I have an A.S in Real Estate, Bachelors in Architecture, and plan on getting my masters in real estate development. Will being an architect, a real estate broker, and a building contractor at the same time give me an advantage to be a successful real estate developer??? What do you think?
Beyond all the data knowledge that you need to be a real estate developer- is money. You need to be very good at raising money- and planning how to work around issues that come up. For instance the time from the very start of a project (planning it and finding the property) to the end (selling the buildings) can zoom from 5 to 10 years very easily. We don't know what the economy will be like in one year- much less ten years. We also don't know much about the building and zoning requirements will be in the future years. You will need to be constantly going back to your investors and telling them why you need more money- and why it will be a while before you can return anything to them. The Excavation of the site for the Empire State Building began on January 22, 1930 (I don't know when they got the permits or started raising money). They had no idea how long the great depression would last. It is said that it did not make a profit for the investors until 1950. So how good are you at talking people into investing huge sums of money?
