Daniel Dean has 33 years experience working with owners and developers to prepare the land for agriculture, business or personal use.
Learn more about property development →Property Development in Houston, TX
Daniel Dean has 33 years experience working with owners and developers to prepare the land for agriculture, business or personal use.
Learn more about property development →- 33 years in businessSoutheast Texas since the start
- 1,000's of projectsResidential and commercial
- 4.0 on GoogleRated by the people we worked for
- Fully insuredCertificate available on request
- Free on-site estimatesPriced from your actual property
- 11 counties servedHarris · Montgomery · Waller · Washington · Fort Bend and beyond
How is property development support priced?
This category prices by the hour or as a lump sum, not by the acre. Whether the work is field execution or desk-side plan review and coordination is what moves the number. Below is what actually drives a quote — we scope the engagement with you and put it in writing before starting.
What moves the price
- Field work or desk work
- Actually performing the dirt work, drainage, or grading a civil plan calls for is priced differently than reviewing plans, coordinating with an engineer, or preparing a budget from a drawing set.
- What plans and information already exist
- Current plans and revisions, permit status, and any existing testing or reports change how much review work is needed before anything can be priced.
- Project phase
- Reviewing an early concept plan is a different scope than coordinating construction-ready drawings or supporting a project that is already permitted and underway.
- The deliverable itself
- A quantity takeoff, a site development budget, and SWPPP compliance documentation are three different work products, each with its own turnaround.
- Travel and site time
- Site visits, meetings with an owner or engineer, and time on the plans themselves are billed the same way — by the hour or as a lump sum for the engagement.
Tell us where the project stands and what plans already exist, and we will scope the engagement. The number comes to you in writing before any work begins.
Get my free estimateCommercial Development
Commercial property development frequently occurs along major highways and includes mixed-use retail, restaurants, apartments, and storage units. The land is typically cleared entirely to maximize usable real estate. Dirt elevation and grading are critical considerations for proper drainage and detention pond planning.
- Shopping centers and retail developments
- Auto dealerships and restaurants
- Apartments and storage facilities
- Site drainage and detention pond planning
- Complete land clearing to maximize real estate
Residential Property Development
Residential clearing is more sensitive than commercial work and is best performed in stages. The process involves determining which trees to keep, where the house pad will be placed, and how to achieve the optimal presentation of the property. Equipment selection is important for efficiency based on property size.
- Staged approach to determine tree retention
- House pad and structure placement planning
- Optimal property presentation
- Equipment selection for property size
- Environmentally responsible practices
Property development questions we get asked
It covers both the physical site work a civil plan calls for — dirt work, drainage, excavation, and grading to the elevations shown on the plans — and the desk-side work that comes before it: reviewing civil plans, coordinating drawing revisions with the engineer, preparing quantity takeoffs and a site development budget, and supporting SWPPP compliance. Which of those applies depends on where the project is in its process.
Where we do this work
Pages for the areas we are asked about most often.
Before work starts
Checking the soil series before layout is settled is the cheapest due diligence available on a raw parcel, and it is published free. You can read the current rules straight from the USDA's Web Soil Survey, and we confirm what applies to your property during the site visit rather than guessing at it from an address.
If you are weighing us against another contractor, the work our customers describe is a better read on what we are like to deal with than anything we could write here.
Worth reading before you hire
Guides on this work
What it costs, how it is done, and what to ask before hiring.
Ready to Transform Your Property?
Get an estimate for your land clearing, dirt work, or property development project. We serve Houston and surrounding areas.