The stages
- Screening: days to weeks
- Option or LOI: 2 to 8 weeks
- Diligence: 6 to 18 months
- Entitlement: 6 months to 3 years or more, often overlapping diligence
- Closing: 30 to 90 days after the option is exercised
What takes the time
Almost always the utility. Interconnection queue studies run 24 to 36 months in constrained markets. Every other workstream — environmental, geotechnical, survey, title, fiber — finishes long before the power question is answered.
Entitlement can be the second long pole where rezoning or a special use permit is required, particularly if there is organised local opposition.
What this means for you
Your land is off the market for the duration. That is a real cost and it should be priced into the option payment.
Extensions are how two years becomes five. A 12-month option with four renewals is a five-year option. Extensions should cost real money and the cost should escalate.
The price should move. A flat purchase price across a multi-year option in a market repricing this fast hands all the appreciation to the buyer.
It may not close. Build.inc identifies insufficient available load or slow time to energize as the most likely cause of a failed deal. Structure for that possibility rather than assuming it away.