This is episode number 2169. Jill and I are talking about how to read between the lines in land seller conversations.

This didn’t say female land seller or anything wife-related. I’m just thinking of you. I’m just going to say it. It’s not reading between the lines in your relationship. “What does she mean by that?”

Just see. I’ve said no words. You just open that all up.

I know you well enough.

This title is not called How to Read the Mind of Your Woman.

How to pick a fight.

Which is what Jill’s doing. She’s baiting me. Say stuff. I’ve been down this path.

This is going to be good.

Whatever I choose to say or don’t not say here won’t be right.

Yours is going to happen.

The mics turn off.

We’re going to cover the topic, and then we’re going to cover a different topic.

Let’s talk about land for a few seconds. We’re going to talk about women.

There we go.

This week, all week, once again, because it was super popular when it aired, is Common Sense Week. Again, we’re briefly talking about how to talk to sellers, and then we’re to talk about women. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we’re going to talk about the common mistakes in selecting a county for land mailers and how to avoid those mistakes. Wednesday, why land investing probably might not be for you. Thursday, why does consistency beat talent in land investing every time?

That’s smart.

Finally, Friday, what a recession could mean. Hint. There is a recession here for real estate. What a recession could mean for land investors and how to prepare.

Love it.

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into a land-related topic by your request.

Ben wrote, “Folks, we are getting calls back from our mailer to Florida. Most of the people calling back have properties in a floodplain.” It’s Florida. “Is that an automatic no-go for these properties in your experience? Is there a creative way to make these deals work? Also, many of the lots in ParcelFact.com don’t look like they have access directly from a road. Is it possible they have deeded /legal access but not having road access but is not having direct road access a huge deal as well? Please advise. We have several people waiting to hear back from us. Thanks.”

Florida’s Complex Real Estate Rules And Floodplain Nuances

Florida, a place for land investment, is a land mine. There’s a lot of very Florida-specific real estate rules, and I’m going to run through the list here in a second that you need to be aware of before you take Florida seriously as a candidate to place to send land. I will tell you because of the stuff that we’re to talk about here for just a few minutes. That’s one of the reasons, or maybe the reason that we don’t do land deals there. It’s not because it’s not profitable. It’s crazy profitable. We have many members in our group that live in Florida, have lived their whole lives in Florida, and understand that market and what it takes to be successful there.

Florida as a place for land investment is a land mine. Share on X

They’re crazy successful. Every property in Florida, with a few exceptions, is some version of what I’ll call “wet.” I would not call them what was in a floodplain. The whole state is a floodplain. That’s how you need to start out looking at it. Some of it is wetlands, and their wetlands and a floodplain are very different. A floodplain is something that you’ll find in Missouri when the rivers rise too high, and there are different variances of percentages and 100-year floodplains and all that.

Here in Arizona, that’s a thing, too.

Florida is wet. There are all kinds of resources on the Internet that are free. Some of them are government-based, which I would ask you to really seriously explore. You’re going to have to spend quite some time, several months up to a year, part-time studying what the different types of wet mean. There’s federal wet, there’s state wet, and there’s local wet. What you will find when you look up these properties on ParcelFact and anywhere else on the internet is that your neighbors who built nice houses are also in the same wet situation as this target property.

Relativity and wetness and floodplains matter. If you look at the city of Phoenix on any of these tools, including ParcelFact on the internet about floodplains, Downtown Phoenix and most of Maricopa County that’s populated is in a floodplain. When you buy a house here, you have to sign a waiver. Is it harder to get insurance? Shockingly, no, because it’s a given when you buy a house here. The insurance company knows it. The title company knows it, and buyers and sellers know it. My neighbor is just as wet as I am. That’s the exception. Florida, this is a way of life.

Are you done yet?

Yeah. How are you done that? Are you done yet? It is the topic of next week’s show.

There are many places in the country. Let’s just say below sea level stuff where you cannot have cemeteries above ground, not below, but there are homes there. Like, “What is what’s going on?” There are certain building specifications and modifications that you have to do in order to do that. That’s really what I think about and look at.

