Every development timeline is a beautiful work of fiction. It’s crafted with Disney-level optimism and the accuracy of a five-day weather forecast.
Your spreadsheet says 18 months from acquisition to completion. Reality laughs at your spreadsheet. Here’s why your timeline is fantasy—and what to do about it.
Act 1: The Acquisition Delusion (Month 1-3)
“30-day close!” Sure. If those 30 days exist in a world where:
- Title reports have no surprises from 1887
- Phase I environmental finds nothing suspicious
- Sellers actually have their documents
- Lenders move at light speed
Reality: Add two months. That’s how long it takes for the survey to find the easement nobody knew about.
Act 2: The Entitlement Fantasy (Month 4-9)
Your timeline shows six months for approvals. This assumes:
- The planning department is fully staffed (myth)
- No neighbors oppose you (impossible)
- Your first submittal is perfect (hilarious)
- The planning commission agrees on anything (never happened)
What actually happens: Mrs. Henderson, two blocks away, decides your project will destroy property values, marriages, and possibly democracy itself.
Act 3: The CEQA Comedy (Month 7-15)
“Negative Declaration, 3 months!” becomes “Mitigated Negative Declaration, 8 months.”
Why? Someone mentions the Southern California Invisible Butterfly. Last seen: 1962.
Your biologist writes poetry about why the butterfly isn’t here. The opposition’s biologist claims your project threatens its comeback. You spend $50,000 proving something that was never there still isn’t.
Act 4: Permit Purgatory (Month 13-18)
Plan check brings exciting surprises:
- Round 1: “Fix these 47 issues”
- Round 2: “Fix these 23 new issues we missed before”
- Round 3: “We changed our mind about Round 1”
- Round 4: “Anyone seen the plan checker? He’s been out three weeks”
Act 5: The Construction Circus (Month 19-30)
Your construction timeline assumes:
- Rain doesn’t exist in Southern California (it does—right when you pour concrete)
- Subs show up on time (they’re building three other projects)
- Materials arrive as scheduled (they’re on a boat near Somalia)
- Inspectors agree with each other (they read codes like fortune cookies)
The Supply Chain Surprise
Those windows with an 8-week lead time? Try 16 weeks. “Unprecedented demand” means someone forgot to order them.
The tile your architect picked? Discontinued. The backup? Also gone. The third option? Only available in Belgium.
Inspection Roulette
Inspector #1: “Looks good!” Inspector #2: “This is all wrong!”
Same work. Different day. Quantum physics at work.
The Utility Time Warp
Getting utilities runs on geological time:
- Electric company: “6-8 weeks” (meaning: eventually)
- Gas company: “We’ll get to you” (meaning: next quarter)
- Cable company: “We don’t service that address” (it’s downtown LA)
The Solution: Realistic Timeline Math
- Take your initial timeline
- Multiply by 1.5 for simple projects
- Multiply by 2.0 for complex ones
- Add six months for surprises
- Add three more because you’re still too hopeful
- Accept you’ll still be wrong
The Truth About Timelines
Timelines are like gym memberships. They show what could happen in a perfect world. That world doesn’t exist. But dreaming about it helps us sleep.
Williams Capital Advisors builds timelines based on experience, not wishful thinking. We know every delay, every excuse—and how to work around them.
Contact us today:
(213) 880-8107 | francisco.Williams@williamscap.ai | williamscapitaladvisors.com
We’ll manage reality while you keep the optimism.
