Episode 89 - How Civil Engineers See Real Estate Differently with Rachel Weinberg

I sit down with Rachel Weinberg, a civil engineer, real estate investor, and owner of a civil engineering consulting firm specializing in residential land development. Rachel's work focuses heavily on projects around the greater Seattle area, where she helps clients understand what they can actually do with a property before moving forward. We talk about what happens during the initial feasibility stage, why critical areas and wetlands can completely change a development, and why investors should understand zoning, setbacks, utilities, and permitting before they buy. Rachel also explains some of the less obvious costs developers can run into, including water and sewer availability requirements, and why seemingly small details can add significant time and money to a project. We also talk about ADUs and DADUs, the growing opportunities around multiple units, working with cities and counties, and why development is truly a team effort. One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation is simple: don't assume. Get as much information as possible upfront.

Stephen and Rachel talked about:

00:00 Intro
03:59 Rachel's Story and Civil Engineering Career
06:47 What Does a Civil Engineer Actually Do?
07:56 How Engineers Evaluate a Property
11:45 Why Cities Can Change the Rules
23:45 What Developers Need to Know About ADUs
30:38 Why Utilities Can Crush a Project
40:00 How Engineers See Real Estate Differently
45:48 The Critical Areas Developers Often Miss
49:16 Why Development Takes a Team

TRANSCRIPT

∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip

00:00 Rachel Weinberg: Probably the critical areas. I think that's something that just seems to slip everyone's mind and specifically wetlands. Because sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes you can go out to a site, you step foot and it's squishy and it hasn't rained for months and which. In Seattle, I guess it would be June, July. If you got out in June and July and it's wet. And so, but sometimes it's not obvious. And it's just a matter of there happens to be this one in particular plant that's considered wetlands and that's on your site. And that can, I mean, it can make or break a development for sure.

00:45 Stephen Husted: I think that a lot of times, let's say a new investor or a developer. That beginning phase is when you have to break through the friction, like the self-doubt or the fear or I don't know. But then when you break through it and you actually do a project and you get it from point A to B, it changes everything.

01:05 Rachel Weinberg: It does. You get more confidence. 

01:08 Stephen Husted: It changes everything. Your whole momentum, the way you think of things, doesn't make you an expert, but it changes things. Yeah. It really does plant that seed, so to speak. 

∎ Podcast Intro:

01:16 Stephen Husted: I'm Stephen Husted, and you're listening to The Breakthrough Podcast, a space designed for clarity, curiosity, and the stories that move us. Here, we step away from the noise and into the moments that define us. the early influences, the hidden struggles, and the breakthroughs that reshape our lives. From personal reinvention to building a life through real estate and entrepreneurship, these conversations remind us that success isn't a straight line. It's a series of honest decisions, brave actions, and small shifts that change everything. This is where those stories live. Let's begin. 

∎ Guest Introduction:

01:55 Stephen Husted: Today I'm joined by Rachel Weinberg, a civil engineer and the founder of her own civil engineering consulting firm, specializing in land development and residential projects across the greater Seattle area. Rachel brings a unique perspective to real estate because she doesn't just look at a property as a house. She looks at the land, the zoning, the setbacks, the utilities, the critical areas, and the possibilities that others might overlook. In this conversation, we get... into what investors should know before buying a property, why feasibility and due diligence matter so much, the hidden costs that can show up during development, and how having the right team can make all the difference. If you're considering your next development project, pay close attention to the questions Rachel asks before you ever close on a property. Let's get into the conversation. 

∎ Podcast Proper:

02:48 Stephen Husted: Hi, Rachel. Thank you for joining the breakthrough today.

02:51 Rachel Weinberg: Hey, of course. Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.

02:54 Stephen Husted: Yeah, I'm glad that this is your first podcast to come on.

03:01 Stephen Husted: It's pretty awesome. I know we were talking earlier about how many guests I've had that have never been on a podcast and we show up on the screen and I can look and the fear is in their eyes. And I'm just like, just kick back. Just talk. It's not a big deal.

03:17 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah. So could you tell when you saw my face then? A little bit.

03:21 Stephen Husted: But you know what? Interesting enough, honestly, every time I drive into my office to start the podcast, I'm, you know, got butterflies and I'm kind of nervous. It's common. It's no big deal. Did you get that too this morning? You're like, oh gosh, how is this going to go?

03:37 Rachel Weinberg: It started last night. Did it? Yes. Yeah, I think my husband was probably like, I'm ready for you to get this over with because he was tired of me asking so many questions.

03:49 Stephen Husted: Really? What was he asking?

03:52 Rachel Weinberg: He's the social one in our relationship. I'm just an awkward engineer. So a lot of the things I'm like, well, does it sound okay if I say this? And he's like, I don't know. Just be yourself. I'm like, okay. And

04:04 Stephen Husted: like I said, that is the truth. I think that when things sound like they're so scripted and planned out, it's just, it's not a very good flow. And we all have our ways of talking and communicating. And I think the more you keep it to how you really are, the better it is.

