What Successful Land Investors Do Differently

This is episode number 2,134. Jill and I are talking about what successful land investors do differently.

I have a laundry list.

I do too. I feel so qualified after ten years.

This is a good topic.

After ten years of doing this show and being the sort of leaders of Land Academy.

What do you mean, sort of?

Not sort of. Leaders of Land Academy. We’re qualified to talk about this.

I was bringing this up, it was valuable for me. I had some things to say when I did our February Land Academy Ladies webinar. We get together once a month, cover a topic that’s important to us, and then just open it up. We ask all kinds of questions. People ask all kinds of questions. That was one of the things where I’m like, “I can say I got ten years into this.” Not ten years into land investing, way more than that, but I’ve got ten years in just Land Academy and case study after case study after case study. I can say, “I’ll tell you what you need to be successful, and that’s not it. We’re now going to talk about what is it, which is good.”

My big-picture point here, just a spoiler alert, but I’ll go into it in detail, is something you’ve heard before. It’s just a mindset and an attitude. The technical stuff about this business is very teachable. If you have the right mindset, it’s learnable.

Dedicated, which is part of the mindset. If you’re willing to overcome a lot, you’ll do it.

How many times have you seen a music instructor, specifically in classical music, say to the student, “You are ridiculously proficient technically, but you’re never going to make it. You don’t have the emotion. You don’t have the spirit.” What Jill would call the je ne sais quoi. You just don’t have it.

That’s very good. That’s exactly what I would say. It’s like a chef cooking without love. How’s that? If a chef cooks without love, congratulations, you can follow a recipe.

Land Research Week

All week this week, just like the week prior, this is Land Research Week. Why is it the same week’s topic? It is because last week was successful. The person who produces the show, the operations person for all of Land Academy, Aaron, said, “Please do it again.” They’re not the same topics, they’re the same theme on the topics. It is Monday, we’re talking about what successful land investors do differently. Tuesday, we’ll talk about the value of accountability groups for scaling your land business. Wednesday, how the Land Academy CRM can streamline your deals.

Jill’s going to have a lot to say about that, as am I. Here’s a spoiler alert to that topic, less talking is better. Thursday, what makes a great county for land mailers, and what doesn’t? We’ll take a look at the profile of a great county and one that you want to stay away from. Friday, making land investment decisions based on data versus feelings.

Why are you looking at me?

I personally have chosen my favorite of the five topics.

There’s a lot of feelings going on, but not when this subject is involved.

That’s why I have feelings that are not identified.

I have feelings about this podcast.

Do you have feelings about working with your spouse?

I’ve got a lot of feelings about that. I’ve got feelings about now. Feelings about how this is going to go this week.

We’re going to share feelings. It’s feelings week.

That’s cool. We should do that, talk about feelings all week. Jack is nowhere to be found.

If you have been in a committed relationship for any length of time, I don’t care who you are, I would encourage you to always bring up what’s on your mind and encourage the other person to express themselves.

If you have been in a committed relationship, any length of time, always bring up what's on your mind and encourage the other person to express themselves. Share on X

Let’s do this. It should be feelings and opinions week.

Do we have to do that?

That would be torture.

It’s research week. It’s the first 3 or 4 minutes of the day.

We can’t do it.

We’re going to integrate feelings and opinions into all of this.

This is good. If I don’t like it, you’re going to know.

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 by popular request.

You’re making me cry.

Are you crying with happiness?

No, it’s something. It’s feelings week. You figure it out.

After fifteen years of our relationship, Jill’s going to express her feelings this week.

I’m finally allowed to.

She’s got fifteen years of pent-up resentment, just for me. Plus about 25 years of pent-up resentment for the other men before me.

Way more than that.

Don’t tune out. Stay with it this week. Jill’s going to let it loose.

Michelle’s Land Investing Success Story

Michelle wrote, “Those terrible listings you see that have one image and no description. I made an offer on one of those. The realtor did not call me back. I emailed him, and he responded with very little info. I noticed months later it was still active with the same terrible listing. I found out a college owns it. I called the realtor again. He is rude and short with me, telling me, ‘Go do your own due diligence.’ I dig out and find out who to connect with in the college. I call her, a nice lady. I find out more. My realtor goes and sees the property and absolutely loves it. They discovered that the other realtor’s phone number on the sign didn’t even work. After much due diligence, I made a low offer, 63% less than asking and 71% less than assessed, which is fairly accurate in this county.” 

