I know that there is another thred on builders going, buth this subject was not mentioned. I have been aproached to become involved with a model home for a new subdivision of about 300 homes. They are from $300 to 500k.A competitor that I know from reputation, but not personally, decided not to do it. My company is relativly new, we are only 3 years old. Since I am not a B&M, this looks like a good opportunity. What are some of the pro's and cons? I know that it will be a capitol investment, with the equipment being there for maby 1 to 2 years, as construction is compleated.
Any and all thoughts are appreciated!

Depends on how busy you are, and are willing to be come. Definitly figure it out where worst case you are making a bit more than even.

You will stay busy, and out of 300 homes you should hope to get 10% at least of return for trim outs.

Try to get the builder to pay for all the built ins (in wall speakers, keypads, vol controls, etc.), offer a standard package of wiring to the builder for a good price, then put together upgrake packages (surround, one room audio, etc.) and meet with each buyer before the house is built. You should make plenty of money this way. Also, check the builders payment terms, a lot of them can be notoriously slow. One last thing, if you're not doing security, do it. Either do the monitoring yourself or wire for it and sell the account to a big security company. That alone could make the project worthwhile.

The biggest problem with builders is they seem to disappear when the final payment is due. Make sure that you have everything well documented and be to possibly take legal action. It seems that's part of the game. Also, they will try to cut a deal once it's in the legal process, but it's more of insult than anything else (.25 on the dollar if you are lucky?).

Good Luck!

You will know in 6 mo. how the rest of the homes or jobs will go and how the payments are being made from the builder. Talk to other subs that the builder uses and ask questions. IF everything looks good, get your feet wet and make sure you are making money. Stress to the builder or developer if he picks you apart on prices that you need to make a reasonable profit just like him to stay in business and support your customers. If he does not see it that way- walk and let him learn the hard way.

Decided not to do the model home. They did not want to pay for anything, and if the home was sold and they wanted the speakers pulled, I would need to patch the holes. If I wanted to be abused, I could just fly my mother-in-law in for much cheaper!