I think it’s a reasonable amount of time, I am a real estate investor. What is your reasoning for these statements?
I've never heard of deals taking longer than a year - how does a multi-year transaction with federal funding even work?
You've just described handling e.g. a dry cleaners or dealing with a single elderly owner.
When you finally shake hands with the elderly owner of the dry cleaners to buy their property, we're talking about another two years after that before they get their money.
And that part might come before, during, or even after securing the property.
People need to think less "buying a house" and more "redeveloping an area".