This is episode number 2088. This is the fifth installation, step five where we’ve been talking about preparing for the 2025 real estate market adjustment. It’s inevitable. In this episode, we’re talking about executing the plan, executing what you’ve developed, and then growing your staff so that you can make a bunch of dough. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member discord forum. We take a deep dive into land-related topics at your request.

Zane and Tara wrote, “I’m wondering if I’m crazy to do this deal and want some insight. We always go through tile and escrow but a unique situation came our way and I want to do it but maybe I’m crazy. It’s 2 flat acres with a decrepit but lived in a mobile home near Fayetteville, Tennessee. It’s right off a highway with homes and farms around it. Two sales ago, the property was bought at a tax auction and then it was sold to the current owner. They were able to secure a loan to the property at that time. I’ve seen the lien and payoff paperwork so the property is free and clear.”

It’s brilliant.

This is cool. “With the messy title, I don’t think that was a mess from the sale before. I need to buy this without escrow or title insurance.” I’m impressed they were able to get financing on it.

We know them. You guys have come a long way. I’m proud of you.

“We need to do this without escrow or title insurance. It’ll be our first time doing this. I’ve got the property under contract for $5,000. Raw land around there is going for about $15,000 an acre in the area. With the previous tax auction purchase, I’m not certain it’s insurable, though, which brings the value down but I’m not certain how much. Realtors have not been helpful on this property, unfortunately. What are your thoughts? I did speak to a lawyer and he was thinking of closing. He would need to go through quiet title proceedings.” Do you know what I think?

Buy it.

I don’t have much to say. At $5,000, I’ll roll the dice.

Take this how you all will. I built this company by buying back tax properties and reselling them on the internet.

It’s 2 acres.

Tens of thousands of properties I did this exact thing very successfully. I did it in the back of my head saying every time I did a deal like this, “If it all goes wrong, I lost $5,000. Who cares?” That’s not going to happen here. A lawyer is going to say, “You have to go through a quiet title because that’s the way the universe has intended it. Plus the universe has empowered me to show you the way. This is going to take about 6 months and cost about $450,000.” Don’t listen to that. That’s what lawyers think.

Lawyers can’t do any math. He or she doesn’t understand. Buy the property and find out what it’s worth. It’s worth probably $20,000 to $30,000 with the mobile home owner. Even as bad as it might be, it’s got utilities in place. We sell it on the Facebook marketplace and tell this story. “I did this and this. I don’t know anything about it. The first $18,000 gets it.”

It’s a bummer. Over the years, we have wished we could find and I don’t know why it’s not a thing. All I can think of is money but why do escrow and title companies won’t close a deal without title insurance? You can’t use them as an unrelated third party, which you should.

Escrow and title companies are hidden insurance salesmen. That’s why.

That’s true. It’s about the money. I do know that. It’s a bummer.

Preparing For The 2025 Real Estate Market Adjustment

Our topic is all about step five and your preparation for the 2025 real estate market price adjustment. Please go back and read the four episodes. They build up to you executing all the stuff that we talked about. If you took the first four steps, it’s time for you to send out a mailer and get a bunch of people calling you back because of this unique situation that’s going to happen in 2025, where the market is going to adjust itself and then ultimately grow your staff. Let me be specific. What makes 2025 different? For the last several years, a ton of people bought properties after COVID.

These are houses, not necessarily land. They bought these properties with mortgages that adjust after 3 or 5 years. They’re called 3-in-1 and 5-in-1 mortgages. For 3 or 5 years, these people have enjoyed a fixed mortgage rate. If you remember, it wasn’t that long ago when it was around 3%. Some of them were sub 3%. Mortgage rates are 7% or 8% so they’re going to get a huge adjustment. In layman’s terms, it means that if their mortgage is around $2,000 a month, it’s going to go to $4,000 a month and most people can’t handle that with an existing job. As I understand it, they’re not going to get any warning.

We never do. You should have read the fine print.

They want it when that happens. You want them to be staring at the offer that you sent them to get them out of their house.

