In 2018, my wife and I were tired of renting. We had moved four times since 2012, and we were ready to settle into a home we owned. But the way I’m wired, I couldn’t just buy a house—I had to find a way to make money doing it.
I had some friends who worked for homeowners that built their own houses. They would build, live in them for a few years, then sell and repeat the process—leveraging the no capital gains tax benefit to compound their wealth. That idea fascinated me. I started looking into it and decided that if I could find the right lot, I’d give it a shot. Besides, how hard could it be to run Barrier Tech and manage a home build on the side for six to eight months while having 3 kids and the 4th being born mid build? (Turns out, pretty hard… I have a bald spot to prove it.)
A friend told me about a lot that might be available, but the owner didn’t want to sell to builders—she didn’t want strangers moving in. So, I took my three kids, walked up to her house, and knocked on her door. I introduced myself, explained what I wanted to do, and asked if I could buy the lot. We came to terms, and I hired a lawyer to draft the paperwork. The lot was build-ready.
Next, I bought a stock house plan and started thinking about how to get the best prices from subcontractors. I knew that if I wanted them to take me seriously, I had to look like a builder. So, I created an email address myname@doranholdings.com — to make it seem like I was going to be doing this a lot. And to be fair, that was the plan: build a house every two years and keep rolling the profits forward.
But plans change.
Pro tip: Don’t let your wife decorate if you’re planning to sell. Once things stop being builder-grade, you kind of want to stay. And that’s exactly what happened.
By the time we finished the house in June 2019 the house was worth 25% more than it cost us to build. Over the next few years it doubled in value. We were blessed on timing & by no means could have planned it any better. Had we built 1.5 years later it would've cost me 40% more to build & I would've been in trouble.
The house project was the catalyst, but the real buildout is happening now, one business at a time. Owning a home & securing my families future has allowed me to take the risks that I have along the way.
If you want to see a highlight of the house build. Check out the highlights on the profile - https://www.instagram.com/daniel_m_doran/
