5 reasons why land is the best investment in 2026

Eat baloney, buy land. Eat baloney, buy land. Trade the fork for the deed in your hand. Skip the fillet, let the sandwiches stand. Your fortune will grow when you buy your own land.

Fellas, welcome to Nightcap. Good to see everybody. We'll get to intro here in a second, but—

oh, I'm sorry, I'm interrupting. Does that mug say good morning on the other side of it?

Mine?

No, Mike's.

Oh, it does.

I have that exact same mug. Look at that.

He's also handsome.

Yeah, very quickly here, man, I'm completely off the rock, off the rails now. Okay, wait, here we go. Tonight's topic, you ready? Um, it's not, uh, training necessarily, it's not a highlight reel tonight. This is for the audience, is land therapy. Mike Sano's gonna love this topic because, uh, if we're being honest Most people don't struggle with land because of all the stuff you have to do. They struggle with land because maybe they're confused or fearful, second-guessing themselves, they're doing it alone. So tonight we're opening the floor to everybody on the call. Bring the deal you're stuck on, bring the question you've been avoiding, bring the frustration. Uh, if you haven't said it out loud, no judgment, just real investors talking through real situations. Uh, here we go, guys. Good to see you as always. Um, I'm Scott Bossman, joined by the Three Amigos here, the three other amigos. Mike Zaino, the Zen Master. Breathe in the mailing, breathe out the marketing. What's up, buddy?

Not much. I'm, uh, enjoying some spiked cacao.

What's it spiked with?

Some sort of, uh, Bailey's concoction. It's very good.

That sounds delicious.

Sounds like probably the most healthy way you could drink Bailey's.

It is so good. Good morning, handsome.

Good morning. It's good to be in the top right corner.

I've never been here.

Never been?

No, it's great. Yeah, it's good to see you.

Do the viewers see the same thing?

I don't know how they see it. Is it—

yeah, I believe so. They see what we're seeing. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Uh, John Handsome Rob, it is enough, Burnett. How are you tonight, sir?

I'm doing great. It is good, it's dark here, but it's dark. Yeah, it is dark. I think it's dark everywhere now.

It is, yes. Uh, and always, as always, we have the Godfather with us. Mark, Mark, uh, the Godfather Podolsky, the Land Geek Podolsky. How are you, sir?

Pulse is still normal. I'm, I'm riding the wave of my Indiana University football school championship, wearing my red. Very proud of, uh, of that team. It's crazy.

I mean, what a year.

Just the last 2 years, I mean, we're playing with house money. We are the losingest team in history. My buddy said we have to win like 559 more games straight, or I forgot, it's like some crazy number to get to 500. Wow, historically bad.

But it's historically crazy. Yeah, yeah. No, that was an amazing game, so congrats to the Hoosiers. Uh, Mark, were you watching at home, or did you—

I was home. I was with my college buddy. We were all on a group thread, my college buddies. One of our buddies was actually there in Miami. We're getting videos, and then, you know, friends from all over the country are texting me. It was awesome. Um, and my parents were with me, which was even cool.

That's great.

So it was super cool. It was really special.

Very nice.

Well, congrats to the Hoosiers, uh, and yeah, what a great, what a great, uh, end to an amazing season for them. So, well, um, I'm excited about land therapy tonight. Um, I'm gonna go, uh, post in the Facebook group. For some reason our Facebook connection is dead and that's why our viewers are lacking tonight. So, but, uh, the people, people that are here, welcome. Katherine Hollingsworth is here. Nice to see you, Kathy. Um, Brian Quinaville. Jana Donovan is here, her first time live. Good to see you, Jana. She's killing it. She's a Fresh Flight School grad and doing really well in the business.

Jana Donovan, awesome.

Oh, bring in the hugs, Don.

Bring it in, Don Thrasher.

Oh, Don. Oh, really?

Right out of the gate.

Shut up.

What have you been doing in the background? I feel something going on. Oh, what's happening?

Oh, the hat trick!

This is a lot of— this is a lot of shoutouts in the first 5 minutes.

And there's a fourth.

Oh, this is a setup.

This is just—

Boston, what did you do?

I don't know.

I'm very jealous. Very jealous.

