Austin Williams
Austin Williams has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Land Development In The Great Smoky Mountains w/ Real Estate Investor Austin Williams
Dan Austin interviews Austin Williams of Compass Ventures, a land developer based in Sevierville, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains. Williams explains why he built a vertically integrated development company with in-house architecture, civil engineering, general contracting and property management, how he went from financial planner to buying single family rentals to ground-up development, and how his team sources off-market development sites. He also breaks down a 150-unit tax credit apartment purchase where solving a city reversion clause added over $11 million in value.
Key takeaways
- Vertical integration works when department heads are bonused on department profitability and can invest in deals, which aligns them with efficient design rather than billing more fees.
- Williams' first deal was a $32,000 foreclosure with a partner; banks refused a $12,000 loan, but six months later after renovation and rent-up, a bank offered $86,000 on the same house, which he rolled into three more properties, then nine more.
- A weekly Friday breakfast group of local developers and business owners led directly to the partnership that produced his first 204-unit development.
- Development sites in the Smokies are constrained by water and sewer access, so the company maps infrastructure, mails letters, and leans on estate attorneys and other professionals who hear about deals before realtors.