Building an Entire Residential Subdivision from Start to Finish - Three Years in Twelve Minutes!

So, the story goes that a horse training facility went out of business and a major home builder purchased the land for a rumored $20M and converted it into a residential subdivision. In the first short segment you can even see the big swimming pool they used for horse rehab and therapy.
Starting in 2019 the builder cleared off the structures, moved the existing vegetation to a corner of the property and began the process to turn the 20 acres of land into 39 homes. The last house, which started as the parking lot for the two model homes, closed early in 2022.
When I first learned this was going to happen I took advantage of the opportunity and flew my drone over the property periodically because I thought it would be interesting to see it develop over time and I'd never seen a subdivision built from start to finish.
I hope you find it interesting too. Quite honestly I'm amazed I kept up with this for three years despite my tendency to become easily distracted ... Look! A Squirrel!!
DISCLOSURE: This video and description contain affiliate links; if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase I’ll receive a small commission. It adds no extra cost to you.
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© 2022 Hangtime31. All rights reserved.
Music:
Light Awash by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
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[@drenfreezy6614]

Awesome video! I work for a big subdivision contractor in Texas and do land development on the side. This was a great video to show my kids so that they understand what daddy does every day. Thank for your efforts!

[@hangtime_31]

I'm glad it was educational, thanks for watching!

[@shirelle1987]

How can I contact you for help with developing land?

[@savagesociallounge1135]

I’m a real estate agent and want to become an developer myself! This is awesome 🎉

[@TheJonOrtiz]

This is one of the most FASCINATING videos I have ever seen. Definitely going into my favorites. Good job 👏

[@hangtime_31]

Why, Thank You! That was very kind - and appreciated!! 😀

[@RichardMaiero]

Liked it. Good insight into the amount of planning that must be done to build out a complete subdivision.

[@hangtime_31]

Thanks Rick, glad you liked it.

[@gomezxv]

Pretty neat! I am doing a subdivision for a school project (Mines a 39 acre square tract). Definitely eye opening 😊 nice to see a visual of what is designed on paper.

[@hangtime_31]

Very cool!

[@TheTeensGuideToWealth]

Amazing footage and confirmation that this can be done! THANK YOU!!!

[@quizzyondemand]

Im going to build my own subdivision one day!

[@SEMAPODCAST]

Me too

[@danthornley5891]

Squirrel??! Where?? Great video!!

[@Felix-nz7lq]

What a total waste of land and resources, it's depressing to see this kind of development still being built

[@perstaffanlundgren]

Agree! ,more suburban sprawl among old suburban sprawl, yey! Extremely substantial earth work for a fue houses. More exclusively car-based neiberhoods. Note : Good camera work/ post prod. and interesting to see anyway, so no negativity shall be pointed put on the content creator!

[@DonnaShanks]

If you had the resources, what would you have done differently. Not being snarky. Genuinely curious. Thanks

[@Hackkgoldd]

Yeah. Clustering a bunch of 1million dollar homes on 2acres 😂🤦‍♂️

[@shaham712]

This video is really amazing to watch.

[@shanra4764]

I'd like to develop something this size soon.

[@frios011]

I’m constantly reminded how humanity can be so impressive and constructive and also so careless, reckless and stupid!

[@Trapperjohn1000]

This is my dream. I’m a builder and want to take on a whole subdivision myself. What model drone do you use? Thanks for the awesome video

[@hangtime_31]

Hi Trapper! It was filmed with a Mavic Pro which is getting rather old now. I'd like to get something newer but this one still works like a champ. I've updated the description with the drone and accessories so if you're interested in more, hopefully it's all there now. When you build your first subdivision I'd like to see it! Cheers!

[@Trapperjohn1000]

I’m going to upload on my page the house I just built and the drone footage of land I own and plan to build about 9 houses. Thanks for the response and info

[@hangtime_31]

@@Trapperjohn1000 Cool! I've subbed to your channel so I can see it when you get it uploaded.

[@nickwebb9937]

@@Trapperjohn1000waste of beautiful land.

[@butterflyeffect8137]

this was incredible to watch!

[@hangtime_31]

Thanks!

[@OmniXBro]

You know what would be amazing for this video? Another version where someone's commentating every single thing being shown on this video so we can comprehend more about what's being done and why, and why in that order.

[@MichaelDillin]

Very cool

[@dinhscot]

Dang, that a Giant Septic!

[@hangtime_31]

Hi Scott ... those giant tanks? Those are for storm runoff. Thanks for watching! 👍

[@GlobalistJuice]

Great video!👍I am fascinated with land development & building process. I'm here in Tucson, would love to know where in Phoenix this is, so I could get an idea of what each home sold for. Because doing the math, just to break-even on the cost of the land ($20million), the developer would have to sell each of 39 homes for $512,820 - again, that price would be to just to break-even on the cost of the land, nothing else! I would imagine each home would have had to sell for a cool million to even come close to making a profit!

