Why Your Land Business Feels Stuck

This is episode number 2181. Jill and I are talking about what to do when your land business feels stuck. It happens to all of us, even Jill and I.

Let’s just define that. Just the business. Not anything personal. That might sneak its way in there too because sometimes, that feels stuck.

Here’s the little spoiler alert. If you’re stuck with anything, school, marriage, child rearing, your business, you are probably not showing up

Your house, your mortgage.

You need to show up. That’s what this episode is about. I’ll get into the mechanics of why this happens. There are only 2 or 3 reasons you get stuck in anything. Each day on the show, Jill and I answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord Forum and take a deep dive into land related topics by popular requests.

Thank you. May wrote, “About the probate, the current title is husband and wife as grantee. Nowhere mentioned joint tenants. The husband is passed away, wife is alive now and wants to sell the land. Does wife need to do probate? The lot is in Florida. Thank you.”

Yes. This is a very state-specific topic, so thank you for including that. Florida loves probate. A lot of people go to Florida and die. It’s a good revenue source. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on. It’s true. Why is this so funny?

“We’re coming to the end of our life. We’re going to Florida.” It’s like that’s the new Florida Chamber of Commerce campaign. When you’re on your last legs, we got you.

Are you at the end of your life? Come to Florida.

We love probate and funerals. We’ll do it all at the same time.

My dad lives in Florida. I grew up in Michigan and my dad said, “Do you ever want buy a two-year-old Cadillac for half price? Go down to Miami.” I’m serious. This is the exact sentence.

I bet any Lincoln product, Cadillac.

We laugh about this, but we’re not that far away from all this.

I know. We shouldn’t be laughing.

All kidding aside, Florida just likes probate. Actually, Arizona does too. Strangely enough, this situation in California would just be the stroke of a pen. They have a fast track. It’s an affidavit that you put on the deed with the death certificate that one of these people was dead. It’ll sail right through. Here’s the good news really quickly. There are people in our group, we are not one of them, who have made this their career. They seek out properties that have title issues. They have transference or breaking the chain title issues. They have learned everything there is to know about it. They seek these properties out and make a very good living.

If you’re into this and it seems like you are because the question was written very well, this could be you. There’s no shortage of probate type real estate to be purchased. Who the else are they going to sell it to? If they call us, we’re going to say, “Next,” but you could solve it. This episode’s topic, what to do when your land business feels stuck. What’s so funny? Is it your land business that is stuck or is it you?

That’s why I’m giggling because it’s never going to be stuck.

Here’s why your land business, for any reason, is not going how you think it should go. It’s two reasons. One of two reasons or both. Number one, you’re not sending out enough mail or you’re not sending it out correctly. If you’re like, “I sent out 5,000 postcards and I didn’t get any deals,” that’s probably correct.

One reason your land business might not be going as expected is that you're either not sending out enough mail or not sending it correctly. Share on X

That’s all one reason?

It’s all one reason. Postcards don’t work. “I sent out 60,000 neutral letters and I didn’t answer the phone at all.” They didn’t have to respond to anything. Every person called back and said, “Of course my land’s for sale.”

“It’s $3 million.” That’s not what you want.

The second and final reason is you’re not taking the personal responsibility the way that Jill does when she answers the phone to create a real estate deal within 60 seconds of the beginning to the end of that phone call.

The Importance Of Confidence In Deal-Making

I really believe that. I talked about that with the ladies about how to sound confident, how to get deals. A lot of it starts with confidence and these conversations. Remember, I’m not cold calling them. They’re calling me. They could have got the letter and thrown it in the trash, but there’s something there. I really firmly believe there’s something there. When they call you and you’re not getting deals out of this, I have to turn it back on you.

What did you do to not put a deal together? I’m going to put a deal together and in the very end, the only reason that we don’t act on it is, there’s two reasons. One is price. We’re not on the same price. That means they’re not ready to sell. They have a retail number and they don’t need the dough. That’s that. Number two, it’s just not a good property. It has no access or no this and no that. Just nothing. I couldn’t really make it work.

There’s some upfront expense to sending mail. It’s usually thousands of dollars per mailer. That doesn’t register with a lot of new people. I used this analogy on another environment online with success. I very seriously got through to people. If you don’t put any gas in your car and then you expect it to work, then whose fault is that? That’s just all there is to it. Nowadays, if you don’t plug the car in overnight, it’s not going to work. You’re expecting something to happen that will never happen.

One of the things that we’ve been talking about a bit too right now is people are like, “Some of my properties are taking longer.” There’s opportunity there. Atlantic County’s been 10 years, this one’s been 30-plus years at this. Full-time, don’t forget. For me, sixteen. There’s opportunity all over the place. Othat means I buy more and I buy it cheaper because come spring or come summer or fall or whatever, it’s going to work out. I’m just buying it lower and even selling lower. There are just little things like that. It really comes down to you. You’re so right.

Believing In The Business For Long-Term Success

You just got to believe in it. If you believe in that business and you’re into it and you’re enjoy most of it, not all of it, not all the pieces, then you’re going to do great. We’re doing a deal with a guy who’s been in our group for a long time. We’re the funder and it was nice. It’s nice because we have a lot of experience with each other.

If you believe in the business, enjoy most of it (even if not all of it or every piece), then you're going to do great. Share on X

We’ve actually met in person, which doesn’t happen. It was a strange circumstance that we did and he is being really straight with us about the fact that he does not like the Jill portion of this at all. This is what I said to him and i’ll say it to everybody now. I would like you to take 30 days and replace that portion and stop suffering because eventually it’s going to stop.

I only say this to him because he’s already very successful. He just doesn’t like talking on the phone, which I understand personally. He needs to take some time off. He has very much enough resources to do this. Spend 30, possibly 60 days and replace this portion. Hopefully, somebody that can sit next to him like Jill does with me, and get it done.

That’s really good advice. Thank you.

Join us next time where Jill and I talk about when to walk away from a land deal, even if it looks good. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.