Introduction And Overview Of The 8 A’s

We’ve been talking about the eight A’s. They are the components of due diligence that you should review with each acquisition candidate to make your land business better, hopefully, and more successful. In this episode, we are going to do the last three, alive, abundance, and afraid.

Before we get to that, I came up with a game at the end of the last episode.

We should do this at the end of the episode.

No, let’s lead with it. I want to do it because it’s funny.

Let’s just get through alive, abundance and afraid. They are very easy.

Okay. Let me write it down. I got another A, Argumentative.

If you want to see argumentative, that’s a ninth A, argue. Do you have to argue with your business partner about doing a deal?

I didn’t add that on my list. Thank goodness. At the end of the show then, we will each reveal our four A’s that you need for a successful, hopefully, relationship.

I’m going to review my spouse according to the eight A’s as if she were an acquisition.

I’m going to give you four A’s that I need that aren’t necessarily on this list to be successful with me.

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

Janet wrote, “If you could go back to the beginning of your land investment career, what would you change?” Tune in at the end of the show, Janet, for my four A’s. I’ll tell you. Just kidding. Can I go first?

Yeah.

What would I change? I would have gone bigger dollar amounts earlier, and I would have been open to taking on funding partners, at any moment, just to make those deals happen, not be afraid.

Two things I would change. One was the same as Jill. Number one, we went through a real tough time, and then I went through a real tough time in the middle of my career because I had a single point of failure from a sales chain standpoint. Our acquisition, we were always good at acquisitions, and we are, always from day one. I hated sales, so my answer was to continually make it more streamlined and easy to the point where it failed. It was a single point of failure. Jill came along and changed all that. It goes without saying, for much better. It was times eight immediately when she got involved because she brought people back into the business.

I am constantly trying to remove people from everything and make it more computer-related and data-related, like many of our members who are engineers and things like that. It’s like, “How can I remove the human element from this?” That’s not good. People create real estate deals. Here’s a reason that the National Association of Realtors and so many people become real estate agents every single month because there’s a huge people component to this business. What was your two? You said it perfectly.

Going bigger deals and accepting money.

Leverage. When I was much younger, I was beating my chest constantly, saying we had never borrowed a dollar and we had never taken on any partners. What that forced us to do was use our own capital, whether we had it or we didn’t, in some ways, and went to buy land. What it did was pretty dramatically restrict how much property we bought at any given time. We would stop, very often. We’d stop on the 10th of the month and say we’re out of money.

I agree. I got to try to sell something.

How Land Academy Solves Real Estate Problems

That would make us sell it probably for less than it was worth or we could sell it for, and on and on. When we created Land Academy, it was to solve that. We created Land Academy years ago to have people join, get them educated the way that we thought was appropriate, and make them our business partners, whether they were funders or people coming up with their own deals that needed our money. That worked out really well for us and for our Land Academy members. That’s what I would change. I would have taken on somebody like Jill. If Jill and I had started this whole thing together 30 years ago, I can’t even imagine. I can’t even imagine what it would be. We’re not suffering at all, but it would look a lot different.

I’m going to argue it was better when it was harder to do. As time has gone on, it’s been great for new investors because things are easier, you can find stuff, mapping functions, the data, it’s accessible. I liked it when we were flying by the seat of our pants and making up stuff. I think that was easier and better. It kept a lot of people out. People couldn’t figure it out, and I like that.

There’s a lot of intuition in what we did back then. Now, it’s a lot of data analysis, but you’re right. There’s still some intuition.

Building a successful land business is not just about the data, it is about trusting your instincts and embracing abundance. Share on X

There’s still some intuition, which again, keeps people out and is why people can’t get there. We’re trying to help. That’s this whole week with due diligence. We’re trying to really help you make good acquisition decisions so you’re successful.

This episode’s topic, alive, abundance, and afraid. The final three very simple, in my opinion, but necessary attributes. Go ahead, Jill.

The alive, I came up with it a couple of years ago. It was just simply to check a box. It’s so important. It needs to be discussed on your very first phone call, too. When you’re talking to a seller, they’re reaching out, they’re answering, they’re responding to your letter, they’re calling back, making sure you’re real, you’re able to do the deal, you need to do right back at them. Are you the right person? Are you able to do the deal? Not, “My grandpa wanted me to have this, I know it’s mine, and I can sell it. My grandpa passed three years ago.” Hold on a moment. Whose name’s on the deed? Grandpa?

It sounds simple, but to paraphrase, the person you’re talking to on the phone needs to be the person you’re going to buy the property from and who’s going to sign everything. Without going into a lot of detail, because I think if you’re new, it’ll freak you out. When people die with property in their name, it’s hard to undo. We have undone it and spent years doing it, and we’ll do it again, undoing dead people’s property. That’s something that, for whatever reason, Jill and I have taken on and made work for us.

Start every acquisition by confirming the basics. Is the person you're talking to even able to sell tha land? Share on X

I’m not afraid of it, but it’s not as easy.

You need to know before you start the acquisition to move on to the next step if it’s in grandpa’s name or the dude on the other end of the phone.