Look around, like Jack said, that’s the easiest quick little phase one due diligence, have the neighbors figured it out. If there are no neighbors built in that same thing and within a couple of miles, we know we have a problem. There’s this. Now it’s going to be swampland. Does somebody want that thing? There you go. If you see houses, they all covered up and “Here’s a house that was built last year.” This is possible. It can be done. There are probably some regulations. Now I know that going into it, now it passes my phase one test if everything else makes sense.

I’ll dig deeper into phase two. That’s the floodplain. The back thing about the access, remember when we talked about the A’s? There’s legal facts access, and there’s physical access. It doesn’t have to be a main road. I’ll take a dirt road. It’s more about do I need four-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive to get there. That’s what I think about. Even if it’s a rough road, but it’s legal access. I’m going to still push that forward most of the time in phase one because I have both legal and physical, and then I’ll uncover how bad it is in phase two.

If you’re an experienced investor in real estate, you can horse around with access list properties. If you’re not, if you’re new, don’t even mess with it. It’s complicated, and usually it ends in disappointment.

Make your life easy when you’re starting.

Why Florida Has A Shady Land Sales History

Even with our experience, we don’t buy properties without access. It’s very rare that we would do that. Finally, this Florida is rooted in fraudulent land sales. You should look up Glengarry, Glen Ross. There’s a movie about it with Jack Lemmon. It’s an amazing movie, even if you don’t care about real estate. People came down here to Florida from the northeast part of the country, like New York and other places, and some irresponsibly subdivided property and then sold it multiple times to one property on terms to multiple parties. It doesn’t have a good reputation. Arizona doesn’t, for the same reason. Also, because of our potential retirement, they’re playing on people’s desire to plan for retirement. Just be careful in Florida.

There’s been a lot of great opportunity. A lot of them do well.

Mega opportunity.

Just be smart about it. Now you know what to look for. It’s good.

Reading Between The Lines In Seller Conversations

Our topic is, How to Read In Between the Lines In Land Seller Conversations. Jill.

Let me just write topics and just throw it to me. What’s that?

You’re cracking up over this topic.

Reading between the lines is just a funny thing to me, but in a weird way. I’m always doing it.

Me too.

Especially when I’m on the phone with a seller.

I’m doing it.

The Power Of Open-Ended Questions And Listening Deeply

Right back at you. If I could see these sellers and see their body language, that would be good too, but you cannot. It’s interesting what you pick up on when you really sit back and listen very intently to what these sellers are telling you, their tone, and how they’re saying it. You’ll get a lot out of it. For example, the call comes in, you’re talking to the seller, and often we’re calming them down or whatever. They have questions about our pricing. We get past that thing, and you start asking some questions. You are immediately investors and buyers. We immediately go to, “I’m going down the process. I want to buy it. What’s it worth?”

When you really sit back and listen intently to what these sellers are telling you—their tone and how they're saying it—you’ll get a lot out of it. Share on X

I’m thinking about the property first, often. Thinking about why I can sell this for instead of taking a little bit of a step back and listening to the seller, because it’s so critical and figuring out their situation and figuring out what got him to this point to pick up the phone to call me, because there’s so much juice there. What this whole point is that it can help you get a great deal. You can tell when you say, “What’s going on?” Open-ended questions are wonderful in this situation. As I said, “What’s going on? Why are you calling? Why are you thinking of selling this now?” That’s a great one. Let them talk. Let them go.

There are three answers to that question. I will never sell this property. My grandparents and my great-grandparents are buried out in the back 40.

Let’s just say they’re calling because they want to sell it.

Just one second. There are three ways. No matter how much you read between the lines, “What she’s doing, what Jill’s trying to do is find out why. What do you want?” The second type is, “I am a seller, but not for this price.” The third one is, “I’m so glad you called. Thank you. I would do want to sell my property.” How they express those things is totally different. The number three prop person is if they’re for sure a seller, could be calling back livid.

Uncovering True Seller Motivation

I hear what Jack is saying. He’s trying to explain the normal reasons that they’re calling you. It’s usually one of those three things. Take me off your list as a guy that never wants to sell. Two is not this price. Three is like, “Let’s do this.” That’s the thing. I’m trying to dig a little bit deeper and talk about it because it just came up. Recently, we did a live three-day workshop for people to learn more about Land Academy.

