The Investor / Builder Assist Advantage Program guides first-time and established real estate investors through the evaluation of property for purchase and development — before capital is committed.
Most investors evaluate a property on price. Price is the least reliable measure of what a parcel is actually worth. A property’s investment value, and the rate of return it can produce, is set by a defined group of conditions that exist independently of the purchase price — some of which raise value, and some of which quietly erode it.
The program brings those conditions into the open. We work through each one with you, identify where a property carries hidden cost or hidden upside, and structure an equity-enhancement plan around what the evaluation reveals.
Your parcel functions as a foundation whose value is influenced, directly and tangentially, by the properties around it. Bank mortgaging evaluations assess comparable real estate values within a one- to three-mile radius. Adopt that same radius as your own baseline.
Divided into administrative initiatives — surveying, engineering, appraisals — and physical property development initiatives: excavation to define the home site, and access driveway cut-in for ingress and egress.
What you may do with a parcel — and every equity-enhancement move available to you — is dictated by its zoning status. Planned changes matter as much as current ones.
Town, county, and state roads, highways, water, sewer, underground electrical, and media. Their presence generally reduces development cost and enhances value — though water and sewer systems typically reappear as ongoing annual assessments against the property.
The consideration most often missed — and the one that most directly compresses a rate of return. Project these costs before purchase using existing or anticipated site plans, engineering data, topography, and soil characteristics. Three conditions drive costs up: dense clay soil deposits, which raise foundation, waterproofing, fill, and drainage costs; ledge rock — shale or granite — which requires expensive breaking and removal and affects foundation placement and driveway grading; and excessively low or steep topography, which increases excavation and grading, particularly where the town enforces a minimum driveway grade.
It can be legitimately argued that purchasing a parcel of real estate establishes its value. A price was agreed. A sale was consummated. The investment value is set.
Investment value does not exist in a vacuum. It rests on the value-added considerations above. Once anticipated rate of return enters the equation, the property’s perceived value consensus is supported by the value considerations available to the property prior to purchase — not by the number on the closing statement.
Both administrative and physical development initiatives enhance a property's value. Your property’s value increases in direct proportion to the effort expended to enhance it.
For subdivision engagements, the program establishes a cost-to-value feasibility evaluation and identifies an evaluation break point — the Point of Diminishing Returns between the cost of developing building lots and their projected completed value.
Where the calculation warrants it, we will advise reducing lot density to lower infrastructure installation costs. Fewer lots at a better margin beats more lots at a worse one.
The Builder Assist initiative determines the excavation equipment, road materials, utility systems, and contractor expertise required to complete a subdivision, with attention to:
Once the investment property’s development is complete, the investor may:
Participants may take program support on any of the three as administrative mentoring or as on-site builder participation.