04:19 Rachel Weinberg: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

04:21 Stephen Husted: So I found you on the Explorer page of Instagram. Okay. So that's how I found you. And I don't know what I saw, but it was just engineering stuff. And I am a creative investor. Nerd, I would call myself. So when it comes to the whole engineering side of things. I'm so intrigued about the whole process of development because that's what we're currently doing right now is developing out in Seattle. Right when I saw you, I was like, oh, I should get her on the

04:52 Rachel Weinberg: podcast. Yeah, well, and it's so funny. So I'm new to social media, especially Instagram. And so I think that was like day five of me having an Instagram account when you messaged me. And so it made me feel so good that I was... actually like immediately being reached out to so that was awesome you

05:15 Stephen Husted: know that's interesting you bring that up this this morning so i'm making a habit to go doing more lives. And so I'm doing more lives and it's scary to do lives when there's just nobody on the other side. I can't understand my cadence and I'm talking and there's people scrolling through and I think I accidentally muted myself yesterday and then I muted myself and didn't even know I did. And then I said, hey, I think that's it for today. And I said goodbye, but everyone's like, oh yeah, for that last minute, we couldn't even hear you. It doesn't really matter, but you bring up a good point. That message came to you. when you're like okay i'm just starting off on this social media journey and you're unsure yourself and everything you're doing and then all of a sudden i come along and set that message it kind of gives you a little bit of momentum i've experienced that this whole time through on things right when i'm down on like gosh i'm not that you know i don't know man I don't know if this is for me. And then somebody sends a DM, says, hey, I started a new business or you helped me with this. I'm like, okay, this isn't about me. It's about them. I 100% agree. And it's just interesting that you just said that when I was thinking that this morning. So that's good. So we got a lot to unpack here and I have a lot of random questions and hopefully you can answer. Some of them for me and what I think in my head. So give me a little bit of a background on your story, what you do, and then I'll kind of pivot into some of my crazy questions that I have.

06:46 Rachel Weinberg: So I'm a civil engineer. I have my own civil engineering consulting firm. And we are physically located out of Mississippi. But... 95% of our clients are actually in Washington State, in the greater Seattle area. And yeah, I have a husband and three little kids of eight, six, and three. So we have our hands full at home as well. Yes. And then I dabble in real estate as well.

07:26 Stephen Husted: How did you get started in engineering?

07:29 Rachel Weinberg: So it's actually a funny story. When I was in my freshman year of college, I actually thought I wanted to be an architect. So I really wasn't sure, but I was majoring in architecture, didn't love the classes that I was in. And my brother, who was majoring in mechanical engineering at the time, he was like, You really have to look at the curriculum for your next few years. And does it seem interesting to you? And I was like, it doesn't. I love math, and there's barely any math classes that I'm seeing in my future. And so he was like, okay, well, I've got this friend who is majoring in something called civil engineering, but you might be interested in it. And actually... Didn't even really know what a civil engineer did. In my mind, I'm thinking build bridges. I think that's if people don't know what a civil engineer is, that's probably they're kind of like the typical thing that they think of. And that's at least what I thought of. I'm like, I don't want to design bridges and build bridges, but sure, I'll have a conversation with your friend. And that conversation, my freshman year of college. on the bathroom floor of my dorm room was probably the most important conversation that I ever had because it started my career in civil engineering and I ended up marrying that man and we have three kids. So it worked out. But yeah, I talked to him and immediately changed my major to civil engineering. Even in school, I wasn't quite sure. what I was going to do with civil engineering. I worked a couple different jobs right out of school until I started working for a really small firm in Everett, Washington. And just, it was more residential work, land development, and I just absolutely fell in love with it. So haven't turned back.

09:31 Stephen Husted: What is civil engineering?

09:34 Rachel Weinberg: So there's a lot of different parts, but I specifically work in land development and the majority of our projects are residential. So for residential, it's something as small as. Doing the site grading and drainage for a single family home all the way up to large subdivisions and designing the road, the lot layout, sewer, water, storm, all of that. There's other aspects of civil engineering, but that's what we focus on. That's what I like to do.

10:13 Stephen Husted: Walk me through the process. Let's say you got a new job that you're going to start. What does that process look like that you have to start to do research? Do you have a process in place when you're starting a new project? What does that checklist look like? Every job is different, right? I know that. Every project's different, and all projects have all different types of nuances to them. It's never straightforward. I mean, at least for us, nothing's been the same. How do you approach a project right from the beginning? What do those steps look like?

10:43 Rachel Weinberg: So usually when we get a project in, we do kind of what I call our initial feasibility. And it's just where we look at the existing conditions of the site. So that can be as far as what existing structures are on the site. What does the vegetation look like? Is it a forested site? Is it already cleared? Is it lawn? What does that look like? Because all of that plays into what our design would end up looking like. Are there critical areas? I think that's a huge one that a lot of people miss. And critical areas, not just meaning wetlands or streams, but also steep slopes. I've seen a lot of sites where people don't consider how they have steep slopes on their site, and you have to have a setback to that. So that's what we do at the beginning. We'll just take a look at what's existing, what does the topography look like, and then we'll talk with the client about... what they want to do. And sometimes it's something small where they're just wanting to build a house or maybe there's a house and they're wanting to build a shop. Or it's something I've got several clients who they actually come to us before they even close on their properties because they're like, hey, we're looking at buying this property. What do you think we can do with it? And those are always the fun ones. And then it's like sometimes we sit there with markers and we draw boxes and we play around with things and we'll give our clients, hey, this is kind of what we came up with. And it just depends. Are they wanting to do something with maximum density? So just get as many units as they can on the site. Or maybe it's in a location where land having a bigger. Property, a bigger lot is more enticing to people. So maybe we're looking at something where we're developing not as many units, but they're really nice, huge houses with an acre, which is becoming harder and harder to come by these days. But yeah, so that's our process.