I dropped some little nuggets on day two, and it was nice because day three, the guy’s like, “I used your stuff from day two, and it helped me open the door to get a deal.” The night it was listen a little bit more, put yourself in their shoes, see where they’re coming from, mirror how they’re talking to you. It was just stuff like that. You’re going to get some stuff out of it. My point is reading between the lines and their conversations and understand them, and like open-ended questions, like I started to say, that’s number one.

Open-ended questions about what’s going on in their life. Why do you want to sell this? Why are you thinking of selling this now? You’ve had it looks like I just looked it up. You’ve had it for ten years. Wump let him talk. This happened that happened whatever it is or you’re going to get and just like I said take notes. You’re going to get a nugget out of that like, “Lost their job.” “Car broke down.” “I want to take my sick mom on a vacation.” “I had this exactly the amount I need to pay for my dog.” These are all real things that we’ve had.

My favorite was this is exactly what it costs to have my dogs fill in the blank surgery. I’m like, “What a sweet thing, and what good timing.” There are little things you’re going to pick out of there also. That’s going to help you understand where they’re coming from and understand their sense of urgency. That’s a big part of this. A second thing is asking a question like, “What do you think about the price?” If they don’t like that, “Are we on the same page? Did my offer work for you?”

Something like that. If they’re yes, then stop right there. Don’t push, go, “Great, because I thought you were going to say.” Don’t even talk like that. Just go right on to, “Awesome.” Here are the next steps. Sometimes, we even second-guess our own stuff. We preemptively plan for the worst when you should preemptively plan for the best. This is one of the key things that it’s a light bulb moment. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this on the show even. That’s how I go into everything. I assume every person calling me is going to love me.

We’re going to be best friends. They love my price, and they cannot wait to sell this to me. That’s how I go into it. I’m already planning for that, and because that’s my mindset, I already lead them down this path. I led him to, “What do mean?” I’m like, “I’m surprised when they go, no, I don’t like that price. What are you talking about? It was a great price because I know my guy. I know what he put into this. It’s an awesome price. Why not?” There’s another open-ended question. If you go into it like that and again, do another open-ended question, and then this is an opportunity to read between the lines.

“My neighbor got it.” Big deal and why? If they say that, look up the neighbor’s property. Don’t just poo poo it right away. Look up the neighbor’s property. You might find a reason why. “Did you know your neighbor has a barn on it and a well and it’s all fence and he did this and then the RV pad.” Like, “Did not know that.” “Thank you for Jill.” You’re right. These are not apples to apples. “I just know I need to get this out of it.” There’s an opportunity to read and ask some questions and try to get out of it.

When they say, “I’m looking to get X or something like that, we didn’t uncover it earlier. What’s going on in our life?” You need to read between the lines. It’s going to help you with price, their sense of urgency, their situation, and whether or not they are motivated to sell. When they’re not, it’s because they don’t need the dough, and it’s nothing you did wrong, and it’s nothing the mailer could have done. The only thing you can do is let them know who you are, where you’re coming from, and the top dollar you’re willing to spend. This is how to wrap it all up. Leave them with that. Wish them well. Leave that door always open and walk away. Do you want to add anything to that?

No. If they’re telling you about their life circumstance, there’s a real good chance you’re going to put a deal together. If they’re talking to you about anything else, including price, it’s going to be a lot harder.

Good. Thank you.

When women talk to you, one of two things is happening.

Here we go. Now, we’re going to pivot.

They’re either asking you a question. I don’t mean a rhetorical question like, “What the hell is wrong with you?” That’s not a question that you answer. She doesn’t want an answer anyway.

No.

Nine times out of ten, though, they’re not asking you anything. They just want you to sit there and listen. Very much at the end of the conversation, they’ll talk themselves out. At the end of the conversation, there’s no conversation. The end is like, you say something like this, “Are we good? Is that it?” “Yes.” It ends. Nine times out of ten. When you’re in this situation, who cares who’s right, who cares who calls it? It doesn’t matter. Just sit there and listen until it’s over, and then go about your life.

You needed to get that out. Jack’s therapist is on vacation. Just kidding. Guess what? You got it.

Join us tomorrow where Jill and I discuss common mistakes, selecting a county for land mailers, and how to avoid them. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We’re Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.