“I think the pricing for retail land has doubled in the last three years and so the price makes it challenging to get tenants to pay because the rents have gotten really inflated,” said Hidalgo. “If you deal with franchisees it's easier to get a deal quicker.”

Maughan said the tenant drives the business because unless you have a signed lease, the investor does not have a deal. The tenant also drives the timing of many deals. Landowners often want to sell their land in 90 days. But for the developer to close, they need to have a signed lease in hand.

“We're starting to see more aggressive tenants that can actually meet these deadlines to get a deal done in the due diligence period which may be 90 days,” said Maughan. “So we look for a lot of QSR tenants that are franchisees of Taco Bell, Popeyes or whoever.”

Maughan also noted in that last two months a marked increase in the sales of medical net lease buildings. “It's obvious. It's the new retail. We've done a lot more medical last year like the Fresenius Medical office building. Our next deal will be an urban care facility in Texas. It's definitely getting more attractive in this space, the 'retailization of medical,'” said Maughan.

Developers who do really well, don't take no for an answer observed Hidalgo. “The tenants are telling you they can't pay that much. Your general contractor is telling you the cost is this much. There are so many things that you have to know about and keep pushing and pushing to make it all come together,” said Hidalgo. “There are a bunch of circles. You've got your lender, your equity partner, your construction, your tenant and you've got to get all of those circles to touch.”

Rob Barse, director of development at McShane Development, based in Edina, MN, said being a developer takes vision and creativity to see something, a property that others don't or haven't seen. “You need to see around corners, whether it's predicting shifts in the local market, problems with your contractors, the engineers, your soils, and focus in on calculated risks, the due diligence process, handling a multidisciplinary process that can be pretty chaotic at times,” said Barse. “It's a fun business to be in but you've got to separate yourself with grit and creativity.”