The Key Piece of Homework is to try and capture your project in a straightforward pro forma.

You can find the pro forma spreadsheets here in the Small Scale Developers Resources page on the CNU.org web site.

You will find two pro formas, the first is a simple four unit cottage court, the other a four-plex with potential expansion.  By changing the information in the pro forma spreadsheet that describes the individual apartments, the buildings, the size of the lot, the likely rents you can try out you project and see if it makes money.  If you don't work with Excel very often you may get frustrated by mechanics of the spreadsheet, but even if you hit a dead end working on this on your own, spending an hour trying to fit your project into one of these pro formas will give you a head start when we start to walk through how to do this in the Boot Camp.

You can also download PDF's of the site plans for the 4 unit cottage court and the Four-plex from the same Additional Resources page on the CNU.org's Small Scale Developer page which may help you visualize what is going on in the pro fro forma spreadsheets.

If you want to present your project for a critique on Sunday morning, the pro forma is a good way to capture some of the basic information that will shape your project:

• What are the likely rents?
• What are the likely project costs -(hard and soft)?
• How much cash will be needed and how much debt?
• Does the project make money?
• When does an investor get their principal back?  When do they get their return?
• Can you draw fees while developing the project?

Things Worth Repeating

My good friend Phil Bess teaches very smart Architecture and Urban Design students at the University of Notre Dame.  He told me that the best students in his classes still need to hear information on important concepts and tools repeated 5 times to retain them and start to recognize how they might be applied.  If you would like a head start on that kind of repetition I recommend that you watch some of the following videos:

Arthur C. Nelson's presentation of the core stuff in his book Reshaping Metropolitan America from CNU 21

Michael Lander's talk at the University of Miami's Masters of Real Estate Development + Urbanism; Design From the Marketplace.

A couple of my video presentations; Recruiting Small Scale Developers from CNU23  and The Dark Art of Developing Small Projects

Link to Small Developer Videos

For anyone not attending the Duncanville Boot Camp this weekend, I encourage you to check out the material above and take a stab at putting your project into the basic pro forma spreadsheet.  And as always, please post a comment or question here or on the Small Developer/Builders Group on FaceBook

Friday Evening

6:30 Registration

7:00 Barbecue Beer & Wine at the Venue

8:00 Boot Camp Kick Off ; Monte Anderson & John Anderson

Monte and John will lay out what to expect from the Boot Camp and how to get the most out of the Duncan Switch Street Market first thing Saturday Morning.

8:30 Pech Kucha; 5 minute presentations of Projects and Problems (20 slide limit)

Bring your PowerPoint and present your project (regardless of how far along you are in getting it figured out, funded, or built).

1 Required Slide:

• What you have learned from your project so far?
• What you need to figure out?
• Where you need help?

Contact Jim Kumon jimkumon@gmail.com  get on the list of folks presenting at the Pecha Kucha.

Saturday

6:00 AM Breakfast available at the Venue.

6:30 Street Market 101 - Monte Anderson.

Monte Anderson will lead the tour as the Duncan Switch Street Market sets up on Main Street. Straggles can join the tour in progress, but are likely to miss some excellent content.

8:00 Small Developer Basics  - John Anderson.

The mechanics of Land Development, and building for sale and for rent -both the conventions followed by large operators and alternative strategies for Small Developer/Builders.

Small Developer Basics are broken down into Market Research, Proof of Concept and Site Selection, Programing and the Pro Forma, Financing, Design & Construction Delivery, Sales/Leasing & Property Management.

10:00 Practical Realities for the Small Developer - Monte Anderson.

Monte will address questions like how do I get started as a developer?  How do I transition to development from a related field?  How do I select an area as my "farm"? What is a good business model for the small developer?

11:00 Walking Tour of Downtown Duncanville.

 Duncanville may not be Paris or Uptown, but recent rehab and infill projects in downtown Duncanville are great examples of how to make a difference in a neighborhood or small town incrementally, so that the  parts can add up to a good and valuable place.

12:00 Lunch at the Venue.

12:30 Straightforward Design for Small Development Projects - David Kim

David will demonstrate the value of using stable building types and everyday building materials and practices.  He will demonstrate the wide range of buildings are available to the small developer below the threshold of larger scale buildings that require structured parking or elevators.