12:57 Stephen Husted: When do the investors come to you, typically?

12:59 Rachel Weinberg: They normally come to me at the beginning. So they will come. usually before they get the property before they close on the property they'll come and then if i have some investors who I think it's so great. They try their best to keep, when they're looking at a lot to purchase, they'll actually try their best to keep it under contract for as long as possible before closing. So that way we can help them out to know exactly what they really can do with their property, which helps with their purchase price and all of that.

13:39 Stephen Husted: Yeah, and that's a big thing because there's so much moving parts. Nothing is ever really black and white. You can look at a house and a lot and maybe there's no trees and you think you've got a pretty clear path here. But things can change really quick, whether that's in the feasibility stage or it's as the city gets a hold of it and they see things a lot different.

14:02 Rachel Weinberg: Yes. Yes, absolutely. There's definitely some jurisdictions that when a client brings us a project, I'm like, oh, are you sure you want it to be in that city?

14:15 Stephen Husted: Yeah, you guys are following. rules, so to speak, on like what you do the due diligence, you do the feasibility, right? And so you have a pretty clear path from experience or just guidelines on how to do something, correct? And then once you do that, you're submitting to the city, the architect submitting that to the city. But then it's interesting that the city then can take that information and decipher it differently.

14:39 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah, there's so many codes that have small, fine print that basically says or it's up to the city or county's engineer's discretion. So there's a lot of things where, yes, we can design something that that meets code, but there's always that. fine print that the cities and counties have where they still have the last word. There are words that I've learned to the maximum extent feasible. So there's certain things that we can phrase something where if it doesn't exactly meet code, I found that when the jurisdictions are reading it, they're like, oh, okay, well, yes, it doesn't exactly meet code, but they're meeting the intent of the code. And so that helps some. Sometimes because like every site is different. And so not everything fits in this box that these codes and standards were written for. Sometimes we have these lots that it doesn't exactly fit, but let's get creative. Let's get innovative. Let's figure out how we can meet the intent of the code while still developing this property.

15:59 Stephen Husted: You said something that's really important about development and it's. getting creative i'll give you an example we have this project that's on a 12 000 square foot lot it's about 100 100 feet wide but it has power lines in the front of the house and our architect well when they changed the new laws we were able to build add more density to this lot so we had a single family and then we built a daddy in the backyard and then new laws changed and now we can build four more and so we're like great let's do it but The way that they did the renderings and laid out the master plan, they wanted to have the driveway go between the two power poles. And the guy wires were low. And so they're like, well, hey, we have a really amazing electrical engineer. Let's pay him for his time and let him go to the city and get this. It's going to cost you $3,500, but it's worth $3,500 because it opens up where they'll have their own driveway instead of using the right side of the house and going down that driveway to the back, which would kind of just break up the vibe of it. Right. And so I went back to my business partner and I said, hey, this could be a path. It's not a guarantee, but it's $3,500 to explore it with this gentleman. What do you think? He's like, let's go for it. So we did. They got it approved to move the guy wires all the way up and put the driveway there. And that right in that moment with engineering, all my civils, I talk to them all the time. I get to ask as many questions and I don't want to bother them, but I just like to understand how they think about things. You know what I mean? It's not even like I'm questioning. I'm just absorbing information, you know, just everything that's going on because. Development, let's face it, it's like organized chaos. It really is. It is. It is. It's crazy. There's so many moving parts and people, right? If you think about it, on a development. I mean, there's the civils, you got you, you got an architect, you got the city, you got inspectors, contractors.

18:11 Rachel Weinberg: I don't know. It takes a team. It really does.

18:14 Stephen Husted: Yeah. And it's interesting just how it all kind of, I'm just surprised. Some of these projects take a long time. Do you find that to be one of the biggest kind of bottlenecks in these projects, especially let's talk about Seattle?

18:27 Rachel Weinberg: Yes, absolutely. We have so many projects right now where we don't want to bother the jurisdictions because as the civil, we want to stay on their good side. But sometimes it gets to a point where we'll have months of. It just will check online and it still just says in review or in process. And when we check in, hey, are clients really pushing? We need to give them some type of update. And their answer is always, we're working on it. And I know it's, I'm sure they're understaffed. I'm sure there's a whole list of things, but I'm always thinking, I'm like, How can we help them fix this and make it easier? Because it is. It's definitely the time frame to get things permitted has just continued to increase throughout the years.

19:24 Stephen Husted: Why is that? Is it because of the way that they add new laws where you can actually develop differently? And so it takes the city and the staff time to kind of onboard those new decisions and how they think of a project and everything. Is it them learning in real time?

