I bit of insight
Hello,
First off I wish you the best of luck in pursuing your endeavor. You are obviously excited and I in no way wish to kill your high. However I can offer a bit of insight in home construction and Home Theater.
I didn't read all the post so this may have been covered already. I would like to qualify myself by saying that I am a third generation general contractor. I live in Southern Virginia and on average build 12-15 homes annually in the $240,000 - $600,000 range.
Over the years I have experimented with adding home theaters into spec homes. I have from time to time offered free HT rooms and packages with the purchase of new homes and I learned something from that. Which is the average consumer does not care about home theater. AT ALL! Joe Blow off the street has no understanding of the added value of the fancy electronics. If you give it to them they will take it but are not willing to pay more for it, and if they don't like the plan no amount of free HT will change there mind. Price per square foot is king.
I say that to caution you that while you and I may share a love for a true cinematic and audio experience at home others do not share our passion. So be careful about spending a lot of money of HT in a for sale home with the thinking that it will be a major selling point or that you can charge more for the home because of it and recoup your investment. You can't. Solid surface tops, custom showers, and massive walk-in closets with cathedral ceilings sell homes. TV's and speakers don't. To be successful you have to have a product that appeals to the largest segment of the consumer market and hope that increases you chance of selling. There is a very small niche of people that will go gaga over walking in to a home with a HT and want to buy. The rest just think its really cool but have been watching a 36 inch flat panel and listening to the crappy speakers that play out the back into the wall and see nothing wrong with it.
Sorry I don't mean to be a downer but just my two cents.
Also pre sells and customs are going to be your best chance to break into construction. You need to check with banks in your area and see if you can even get a new construction loan for a spec home. Here in VA and NC (also licensed there) New Construction Loans are almost non existent. This year BB&T quit giving them all together and Bank of America is the only one that will even think about it and then you have to be one of the really really big boys to get one. I got one last month and it was like pulling teeth. And then the new loans they give will only cover 80% of cost so I pony up the other 20% and thats across the board with all banks now. Basically if you want to build a $250,000 home and by some miracle get a newC loan you still need $50,000 of your own money tied up in it
Check on it. If you don't have a build up rapport or any goodwill with your local lenders (i.e. you have already borrowed a million and paid it back) you will need to be prepared to out of pocket the entire cost of the homes.
I wish you the best of luck. Plan, Plan, Plan throw away all pre conceived notions, plan again, be ready for nothing to go according to plan, and whatever you think its going to cost its going to cost more.
