So I'm basically looking for free advice, I've been googling like crazy and I keep getting bullshitty or irrelevant articles on the subject. This isn't my subject of expertise and what I'd like is a general overview of the process or at least to point out if my idea is totally stupid.
So here's the situation: I own a 2 acre plot in the suburbs near Portland, OR. Rental prices have been shooting up in recent years along with extension of mass transit lines close to me, and I'm sick of mowing enormous amounts of lawn every summer. The property itself is shaped just about right to use the front half for two strips of rowhouses on either side with a private drive running down the middle to the back where I can keep my precious collection of slightly rotted firewood and unidentifiable rusty metal tools from the 1920s.
My thought was to develop the property and either rent out the rowhouses or sell them as condo units. The economic state of the area is mostly middle class single family dwellings with apartment/condo blocks here and there.
So here are my questions:
Is building houses for rental stupid? Is it unrealistic to use rent to pay off a construction loan? Should you just immediately sell new homes and only rent property that's been run down?
Who do I talk to to get started with this process? Bank for construction loans? A contractor? The city? Zoning lawyer?
How much analysis should I have worked out before talking to a professional, and am I correct in my belief that the cost analysis is just a matter of researching the cost of similar projects and guessing based on that?
How risky is what I'm proposing to do, given that I already own the property? The main threat I see is ending up with a crooked builder that runs off with the construction funds.
If anyone has experience with any of this and can give me some tips, I'd be much obliged.
So here's the situation: I own a 2 acre plot in the suburbs near Portland, OR. Rental prices have been shooting up in recent years along with extension of mass transit lines close to me, and I'm sick of mowing enormous amounts of lawn every summer. The property itself is shaped just about right to use the front half for two strips of rowhouses on either side with a private drive running down the middle to the back where I can keep my precious collection of slightly rotted firewood and unidentifiable rusty metal tools from the 1920s.
My thought was to develop the property and either rent out the rowhouses or sell them as condo units. The economic state of the area is mostly middle class single family dwellings with apartment/condo blocks here and there.
So here are my questions:
Is building houses for rental stupid? Is it unrealistic to use rent to pay off a construction loan? Should you just immediately sell new homes and only rent property that's been run down?
Who do I talk to to get started with this process? Bank for construction loans? A contractor? The city? Zoning lawyer?
How much analysis should I have worked out before talking to a professional, and am I correct in my belief that the cost analysis is just a matter of researching the cost of similar projects and guessing based on that?
How risky is what I'm proposing to do, given that I already own the property? The main threat I see is ending up with a crooked builder that runs off with the construction funds.
If anyone has experience with any of this and can give me some tips, I'd be much obliged.