19:39 Rachel Weinberg: I think that's part of it. And I think that it's not even necessarily the code and the rules changing, but the staff changing. There's so many staff at some of the jurisdictions that I've been working with for years and years that I actually am teaching them things. Because maybe it's their first couple of projects that they've ever reviewed, and they don't understand the code. And it's their code, but it's something that I know it like the back of my hand. I do it every single day for years and years. And sometimes there's the staff members who are great and they're willing to learn. Oh, yeah, you know, I missed that. Thanks for pointing that out. And then other times I feel like they're new and so they don't want to make any mistakes. And so they're just going to common kind of nitpick on any little thing that they can.

20:38 Stephen Husted: Because they haven't had the time in it.

20:40 Rachel Weinberg: Right. You know, they're new, they're green. They don't want to make a mistake. Whereas I feel like... Years ago, especially whenever I was first starting out in civil engineering, a lot of the reviewers at the jurisdictions that I was working with, they were experienced and had been there for years. And I felt like they were great. I remember I would actually physically print out plans and walk it up to the county and be able to sit at a table with them and discuss and go over the project. And that's completely gone now.

21:14 Stephen Husted: Like I said before. developments are just so fascinating. The whole process itself is it's so complex. I think people don't really realize how many moving parts there is from the vision to the feasibility to getting things submitted to the city. And that whole review process. And like you said, you can get somebody. So do you know when you submit projects and you see the people, the reviewer of that, do you kind of at that point go, okay, this is going to take a long time or, oh, I know this person. This is

21:45 Rachel Weinberg: going to move a little quicker. Oh, definitely.

21:48 Stephen Husted: Yeah. And do they then tell the clients that, hey, this one's probably being, this is going to be in better hands or, hey, we're going to have to really stay on top of this.

21:57 Rachel Weinberg: Yes. Yeah. And we'll let the client know. And exactly like you said, just, Hey, okay, I think we've got a shot at this being pretty quick. Or there's a couple of reviewers that I'm like, yes, I'm so glad we got that that reviewer because he'll actually just email me directly instead of going through their whole online system where they have to put together like a formal letter and it goes through their system. He'll actually just email me or call me, which seems just so. So, you know, it's like no one does that anymore. But he'll pick up the phone and call me. And he's like, hey, Rachel, we need this. Or there's this small thing that you forgot on your plans. Can you add that? And then we can do it quickly, resend it to him. And we skip this whole almost month process just because we're going through the formal channels.

22:49 Stephen Husted: It's so true. I feel like I'm so, I move with speed. And I'm always trying to cut the layer of fat out of the scenario, so to speak, and being more efficient. And there's just times when I just, I'm bottlenecked up and I will talk to my contractor or I'll call my architect and go like, what are we doing here? How do we solve this? Like utilities, like city light getting connected. Wow. Wow. In that house, I was telling you about that development since we could do that phase two. We're finishing up on the DADU right now. It's been completed. But our architect submitted new plans for the second phase. Well, that triggered City Light to see it and go, oh, wait a minute here. This address did a DADU. Wait a minute. Now they're building more. Oh, this is a commercial project now. Oh, we're going underground with your utilities. Oh, this is happening. Oh, this. Oh, well, we think you should just finish this bigger project and just let the DADU sit. vacant with no electricity and just you don't need to rent it out it's only 3200 a month for another 14 months i'm like wait a minute and they took it upon themselves to actually make that decision even though we had multiple meetings like look no i want you guys to connect the dadu and get power i'm going to rent it out and once we're done with this bigger one if we have to do a reconnection or whatever it's going to cost me that's fine but the property can't sit vacant That took four or five months of time. And then finally, one day, somebody randomly called me and said, hey, look, we're going to connect you today. I just want to call you personally. I'm like, wait, who are you? You guys are like shielded from this one guy at City Light that I talked to. And then you just randomly pick up. Yeah, this is my cell phone. I'm like, what? But at that point, too, as a developer. all these things are new processes that you're you're learning to eventually catch on the next one or at least you'll know something's coming you know and like like what you said sitting submitting the city who's the reviewer oh okay we've worked with that person before that's good or hey this one's new so we need to plan that out because that's a matter and because time goes by people think oh a week here we didn't hear nothing but then a week here week there Next, you know, you're two, three months behind. That's my experience.

25:19 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah. And I think that there's such a disconnect with the people who are working at the cities and counties. And if they've never worked on the private side, I think they miss why timeframes actually matter.

25:35 Stephen Husted: Yeah, because they're on the side. They're paid hourly. they're not the investor or they're not that side of the things is not really a concern. I'm not that it's not a concern. It's just time is not going to affect them. It's going to affect the investor, the developer, which it's funny because they want housing and they want it now.

25:54 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah. So let us do it then.

25:56 Stephen Husted: Yes. You know, let's move this along. Oh my gosh. Developments taught me patience. No, I'm kidding. It has not. Why am I even saying that? No, it hasn't. I'm lying to myself. I'm lying to everybody here. That's not true. So on a development, so I'm sure you have a lot of investors come to you that are bringing a single family and they want to build an ADU and a DADU. Maybe they want one or two. What are the big things that an investor needs to pay attention to on those types of projects?

