Whetstone Development Advisors
Field Notes

Short notes from over five decades of building.

Not theory — the specific calls that decide whether a ground-up project makes money or loses it. Ron writes these for the developer about to make a decision he has already made a hundred times. The public notes live here; the numbers behind them live in the private case studies.

Feasibility · The counterintuitive call

When a parcel is worth more unbuilt than built

Ron Ramos · June 2026 · 4 min read

Sometimes the most profitable thing you can do with an entitled, permit-ready parcel is refuse to pour a single footing. Here is how to know when the numbers are telling you that.

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In the works

The contingency that wasn't thereWhy a pro forma with no construction contingency is not a pro forma — it's a wish.

Upcoming
In the works

Reading a small-lot parcel's true yieldWhat SB-driven zoning actually buys you, and the three flags that decide if a site is worth pursuing.

Upcoming
In the works

Selling 274 homes in a dayWhat a record sell-out at Peacock Hills taught me about absorption — and what still holds more than fifty years on.

Upcoming
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The Field Notes are the public edge of a deeper library. The private case studies carry the real underwriting on live and completed deals.

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