One of the nice, easy things is, when you’re new, just make this a high priority. If it’s not this way, then I would move on to the next deal. When you’re new and the call comes in, let’s say you’re talking to Mr. Gonschmales. I have the luxury. I’m not that new. I was able to have a conversation and pull it up on the computer while I’m talking to Mr. Gonschmales. I say, “I see Harry and Frida Gonschmales on the deed here as the owners. Is Frida still with us?” “Yes. As a matter of fact, she’s making me some tea right now.” Awesome. Check that box.

That’s it. Everybody’s alive. It’s that simple.

Abundance. This is a good one. More abundance is always better. Here is always the best. We talk about more acreage as a rule of thumb. Abundance is key. Think about this one. You have twenty deals that came in this week, and you’re like, ‘It’s Thursday. A) I don’t have time to look at all these. B) I got to pick some. I don’t know what to do.” Twenty deals to review and pick, versus two or three. Think about that. It all starts with how much mail you sent out and how good you are on the phone and all those other things.

It really starts with mail. You sent out enough mail that you have twenty acquisitions that you’re staring at. That’s abundance. What’s going to happen? You’re going to line them up. You’re going to have them on your spreadsheet, have them in your Airtable base, whatever it is. You’re going to go down and go, “This one has 8 A’s and this one has 7 A’s. This one has six A’s, and then 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.” Do you see where I’m going there?

You’re going to go right away and focus on those top ones that have the 7 and 8 A’s. Those are the best ones. Those are the ones you’re going to buy, and you’re doing great. Versus, say you had 2 or 3 that came in this week, or one, and one has 1 A, and one has 3 A’s, and one has maybe two and a half. I’m not sure about the alive thing. Now you’re going to make different decisions, and you’re not going to make the best decisions.

Abundance leads to better decisions. When you have 20 deals to choose from, you're more likely to pick the best one! Share on X

I would argue in a perfect world, you don’t buy any of them. You just move on, send out more mail, and start over. Sometimes when you’re in a scarcity, you’re going to start, like Jack said, “I can relax this A, and I can relax that A.” You said that in a week you’re going to start making bad decisions. You need abundance, and the last one.

Abundance And Reducing Risk In Land Deals

When you have abundance, you are dramatically reducing your risk. You can choose from ten deals and do the best 1 or the best 2, where you’re not seeing something that’s not there. This was a big problem for me when I started. I’ve got a real estate deal. I’m Superman and I’m going to do this deal, and everybody else might have an attribute problem. They might see that it used to have a gas station on it as a real negative thing. I’m going to spin it.

Success in land deals comes from abundance. The more deals you have to choose from, the less risk you'll take on! Share on X

It doesn’t apply to me. I’m going to jam this thing through and sell it to somebody. If you have abundance, then you’ll never have this problem. I don’t want to gloss overabundance. I created it because I was the problem back then with abundance. You need to be looking at a lot of deals and not jam one through the pipeline that you should have killed.

That’s just it. At the end of the day, you look at all the A’s, you look at the money, you look at your money, you look at your acquisition criteria, you look at what’s coming up next, all those things, but really, focus on that deal. What’s your gut? Are you afraid of these deals or anything that you’re not sure about? “Something just sounded wrong. This whole zoning thing. I got some gray areas there. I don’t know. This property might only have one use for one buyer in the whole planet. That makes me afraid because there’s only going to be one guy who’s going to drive that far and overcome this and put in the culvert,” fill in the blank.

It’s got other things going on, and that makes you afraid. That’s what that one is, or even just the price. It could be something like there’s something in there that’s making you pause. What I love about these are the deals that we usually look at every week on Thursdays on our closed weekly member call. You have a chance. “Who gets this? Could you imagine? I’m afraid.” Every profession should have a version of this, where you can run this by somebody because you’re just not sure about this one. It’s like, “I think I’m going to take down this, whatever, take on this project. I always have a mentor I can go to.” That would be so nice.

Cold Feet And Gut Feelings In Real Estate Deals

That’s us. The final attribute, and it’s a fantastic prelude into the last part of this, is cold feet. Should I be marrying this girl? She checks all the boxes.

We’re going to talk about that in a minute.

All the A’s, she’s got them all, but I’m still afraid. That can happen in a real estate deal. It’s legit. On your wedding week, it’s totally legit. If there’s something that’s just not sitting right with you in this deal, you have to really look at that. What I would do to solve it is to bring in somebody who’s much more experienced.

An unrelated third party?

Yeah. Somebody in Land Academy and say, “This deal checks all the boxes. Should I be doing it or not? Can you take a look at it?”

WYMTG. Would you marry this girl?

I’m going to take the gender out of this.

MTP. Would you marry this person?

Half of the people who have got cold feet are women. I’m sure of it.

I don’t know.

It should be like that.

I don’t know. No. Since we moved off to this topic to the fun talk on the, “Would you marry this person?” WYMTP. I’m going to say women more than men will ignore gut stuff just to check that box. It’s not saying it’s right.