“I contacted her eleven days after the signed contract and asked her for an update because we haven’t heard anything. She told me, this is the person at the college who’s overseeing this, ‘Didn’t the realtor call you? We agreed to your offer, and I signed it last week.’ We’ll see what happens from here. I have a 45-day due diligence window. Lessons learned, make low offers when a property has been sitting. This one was on the market for 326 days. If you make a low offer, the realtor may not have presented it. Several times lately, I’ve made low verbal offers, and I suspect the realtor did not give it to the owner. If need be, build relationships with the owners. Let’s all keep swinging that bat.”

We have personally experienced this. We had a personal property where I knew that the agent was not getting our offers to the seller, and I finally gave up on it. We finally talked ourselves out of it and walked away because that’s what happens. Had he presented it, everybody would have been happy, and I would own the property. We would have owned it and been off having a good time.

The topic is What Successful Land Investors Do Differently. I chose this comment. There’s not a question in here by Michelle because she’s one of the Land Academy pro members. This is the difference between somebody who is great at this and successful and somebody who isn’t. She always has been. It’s tenacity. I would not have done this. Jill does this. This is not in my mind.

I don’t walk around this planet badgering people until I get what I want from a real estate deal because I know they’re failing me. Jill does. She does it. Jill’s amazing town superpower in this world is she will do that, get what she wants. The person she’s doing it to have a smile on their face. They don’t even know what’s happening. Ask me how I know this. What is it? Feelings and emotions.

Feelings and opinions.

Feelings and opinions week.

Tell me how you feel.

Once I realized that, it took me almost a decade to figure out this is what’s been going on. Once I made peace with it and went through the five stages of grief with Jill, the last one is acceptance. It worked out great because I know that’s who she is. I watch her do it to other people and don’t allow it when it happens to me. Feelings and opinions.

I want to say thank you for sharing. I appreciate that feedback.

Back to the topic. She’s doing it right there.

Keep going.

Michelle has been with us for a very long time. She is one of maybe 100 people or so that have been with us since the beginning, about ten years ago, and take this attitude and apply it to making money and flipping real estate, and the tenacity to go around people. “I’m not getting what I want, but still doing it.” Everybody’s smiling and not being a curmudgeon like I am is the trait and the personality type, and what you need to be successful at this. Not just this, everything. This is the world that we live in now. I think maybe it’s the world that has always been like this. This is the squeaky wheel. I love this comment. I hope that you take it seriously. This is what I mean by that because this is the topic now, by the way.

Can we go into it?

The Power of Persistence and Smart Decision-Making

Our topic, What Successful Land Investors Do Differently.

Thank you. I was waiting.

Thank you for your opinion. How do you feel about what I just said there?

A little frustrated.

Is it going too slow for you?

A little bit.

A little too wordy?

No, I want to get to the topic.

You can laugh or cry.

Please continue.

That’s a whole topic too.

I was raised on that. You pick one.

Successful land investors and successful people do not give up. They don’t take things personally. I know you have a list too. They don’t take things personally. They get the technical skills that they need to implement what we just talked about. I grew up in a very accounting-driven environment where technical skill was everything, and feelings, emotions, and presentation, or any of that, were never discussed. “If you do that with a smile on your face, you’re probably going to get a better response.” I grew up in an environment where if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re going to get what you want, which is bad advice.

Nobody wants to listen to the smartest person in the room. No one. Everybody wants to have fun and get some stuff done in their soul and just be better for it the day after yesterday. Michelle’s just excellent at that. She presents well. She speaks well. She gets what she wants, and she just doesn’t give up. In fact, every single person in LA Pro has that personality profile, in my opinion, and Jill has it. If you’re like me and you don’t necessarily have that, to this extent, this personality profile, please consider getting somebody in your life, professionally or socially, that does.

I have two things to talk about, what successful land investors do differently. Number one, the successful ones are smart. They put the time in. I’m going to totally pivot to less feelings and emotion here. They think about their decisions. They don’t just flippantly pick stuff, flippantly decide, “I’m going to mail over here.” They don’t take someone’s comments, they do their own homework and make sure they’re not like, and when I say don’t use someone else’s, like they don’t buy a list like, Mail this or whatever. They’re not using an easy button.