Not only that. You, more than I, are watching the values and the correction coming and ticking down. It’s not like we arbitrarily said, “It’s 2025, we feel it.” No, it’s watching it. You’ve come to me often and said, “Look what’s happening. This is coming.”

The data shows us where exactly this is happening, where it’s acute, and where it’s not. There’s so much data available all over the internet about where these mortgages are, what ZIP codes are more prevalent, and which ones are receiving price adjustments more than the others. To some degree, there’s a crystal ball associated with it. You can see this unfolding. There’s going to be some massive deals out there.

I’m excited.

Me too.

Executing The Plan And Growing Your Team

Execute is all about doing it. Don’t hold back, send out the mail, create a system, and don’t stop. When it becomes so overwhelming, wearing all the hats yourself and you need to bring in some help, then you need to bring in some help. That’s not nuts. You should do it. Whether you have VAs doing some of the little routine, monotonous stuff while you do the big picture stuff, which is nothing wrong with that, to hiring in-house.

When things get so overwhelming, don’t try to wear all the hats yourself. You need to bring in some help. Share on X

We have a product where we help people called LA Pro. They could use our internal staff who do deals, manage to close, and everything in between. Get that help. Know what you’re good at, what you like, what you suck at, and what you don’t like. Get someone to do those things so you don’t have to back off at all. It’s going to be a good year. I’m excited.

This is a make hay while the sun shines situation. You don’t want your lack of access to help stop you from taking advantage of the market. I don’t think it’s going to stop on December 31st, 2025. It’ll bleed into 2026 and we’ll know a lot more as the year progresses. If you already own a company and you’re buying and selling real estate, you know about growing your staff.

I put this in here because if you’re brand new, I want you to think about it. I don’t want you to worry about it. I want you to know that at some point during 2025 and probably beyond, you’re going to hit a wall about how much you can accomplish in an 8 to 10-hour day or whatever it is. You need to think about getting assistance, whether they’re overseas. It’s part of life.

It’s all these things we talked about in the show. We have so many people who are doing all kinds of different things. There are people who can share staff. I talked to a guy. He’s good. He’s a transaction coordinator. He got that individual before we had LA Pro. He was like, “Should I wait? Should I hire someone?” We both said, “Don’t wait. Hire someone. It’s going to be a little while before we’re ready.” He’s like, “I have this great transaction where I’m like, ‘Is she full-time or part-time?’” She said, “Part-time.”

There are people who are trained and ready to help. He’s like, “I’m about to add a layer.” I said, “You’re ready.” He’s on a career path. I said, “Don’t get rid of your transaction coordinator. Add LA Pro.” It’s going to free them up to do some of the other things. My team will take care of the mail and all the escrows. They’ll get deals done that probably couldn’t have gotten done by other people. They’ll get them closed and done. It’s going to be even better when you have the two. That’s growing your staff.

If you’re ever asking yourself if you should wait, don’t. Should you wait to buy a new car and finance it? Yes, you should never do that. Should you wait to get married or have children? Yes, you should wait. When it comes to business and starting a company, you should never wait. Don’t wait to send out a mailer. Don’t wait for next year’s data.

Don’t wait for your business cards to arrive in the mail or your office to look beautiful.

You need to barrel through making business decisions. The faster you make mistakes, the faster you’re going to be successful.

That’s good. I like that. What are some of the big mistakes that you’ve made?

I haven’t made any massive mistakes because I made tons of them over the early professional years I had.

I have some. It could be a mistake but to me, I see it as a good decision. I’ve been too picky on some deals in 2023 that I probably should have pulled the trigger on but I’m going to argue that I’m saving my money for something greater. I’m fine with that.

There was a time when the market was conducive to it. We were closing multiple deals a day. We were buying and selling multiple pieces of property a day. Jill and I are at a point where we are comfortable with the decisions that we make transaction-wise. We don’t do that many deals a year but the ones we do, they make hundreds of thousands of dollars on them each. That’s what works for us. That’s not what I would recommend for you. If you’re younger or just getting into this, put your helmet on and smash through it. Join us next time for five more theoretical, interesting episodes. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.