26:32 Rachel Weinberg: Oh, so obviously, you know, what jurisdiction you're in and what the zoning is. So what you are actually allowed to do. Is it one ADU? Is it two? Because I know there's a lot of different jurisdictions have different rules for that. And. The size of the ADU, that's an important one to pay attention to. Setbacks and then also utilities. I think that's one that a lot of people forget is that this is another home. So sewer, water, storm, all of it still has to be connected. And so making sure that that's available. It's actually. One of my clients, they're working on a project, you know, it's a single family home and they're just building an ADU, but they have to get a water availability letter and they're just for a water availability letter. So this is not actually hooking up water. This is just a letter from the water district. It is $10,000. And so I think, yeah. And I think that's just, if you're not. You have to try your best. I mean, I know in development, it's hard to know the numbers for everything. But if you're not thinking about utilities and what you're actually going to have to do through your permitting and through the actual construction, you have to think of cost. And so that was a big cost that they were not expecting. What is this letter?

28:11 Stephen Husted: Explain to me this letter. I've never heard of that letter. Oh, a water availability letter? Yeah. What is that?

28:15 Rachel Weinberg: So it is a letter. So you'll have a water availability letter or a sewer availability letter. And it's basically just a letter from the water and sewer district saying that, yes, there is water available for this new house to hook up to.

28:34 Stephen Husted: Okay. When does that letter come? Does that come when you're submitting plans?

28:38 Rachel Weinberg: Yes. Yeah. During the permitting process. So for this project in particular, usually when we submit everything, so this, they were getting a building permit and then their public works permit. And I know it's sometimes called different things like a land disturbing activity permit or clearing and grading, something like that. But when we were going through that permitting process, that's when you usually... If the jurisdiction requires it, that's when you would have to also submit the water and sewer availability letters. We were able to push that back a little bit because we did have to do a deviation on this project. So we were like, hey, can we make sure the deviation is going to get approved before our client? spends $10,000 just for this pretty one-page letter. And they did allow that, but now we're, we did get the deviation approved. So now we're continuing to move forward. And now, unfortunately, it's time to pay to get that letter, but.

29:39 Stephen Husted: Oh, so the deviation, what does that do? Does that reduce the cost or what is that?

29:44 Rachel Weinberg: No. The thing in counties, they never have anything that reduced cost. No, the deviation for this one, it was for, so in this jurisdiction, the county only allows that you have one access to your site. So even though they allow ADUs, the ADU has to have the same access or driveway as the primary residence. And on this site, it was a corner lot, the existing house. is kind of built pretty close to the road. So there's really no way for the ADU to access off of the same driveway. It's called an EDS deviation, but it's basically saying that, hey, we're deviating from the engineering standards that you have. However, we're still meeting public safety. There's a whole list of things that we have to say. We're still meeting the intent of the code, but we're looking at adding a second access to this site. So there's a driveway for the ADU that they're wanting to build.

30:58 Stephen Husted: And they did even, so let me ask you this. When in the process did they figure this out? And was there any way in the feasibility phase, the beginning, the due diligence to even understand that would come up?

31:12 Rachel Weinberg: The deviation.

31:13 Stephen Husted: Yeah, and that letter, the water letter. Oh, the water letter.

31:16 Rachel Weinberg: So honestly, the price of the water letter surprised me. That's the highest water availability letter, the most expensive one that I've honestly I think ever seen. But they knew that a water availability letter was coming up. They did know that they were going to have to have that. And that would be something that, you know, that this client in particular, I've worked with them for years. And they're one of the clients that come to us when they're just like, hey, we're looking at this property. Here you go. What can we do with it? So they knew that that was happening for someone who maybe is just getting into things. That would probably be something that we would let them know when we do our initial feasibility. We would say, hey, to get this permitted, to do what you want, these. are the things that you're going to need. We don't tell them the cost of those. That would be something that they would need to just call around and see. And so for this project, the client probably could have called earlier to find out the cost. So they would have a heads up. But again, they I mean, they've been doing this for longer than I have. And and it shocked them as well. So what

32:29 Stephen Husted: is so water availability? What does it do? What is that letter? What is it giving the client at that point? Is it water rights to get to the water or what are they doing?

32:42 Rachel Weinberg: It's really just saying, yes, there is a water main fronting your property and we have the capacity for you to hook up to it. That is it.

32:54 Stephen Husted: That's not even doing the line. Like, hey, that's not like, hey, you have to do a new main waterline. It's going to cost $10,000. Now, it's over there. And it's going to cost $10,000 for us to tell you where it's at. Right.

33:07 Rachel Weinberg: Just for us to tell you. Crazy. Yeah. What?

33:13 Stephen Husted: I don't know. This is nuts.

33:18 Rachel Weinberg: They're going to get their money somehow.

33:20 Stephen Husted: That is true. That is true. One way or another. Yeah, that's true. It's shocking. It's interesting about corner lots. We have a project going right now that we just poured foundation. And it was a corner lot, but it's an inverted corner lot. Which had some other little interesting things that we had to do on it. We did as much feasibility in the beginning, but then the city had different plans for us. As we always find out. And it's interesting, too, that I've come across. On that data that we just finished building, got approved plans and started building. And at the end, the inspector came out and said, oh, you have to do an infiltration system on site right now. I'm like, oh, that was at the end.

