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Developing sufficient experience, both as an individual and with the right team
“This is one business where success means recognizing your own limitations and the skills of other team members. While one person alone can’t make you successful, a single wrong team member can bring failure. Becoming a successful developer doesn’t mean you do it all yourself. You can’t. You want to work with people who are the best at what they do.” (Ball)
“Internally, we work as a team. A good developer works a lot like the conductor of an orchestra: He or she identifies talented professionals, inspires them with a common mission, and communicates constantly, trying to draw the best from them. This all has to be done within a budget and a timeframe, and it must be done with a supportive ’win-win’ attitude toward all involved.” (Bennett)
“Make as many contacts as possible. First, having a strong, dependable and responsive management company is imperative. The more professionals that you know and have rapport with, the more successful you will be. This industry takes a village to manage. No one can do it alone.” (Rowlett)
Access to capital (loans and equity)
“Success requires patience, capital, and most of all, fielding a winning team of highly talented professionals.” (Ball)
“Developers need enough capital to complete and to keep their team together between jobs.” (Bennett)
“Creating strong relationships with banks that deal in affordable housing and quality equity investors is a must.” (Rowlett)
Willingness to take risks
“A key challenge is that the need is far greater than the available resources to build affordable housing. Thus, the competition is fierce. The application process alone is expensive and time consuming, and gaining an award is not guaranteed. These are highly specialized programs with their own set of rules, regulations, and tax code.” (Ball)
“The costs are high to bring a project-funding application together and the selection process is highly competitive.” (Bennett)
“It is a very steep learning curve and is very complicated. But if you can give it three years – which is approximately the time it takes to go from locating a site to having tenants move in – then you can do it.” (Rowlett)
AHFA thanks all of these individuals for sharing their time and expertise. Read their complete interviews at Developers' Tips for Success | Alabama Housing Finance Authority (ahfa.com).
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