Maybe it's my birthday. I don't know, maybe it's my—

it's not, but I was gonna say, I forgot to do Buddy's birthday.

No, no, no, what happened?

It's not my birthday. Not my birthday. Uh, very good. Well, yeah. Oh, look, see, you're getting love too, Zane.

Okay.

Oh wait, sorry, I put the wrong thing up there. There we go.

I think the only thing that could be worse than having— oh, thank you. Oh, thank you.

Let's just pause, let's just pause, let's let it roll Let's let it roll in.

I was gonna say, the only thing worse if we're getting dude by his birthday would be probably telling the whole world that he had COVID back when COVID wasn't cool.

Was that a HIPAA violation?

So that was back when COVID was not cool, in the early days.

Yeah, yeah, it was awesome.

Oh, whoops, some guy got—

some guy got it. And And some guy divulged that. That's fine, it's all good.

We're one big family here, it's okay.

Yeah, it's like, yeah, exactly, we're all in it together.

Yes, we—

this is like the things, we don't hold anything back, not even our medical histories.

Mark, I'm really impressed that you're here because You put on quite a performance at boot camp, and that's starting like— so I would— I didn't know if you'd be, you know, because you really do. I know people are listening. We have a get-together several times a year, and Mark, you bring your A-game. You really do. I think it's like a live performance with land investing on the side. Like, it's, it's phenomenal. So cheers to you for being here, because I know that it takes a lot out of you, those 3 days.

Thank you. No, it does. We've got fireside chat tomorrow night to start. With the VIPs. I'm super excited, and I love it. I love it. It actually gives me energy. So it's, it's a lot of work. The team— it's all team, right?

I'm—

I feel like I'm just Sinatra now. I just show up and sing.

It's great. And you are a good singer.

Not like Dude Buddy, right? I miss those. I miss those karaoke days.

Oh, where did Buddy would say those are buried in the YouTube archives, I hope.

Yeah, so all right, we got to get to like the topic though. Who wants to do some land therapy? I feel like we should— Dr. Phil or, or whoever is, uh, the person.

Because I, I typically— and Scott knows this— I refer to our intake process when we buy land as land therapy because people You know, people buy land at some point in time and then it, you know, they don't use it anymore. Something happens, life changes, and they get reminded every year with this tax bill. And, and it's just sort of like this burden. And then we come along, we buy it, and what happens is many times we'll buy it at a really good price. But before we can buy that, they want to release the story. And I call that land therapy. They'll say, you know, I bought this with my husband years ago, we went there with the kids, whatever it might be. and they just need someone to hear that. And we, as the people buying that land, serve that role. So a lot of times I think of land therapy. It, you know, it's, it's very, uh, therapeutic for these people to release this property, which is sometimes bound up with emotion from years of, uh, years ago use and, and, uh, things of that nature.

Yeah, it's a good point. Scott's typing away over there.

You can hear that? Yeah, can you hear me?

So we can hear that, you know. Yeah, angry typing. By the way, no, no more ice for me. No, Rick Holcock, who's lovingly nicknamed me Mark the Maraca.

There you go. Yeah, that, that photo is amazing.

Can we share that?

I don't know if we have the capabilities, the tech team, to do that.

That's what makes our community so great.

Yeah, I can, I can, I can figure it out. I can figure it out for sure. Um, so yeah, people in the comments, uh, that are joining us, especially the flight school grads, you guys have to have some questions, some concerns, some, some things nagging at you. So, you know, Jana, Rick, uh, Jana, Don, Rick is here actually. Rick, good to see you. See you at the boot camp. Chris P, is that, uh, Palladino, I wonder? Um, Kathy, Catherine Hollingsworth. What do you guys got for us tonight? What questions, concerns, topics, questions, topics for discussion, as my history teacher says?

Otherwise, we're going to talk about whatever we want to talk about. I know, you know, it's going to go off the rails very quickly.

Yeah, we might have to, we might have to. Um, well, I guess when we think about land therapy, maybe we could just talk about some of the common things we see people struggle with, right? Whether they're beginners or maybe they're 4 or 5 months in. Um, yeah, so because we all do coaching calls and we all help people problem solve, um, and you know, maybe we could talk about some of the things that we witness or observe in people as they're trying to scale their business. Yeah, what do you think of that, Zainal? What, what do you think? Well, you're on the spot.

