Regulatory approvals and permitting are the hidden bottleneck that kills real estate deals, not construction costs.
The hardest part of brownstone restoration isn't construction — it's navigating years of landmark approvals, permits, soil tests, and regulatory bureaucracy. Time is the real killer: carrying costs accumulate while waiting, and delays can destroy a project's economics. ✦ AI generated
Mark O'Brien · My First Million · 2026-07-21 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 3:28
“So when do you think this will be done this project?”
So it's been two and a half years that I've been waiting for permits. You know it's landmark. [...] No, it's it's a lot of work of architects, engineers getting u soil bearing bearing tests. You know, they've got to break up the the foundation down below in the in the cellar and I can show it to you and then they they want to see where is my neighbor's foundation, where's the footing, where where's my footing compared to their footing. [...] It's the cost to carry it. It's And time will kill every deal. And and often it does.
verbatim transcript · starts at 3:28
3:25sell for $17 million you are uh >> that's not how they're going to use it. >> That's right. >> So when do you think this will be done this project? >> So [music] it's been two and a half years that I've been waiting for permits. You know it's landmark. >> Do you just sit and do nothing? No, it's it's a lot of work of architects, engineers getting u soil bearing bearing
3:43tests. You know, they've got to break up the the foundation down below in the in the cellar and I can show it to you and then they they want to see where is my neighbor's foundation, where's the footing, where where's my footing compared to their footing. >> But it's like uh just getting the permits and doing all this regulatory stuff. It seems like that's like the thing that
4:03uh like when people talk about like products that they're [music] going to sell on the internet, they think, "Oh, my product's amazing." I'm like, "Yeah, but like the reality is you have to be a good marketer." 70% of the value is like, "Are you good at like buying ads online?" With this, it's like, "Well, I can build this amazing place. I can make a profit on it. I can do it cheaply, but
4:17it's like, yeah, but can you spend the years like >> jumping through the hoops of like getting approvals and all this other stuff that you didn't like?" It's >> it's the cost to carry it. It's [music] And time will kill every deal. And and often it does. >> Can we see the rest? >> Yeah. So, and actually, so this is funny because I'm using this as my bedroom
4:37because I I moved in. I thought I'm going to be here for 6 months, maybe a year, and then I'm it's going to be a demolition site. I'm going to restore all this. So, there's going to be, you know, plastic up everywhere and workers running around. [music] So, I'm going to just keep the footprint here and let's start working upstairs. >> I don't know much about real estate, but