The real successful investors are smart and put the time in, to really think about their decisions. Share on X

That’s one of the things I want to say, that they spend the time. I thought about this because I, again, had some good coaching sessions this week and our Land Academy Ladies call, and I slowed it down. It was like, let’s not gloss over the top about anything that we do and be very deliberate and think about every decision. Do I mail this one or not mail this one? Is this enough days on market? Is that enough days on market? It shouldn’t be fast.

You need to spend some time on it and think about these decisions. I’m saying this because I’m reading stuff in social media like, “Everybody, I’m going to mail these people. I’m just going to do anyone that doesn’t live here. Anyone that owes money on taxes. Let’s just see. Anyone who’s owned the property over ten years.” I’m like, “You are missing so many people.” It’s great. Congratulations.

You might get lucky.

I’m just saying, this is why our group is different, why we’re doing so well. We think about this stuff. What about the people that just inherited the property and it just transferred into their name 90 days ago? You just missed all of them. You’ve got to take a step back for a moment and think, “By this decision, who am I excluding?” Put the time in. That’s where I got that one.

My second point was, successful land investors know where and when is best to spend their time and their money. Researching an area, here’s another one. Researching an area would be time, and money would be mail. Don’t mess around. Send a lot out there. You don’t get a lot of mail out, you’re not going to get a lot of sellers calling you back. That’s just a fact. That’s what you need to do to be successful. I was thinking about, shoot, I had another example, and then I lost it.

Successful land investors know where and when is best to spend their time and their money. Share on X

I can save you if you want.

Go for it.

The Importance of Planning and Goal Setting

I’m going to quote a movie. I think it’s Bandits with Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis. At one point, it’s a hilarious movie. I’ve seen it a few times, and it’s well written, one of the main characters says, “Here’s the thing about being intelligent. You pretty much know what’s going to happen next. You want to know what’s going to happen next. You don’t want to see what’s going to happen next in your life, not in your social life, not in your financial life. The way to do that is to have a real honest conversation with yourself about what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. Fill in the gaps with what you’re not good at, whether you’re outsourcing it.”

In my case, I brought on a partner, and it worked out well. She’s not the first person that I’ve done this with at all. You have to get organized and remove the risk from what you’re trying to do from a financial standpoint. You’re going to do incredibly well. How do I do that, then? Over the years, I’ve used the fishing analogy a lot, and I’ll use it again here. If you wake up in the morning and say, “I’m going to go fishing,” and you’re getting ready to go fishing tomorrow morning, there are a couple of ways to do that. I’ve done both. The first way is to get a six-pack of beer, get up before the sun comes up, go out, put the boat in the water, roll out there, and drop the line in the water.

If your goal that day is to be relaxed and get away from everything, more power to you, there’s a huge argument for that. Emotions and not feelings. The other way is to plan it for a week, get fish-finding devices, make sure you have the right equipment, and make sure you’re going with the right person who’s got the same like-minded mentality. You’re going to bring some fish back because your goal is to bring fish back, it’s not to relax. Define your goals.

The second way of fishing completely removes a ton of the risk. If you’ve got fish finders, you’re talking to guys on the dock about where the fish are biting, what kind of fish are biting, and what you’re fishing with, you have the right equipment, and maybe, no beer this trip, you’re going to catch some fish. The first way, who cares? The vast majority of people I see who start down the path of what we’re doing do it the first way but expect the results of the second way.

My guess is they approach everything in life like that. You have to be hyper cuckoo technical. Jill is a pilot. She’s an airplane pilot, and she has a very technical brain. Lucky for me, she’s got the other side of it, too. The technical parts of our personalities get together and are wicked, but she can execute. I can do it too, it’s just not my favorite thing to do. Probably not yours either, but you do it.

Would you like my feelings or my opinion at this point?

You’re like, “Please, your feelings.” How do you feel about this? Don’t leave any details out, even though we’re twice over.

I know. I feel warm and fuzzy. Thank you. Your comments are like a Snuggie. We can end on that.

What’s a Snuggie? What is it?

We’ll look it up in a minute. As much Amazon shopping as you do, I am surprised no one’s put a Snuggie in front of you.

You’re not going to do that, are you?

No. I’m surprised at the marketing. I guess that says something. You probably have all kinds of RV parts put in front of you and things like that.

Finders and stuff.

That’s true. Equipment but there’s no Snuggie.

Join us again, where Jill and I discuss the value of accountability groups and scaling, specifically for scaling your land business. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.