Time will kill every deal — getting permits and approvals can take years and that carrying cost is what destroys projects.
Mark explains that the hardest part of development isn't construction — it's waiting years for landmark permits, and time kills every deal. ✦ AI generated
Mark O'Brien · My First Million · 2026-07-21 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 3:25
“So when do you think this will be done this project?”
It's been two and a half years that I've been waiting for permits. You know it's landmark. ... It's a lot of work of architects, engineers getting soil bearing tests. ... It's the cost to carry it. Time will kill every deal. And often it does.
verbatim transcript · starts at 3:25
3:07furniture. Like, I'm really [music] not fancy. I love just stacking my I love living in the West Village which is which is super fancy but I I bring my the people are like you bring all that firewood in like where you going to put it like like this is the beauty of living in a in a house banged up is is >> it's insane that a home that's going to
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
4:55it the limited amount of stuff that I've done, it seems like everything costs way more and takes way more time. >> Yes. Yeah. It's it's it's just out of control and it's getting worse and worse. So, this is my my desk, my office. Look at this fireplace here, though. I mean, isn't that >> Is this your brand? >> Oh, that's my vodka brand. Yeah. Broken broken shed New Zealand vodka. I make it
5:13from way 100% New Zealand products. Uh water from New Zealand. We from New Zealand, which is um you know, >> this is a business that you own and started. >> Yeah. I spoke to a guy about this recently and um he was like, "Well, how did you how did you get into real estate? like what what was that thing that made you get into real estate? And