34:04 Rachel Weinberg: Wow. So that was not brought up during the permitting process? No. Oh, wow.

34:10 Stephen Husted: So we did that, which, of course, you have to go back to the architect, get it drawn up, get it submitted. You know how that is. And then get it done. And now wait, you know, then you have to wait for the inspections for the phases of the infiltration system. And I think one thing that I learned on that one, I think what happened at what I would, well, I don't think I'm gonna have to do this again this way, but I think the problem lied in starting the phase two project, like working with the architect. on phase two and that opened up the can of worms on the whole thing because then they started going well you got this one going right now and you got this going on but down the road this is going to happen and so we're going to stop you from doing you know i mean i think it opened up a lot of things that was a huge learning lesson was that because people are reaching out to us going oh you're gonna have to do this transformer here oh no we can get the transformer mounted on the line out front It'd be 100 grand on side, 50 grand on the pole. So back to utilities. Utilities can really crush a project. On this one, the way we thought about it was, let's say we had an extra 100 grand in utilities. Okay. Well, we're adding four more units. It's either... You take that $100,000 and you put it towards your infrastructure and your utilities and you move on, or you're just not building. I mean, now you just have this random raw piece of land sitting there where on this lot, it makes so much sense to build it out. It fits there, fits the neighborhood well. So you have to factor that in. But I think it's the problem when it's... on something smaller, that profit, all of a sudden you have to do $100,000 on some utility scenario that came up, that now you're in a whole different situation.

36:06 Rachel Weinberg: Right. Yeah. And so is that project in Seattle? Yes, it's in Seattle. So are you selling the daddu separately or do you keep them and rent them?

36:18 Stephen Husted: This project, we're keeping everything.

36:20 Rachel Weinberg: Okay.

36:21 Stephen Husted: Yeah. We condoized the lot. We condoized the lot. in so the main house the dadu and then another portion of the lot where now we're going to build the four new units we condoize that part so i think now we have to go back to the condo attorney and then redesign out wherever unit's going to go but right now we're just going to build it's like a puzzle it's crazy and now because we first we'll we're only going to do the dadu but now we could do more so now it's oh how do we get the i know this sounds kind of Funny, but hey, we have to get the right fence, the same type of fence to do the whole project. We have to make everything cohesive. What are we doing for pavers, the walkways, the plants? Like all that. It's a mini development. It's a little planned development. So now I'm like reflocusing everything. Even the front of the house, like the side. I'm like, I don't like the siding of the front of the house. Now I want to tie that in to what we do on the new build, right? And make the paints and the colors. So yeah, it's cool. Sounds crazy, but it's fun. I know, yeah. The civil part is really, it's amazing to talk about the civil side of things. How did you, when you started in school, what made you end up liking it from the beginning? Did you start to get into textbooks and stuff? And just the way that things were rolling out that it peaked, your brain was like, oh yeah, I like this. This is something I want to solve.

37:43 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah, so I've always loved math. My mom is a math teacher, and I think it just, that was always something that I loved. And so at the beginning... Before I really started getting into the actual civil engineering courses, you have to take a lot of math classes. And so I loved that. And then when I started getting into the actual civil engineering stuff, I felt like all of the classes were so different. And that's what really interested me. You have a class that's just on soils. You just learn about soils. And that's just one class. And that was just so interesting to me. And my husband is a geotechnical engineer. So we tell my kids that he just plays in dirt all day. And so I decided not to go the soils route, but it was still interesting that you can have a career just based on that. And so, yeah, so it just interested me and I wasn't. It really wasn't until my job in Everett that I was like, okay, no, this is what I love to do. I had a couple jobs before that working in like a materials testing lab, and it just was not interesting to me at all. And so one of the really cool things about land development is that We're looking at so many different parts. So no project is the same and it's always so interesting. And there's some people who might just focus on one thing and they're an expert at like designing sewer lift stations, but that's all they do. And I just would get so bored with that. I love looking at an entire subdivision and being able to, okay, we've got to fit in all of the utilities. road. We've got to keep in mind setbacks. And it's just so it's interesting. It's fun.

39:37 Stephen Husted: I couldn't agree more. I don't think any job I've had that seemed like, okay, this is what I'm going to do on a daily, weekly basis. I was out. There was no way. And real estate, investing, development, it's different. Every day, you never really feel like you are like a complete expert or mastered it at all. Right. Because everything is so different. You have to learn to be an expert at absorbing information.

40:14 Rachel Weinberg: Yes.

40:15 Stephen Husted: That is such a big skill when it comes to development, I would say.

40:20 Rachel Weinberg: It is. My kids, sometimes they'll hear me say, like I'm talking to my husband, oh, I learned this today. And they're like, mommy, you still learn? And I'm like, absolutely. We never stop learning. And if you get to the point where you think that you can't learn anymore, then you're probably going to fail because we have to keep an open mind and know that there is so much. I mean, I learn from my clients every day. So how I actually started getting into real estate was one of my clients. Just on my husband and I's very first house that we bought, I went to him. He was a real estate agent. And I was like, hey, we're looking to buy a house. Can you help us out? And he was like, we're not going to just find you a house. We're going to find you an opportunity. And I'm like, OK, tell me more. And I feel like that has been our thought now in probably just about every house that we've ever purchased, even just personally, our personal. homes that we bought, it has to do something else for us. There has to be some other type of investment or opportunity that we get out of this house and this property.

