Real Estate Development Due Diligence Checklist
There are few areas in business where the phrase caveat emptor – “Let the buyer beware” – is more salient than ground-up real estate development. “Due diligence” is the critical process of rigorously investigating a property before closing on an acquisition.
The due diligence process for new development is often more extensive than for an improved property because, on an improved site, many of biggest unknowns have already been investigated and addressed. Will the relevant jurisdictions approve the development? Do existing utilities, services and other infrastructure support the proposed use? Are there environmental or wetland issues
The attached white paper is intended to offer a reasonably comprehensive checklist of common due diligence tasks for ground-up real estate development. Not everything here will apply to every property, and developers will certainly encounter topics not covered here. The checklist groups the tasks into five categories: Deal/Financial, Land Use/Zoning, Title/Survey, Environmental and Utility/Property. It also briefly covers two related topics – Market DD and Buyer/Seller DD – before touching on the Closing and Post-Closing processes.