[@simi_Fili_Tongi]

What great video! Thank you!

[@JandCfilms1]

"Look! A squirrel!" I'm surprised I read the description.

[@hangtime_31]

🤣 Thanks for watching!

[@vijayshenoy6628]

What is the use of those huge pipes ??

[@hangtime_31]

The big pipes are for storm runoff; in the southwestern deserts of the USA it may not rain often, but during the monsoon it may rain a great deal in a very short period of time. The neighborhoods are designed to direct this rain to the large catch basin (which sometimes doubles as a park the rest of the time) and the big pipes help the water percolate into the ground where it ends up in the aquifer. Thanks for watching!

[@robertgregory2618]

Those are some huge ramblers. Do you have ant idea of the square footage of those homes? Old time electrician here. Worked on many of those projects in the NW...

[@hangtime_31]

The smallest ones are about 3,100 sq ft, the largest are a little over 4,100 sq ft. Thanks for watching!

[@Neotank22000]

Great drone footage! Was that grove of potted trees for planting in the new subdivision?

[@hangtime_31]

Hi, thanks for watching! What that particular builder did was to pick up all the existing trees and other plants in the area to be developed and then boxed them up and moved them to a corner while they made the improvements (leveling, streets, underground work, etc) to the rest of the land. When they were ready, they put them back in the neighborhood, just in more convenient locations. So all the plants existing before they starting their work were preserved, just moved a couple of times.

[@Neotank22000]

@@hangtime_31 that’s so cool, lots of developers would’ve bulldozed over them, great concept because it saves the developer $ on landscaping, and preserves them. I’m thinking they’re Palo verde trees, native to the Desert. Looks like they’re were some roofless abandoned homes on the land previously.

[@sabla38]

Thanks for sharing such a marvelous work... Would like to ask the total area of the land and the area of each plot.

[@hangtime_31]

Hi, and thanks for watching! There are 39 lots in the development. I picked one in the middle and looked it up on the county assessor's website to get the measurements; it was 130 feet deep and 80 feet wide, so just under a quarter of an acre. There are some which would be a little larger, of course. I seem to remember the entire development is in the ballpark of 36 to 39 acres. Correction: it was 20 acres, my apologies.

[@cuSTEMJourneys]

These are some awesome shots! I know you don't own the land but do you have any idea how many acres it was?

[@hangtime_31]

Hi, thanks for watching! That's an excellent question. It's about 20 acres and I've amended the description to include that data.

[@YuanTian-md2nq]

thank you. this is amazing.

[@hangtime_31]

Glad you liked it - Thanks for Watching!

[@cuteboy2745]

Awesome video what was this land size?

[@hangtime_31]

I think the entire development was between 36 and 39 acres. Thanks for watching! 😉 Correction - it was 20 acres, sorry.

[@devonhyung2073]

So I’m assuming you bought land had the rights to build all this and then got construction to come do it for 100% finance. My question is how much cash flow monthly would each property bring you with such high payments on the construction loan

[@hangtime_31]

A major home builder purchased the land and built the homes (not me), so I really don't know the answer to your question, sorry.

[@drenfreezy6614]

Subdivision development is not a cash flow game (unless you’re a build-to-rent developer). It’s all about squeezing as many lots into a property as possible and then developing as fast as possible to avoid the next down turn. Developers buy land by the acre, take it through the entitlement/approval process for a subdivision, then build it, and sell each lot to a home builder. Usually one Homebuilder will take down all of the lots. Your profit = lot revenue - land price - construction costs (in simple terms). Right now many builders are so desperate for lots to build on that they’re buying the land themselves and taking it through entitlements themselves so that they don’t have to wait on a developer to do it.

[@beptex2858]

@@drenfreezy6614 so who builds the streets? So a Land Developer doesn’t build the houses? They just basically sell the lots to home builders?

[@drenfreezy6614]

@@beptex2858 Right… in residential development, a land developer typically builds the streets, sidewalks, curbs, ponds, public utilities, etc. (aka “Horizontal Construction). Those “public” areas will become the property of the city/jurisdiction once horizontal construction concludes. Then a Homebuilder buys the lots, determines which home products it can put on each lot and builds the homes (aka “Vertical Construction”). The Homebuilder must price the homes high enough to cover their cost of home building, the cost for the developed land they purchased from the developer, and any other business costs they have, plus profit.

[@beptex2858]

@@drenfreezy6614 thanks for clarifying I appreciate replying I’m learning and going to study land development and finance in college. Really interesting

[@tumpizm9059]

❤️👌🏽

[@bobandimic418]

Terrible usage of space.

[@vanillaweaselurbex]

Agreed.

[@tyket5929]

Communist

[@lpe655]

Let them run out of water and find out. If thisnos Arizona they would be fine, natural aquifer, but they sold their water to the Saudi's years ago.

[@ih9368]

In the uk they would have built 300 house's in that space lol.

