im a contractor in a town full of contractors. it is a necessity to build spec homes to stay busy. even the contractors that have been featured in fine home building have to. i recently spent 7 1/2 months in the hospital with my wife and baby in a major city. it has ruined my credit (from 700 to 520) and i can no longer borrow enough money to build with. does anyone have bright ideas on how i can get back on track?
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Private money.
Often a private source won't care about your credit history. For instance, I'm holding two mortgages now. One was to facillitate a sale, the other just a private deal with somebody who needed financing and had poor credit. Not the first time I've been involved with a credit risk, and I hope not the last. Generally private's more expensive, but if that's the only choice, the quality of the project makes it affordable- or not. Without creditworthiness to back up the risk, you usually have to offer something else.
Another option perhaps better suited to you would be a project partnership. Perhaps with the land seller?
Money's available. Beat the bushes and be flexible.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I've seen one instance where the private money that VATom mentioned was obtained by a builder's accountant uniting him with someone with extra money to invest in a short term mortgage. The lender was another client of the same accountant.
has anyone ever tried skipping the spec home and gone with more agressive marketing?
not that I life there ... so how do I know ... but I fail to believe the only way to run a contracting business is to do "forced spec building".
What type of work do U do?
If new home building .. maybe start a side line and focus on remodeling and/or handyman work.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
Taking risks to build spec homes just to keep busy in a tight market does not strike me as a way to get ahead. Sounds more like bread and beans money that steak and eggs. If you are going to get ahead, you need to be looking for a way to develope a specialty niche that has your name on it where customers beat a path to your door and offer to pay whatever you ask.
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actually i have ive started staining sealing and refinishing log homes as an extra side. the main reason for specs is nobody wants to build in the winter here. so i struggled to find work from last november till 2 weeks ago and now i have three houses to build. but they'll all be done by next winter. people see snow here and think it is impossible to build, mainly because thier all from california. also with all the contractors here and no licenseing or regulation of them they bid houses extremely low often too low and end up walking off like this log house i picked up yesterday. all of this is giving all contractors bad names and making insurance in colorado ridiculous, therefor i would rather build spec houses, ive never had one on the market that wasn't sold before it was done and i net around 50k per house in 3 to 4 months. travis bearcat construction durango colorado