Does a trades background actually help you read a land deal, or is it a different skill set entirely
I keep thinking it gives me an edge because I can walk a site and price the horizontal work in my head without calling an engineer first. I did that on a 12-lot parcel outside Tulsa last spring, walked it with a buddy who subs grading, and we roughed out the earthwork in about an hour. My number came in about 8 percent under what the civil quoted two weeks later, so maybe that's something. But when I got to the entitlement side I was completely lost. Rezoning timeline, plat requirements, who to talk to at the county, what the traffic study was actually going to cost. None of that translates from what I know. So I'm wondering if the trades thing is just a partial advantage, mainly on the improvement cost side, and the entitlement piece is its own education that nobody shortcuts.