41:31 Stephen Husted: And he planted that seed from the very beginning. And once you have that, it's hard to go backwards. It is. You know what I mean? Any house you're going to buy, you look at... Even me, I drive neighborhoods and I look at things. I'm like, what about this? Can you do that? Right? You start to just think through it. Is that what you're doing?

41:48 Rachel Weinberg: Yes, absolutely. I drive my husband crazy sometimes because I'm like, well, I saw this property and I saw this and he's like, wait, I didn't know we were looking to buy something right now. I'm like, I'm always looking to buy possibly. It's hard not to.

42:04 Stephen Husted: I know that is a,

42:06 Rachel Weinberg: yeah.

42:08 Stephen Husted: all the time i know hey we're backed up here i'm like

42:10 Rachel Weinberg: right exactly it's next it's that i'm like one day i'm like talking about how stressed i am and how i've got so much on my plate and then i'm like i saw online that there's this apartment building that's for sale and husband's just what what are you doing it might be a good opportunity though so

42:30 Stephen Husted: let me ask you a question Since you look at investing like that, do you feel like your skill set of being an engineer really helps you when it comes to development? Do you think you can look at something and all of a sudden you're like, okay, there's setbacks. I could probably do this many units. Oh, I see the road. I know that. Is that what's going on in your head? Oh,

42:48 Rachel Weinberg: absolutely. It's hard for me to look just at a house. To be honest, a lot of times, even when we're looking for a personal home. The way that the kitchen looks or if there's carpet or hardwood floors, I don't even look at that anymore because I look at everything else. And then I'm like, I mean, that can be changed. That who cares about that? But can the lot be subdivided? Can we add an ADU? What can we do? And it did. I mean, so with my client who was kind of. the one that really planted the seed in my head. As you said, I was definitely nervous at first. He was showing us these properties and he said, look, you can subdivide and sell these lots. And I'm thinking like, I'm young and this is our very first house. I can't do a subdivision. But I also kept thinking, well, we have to have a house to live in anyway. So there's really not much risk. to it i mean we're looking to purchase a home why not have one that can be an investment opportunity for us yeah and he ended up finding us one and that was our very first project and it was in lake stevens washington and yeah it was the start start of it all and i've loved the real estate and civil engineering ever since then yeah

44:10 Stephen Husted: that's a good combination but you really brought up a point i think that A lot of times, let's say a new investor or a developer, that beginning phase is when you have to break through the friction, like the self-doubt or the fear or I don't know. But then when you break through it and you actually do a project and you get it from point A to B, it changes everything.

44:34 Rachel Weinberg: It does. You get more confidence. It changes everything.

44:37 Stephen Husted: Your whole momentum, the way you think of things, doesn't make you an expert. But it changes things. Yeah, it really does plant that seed, so to speak. Yeah, I truly believe that. And it could be a blessing and a curse. It's one big addiction. Yeah. So do I have to get your husband on the podcast, too?

44:57 Rachel Weinberg: You might need to

44:59 Stephen Husted: Yeah. We're going to talk about soil.

45:01 Rachel Weinberg: Yeah. Well, so it's funny because we're both engineers. So I'm just like, sometimes our dinner conversations, I'm like, our kids, there's no hope for them. They're just going to be like, just awkward little engineers loving real estate. Yeah. But that's good.

45:18 Stephen Husted: It's totally good. How many projects do you have going currently? And what are you really working on as far as development out in Seattle? I'm curious. Are you at like the greater area of Seattle, like all over?

45:28 Rachel Weinberg: So usually I work in Snohomish County and King County and then the cities in Snohomish County. I don't really do much actually in City of Seattle. So it's more just kind of the outskirts of that. We've got a lot of stuff going on in City of Marysville right now, City of Lake Stevens. A lot of things actually are coming up in City of Everett. And the past year, the majority of our projects have actually switched to ADUs and DADUs or DADUs. Even my clients who maybe used to work on more. Short plats or subdivisions, small subdivisions, though, they have all switched to the ADUs. And so that's really most of our projects. And then it's actually funny because some of the projects that we have that are subdivisions, they're still. adding adus which

46:35 Stephen Husted: i think is on top of the subdivision oh right

46:37 Rachel Weinberg: exactly so we've got one where they're subdividing it into eight lots but they're actually getting 16 units because each lot can have a house and an ADU. So I think it's a fantastic opportunity, actually, and something that I've loved. I talk to my clients all the time about it and pick their brain about it because there's so many sites where you don't actually have to go through the short plat or subdivision process when you can add. a couple single family homes and ADUs and you still get multiple units, but it's just being permitted as single family residential.

47:23 Stephen Husted: Why Everett? Why are you seeing more in Everett? Is it just what's kind of coming down the pipeline for you or is there something going on there?

47:31 Rachel Weinberg: I don't think, not that I know of. I haven't heard anything new. That just, we probably in the past couple of months, maybe about four or five new projects in Everett that have popped up.

