CONSTRUCTION By Tom Smith
With the higher price points and inflationary increases of a new Florida home on the Intracoastal, some of our customers are purchasing a new home from GHD Construction Services, only to “Flip” the home at a nice profit by the time the home is complete in 10-12 months. This is especially profitable to existing homeowners that own an outdated waterfront home and have the opportunity to not only get the highest profit possible for their existing lot, but also make additional profit by selling a “Package” with the new home and lot included on their existing site. This has proven to be very profitable for these clients. There simply are almost no newly constructed homes for sale, raised to FEMA standards, on the market for buyers today. Almost all buyers today want newly constructed homes, with exciting Florida designs, energy efficient, built to FEMA standards. This housing product is almost non-existent today along the Pinellas beaches!
While doing my homework studying proposed home sales prices in MLS, I’ve noticed a quite large disparity in home pricing, from what a lot will sell for in a neighborhood, and what GHD charges for a beautiful new home. GHD has a furnished model of 5400sf under roof (3042la) that sells for only $661,000, and by the time you place a value of the waterfront property at $525,000 – $700,000, add a pool, dock, new seawall, etc., the entire new package would cost about $1,300,000. However, I’m seeing listings for new homes of this size at about $1,675,000 asking price. Will they get that? I don’t know, but I do know that there is a nice potential profit for an investor to “Flip” a new home package at possibly a very nice profit. Also, some homeowners on interior lots opt to construct a much smaller home priced from the mid to high $200’s to increase their overall property value. That is a definite opportunity for homeowners that own older homes on interior lots.
So many of our customers are searching for a way to invest funds from their lifetime savings, in what has historically been a very safe and profitable venture, Florida real estate. One of our customers remarked that even if the replacement home that they purchased on their lot doesn’t sell for his anticipated $250,000 increased value, at least they have a beautiful new home to enjoy until Florida’s inflationary spiral continues to increase in future years.
As another alternative to purchasing a new home for a potential nice profit, some homeowners allow us to advertise their lot in MLS, with a picture and price of a newly constructed home on that lot. They list their lot as a “Coming Soon” package, complete with site sign and color rendering. GHD places the sign and markets the package with customers that come through our model daily, looking at various neighborhoods along the Pinellas beaches. We place the MLS listing which also gets published in Zillow and other social media, along with every real estate office looking for new housing product for their clients. It actually works quite well and doesn’t involve the cash investment of purchasing the new home yourself. Of course, that homeowner does not have the opportunity for the “Up-Side Potential” of selling both the lot and home, but that is an alternative option available today for existing homeowners.
GHD Construction Services, Inc. has constructed 7,000 homes since 1971.
If you have any questions pertaining to new home construction, feel free to call Todd at (813) 956-8633, or email to: tnegoshian@ghdcsi.com. NOW, OFFERING VIRTUAL HOME TOURS: Visit our web site at www.GHDCoastalHomes.com and see “The Key West” & “Bahama Winds” homes.