This is episode number 2206. Jill and I are talking about succeeding in a market where everyone says it’s too crowded. It’s a very pertinent topic. I did not choose this topic. My producer did, and I think it’s fantastic. It gets to the root of who’s successful in this business and who isn’t. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request.

Handling Inadequate Property Photos & Photographer Expectations

Alex wrote, “I’m a little annoyed that the photographer went out on a not-so-clear day to take photos/videos. I think the videos can be stitched together to paint a pretty good picture of the land, but the stills leave a lot to be desired in my mind. It could also be that I had a different impression of what the road would look like and the land, frankly. I thought I was clear with him about shooting on a sunny day. This would be $300 out of pocket. I used some company and have not paid a photographer yet. I am curious to get people’s impressions of the footage and how you might respond to it or if it’s adequate to use based on people’s experiences.” I’m qualified to answer this question.

If you made it clear that you wanted a sunny day, you needed blue sky, and all that, I would very nicely say, “I need you to go back out.” You want the person to get paid, and they need to do a good job. They need to know that it is what it is. “You didn’t deliver a blue sky and sunny day. Can you go back out tomorrow? How soon can you? When I get my blue sky and sunny day like I paid for, I will pay you. No problem.” It should be that easy.

If you’re buying it right now, it needs to sing to you because if it sings to you that this is an amazing property, you’re going to have no trouble selling it. Your buyer will see that. You’ve got to get those photos that look good. Sometimes, we have done cheap crappy ones initially to get a feel for it and then send out a good photographer. Maybe this photographer is not that good either. I’d still talk to him and say, “I don’t know what happened. I’m paying you this much money for these shots. This is what I expect. Can you do that?” If they’re like, “No, I don’t have good enough equipment,” then you need to find a different person to do them.

I got photos back from a shoot for a property. We had to be clear about how we wanted it lit. It goes even further with this, Alex. I don’t just tell them blue sky. I have a checklist for land. I want from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west. I want different angles. I want to see the road going up to it. I want to see the cute little town where they would go and get their mail and buy their milk. Once you make this little checklist, which I’m sure we have in the Land Academy, it’s easy to send to every photographer.

My advice to you and to all younger people who are reading this. For whatever reason, especially after COVID, we are now in a world where the quality of work or service is just an option. Whether you’re getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks or going out to dinner, it’s expected that there’s a tip. That’s what’s going on here. I’ve noticed in the last years that somebody who bought a drone or a DSLR camera on Amazon can call themselves a photographer. Back in our day, that wasn’t the case. I need somebody to go out there, tell a story, and have some positive impact on selling the property, not just going through the motions.

You’re going to have to work until you find them.

Choosing The Right Markets In A Crowded Industry

My point is you’re going to have to develop the skill. This was hard for me to do years ago. Jill is good at this. Develop a skill when you’re dealing with people to say, “This isn’t good enough, and I’m not going to sign it,” or “I’m not going to accept it.” I very nicely say, “This is below what I expected as I outlined. Please give it another shot, and I’ll pay you.” Jill’s topic is succeeding in a market everyone says is too crowded.

The number one thing about people who fail is that they understand the math, they know what needs to happen, but they just can’t motivate themselves to do it. Share on X

Do you know what my point is? Why did you mail there initially? Is it too much of a hot market? Post-COVID, everybody was running to the towns we all know. We all heard Nashville. We all heard Austin. There are a handful of towns that we all heard about. There is also Coeur d’Alene. I can keep going, but you know what I’m talking about. It was fun because we would look, and there are all these tools online where you could put in where people are moving from and where they’re moving to. It would have counties and different things like that.

A lot of Illinois people were going to Tennessee. Why that is, I don’t know. They all hung out in the same place. The point is that those markets became too hot. What does that spell to us? Bidding wars. What does that mean? Seller’s market. Am I going to run around and buy land and do well in the seller’s market? No, it’s silly. I would be nuts to do that. This is one of the things that Jack does well and why we’re successful. Jack knows how to sit back, look at the whole planet, or the whole country, whittle down, look for triggers, and understand, “We don’t want to be in this pool, but we do want to be right over here. This is where the opportunity is.” It’s things like that.

My main point is, if it’s too crowded, should you be there anyway? What could you possibly do? I had the second half of a group coaching call, and we were talking about what numbers are good and what numbers are bad. I said, “Let me ask you this. Do you want to be 1 of 300 properties for sale, or do you want to be 1 of 30 properties for sale?” They’re like, “That makes sense.” Take it away.

I’m going to get behind the psychology and reiterate what Jill is saying, but there’s something deeper going on here. This is a fact in this industry. Every industry, at some point, when there’s profit, more people are going to enter the industry and create competition. Think of nature. Jill and I live in a place where we have a big backyard. All the bunny rabbits, the birds, and all of that are trying to kill each other at any given moment. It’s just competition in nature. Guess who wins? Sometimes, we wake up, and there are feathers everywhere. There’s an apex predator.

Bobcat wins. I don’t have a name for her yet. I’m working on it.

Why You Can Still Succeed In A Crowded Market

It’s just like this here. I was one of the first people, if not the first, to send out 5,000 letters for everybody who owned 5-acre property in XYZ County for $500 each and buy 25 properties. It was great for a while, and then it stopped, but those are not the good old days. These are. We make way more money now buying and selling real estate than I ever did. It’s way more crowded. Why are we buying a lot of real estate? It is too crowded. Why are we better at it?

We’re us. We hustle, and we know what we’re doing. No one does data better than Jack, and no one can answer the phone better than I. I can show you how to do it, but you have to bring the hustle. I can’t make you do that. Speaking of coaching in our group sessions, that’s the number one thing I spot in people who fail. They understand the math, and they understand everything that needs to happen. They can’t motivate themselves to have the phone on their nightstand. When it comes in at 6:00 AM, because it’s 9:00 AM on the East Coast where the mailer hit, answer the dumb phone.

We covered this topic in a call. Here’s the example that I gave. If there are ten people sitting in front of me in a classroom and I’m the teacher, there are ten brand new people in the land. At some point, in about a week, they’re going to separate themselves. They’ll do it to themselves. I won’t separate them in a bell curve. Two of the people have already made up their mind that they’re going to smash this out of the park. They’re on the right side of the bell curve. Two of these ten people have decided that, “I don’t like it. I’m not smart enough. It’s not worth my effort.” They’re going to be on the left side of the bell curve.

In the middle are six people who may or may not succeed this. I’m sure some version of this happens in a bunny murder that goes on in our backyard. Some of them are going to survive. Some of them aren’t. Some of them are dead already. If you are one of the two people on the right side of the bell curve, then you are going to do great because you don’t know how to lose. You don’t know how to stop. You’re not going to blame me for teaching it wrong, or you’re not going to say, “The Land Academy doesn’t work.” You’re just going to succeed.

My advice to you, if you want to succeed at this or anything else, is to be one of those two people or find something you want to do for a living where you are one of those two people. Join us in the next episode where we discuss making the land business your own, not just copying others. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and argumentation to buy undervalued property.

That’s not a word. I made it up.