I need none since I would be having other contractors do all the labor work? Not sure If I'd need to have a company formed....

MDCLS

How not to park your Murcielago.
Do you think he got a parking ticket?

Doctodd33

Wow...nice pic. Now this thread is starting to have some appeal.

T

Blue Benz

That Murcielago looks familiar. Did you buy it from the West coast?

AMGgirl

I wanna play too...My fiances Murci:

Redlinerobert

Nice Pic AMGgirl. How does he like it?

Do you know Michelle? (PorscheBabe)

clkcadet

check out the dvd mischief dynasty youll get a first hand experience how much they like it