Land Academy Member Question

This week, we’re talking about the eight A’s in the portion of your land business and the due diligence. How you can make due diligence work for you. On Monday, we had affordable. On Tuesday, we had access and adjacent. That’s so far three A’s. Today, we talk about acreage. Each day on the show, we answer a question before we talk about the topic of our Land Academy, which was from our Land Academy member Discord forum. Let me take a deep dive into a land-related topic by popular request.

James wrote, “I have a data tree question. I downloaded my records to do my first mailer and the mailing zip code reads 28,742 records instead of a zip code plus four more digits. Taking a closer look at the formulas, I can see they read without the quotation marks in each cell for a formula. For example, the formula cell is 34243/ da-da-da instead of with the quotation marks. It gives a zip code and the four numbers instead of that with quotation marks on it. This gives me the answer to a math problem instead of the zip code in each cell. Does anyone know how to fix this easily without typing the quotation marks into 3.5 thousand cells that I downloaded in the spreadsheet?” Speaking of PhD level, let me get PhD Excel Jack.

This is a real common forever issue with Excel and its formatting. You need to reformat the columns or portions of the spreadsheet that aren’t giving you the result that you want. Zip code formatting, Excel looks at zip codes like it’s a number. As humans, we look at it as a zip code. It’s easy to change, just use the formatting. The reason I put this in here is not to make Jill make comments about PhD level stuff versus entry-level stuff.

I will.

The reason I put this in here is because of the way we buy and sell land, Excel is a substantial part of it. If you’re struggling with that, and I don’t think you are, James, because I think this is a very intelligent question. There are all kinds of resources out there to learn the basics of Excel to get your mailer done.

To reformat 3,000 cells at one time is so hard.

If you ever find yourself through Excel going one line at a time changing things, you should stop and do some research on Google because there are much easier ways. We recommend and have gotten great reports back on a company called WallStreetPrep.com and take the $35 course on how to move through Excel and understand. It’s a fantastic $35.

To do that again, brush up on it and stuff. It’s a good thing too.

There’s a lot of stuff in Excel and database-related things that are part of this business.

There's a lot of stuff in Excel and database-related things that are part of this business. Share on X

I don’t and I just rely on you which usually works well.

If you’re not a salesperson like me, then I have a partner who does all that other stuff so I don’t have to do it.

There you go.

On the first day, I did it all. For the first 10 to 20 years, I did it all. I finally have a partner where I get to do the stuff I want.

You’re welcome.

An associate, I don’t know.

For the most part.

Acreage

Today’s topic is the eight A’s in your due diligence program that we’re talking about all week. Acreage, tell us about it, Jill.

Acreage. Did you get what you’re looking for? Number one. For example, you sought out and mailed all 5 to 10 acres in this county that you were looking for and the offer came back. Is it 5 to 10 acres? Is it a 0.5? Did something get in there? Is it 50 acres? Double-check it, first of all. There could be typos. Counties are real people who input the information. Sometimes mistakes are made, but that’s one of them.

Did you get the right acres that you’re looking for? Number one. Number two, you should have done all your research ahead of time so you knew going into it, 5 to 10 acres is what sells well. That’s why you mailed that county and why you sent out those offers priced the way they did. It’s a short one for me. It came back. Is it right? Is it priced right for that acreage? If all the answers are yes, check that box and call it done. How was that for kindergarten?

That was pretty good.

Thank you. I didn’t take that PhD. I didn’t talk about 43560.

I didn’t mentally launch into other things besides what you’re talking about at all.

I kept your attention. Nice.

Acres came about a long time ago in the land business that I established because under this guise, larger is better. Back in the day, every landowner in a state would get a letter from us because we didn’t have the data that we have now. We didn’t have access to DataTree. We would get a data set from the county assessor. We would pay $50, get the CD in the mail, and deconstruct the data. A lot of times, it didn’t have the size of the property so we would send it all out. Some of it would come back and we would dig in and find out it’s a 40-acre property, and dig in and find out it’s a 0.0002-acre property.

Did the 0.0002-acre property allow me to check the acreage box? No. In modern times now and the reason that it’s still with us, this is why. This is what applies to your business. Jill and I have spent all summer driving around the country, mostly west of the Mississippi, looking at real estate. We’re in the Pacific Northwest right now. As always, our lives are consumed by real estate, and how much that costs around us. We look at properties that are being subdivided and built up. We look at properties that are still farms or ranches and everything in between. What excites you more when we see property around where we are right now, 5 acres or 10 acres?

Ten.

Hands down ten. Acreage is a huge common-sense scenario. If you have 10 acres surrounded by 5-acre properties and it’s usable, you struck gold. Acreage is important. For me, I always take a step back to test for reason. Ten acres in this urban area? There’s gold in that. Acreage, we gloss over it like Missy did here a few minutes ago, and that’s okay. If you get some larger acreage properties surrounded by smaller stuff and it’s usable, that’s fantastic. It’s all relative.

Can I give another one Here’s an easy example for everyone to get. Whole subdivision 0.4, 0.3, 0.25, whatever, and you’re like, “This is 0.7? Holy moly, this is a good lot. It’s three-quarters of an acre.” If you’re talking infill lots, three-quarters an acre versus a quarter of an acre is a big difference. Look at the yard this person can have.

In small towns that are in the town, it’s very common and has been common and will continue to happen where people take a property and split it in half. They start with a regular property, let’s say an acre, and it goes from block to block, each end of it. They then cut it in half and resell half of it for whatever reason and put a house on it, or their sister-in-law owns it now, or whatever. Half lots are way less desirable than whole lots. Double lots are better than the whole lot. Acreage matters. It’s a little bit hard to describe, but bigger is better almost always.

For acreage, bigger is better almost always. Share on X

I agree.

Join us tomorrow where we discuss yet another A and it’s one of Jill’s favorites. It is an attribute and I agree with her. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We’re Jack and Jill. information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.