How long does it actually take to rank a site top #3

Noticed that there are many SEO geniuses and gurus that are able to rank sites for medium-high terms within 3 months on top positions. I was one of those gurus long time ago, but now that the times have changed I can't seem to grasp what secret methods those gods of SEO (pun intended) are using these days to rank sites that fast.

Let me give you a few examples:

#1 Site - Ranking newly created pages on a newly registered site
#2 Site - Ranking newly created pages on an aged# site that was bought on an auction (relevant topic, a few backlinks)
#3 Site - Ranking newly created pages on an aged# site that was bought on an auction (relevant topic, thousands of authority backlinks - 4 figure domain)

For all of the above - as of now it's impossible for me to rank the pages for what I call medium-high keyword terms faster than in 4-5months on page 1 and it takes more than 5 months to reach top #3.

I would say On-site SEO is decent enough, offsite SEO is good. I'm interested in hearing from people who are making a living doing SEO - ranking sites. How long does it take for you to rank a site up there ?

Aside from how long ranking takes now, the philosophy on ranking keywords has changed quite a bit. And SEO that wants to do his work proper doesn't think about the short term ranking. Now it's more about getting to the top and staying there.