Nov17Written by:Craig
11/17/2008 12:36 PM 
You have a place, a plan, and a team of motivated professionals ready to start your development. However, you're not quite ready to break ground yet. You need to rally the troops, organize some teams, and make sure that the plan you've created can be executed efficiently. Even if you have a top-notch development and support team with previous experience in developing real estate in Costa Rica, it's not a good idea to send them out on their own without direction. If you're in charge of the development, then you better be at the helm of the ship the whole time. Development in Costa Rica is much like anywhere else, so these rules will translate easily to other areas.
We'll continue to assume that you're developing a residential community in an entirely blank area. First things first, you need to divide your pool of labor into teams. To think of it in military terms, your entire human resources pool is a company. It's convenient because it's your company, and that correlates in essence to a military “company”. You're in charge of the entire company, and you need to divide it up into working units with competent leadership.
The company is broken up into platoons. Depending on what types of work your company engages in, you will have a few different platoons which could include your office personnel, construction personnel, marketing personnel, and real estate sales agents. Make sure you appoint someone at the top of these groups who will personally report to you. It also assists you in issuing orders all the way down to the bottom.
The next level of division includes the squads. Each squad should have a supervisor who will report back to the department head who will, in turn, compile the data and give it to you. The squad will be responsible for completing individual tasks. This is the system which will best streamline your operation and allow you to execute your plan concisely rather than letting loose a few hundred workers.
We will focus on development and construction right now. Once you've divided your team and established a hierarchy of leadership, you need to lay the groundwork at the site to allow you to move forward. First, you should contact the city or local authority to make sure you're properly zoned, you have the necessary permits, and you're authorized to connect to the roads. Failure to follow the proper channels and gain necessary permissions will cause immense problems later. There are a variety of ways your project can not only be delayed but destroyed if you do not comply with the laws of the area. You should have one of your “squads” in the office working on this as the first thing.
While they do that, establish a priority list of tasks that need to be accomplished and in what order. One useful way to organize this is in the academic “outline” format. Here's an example of the outline format:
I. Develop Section 1
1. Prepare the plots
a. Remove the undergrowth
b. Level the ground
2. Build a house on a plot
a. Lay a foundation
b. Build the house
II. Develop Section 2
That's an overly simplified outline, and yours should contain as much more detail. However, this will be the master plan that you can give to your department heads, and they can assign the sub-points to teams as needed.
Once your office team has done all of the footwork and secured the paperwork, you should do your final cost analysis, make any adjustments necessary, and prepare for the physical work to begin. Now you need to create a logistical framework. One of the first things you need to establish is a rudimentary road system so that vehicles won't have to trudge through undergrowth and mud. Raised, gravel roads will be sufficient and can later be paved over once you're no longer running heavy machinery. Along with this, have squad working on utilities and one working on marking and preparing plots. This gives you a glimpse at the shape of your community and divides the work into sections you can tackle.
Now, you have all of the groundwork laid, and you're ready to bring your idea to life. You can dictate to your department heads what needs to be done, and they can assign their squads to tasks as per your priority list.