47:44 Stephen Husted: Yeah, that water document is still in my brain because I was going, wait a minute, why haven't I heard of this? But could that be the county?

47:51 Rachel Weinberg: That one was in the county. Yeah, that one was Stohomish County. And I want to say it was Alderwood. Water District. I don't know if you've dealt with them, but I think it was Alderwood.

48:05 Stephen Husted: Yeah, because you put something in my head. I'm like, do I use a check on this? We're going to get off this podcast. I'm like, water letter. Be careful. Not something else. A podcast about a water letter. But to anybody new that's getting ready to do development, these little things really add up quick.

48:25 Rachel Weinberg: Oh, yeah.

48:27 Stephen Husted: They just do.

48:28 Rachel Weinberg: Absolutely. That's why I have spreadsheets for everything. Do you really? Oh, yeah. Yeah,

48:35 Stephen Husted: that's crazy. What do most developers find out late after they've already bought land?

48:41 Rachel Weinberg: Probably the critical areas. I think that's something that just seems to slip everyone's mind. Specifically wetlands, because sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes you can go out to a site, you step foot and it's squishy and it hasn't rained for months and which. In Seattle, I guess it would be June, July, if you got out in June and July, and it's wet. And so but sometimes it's not obvious. And it's just a matter of there happens to be this one in particular plant that's considered wetlands, and that's on your site. And that can, I mean, it can make or break a development for sure. We have a site that The client bought, I think it was, it's 10 acres. And they had a teeny tiny postage stamp of where they could build their house. And that was it. And the client was hoping to get several homes out of it. He was thinking maybe doing some type of subdivision. Didn't know exactly how many. But when we started looking into it and. Had to give him that bad news. I was like, you really need to hire a biologist. And I would do it before you spend any more money on this site. And it's still going to work out for him. I think he ended up getting a really good deal on the property. So even just building one single family home, I think it worked out. But it wasn't what he had in mind. And I see that so often with developers, with homeowners, with everyone.

50:26 Stephen Husted: Where do people go to figure out if they can do it? What is that step that they need to do up front that could help them solve this problem before they get in a contract or they're about to close? Where would they find that information?

50:40 Rachel Weinberg: There are websites online. So some of the different jurisdictions, if you just Google like your county or city GIS map, a lot of times they will have critical areas on there. Now, it's not exact. It's going to give you roughly an idea, but. I would suggest if you do that and you see a stream or wetlands, they even have like soils on there. So if there's like soils that are high erosion hazard soils, they'll have that on there. And if you see it within 100 feet of your property. Go hire a biologist or if it's erosion hazard soils, hire a geotech or talk to your civil engineer because most likely you're going to have to have a civil engineer for some part of your project anyway. So start with them and see what they suggest. But don't just assume that, well, it's close to my site. I think I'm OK. Just spend the extra money because a lot of times. It's not that expensive for the consultant to just come out and give you some information. And at the end of the day, it's going to save you so much in the long run.

51:55 Stephen Husted: Yeah, you brought up a really good point. Never assume anything.

51:59 Rachel Weinberg: Yes. We all know the same. Yeah. You can look at a

52:05 Stephen Husted: site and go, you know what? I think it's okay. You just don't know it's okay. Right. Never assume, get as much information up front, and hopefully you have enough information to move a project forward instead of getting caught to the point where you've burned a lot of money and then figure out that once you spent all that money, you can't even do what you want to do.

52:26 Rachel Weinberg: Right. Exactly. And that's why it really takes a team. And you've got your civil engineer, your geotech, your biologist, your architect, and it just... I think that it's so good to have a good... network, good communication with those consultants, because you might not need them on every single project. But I love that I've got surveyors who I can just give them a call and say, hey, I've got this question. This is what I'm seeing. What do you think? And sometimes it's on my project. Sometimes it's on my client's projects. And then it might have saved the money because now they don't have to go to a surveyor, you know, and it was just a simple, oh, no, this is what I think. And we're good. it might turn into more where they do have to hire someone else, but just kind of figuring out as much as you can upfront and having those connections with people that you can talk to and hopefully enjoy the land development in the process. Yeah.

53:27 Stephen Husted: This has been a great podcast. I really appreciate. you coming on today. I'm glad that I reached out and you said yes. I remember that you were like, well, what are we going to talk about? Like, how are we going to go? I'm like, oh, don't worry about it. We're going to have plenty to talk about. We could probably go for another hour on this. I still have a ton of questions. So I probably have to bring you back down the road because it's a very important topic for developers, anyone who's new that wants to start to development. There's just so many moving parts. And like you said, when you're starting off, You're building a team around you. And what you're doing with that team is gathering all your A players to make decisions and understand what you can do on a project to get it from point A to B. And it's so important. And it can be messy. It can be organized chaos at time. But then it's super rewarding at the end.

54:18 Rachel Weinberg: Absolutely. Yes. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

54:20 Stephen Husted: I really appreciate you coming on today, Rachel. And we'll have to get your husband on next.

54:25 Rachel Weinberg: Oh, yes, definitely. He would love that.

54:29 Stephen Husted: That'd be great. All right. You have a great day today.

54:31 Rachel Weinberg: You too. Thank you so much. Talk to you later. Bye.

∎ Podcast Outro:

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