Here are my two cents on investing in pre-construction.
1. I stick with single family homes (condo’s can get sticky when it comes to financing and the development hasn’t turned over to the HOA yet) Your experiences may be different.
2. Your best investments, in my opinion, will come from planned development where there are many new homes being built and few to no older homes in the area. I don’t like to see appraisals compared to the shacks on the other side of the tracks. I will track county development for schools, roads, grocery stores, banks, and shopping malls.
3. Invest in a community where there will be at least 300 home sites. The more homes in the community, the more sales in the future. With a constant stream of sales in a community, there is a better flow of comps and a better chance of appraisal being in your favor.
4. If possible, move into the property for 1 or 2 years. Since many of the cookie cutter homes will not allow investors.

Anyone using a buy and hold strat. with new condos ? There are many new condos that will be complete in the next two years here in Des Moines. If anyone has experence in doing this I would love to hear about it. Some of the units here are less then 100k. Renting the units should not be a problem.