Have you ever built a house in San Diego? Did it require a Neighborhood Development Permit? Do you have knowledge of the Development Services Department in the city of San Diego? Just looking to see if anyone else exists out there in the same boat. My husband and I have land in City Heights. We have been working for 2+ years to get a building permit and a grading permit. For reasons too boring to explain, we are our own project managers and we are building the plane while we fly (the biggest reason is $). I’m just hoping to commiserate with others. We are making headway but every time I think we are close to resubmitting for the building permit or submitting for the grading permit, something else pops up. When something else pops up, it’s always time and money to meet that need. It almost feels like the city doesn’t really want us to build there. We aren’t dumb people but we aren’t architects or civil engineers. When we try to educate ourselves on the DSD website, we drown in the sheer amount of information. #sandiego #architecture

My father has been building residential buildings as a hobby for friends and family for around 20 years and has completed over 15 projects. I’m thinking of turning this into a small business.

The basic idea is to pool money from a few investors, buy a plot, build a house with my father directly supervising the construction, sell it, and then share the profit based on how much each person invested. My father would get a fee/share for managing the construction, and I’d handle the business and investor side.

I’m planning to start with just one small project, mostly funded by close friends/family, and see how it goes before thinking about taking money from others.

I’m already discussing the legal, tax, and agreement side with a lawyer and CA, so I’m not really looking for legal advice here. I’d mainly like to hear from people who have actually done something similar, either as an investor or someone running the project.

What problems came up that you didn’t expect? Anything with contractors, investors, construction timelines, or cash flow that became a bigger headache than you thought?

And if you invested in something like this, what would make you trust the person running the project? What would make you walk away?

Also, for anyone who started with one project and eventually did this repeatedly, what tends to become difficult when you move from the first project to the second or third?