[@nickatnight7814]

Looks like the aim was for some large homes and wide streets. I think their just targeting certain home buyers (the tree spaces im pretty sure they just wanted to meet code and did not want to replant anything). Investment wise although they could place 3x as many smaller homes and implement culdesac’s you can’t really do the same thing with larger homes unless you slope the yards differently and change the house layout (which I’m sure they just opted to not have a different home layout to fit the geometry/grading).

[@LS19331]

Woah, 20 acres and only 39 homes. Here in Sydney Australia that block would be worth minimum 60 million and probably would house over 120 homes.

[@hangtime_31]

High Rises? Apartments?

[@LS19331]

@@hangtime_31 No, homes. Homes will range from 30-45 squares.

[@hangtime_31]

@@LS19331 squares?

[@DonnaShanks]

@@hangtime_31 30-45 squares ( 278 sq meters - 418 sq meters) = 2990 sq ft to 4500 sq ft

[@ghazwankareem]

Who's responsible to make streets ? You or the city ?

[@hangtime_31]

Hi! Thanks for watching. I filmed this with my drone as a personal video project - I didn't build the neighborhood. Maybe someone watching, who is in that field of expertise, can answer that question for us?

[@anthonys7534]

Typically the developers will build the roads with plans approved from the city

[@jkbc]

wow amazing, how long did it take in reality from start to finish?

[@hangtime_31]

Starting in 2019 the builder cleared off the structures, moved the existing vegetation to a corner of the property and began the process to turn the 20 acres of land into 39 homes. The last house, which started as the parking lot for the two model homes, closed early in 2022.

[@ajaay9244]

Seems like the drone only flew by on trash/recycle day.

[@huntergaming805]

The cost of doing this construction???

[@hangtime_31]

Well ... I don't work for the builder and I'm not in the construction field so I couldn't even hazard a guess. Thanks for watching though!

[@drenfreezy6614]

Assuming they didn’t encounter any rock excavation, the horizontal construction (excavation/embankment, streets, utilities, ponds) was probably in the $1.5 - $2 million range for 39 lots.

[@thumperhunts6250]

what are the big pipes at 4:00

[@hangtime_31]

The big pipes are for storm runoff; in the southwestern deserts of the USA it may not rain often, but during the monsoon it may rain a great deal in a very short period of time. The neighborhoods are designed to direct this rain to the large catch basin (which sometimes doubles as a park the rest of the time) and the big pipes help the water percolate into the ground where it ends up in the aquifer. Thanks for watching!

[@harmanjotsingh5867]

what city it was taken in?

[@hangtime_31]

Phoenix

[@hazeljeangaudicos4025]

Can i ask were is this place?

[@hangtime_31]

Hi Hazel - it's in Phoenix, Arizona, USA

[@manilovefrogs__8842]

Living here would seem depressing and lonely

[@samj8830]

Why did you use space music bro? That doesn’t even make sense

[@ironwelder480]

3 years? too long.

[@paulradice3534]

Very flat

[@peteroriyavo]

more tax revenue to be invested further elsewhere.

[@tastyorange]

No space between these homes. I'd rather have the home 2 stories and have more yard space.

[@theshortschanal2723]

Eww suberban sprawl. A terrible use of space. We need more missing middle housing

[@zerofactor7871]

Then go out and build it. Nobody's stopping you, why aren't you doing anything to solve the problem? Or, is it easier to just criticize and complain so you can feel superior to others without ever actually proving it?

[@user-yu8vm6ru3d]

Good camera work but subdivisions are crap. Their is no housing crisis people. Plenty of old houses and empty lots to buy. Stop wasting land for this garbage.

[@zerofactor7871]

Only someone who has zero experience with development or the real estate industry can think like this. #1, people don't want to live in crappy old houses and remodeling is far outside of most new homebuyers' budgets. They can't afford to buy an old house because the municipality won't allow you to live in it until it meets building standards. This is why old dilapidated buildings don't get turned into homeless shelters or affordable housing, because by the time you pay to bring it up to code it's no longer profitable to rent to low income people. Too much expense on the part of the owner for it to make sense. #2, new subdivisions are not built for rich people, it's just that they're built for the middle class and it's likely you're not in that group. Most of the people who talk big shit about subdivisions are people who live in small apartments or studios and have a sub-$10k net worth, this probably applies to you. It comes from being stuck on the outside looking in for too long, time to buck up and do better for yourself. #3, as someone who builds subdivisions, it is ki h easier for new/young homebuyers to purchase a brand new home in a subdivision because the banks are much more will to finance them. Additionally, they save tens of thousands of dollars in repair/remodel costs that always come with buying an old house. Old houses get bought by people who can afford to fix them, and those people are rarely the ones who will end up living there. Investors and developers are the reason you have a place to live at all, otherwise it'd be up to you to put a roof over your own head on your own piece of land. Because people take the risk of investing millions into building properties, you're able to just work a job and trust that your most fundamental need (shelter) will always be taken care of by someone else.