In this informal YouTube short, Speaker A expresses enthusiasm for learning about Opportunity Zones as a means to make impact investments with funds rolled over from a 401(k). They discuss the need for thorough due diligence and the variety of ways to participate, including becoming a sponsor who assembles deals for investors. Speaker B highlights that sponsors can be more valuable than investors because they locate and structure projects. The conversation shifts to a personal field trip: after a meeting about a rural Boone project, Speaker A visits the Iowa Opportunity Zone website, drives through a gravel road, discovers an art‑themed KOA RV park, and gets briefly stopped by police for “getting lost.” The anecdote illustrates hands‑on scouting of potential Opportunity Zone sites. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, enthusiastic about impact investing, and lightly humorous about the police stop.
Chapters
I love learning about the Opportunity Zones. That's, that was, there's some new content there for me. I haven't done those before. Learning about all of the opportunities to, for me, I want to invest. I want to make an impact. I love the impact investments. And so, um, my right now I'm just looking for places to put money that I pulled out of my 401 and know how to do it in a way that I'm comfortable with the due diligence level. And so that's where I was focusing on getting a lot of content, which there's a ton and there are many different options available.
And so we want to see where you're Added next with Boom, going to be something that you continue to pursue, or are you going to look into how we can do opportunity zones and maybe sponsor an opportunity zone? Because again, you don't necessarily have to be the investor to an opportunity zone. You can actually create one and then get the investment, right? And that was something that I didn't really touch on much yesterday was like, sometimes we need sponsors more than we need investors. We need people that want to take on that responsibility of finding the deal. Putting it together and getting the investors in the right spot at the right time.
I actually went out onto the Iowa Opportunity Zone website just to see right after that meeting. And the funny thing was I was driving, I was having a meeting with a woman regarding Boone and a project that she had done in a local, a small rural community near where I grew up. And I'd parked out on a gravel road, just driving around, looking at the land around there, drove by an art KOA RV park. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the KOAs.
I've got a KOA right down the street from the one we're about to do, right?
It was super cute. Like they had it, it was just really cute. Ended up on a dead end road and I ended up, I got stopped by the police. They came out there and they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, just driving and getting lost.
Weird jewelry.
Just looking for some opportunity zones.
We're glad that you came in and hung out with us for 3 days. So, so we're glad that you're actually a part of the Land Shark Mastermind as well and share every day. So we appreciate that.