Do women ignore gut stuff?

Yeah, sometimes, because I want to just get married. I have my dress picked out. I’ve been planning this forever. The invites are out. I’m going to be 30. I cannot be the only one that is not married. I have to do this.

You’re so the girl for me.

Back to this. Would you like to go first or second?

I would like to go second.

I came up with my four relationship A’s, and they are, number one, affordable. That’s the only one that I pulled from this list. Everything else I made up on my own, but affordable is important. Is this person a spending disaster? Can I afford to be in a relationship with them? Are they going to put us into bankruptcy based on the three car loans they have, and the job they can barely hang on to? That is important in a relationship. I’m sure when you sign up on Land Academy here on the show, you really want to learn about dating. Here you go. Anyway, affordable. Number two.

Hold on, I don’t get to deal with that, or I go later?

You go after. I’m going to describe mine, you describe yours, and that’ll be good. My relationship A’s, number one is affordable. Number two, agreeable. Are they?

Way off. You have your own A’s for this.

That’s what I said. I made up my own A’s. It’s not this A. I keep my own four relationship A’s, affordable, number two is agreeable. Are we on the same page in life? Do we agree on where we want to live? How many kids we want, or not? Do we like dogs? Do we not like dogs? Do we want a ranch? Do we want to live in a high-rise? Are they agreeable with what I want out of life? That’s number two.

I guess we’re going to talk after this.

Exactly. This is leading up to something off-air. No. Number three, appearance. Let’s be honest.

This is some classic stuff. We’re definitely going to talk after this.

Number three, am I embarrassed? What’s going to happen in twenty years? For you, come on, we know you do it. We know you look at my mom and see how that’s going to go. Don’t think we don’t look at your dad and see how this is going to go.

I’m not passing Jill’s acquisition criteria.

Affordable, agreeable, appearance. Number four, this is a good A for my relationship, accepting.

You do need an accepting person.

I do need accepting.

We all do.

I might not come up with the best ideas at the best time, but are they going to roll with the punches? Are they going to be like, “All right, this is a Jill thing. We’re going to go with that. Are they accepting of me and all of my quirks and whatever have you so we can have a nice life?” That’s my four A’s.

I’m going to run through the eight A’s. Unlike Jill, I didn’t create my own as entertaining as they are. You got your affordability. You got your gold diggers. I tend to look at people as a profit center or a cost center, whether they’re still our children, employees, customers, or any of that. That’s very true. Jill’s a profit center, period.

I’ve been involved, like many people, with cost centers. You don’t want that. Our children, and I don’t think it’s any accident, all three of them are profit centers for themselves. One of them is a profit center for us.

It’s true.

As far as employees go, they’re technically a cost center until they’re a salesperson or something like that. We don’t have any longer, and we never will again, if I have much to say about it, cost center employees. They’re all profit centers in some way. Finally, customers.

Why are we talking about customers and things just about relationships?

Moving on quickly. Customers are either a cost center or a profit center. The vast majority are profit centers until about five, maybe 5%, maybe less. 2% to 5% are just the most annoying people you’ve ever met. I believe that they know who they are. They know they’re annoying.

This is event suction.

They know they’re a cost center. That’s an acceptable percentage. We carry on. Access. I don’t know what to say about that.

Can I get to them? Are they available when I need them? That’s access. In a relationship.

Do you have a good line of communication?

Yeah.

Adjacent. I don’t think that applies here.

How do they line up to all the other women? I hope that helps you.

Jill’s having a little too much fun with this.

I got this. I prefer brunettes. Is this one a brunette? Compared to all the other adjacent brunettes, how does this one measure up?

You look at women like a course line.

This is the whole exercise. This is the point.

An old-school brothel. Just pick one out.

Next one is acreage. I’d be careful how you answer this one.

Bigger’s not better here.

Exactly. Don’t leave it at that.

Attributes. You need somebody with some attributes.

Of course.

Not just attributes. Brad Pitt’s got a lot of attributes. For some people, those aren’t the attributes that matter the most. You’ve got to pick and choose which attributes you want. Alive is self-explanatory. If you don’t want an alive spouse, you’ve got bigger issues than due diligence. Abundance. I think it’s important when you’re young and you’re shopping around that you do have a lot of transaction opportunities. Don’t you?

Yes. I agree. Up your numbers. I do agree with that. That’s true.

When I met Jill, she said you’re the result of me upping my numbers. This means more acquisition activity, potential acquisition activity.

That’s how you weed through them.

Finally, afraid, which I think we talked a little bit about in the last episode. I think this is very important. If you just can’t put your finger on it.

You’re afraid.

Why that guy might not work, don’t marry him.

If you feel the need, like a coworker I had a long time ago, to do a background check on your boyfriend, that might be a red flag. That’s afraid.

Afraid is really important for what we’re talking about here. Not as important for real estate acquisitions. I think there’s always an element of afraid.

It never goes away.

You’re afraid of what’s going to happen when you turn this camera off.

Join us next time for another interesting episode. Five interesting episodes, I should say.

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