From land to keys: how long does it take?

The study

Before anyone draws, the lot is read: zoning, flood zone, survey, utilities, and what new homes sell for nearby. The result is a first answer to two questions. What fits? Is it worth doing?

This takes a few weeks. It is the cheapest part of the project and the one that avoids the most expensive mistakes.

A detail from a recent project: the owner already had a survey, but it only showed the boundary. The city meeting needed heights and trees, so a new survey had to be ordered first.

Design

The architect draws the project, first as a concept, then in detail. Engineers add the structure, the drainage, the electricity, the plumbing and the air conditioning. A landscape plan comes with it.

Count three to five months to reach a set of drawings a city will accept.

Permits

Florida law gives a city 30 business days to approve or deny the permit for a single-family home under 7,500 square feet, counted from a complete application.

In practice the clock stops each time the city sends comments and the team answers them. Several departments read the same drawings: zoning, building, public works, and sometimes the county for sewer and the environment. Plan on a few months, not a few weeks.

On one of our projects, the city asked for every sheet to be signed and sealed as a separate file. Requests like this are normal, and each one costs a few days.

Construction

A house, or a small group of townhouses, takes twelve to eighteen months to build. First the ground and the foundation. Then the structure, the roof and the windows, which close the building. Then everything inside. Each step is inspected, and the city gives a certificate of occupancy at the end.

What slows a project

• Changes during construction. Moving a wall on paper costs an hour. Moving it on site costs weeks.
• Late choices. Windows, kitchens and stone are ordered months ahead.
• Utilities. Power, water and sewer connections run on their own calendar. On one of our sites, temporary water took seven weeks because of one expired certificate in the file.
• Signatures. A county once sent a document back to us because each owner needed a separate signature page.
• Weather. A storm season can stop a site for days at a time.

Most delays come from decisions made late, more than from the work itself.

Why it matters before you start

Two to three years is long. Knowing it on the first day is what lets you choose honestly between selling now and waiting. We compare the two in sell your land or build on it?