And you say you want to be a developer check this out.

[Jay Hinrichs]

As quoted in the Napa Valley Register.

"As Napa city officials near a possible decision in the two-decade tug of war over 51 homes planned near Old Sonoma Road and Casswall Street, a developer on Tuesday again tried to make the case…"

2 decades.. probably 3 or 4 developers tried and gave up.. there is a reason I only lived in the Napa Valley and never worked there LOL..

[Dave Foster]

@Duriel Taylor, @Jay Hinrichs and @Scott Choppin have both hinted at what I see as one of your biggest dilemmas - what do you bring to the table and how does that translate into general experience.  I'm more in the mold of Jay.  I do my own thing and hire a team around me of locals (for the latest project I've got a land planning engineer, a realtor, general counsel, bond counsel, and a site rep for a 200 home subdivision -lots only  no construction).  That's it.  So theres room for a shadow who could get a taste of the whole process but no money to pay someone who's not bringing hard skill to the table.  Contrast that to a larger full service sector developer like Scott.  If you can find a place in a company like that your experience is likely to be very narrow and limited in how it prepares you for the job of full time developer.

When Jay said that most developers morph that about sums it up.  So you know what your best course of action is in order to morph into that developer you want to be?

1. Go find a lot that needs a house on it.  Research why it doesn't have one.  Talk to planning and zoning.  Buy it (maybe put some friends together).  Get financing and hire a builder to build it.  Then spend every second you can with every trade and professional who crosses onto that land.  Make the GC take you with you to planning/permitting meetings.  You're paying the bill.  They're providing the education.

2. Then go find two infill lots, or a house on two lots that needs to be scraped. or a residential house on commercial, or a site that's begging for rezoning, or land in the path of progress or or or..... By the time you get here  you've morphed and you're a developer.  The deals are the same at that point its just a question of the numbers of zeros.