The Shiny Object That Keeps Land Investors Stuck

So there's been a lot of buzz lately in the land flipping space focusing on minor subdivision plays and what are known as survey hacks. And for those of you who don't know, think of minor subdivisions as you get 100 acres of land and you chop it up into 10, 10-acre parcels. And why that is advantageous versus just flipping it as a 100-acre parcel— normally a good rule of thumb is the higher the acreage, the lower the price per acre. And the lower the, the lower the acreage, the higher the price per acre. So for example, let's say again, we have 100 acres and the average price per acre for that is just for this example, let's just say $5,000 an acre, but we noticed 10 acres within that immediate area, the price per acre is actually, let's just use $10,000. So if we split it up into 10, 10-acre parcels, and we know that there's not only more demand, we could also make more money, then that's a huge win because we could offer sometimes at or above market value, which is a huge win too. Because one of the biggest reasons is finding motivated sellers is hard enough as it is. But if we're able to offer at market value, it's a huge win. We're going to be able to find a lot more leads that way. And think of SurveyHack as— we'll use the same example here as 100 acres, but they actually have a house on it. And let's say they're retired and they're farming the land. It's like, look, I just want 5 acres to myself and I'll sell you the rest. Now you could either take that land and flip it, or you could also split up into multiple parcels as well. Now what I want to get into, which is the biggest problem that I see right now, is there are a lot of beginners who are focusing on that strategy only. They want to get into land flipping, but they don't realize that when it comes to minor subdivision plays and the survey hacks, there is a lot more nuance that is involved. So let me get into some of the key things. So one is you have to, you have to understand the key fundamentals first. So we have to understand the fundamentals within land flipping. We have to understand how to actually talk to sellers, how to pull lists, how to scrub them correctly, how to be able to price things out, select the right markets. And then when it comes into selecting markets, we have to understand what minor subdivision regulations are like, what exactly are we able to do with the property? Because that's going to go into— it's going to go into play in terms of where we're actually targeting. Now, what we also need to understand as well too is the amount of property records. It's going to change our marketing strategy. So we need to understand the marketing strategy. Now, I've noticed one of the things that new people don't realize when they get into the land flipping space One, the cash conversion cycle already takes a decent amount of time. And when it comes to minor subdivisions and these survey hacks, it takes even longer of a play for, for you to be able to get your capital back. Now, with that being said, one of the biggest hurdles again is the cash conversion cycle. And if you're just getting started and you're not going to see your capital back for, let's say, another 6 months to a year, that's very deflating mentally because you're spending a lot of your marketing dollars already trying to acquire more land and you haven't seen any returns yet. You can spend anywhere from like $10,000 to $20,000 without seeing any results. That, that is really tough when you are first starting a business and you want to get your first deal under your belt. So the biggest thing again that I see with beginners is they jump into this, they don't understand the key fundamentals, they don't understand really how to evaluate minor subdivision regulations, how to go through that due diligence process. The, and the marketing strategy is huge because with traditional land flipping, you could pull a list within a county, you could have, let's say, 2,500 records within a county of you targeting, let's say, 2 to 40 or 50 acres, depending on what you have when it comes to your filters, right? If you just pull a generic list. Now, when you're doing it and you're focusing on acreage that is, let's say, 40 acres and above and that's it, you're only going to have anywhere from like, let's say, 200 to, gosh, at the most 500 property records. And if that's the case, I mean, you're going to have to be very dialed in when it comes to your marketing. And I'm not talking about just doing cold calling and text messaging campaigns. You have to understand direct response marketing. You have got to have good mail campaigns. You have to have strategic follow-up campaigns. It's not just a mass blast approach. Now, can you get away with that? If you have thousands and thousands of dollars and all the time in the world and you're okay with just throwing your money on trash, then lighting it on fire, then yeah, that works. But it's going to take time. It's going to cost a lot of money. You're going to have way less of a return on investment. So there's a lot of things to think about. So when you hear these buzzwords of minor subdivision plays and survey hacks, that's all I do. And that's, you know, all I fund and that's all I'm considering. You know, that's great, but you really have to understand these details first. So one of the people that I highly recommend, if you are focusing on just this and you are not looking into other strategies, Casey Cavell at, um, I think it's the Subdivide Guys. He's a great resource. I highly recommend partnering with him. But if you are looking to get into this strategy, I highly recommend still doing your regular approach too. Work on your traditional flips at 40 to 50% of perceived market value. Focus on double close plays. Understand seller financing as well too, because these types of survey hacks and minor subdivisions, you can leverage seller financing or owner financing as well too. To be able to acquire it to where it's going to be a better play for you overall rather than potentially leveraging a JV partner or a private money lender. So again, there are a handful of things to think about. This was top of mind, so I really wanted to do a video for you guys because a lot of people have been asking me about this and they want to ditch their strategy completely when I don't think that's wise. And a good example are a couple of my coaching students that I work with right now, like Clyde is focusing on double closes and within his 2 months of working with me, he got $41,000 of profit from one deal. And another student of mine, she closed on a double close and she made $32,000 within a couple of months. Now the nice thing is you have that capital and you have that system dialed in, you have that running, then you could focus on minor subdivisions and survey hacks while that is the lifeline of the business. So don't fall for the shiny object syndrome, have your systems and processes in place, get the fundamentals dialed in, be very, very good at that. Then test out minor subdivision and survey hacks. And once you start to build momentum there, that is completely fine for you to do full time. But don't just jump into that without really understanding everything else that goes into this. So again, what I'm really honing in on again, do not ditch your complete strategy and just jump ship and follow the shiny object syndrome. It's very real within not only land flipping, but just in life in general. So if you have any questions or comments, feel free to put it in the comment section or shoot me a DM in my free community. And I'll see you guys in the next one.