Every deal gets the same file. Nothing skipped because a market feels familiar.
This is the research and diligence process behind every Dissonant Capital acquisition, including Resolve Fund I, whether the opportunity is raw land or a stabilized asset ready to operate on day one.
City & Market Research
Before we look at a specific property, we build a full picture of the city and submarket around it: economic diversification, job growth by sector, median income, population growth and demographic shifts, crime data, nearby lifestyle and greenspace amenities, planned infrastructure and government initiatives, what else is being built or proposed nearby, and how the neighborhood and city are perceived, from local news coverage to third-party platforms like Niche and NeighborhoodScout. It's the same “perception gap” screening we apply at the macro level, run down to the block.
Real Estate Market Data
Then we underwrite the real estate itself: sales and rental price appreciation over the last two, five, and ten years; occupancy at both the submarket and city level; who's actually renting or buying nearby; how quickly inventory is absorbing; how much new supply, multifamily, build-to-rent, condominium, single-family rental, is scheduled to deliver; land price comparables; historical taxes and prior sale prices; and cap rates by asset class and location, tracked over time. Where relevant, we also look at furnished-rental performance, the premium or discount short-term and corporate rentals command against a traditional lease.
Comparable Property Diligence
Within roughly two miles of every site we consider, we study what's already been built or is renting today: pricing on newly delivered condos, townhomes, and single-family homes; rents at comparable new construction; unit mix and square footage by bedroom count; actual occupancy and vacancy, not just asking rents; and amenities, so we know exactly what a project has to compete against before we underwrite it.
Site Due Diligence
Every parcel gets a first-pass physical review before we go further: impervious cover, environmental issues, floodplain status, tree cover, topography, and the distance to sewer, water, and electrical utilities, on-site or off. Issues here can kill a deal regardless of how good the market data looks, so we check them early.
Sourcing
We source both on- and off-market: land within larger and smaller master-planned communities, direct outreach to landowners, and listings across the commercial and residential platforms that cover a given market. Off-market relationships are where we've historically found the widest pricing gaps, and we invest in building them directly rather than waiting for a broker's call.
Feasibility & Entitlement
Before we close, we work through zoning, utility availability, and the practical path to breaking ground, coordinating with the city or county, engaging planning counsel, and bringing in architects and engineers to pressure-test a site plan. Title, survey, environmental, topographic, and tree studies get reviewed alongside legal due diligence on the seller's documents. Once we're under control, the same in-house team manages civil permitting and construction, the vertical integration described elsewhere on this site starts here, not after closing.
Deal Structuring
How we structure a purchase depends on the deal: a straight cash purchase for a short, certain closing; extended terms tied to zoning or permit milestones; or more creative structures, seller financing or a joint venture with the existing owner, when that gets a well-located site under control faster or on better terms than a conventional purchase would.
This is the same process behind every market we screen for on this site and every acquisition inside Resolve Fund I.
Once a site clears this diligence, the twelve-step build-out that follows, and the costly lessons that shaped it, live on How We Build.