Using Data To Choose Where to Send Mail

This is episode number 2180. Jill and I are talking about the best and worst states for buying land right now. Super popular topic since we’ve been doing this. I’ll try to be concise and give you the reasons why. Here’s a spoiler alert. The data will tell you exactly where to buy it and send mail. That’s about more than half of it. The other half is you. Do you like Texas or New Jersey?

Is it easy to work with them? Do you have a crew, like a title company you love and things like that?

Exactly. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord Forum and take a deep dive in land related topics by your request.

Ram wrote, “Hi, everyone. I’m in San Antonio, Texas. I’ve been investing in real estate for a long time, mostly flips, but looking to move into land and away from contractors.” It must be SFR Flips. Got it. “I’m eager to jump in and get going. I’m also interested in partnering as a funder for the right opportunities when I get my mail system set up. I’m looking forward to forging some great relationships.” Awesome.

Ram, you are set up to succeed.

Good for you.

You’ve got a running start at this. Congratulations.

You’re already thinking of the next step.

Exactly. This episode’s topic, the best and worst states for buying and selling land right now. If you take a look, if you go to Realtor.com/research, you’re going to find a set of downloadable documents. If you pick the historic downloadable documents by zip code, there’s only 4 or 5 options there. It’s the one that’s the bottom right. You’re going to download a spreadsheet for free. That’s about a million lines.

In fact, it maxes out Excel. If you control that document and sort for days on market from lowest to highest by zip code and only for the zip codes that are recent, the most recent do zip codes, there’s around 26,000 zip codes in the country, some of them are going to have a very low days on market, the data that they release is on a monthly basis.

The ones that have a very low days on market are generally good places to send mail. That’s one part of the red, green, yellow test. I don’t want to make this complicated. I want to make it really simple. Where there are the lowest days on market, that means, in my opinion, that that’s the highest velocity zip codes in the country where people are buying and selling real estate.

Great. Now we know if I sent out a mailer in that zip code, I process it correctly and price it correctly. By the time that they get on the phone to talk to Jill, a certain predictable percentage of people will be calling and they’ll say something like this, “Thank you for your offer. It’s perfect timing. My husband and I have to move back to Massachusetts next month for,” fill in the blanks. Some life event happened. “How can we get this deal done with your guys?” Or, “What’s the next step?”

Seventy-five percent of the work’s done because Jill knows that I priced it the way I should. She doesn’t even need to look it up. She does, which I appreciate. The conversation that she’s going to have with the people is not a very long one. Last time, we were talking about she’s not there to negotiate it. She’s there to process the deal within reason for the price that we offered. Is it about the best and worst states?

I was going to ask you some questions. Isn’t there an easy button?

No. I thought that is easy.

Once I download this data and I figure this out, and I have the top three states and I do all the stuff you just said, can I just stick with that for my entire career?

The data will tell you exactly where to buy and where to send mail. That’s more than half of it. The other half is you. Share on X

No. You’ve got to run this data all the time. You’ve got to inhale it and just sleep with it. That’s what you have to do.

Welcome to my world after you make it. This is great.

When data and a person love each other and they make a commitment, only then is it okay for them to move forward together.

Here’s Jack’s love language. I got your love going. Data is Jack’s love language. When he comes home and I’m laying in a pile of spreadsheets, that’s all it takes.

That would work, actually. You’re not really supposed to print those up, but for that, it would be fine.

I shred them after, so that it’s okay. There we go.

Why State-Level Generalizations Don’t Work

This whole business of states, think of the state that you live in and where you’re sitting, driving or whatever. Right now, the real estate on your right is very different than the real estate on the left. You don’t need to leave the state to say Nebraska’s good and Texas is bad because you that’s not how this works but everybody wants to know what are the best states.

Can’t you just tell me now and cut to the chase?

Where there are people who are moving to, that’s usually a good state.

I just turned off the show because I was only here to get the list. I’m just kidding.

Regional Breakdown: Pros & Cons By Area

North Dakota, there’s not a lot of people moving there. The weather’s not that good. For that reason, it’s not the best place to send mail. It’s not a good place at all. In fact, all those states up there, you’re going to have long days on market that’s very seasonal. At least half the year there’s no real estate business at all. If you’re new in this business, it’s harder.

