Real Estate Development Process Overview

A basic overview of the end-to-end process for a real estate development program for low-income families in Mexico.

In 2021, we began working on a direct-to-consumer, real estate development business. The goal was to take control of key parts of the housing process in order to increase speed, reduce costs, and have more visibility into the end-to-end process for housing development.

The following steps outline the key parts of the process.

There are dozens of additional steps, processes, checklists, documents, and decisions within each item below. This is not a comprehensive list. It’s an introduction.

1. Source Land
2. Negotiate Cost & Terms
3. Sign Land “Option”
4. Design or Select Home(s) Design
5. Finalize Design Community
6. Publish Executive Project Report
7. Source Pricing from General Contractor
8. Select General Contractor
9. Complete Pre-Construction Preperation
   - Prepare Insurance(s)
   - File Permit(s)
   - Source Labor
   - Source Materials
10. Finalize Land Purchase
11. Start Construction
12. Oversee Project Management
13. Issue Certificate(s) of Occupancy
14. Move-in!

As you review the model above, you will notice the use of “land optioning” (Step 3). Optioning property allows real estate developers to lock in a purchase price, but defer full payment until after a more thorough due diligence has been performed on the property.

Our preferred form of land optioning includes the right to start permitting and pre-sell to customers. Marketing and selling specific parcels of land further de-risks our investment by ensuring market demand.

Visual Overview from Land Sourcing to Move-in