if you're an investor buying land or a real estate developer or a business owner looking to expand and in the process of site selection well there aren't a ton of resources out there to help you you probably know you need to do some due diligence before buying the property but you might not even know where to start and when you do start how do you even know you're doing things in the right order well it's a problem and really a lack of experience and knowledge of the land buying and real estate development process leaves you exposed to Serious Financial risks and time delays but I'm here to help demystify the process for you a little bit so keep watching as we take a deep dive into sequencing your real estate due diligence and land entitlement tasks what's up everyone it's Matt Marsh founder Martian Partners Martian Partners is a development and National consulting firm that helps business owners and investors maximize their real estate and transform their businesses now this whole concept of sequencing your diligence activities when buying lands for and to many when you buy a house you know it's pretty straightforward you call your attorney start getting some title work done get an inspector to walk through the house get a surveyor out to the property and an appraisal if you're working through a bank but if you think about it all your due diligence happens around the same time you know you might want to wait for the inspection to come back before you spend money on a survey but really that's about it and even if you're talking about buying a a commercial investment property it's not much much more complicated either you know you'll want to do some research into the existing leases you'll probably want to do a you know complete environmental assessment but there isn't much by way of sequencing your activities but when it comes to land entitlement and Land Development those tasks they Compound on one another and items you investigate often lead to more questions and further investigations and I get a lot of questions from my Consulting clients about how to best do it and how to do it as inexpensive ly and efficiently as possible so I wanted to put together a video to help answer some of those questions and hopefully help you avoid some of those time intensive and expensive mistakes in the future now one of the benefits of being in the real estate development industry full time is you begin to understand all the free resources that are available to help you when investigating a property before I put a property under contract I can conduct my own feasibility study you know I'll typically start with the the local mun ipal GIS records the gis tool it offers a great place to begin assessing a property I can research everything from a site's ownership and Legal Information to its topography access to utilities zoning information and much more and it gives me a much better highlevel understanding of a property before I put it under contract and from there you know I might use Google Earth to get a better view of the site's physical characteristics and the property's tax and deed records for an understanding of the property's ownership and sales history now if your plan is to develop the property you might consider investigating any applicable future land use maps for information on the municipality's vision for the site wetlands and flood maps they can help you better understand the composition of the soils and determine how much of the site is actually buildable and you'll likely need to formally examine all of these again before you purchase the property but there's a lot that you can understand about the feasibility of a land site early on without spending a ton of money now here's another thing to think about in order to give yourself enough time to sequence and complete your due diligence activities you need to properly structure your contract before you can break ground on the land and before you can break ground on a Land Development there's a series of Milestones that must be met now if you have a copy of Martian partners' land acquisition and site selection due diligence checklist you might be overwhelmed by the laundry list of things you need to take care of but not only do these tasks take time they also cost money and everyone in the Development and Construction Industries is so busy right now that just getting someone out to your property for a survey honestly can take a couple of months so to help with all that and to reduce your risk during predevelopment allowing yourself enough time is critical to a successful land purchase and we have a separate video on actually structuring real estate development land contracts that walks you through through exactly what you need to know to set your project up for Success so check out that video and check out the video description for more info now here's where the rubber meets the road in a perfect world your due diligence period is when you get a bulk of your pre-development and land entitlement tasks complete that will ensure you have a high level of confidence that your Project's actually going to be approved before you're forced to close on the property but you know where do you start and what's your first step once you actually put a property under contract well that's that's where the real question lies now the short answer is it depends on what kind of land you're buying and what kind of project you're pursuing so let's say I'm I'm buying a large tract of rural land for for single family homes you know maybe 30 minutes outside of near y City well based on my experience there are a couple of things you'll want to consider right away many times rural land's been passed down in the same family for generations and this often poses challenges for obtaining a title commitment you'll want an attorney on board quickly to begin title work and depending on if the site has access to public utilities well a soil analysis to determine septic system suitability that will also be critical and if the site does have access to utilities I mean do do the utilities even have the capacity to support your proposed project and is the site encumbered by streams or Wetlands because often they might not even appear on the maps or overlays that you invested before putting the property under contract so stream and Wetland determination would be critical to to determine how much of the site is actually usable and buildable before putting a site sketch together now all these items could could be deal breakers for your project critical feasibility items they should be investigated early and expeditiously so you can get the answers that you need before committing more Capital towards land entitlement now let's say instead you're buying a buying an infill property you know it'll most likely have access to public utilities but the size and shape of the lot may be much more of a friction point and depending on your proposed use zoning and land use regulations could also play an important factor typically I'd hire a civil engineer as quickly as possible to begin a site layout sketch and to discuss zoning design and storm water concerns and depending on the site layout and following a municipal pres submitt meeting I'd be much more informed about key items that would need to be investigated next and how to sequence my due diligence activities now the last phase of predevelopment you need to consider sequencing are your land entitlement tasks once a project has been greenlit and all critical real estate due diligence items have been investigated for project feasibility you're ready to go jump Full Steam into the land entitlement process land entitlement is a series of component steps required to achieve full legal development approval and depending on the type of property and the proposed use the process to achieve those full approvals will really look vastly different for instance if your property needs to be rezoned well that would need to happen before you can get full sight plan approval if you need a variance or you know a conditional use permit you'll have to appear before the board of adjustment and receive approval before you can proceed with development as well now in some cases the site plan review process can go concurrently with building plan review but this poses additional entitlement timeline and cost risks the important thing is understanding that before you can break ground you need all required permits and Municipal approvals for your land development project now this video is meant to serve as a guide of sorts for your real estate due diligence land on entitlement tasks the key really is to determine based on your intended use what due diligence items are deal breakers you'll want to investigate those items as early as possible so you're ensuring that you're not needlessly spending money on examinations that end up really proving useless down the road anyway now grasp of the real estate development process is is helpful in understanding these complexities and the complexities you'll likely face in a project and how to best overlay those activities on a timeline we also have a variety of resources available for you to take a deep dive into the land entitlement process specifically or what due diligence items you should consider before buying a piece of land now you can reach out to me directly if you have questions or concerns about current or future projects yours or you just want to brainstorm and please if you enjoyed this video hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and I'll keep you up to date on content to help you through your real estate investing and development Journeys you can also check out our site for more real estate insights at Marsh partners.com now feel free to leave me a comment if there are any other topics you're interested in or you'd like me to cover and again please don't forget to subscribe hit the like button if you want more content like this and thanks again for watching