1:30 Cottage Courts - Bruce Tolar

Bruce will show models of for sale and rental cottage court residential and mixed use projects and demonstrate how cottage courts can be used to solve difficult site configurations.

2:00 Managing Construction - John Anderson & Bruce Tolar

A primer on the various systems of delivering site improvements and buildings; Using a General Contractor, Hard Bid vs. Negotiated Contracts, Design Build Variants, Construction Management Structures, Working directly with trade contractors, and the pros and cons of each for small developers with a range of skill sets.

3:30 The Glamour of Site Improvements and Utilities - John Anderson

How to sort through the details that your Civil Engineer or local utility company may have screwed up; Rule of thumb for placing transformers, meters, trash enclosures and other stuff that didn't get much attention until it showed up in exactly the wrong place.

4:00 Break

4:20 Pro Formas, Budgets, and Deal Structures - John Anderson & Monte Anderson

How does the Pro Forma evolve through the arc of the project and how can a small developer assemble credible and reliable cost estimates?

6:30 Dinner

7:15 Asking for Money - John Anderson & Monte Anderson

Banks and Equity Investors have very different goals and perspectives when it comes to considering the small developer's projects.  Monte and John will walk you through how lenders and investors look at a deal and how to prepare your pitch and the supporting materials.

8:15 Deal Pitch Simulation

Instructors will demonstrate how to pitch a project to a Lender and to a Capital Partner (investor or land owner).  Attendees are encouraged to pitch their projects to the "bankers" and the "investors".  This simulation is intended to provide attendees with an opportunity to practice and refine their pitch in a supportive environment.

Sunday

8:00 Breakfast

8:30  Constraints, Opportunities and Competitive Advantage for Small Developers

Things municipalities can do to encourage small developments grouped into three categories: Essential, Important, and Useful.  9:30 Lab Work and Extended Q& A

Attendees can present their projects for detailed critique by the Instructors and the other attendees.  Bring your project in PowerPoint on a flash drive.  Spreadsheet pro forma files are also helpful.  Contact Jim Kumon to reserve a slot for your project's critique and discussion.

A scanner/printer will be available in the venue throughout the boot camp to print 11 x 17 materials.  Attendees can post their projects in the classroom space.  Don't be shy.

12:00 Lunch on your own.

Ahead of the Small Developer Boot Camp this weekend in Duncanville, TX, I have been thinking a lot about how folks outside the field perceive what it takes to be a developer, and how that perception departs from the reality.

People that are not developers often talk about the developer's amazing and unreasonable tolerance for risk as a defining characteristic.  This is not correct.  Seriously.  The key thing to understand is that Developers typically see the risk of a project parsed into hunks, not as one big scary ball of risk and adversity.

A developer's job is to identify risks in the stages along the arc of the entire project and then manage or mitigate those risks with the appropriate know how, relationships, time & attention, and setting up the right deal structure to align the interests of the parties.

Market and Site Selection Risk is managed by doing lots of homework before committing to a specific site or sites.

Entitlement Risk is reduced or mitigated by building as-of-right projects or by not closing on the subject property until entitlements are secured, and by thoroughly understanding the technical steps in the process, the politics of the place and the culture of the staff and neighborhood.

Construction Risks (including cost overruns and delays in completion) can be reduced or mitigated by not taking on projects with building types outside of the developer's experience.  Podium Buildings are a different animal than wood frame walk-ups, Mixed use building are different from one story commercial building or walk up apartment buildings.  If you are making a move to a more complex building type, get a partner who has been there before.

Leasing Risks are managed by doing your homework on market preferences and competing projects recently built or in the pipeline.

Financing Risk can be reduced or mitigated by cultivating multiple sources for equity or debt and not being tied to one investor or just one bank.  Rookie financing risk can be reduced by getting mentors and advisors to review and critique your deal on paper several times before you put it in front of an investor or construction lender.  Structuring multiple exits for investors and for the developer reduces financing risks following construction and lease up.

The mechanics of managing risk can start with assembling checklists and standardized deal structures and agreements with consultants and trades.  With practice comes more mature perspective and a more intuitive grasp of what activity and risks should demand the developer's attention at a given time within the project arc.