The whole world wants to move to Florida. Florida’s a great place to do this. You need to truly understand the differences in nuances between wetlands, wetlands and FEMA flood plains and all that. The truth is I don’t fully understand that and don’t have an interest to learn. Florida’s not a place that we do a lot of business, if any, but we have people down there in our group that grew up there that are making millions of dollars a year buying and selling land. They just have a knack for it. They’re interested in it. They know the differences and the cultural differences and the way things are done in let’s say Miami versus Tampa or Jacksonville. I’m sure that all those places are very different. I haven’t been there since childhood.

Which turtles are protected, which are not.

Another really good one, the deep South because of the values. Not Florida, but Mississippi and Atlanta. Those 3 or 4 or 5 states that are right down there, the median housing values below $200,000 or around that. It’s very hard to buy a piece of property and put a structure on it for less than the replacement cost. Said another way, here’s the cheat code. If you are buying and selling land and markets where the houses are above $400,000, it’s feasible to buy a piece of property, put a house on it, sell it, make 20% like a contractor would or a developer.

You’re giving us a big regional cheat sheet a little bit. I like this.

California is hard only for the reason that California’s hard to do anything in business-wise. It does have some raw supply and demand in many places. Most people still want to move there, especially worldwide. That’s good. Oregon and Washington, to a lesser degree. I’ll tell you, what’s really popular right now are the rural places in a lot of Western states because of the work from home phenomenon.

When the data and the person love each other and make a commitment, only then is it okay for them to move forward together. Share on X

Not just that, it’s not just work from home, but everybody’s starting a little business and traveling around in an RV, it seems like. It’s all over the internet. We’ve been doing this for a lot of years. We’ve been working from home and traveling around in an RV for years, long before it was ever like a thing. What other states do you want to talk about? Midwest?

No, when we’re done, I have a funny work from home comment that I heard on the news.

The Midwest is tough. I’m from Michigan and it’s hard to get a mailer done in Michigan. There’s something about it. I’m not sure. I think it’s the people. They just don’t want to get mail like that. Wisconsin and Minnesota, not a lot of people move there. We have members who make tons of money in those states. They’re usually from there. They know the nuances and then they make that data work for themselves. The center states, we do not ever involve ourselves. I shouldn’t say that. Very rarely do we involve ourselves in agricultural property, especially agricultural property that’s currently being farmed.

We won’t say no to it.

We won’t say no, but we don’t send mail out on it. We fund some deals like that.

I like the Midwest.

I do too. I like the center states. Let’s call it the corn belt.

What about the Alaska and Hawaii?

I have purchased and resold a property successfully in both of those states. Those states have very serious opinions about people coming from the lower 48 and doing anything there professionally. Especially Hawaii. They do not really want you there. They certainly don’t want you there to make money. Alaska, there are cultural issues with both of those states which make the data not support what you’re trying to do. That’s the easy way. The Northeast, we have people in our group. I never would think to do a Vermont mailer or Maine. We just looked at deals with that.

It goes back to what you said at the beginning. The bottom line is the data’s going to tell you where to go. We had our ladies call and I was telling the gang that someone was asking for an easy button. I said, “There’s no way around this. You have to live, breathe, eat this stuff until you really know these markets understand them. When you do, it’ll jump off the pages for you. It’s really right there.

Why Many Land Investors Fail—And How To Avoid It

This business is presented on the internet now because there’s a lot of really young people that have gotten into it. It’s presented on the internet like day trading. General Motors stock or Nvidia stock, it doesn’t matter to me as long as it goes up by whatever and that’s it. New Jersey, Texas, it doesn’t matter to me. That’s just not this business. That’s all pure fiction. This business has a massive attrition rate. There’s a lot of people that get involved and get uninvolved because it’s a lot of work. It’s what Jill’s saying. It’s a commitment.

It’s just like anything. They’re the same people that dropped out of this school and that school and that kind of thing. That’s just not who they are.

When Jill and I joined forces years ago, professionally, I swear I never had a discussion about real estate with her. The older I get and the further I get into the Land Academy, the more I’m just in awe of that. I don’t think it’s because I’m bad teacher or a good teacher. I don’t think it’s because you’re whatever at that time. Real estate is in Jill’s soul the way that it’s in mine. That profession chose me. I didn’t actively choose it. I think that happened with you. We just look at deals and everything fell into place.

If you are that type of person, like the guy that asked the question, Ram, he clearly is. He’s going to do great. You don’t think in terms of states, you look at it a zip code on paper or physically look at it and you say, “This could work,” or, “There’s nothing here,” or whatever. I made a ton of money buying properties in the middle of nowhere.

You wrapped it up perfectly. That was awesome. Thank you.

Join us next time where Jill and I talk about what to do when your land business feels stuck. You are not alone and your real estate ambition. We’re Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.