Automated Property Development

[carefree]

For the past 6 years i have been doing residential developments.

Ive never needed a building licence because i had another company building the house the i would finish them.

Doing it this way i was making $150,000 (AU) during the 2000 - 2004 boom and $80,000 during slow or descresing house prices.....but and i must say BUT! in a big way , because even though i had everything organized the builders still took 18 months to complete the building no matter what he size.

Now i know this is slow because I have friends that are developers and they have theirs completed WITHIN 6 WEEKS MAX but they use thier own building licence

So thats my background......and heres the question..

Im at a point where i need to automate the system, where i dont do any onsite work except manage the site, but Austrailian law says i need to hold a builders licensed for 4 years before i can begin to build one house.

So if there are any developers out there or even business managers, what would be the best way to set this up. As i can see i have 3 options:

1. Get the building licence and wait 4 years
2. Use the same building company before and wait 1.5 years for each house to get built
3. Get a building manager (with a building licensed) to manage the sites

3 sounds good but i think im gonna be burning all my profits paying him alone

Any suggestions or ideas??

[chris@shape]

18 months to build a house sounds ridiculous. A standard house build should be 6 months max often less. But 4 -6 months for a standard house would be acceptable.
As for your builders licence are we talking about the Queensland licence? If so I have completed my in the last couple of years. it took 2 years fulltime study at TAFE doing Dip. Building and it requires 4 years practical experience supervising building work (2 years for trade qualified carpenters or bricklayers), perhaps some of your experience developing may count towards your 4 years experience? Could be worth looking at. Otherwise you can hire a nominee builder to run the jobs for you but probably cost you about $100k a year. Otherwise look for another builder as Im sure there are plenty who can build a lot quicker than 18 months and make sure you have a clearly defined timeframe in the signed contract.

[PlanCheck]

I suppose employing a building manager means you can concentrate on other things.. like getting more jobs on the books and more profit?

BTW where are you based? I am a qualified Town Planner in WA that would like to get into development... i know all the theory but can't get past the risk/ 'oh my god what am i doing' factor!...