The Spreadsheet Usually Isn’t What Kills The Deal

[Georgii Grigoriants]

A lot of newer investors focus almost entirely on the spreadsheet.

And honestly, on day one many deals really do look great on paper:
clean purchase price, reasonable rehab budget, projected rents, projected exit, nice clean timeline.

The problems usually start afterward.

Permits get delayed.
Inspectors reschedule.
Contractors disappear.
Utilities become an issue.
Financing gets extended.
Holding costs start stacking up month after month.

And slowly the margin starts bleeding out.

Especially in places like Los Angeles, timeline risk can quietly become more dangerous than construction cost itself.

Your spreadsheet doesn’t care about a 6-month plan check delay or a subcontractor going silent halfway through a project.

Meanwhile the loan is still ticking every single month.

I think this is one reason experienced operators evaluate execution capacity just as heavily as the actual numbers.

Anyone can plug assumptions into a spreadsheet.

Far fewer know how to survive the execution phase once the project starts going sideways.

Curious what execution issue or timeline delay ended up hurting one of your deals far more than you originally expected.