I’m almost at the end of my ability to buy single family homes now so I’ve started looking at much bigger projects. As JFK said “They cannot achieve greatness who do not tke great risks”, so thats what I’ve decided to do. Take great risks. Which is why I’m trying to borrow a few million from the bank to finance that oil deal. I’m flying to Oklahoma City to check it out next weekend.

As part of my risk taking strategy, I’ve decided to buy properties in bulk and sell the the remainder off to other investors. I tried doing that last year in St George, but it seems the builder is now having financial issues and might squeal on his commitments. So I decided to partner directly with the developer on future deals so there’s less chance of failure.

I’ve got a few partners together and we’ve bought a complete subdivision in the outskirts of New Orleans. Actually, its in Wallace which is sort of in between New Orleans and Baton Rouge [which has seen a huge spike in prices and rents after Katrina]. There’s currently a great shortage of housing available in New Orleans. The agents involved have a huge list of people looking for houses to rent.

We’ll be offering the lots at a rather small markup and hooking up the buyers directly with lenders and builders. The good thing about it is that the entire subdivision is not in a flood zone and doesn’t requrie any sort of flood insurance. The tax rate is also a low 1%. I plan on keeping a few lots for myself and selling them in 12 months. The lots range from 37k to 43k.

You can get a lot loan with 10% down and the payment will only be a few hundred bucks a month. I expect the lots to be worth about 20k more in a year. After waiting for a few months even if i start building, it takes 7 months to build a house, so I can easily stretch it out by a year, which should be great for appreciation.

Also FEMA is going to stop paying families 3-4k rent per month after 18 months, so all these people who’re living the high life in hotels and cruiseliners will have to look for proper accomodation. What better place than a brand new home outside a flood plain, thats 30 mins from the center New Orleans and 40 minutes from Baton Rouge!!!

Here’s the link to the temporary webpage we threw up. Its called www.preconlots.com. It should have pricing and plat info up pretty soon along with a few interesting links about New Orleans. We’re probably going to offer special pricing for the first 12 lots, but I might be able to extend that for readers of my blog. [yeah its an ego thing 😉 ]

Please provide suggestions about the webpage and how to improve it. Its difficult being critical when you have an involvement in the project.