What Is The Best Way To Enter Developing

Comments(8)

• 
  NancyChadwick5th May, 2004

  I'm not sure I would describe developing as an easy concept (or building either). If the concepts are easy, then execution of them is not. Each involves different challenges. The main ones for developers that I have seen in brokering land are:
  
  1. dealing with sellers who don't know what their property's worth but slap big price tags on them anyway
  
  2. educating sellers in the reality of value being relative to use and not number of acres and the need for customary contingencies
  
  3. dealing with the municipality, getting through the approval process expeditiously and living to tell the story
  
  4. choosing the right people for the team (RE attorney, engr & surveyor, wetlands specialist, env'l specialist, etc). You want your attorney to be experienced in land development work, be able to counsel you concerning the players in individual municipalities, and offer you pragmatism, not a "Hatfields & McCoys" approach. You want your engr not to have been involved in the past in a "blood feud" with the municipal engr and to hit deadlines so plan submissions are made in time to get onto meeting agendas.
  
  5. you can never overestimate the importance of doing due diligence--you'll be doing that from the beginning up through closing.

• 
  woodsong6th May, 2004

  Nancy is right....
  Development is not an easy field. As time goes by it only gets more complicated with more regulations, restrictions, etc. I would caution anyone who thinks they can dive into "development" and never do any physical work on the site. To be able to do that usually requires a great level of knowledge in skill to know what you are doing. If development was simple and easy, there would be a lot more people doing it and the rewards would be less. Rather, it is high risk, high reward. If you want to get into doing development work I would recommend buying a copy of your local zoning book and read it front to back. Development revolves around zoning and allowed use. Start attending board of zoning appeals hearings and rezoning hearings to get a feel of what type of work and projects people are doing what they are having to go through to get the zoning they need. That would be a good way to start.

• 
  wmwealth6th May, 2004

  Thanks to both you(Woodsong) and Nancy for replying, your advice will be well taken. My uderstanding from reading the posts here was that the actual developer was more or less hands off, and left the physical building aspect to the contractors and builders. But don't misunderstand when I say hands off I mean in the actual woodcutting, concrete pouring etc... I do understand that you need to be present to see your project thru and to keep the teams coordinated. I like the potential that excists in Port Saint Lucie and south of here as we have a large and growing "Baby Boomer" population but most of the land I have seen, especially waterfront land have big real estate signs already posted, isn't it hard to find private owned land that would be suitable for "big dollar " home development development.
  
  Nancy, is Land Brokering the same as Developing or were you just stating what aspect of development you were involved in?
  
  Thanks for taking time to answer some questions that may be obvious to some people 8 >

• 
  InActive_Account6th May, 2004

  There are many "developing" possibilities:
  
  1. Is your interest in purchasing a large parcel of land and sub-dividing the land for individual resale, or
  
  2. Is your interest in purchasing an individual building parcel and building a spec house (or custom built for customer), or
  
  3. Is your interest a combination of #1 and #2
  
  Each of these possibilities require different resources and different tasks to be completed. In all cases I wouldn't consider any of these possibilities as "easy". They all require excellent project management skills and and very time consuming to be effective.
  
  Good Luck

• 
  NancyChadwick6th May, 2004

  wmwealth,
  
  I used "brokering" to describe listing and selling as a RE licensee and also working inside building organizations doing land acquisition.
  
  Nancy

• 
  wmwealth6th May, 2004

  I guess "easy" was a bad choice of words, I actually am only reffering to the concept as a whole, not in the process of developing, after all, I guess if it were easy I would'nt need to post here for answers. LOL
  
  Thanks ToussaintGC for breaking it down into the different areas for me, The development area I am interested in involves finding desirable parcels of land and developing condo's, subdivisions, and custom waterfront homes in south florida, catering to our growing populace of baby boomers, and retirees with reserves of spendable income.
  
  I guess I should Look for a mentor who could introduce me into the development world.[ Edited by wmwealth on Date 05/06/2004 ]

• 
  Reva30th May, 2004

  I too am looking into developing a project from idea to selling to the end users. I have my RE license, but more importantly I have RE. I have renovated commercial space and see the profits from that effort.
  
  I own 4 adjoining properties in a downtown redevelopment area. The building are old and ugly. I plan to demolish and rebuild with mixed use - retail/restaurant on bottom, offices on second, condos or aparments on third. The second and third floors will have riverview. I have an architect, know the environment guys (and have given them work), my lawyers is into RE development in a big way. I am just worried about the contractor and financing. I am planning to get my CCIM courses to learn about the process before jumping in, but this could be my "retirement" project if all goes well.
  
  Any one out there with experience or know where to go to get the experience?

• 
  cjmazur30th May, 2004

  Learning all the county, town and city zoning code can be a big task.
  
  Rewarding if you're into it.