I think the first thing that people sometimes need some help with and maybe have some interferes about is just talking to the sellers. Like, how's that going to go? Like, this person I don't know and I want to buy their property. I've sent a letter, they responded. And it can be, um, you know, you're new to this, so I feel like, you know, that can be a real fear for some people. Some people really aren't, you know, into talking to people, like, you know, reaching out to people they don't know, right? They're sort of just in their tight circle of friends and whatnot. But so I think that's something. And I think the easiest thing to remember is that this is just, you know, being yourself, having an easy conversation. This is nothing more than aligning on a purpose, which is there's a property they don't want to own anymore, a property that you would like to buy, and just having nice conversations, being transparent. So I think that's the first one, Scott. I think that sometimes that can be a bit— I don't know the words— daunting or just a bit nerve-wracking to think about how's that going to go, like how is that conversation going to be. And it's going to be super easy Because the beautiful thing about the way we do our offers is they have numbers attached to them. We call them a blind offer. We don't do the neutral letter. That's one of the things when I first heard about Mark, I thought was relatively, uh, like crazy new. Like, wait, he gives them an actual number and then the funnel shrinks. People aren't looking for free valuations, you know. If you give them a— will be a neutral letter, you know, where you send out a, a, a, just, I am interested, with no number attached. So people have already raised their hand, they see the price, so the there's no getting on the phone and being like, and I'm gonna offer you and worrying about what they're gonna say when you offer them out. It's already been done. They've already seen it. They're already accepting it at some level. And that's why they're getting on the call with you. So it's an easy discussion. So that'd be the first thing that comes to mind.

Yeah, I think everybody's intimidated to have those first conversations, whether it's on the buy side or the sell side, right? Maybe you're intimidated to have your first conversation with your coach. You know, you're going through flight school and I had that, I had that intimidation back in the day. My first coaching call with Scott Todd, man, that's tough. My fifth coaching call with Scott Todd was tough. Yeah. Uh, you know, there, there's all these kind of mental barriers you have to get over as you're going through, uh, the learnings of this business. Uh, but we, we do have some comments coming in, but let's get to John next. John, what do you commonly see in people who are just starting, or maybe they've had some traction? What are some things that we, that we see people struggle with?

Yeah, I think like, I mean, something that just popped to mind as you were talking is like the, the nervousness that you have approaching a coach, but also, you know, if you get derailed a little bit, sometimes people can feel a little, almost a little guilty like you can be tempted to actually pull away, you know, because you feel like, oh no, I didn't perform. And that's actually when you need to lean in the most, you know, and be a part of the community and lean on your coach, you know, and just be upfront about where you're at. So I think that's important. And then, you know, just pushing through, you know, every different step or every time I personally hit a new stage in the business, I always had these butterflies in my stomach, you know, posting the first ad, putting out the first letters, like every single thing. And then you push through it and it gets easier and easier and easier. To Mike's point, like even, you know, hopping on the phone with people, like how nervous were all of us picking up the phone for the first time? And then you do it your fifth time and you're like, this really isn't that bad. And then you, you know, point where it's, it's fine.

So I love that. Thanks for that, John. What about you, Mark? You, you talk to folks all the time who need a little land therapy. What are some kind of things that you talk about?

Yeah, my therapy is a little different, I think, because when, you know, I'm talking to people who are scaling and, you know, for them it's usually a little bit more advanced. But I would say that when I'm on podcasts or even just emails I'll get. Like, somebody will read Dirt Rich, and inevitably the big fear is, you wrote this in 2018, is the market saturated now? And if I were going to lay that person down on the couch, put on some, you know, easy music, a little jazz, maybe some soft jazz, some, some, you know, soft lighting and just sort of just, you know, kind of talk to them in a very soothing voice. Like, there's billions of acres of land available. You couldn't think of a more boring niche. I know your algorithm makes it look like there's all types of land sellers out there, but there's plenty for everyone. I've been doing this 25 years. Each year my business grows. Each year my clients' businesses grow. You have nothing to fear with this business. And it's true, right? Um, and it's so funny because there's a lust for land in this country. Even if there were a lot more land sellers, I would say, well, look, who— you know, look, like, go to McDonald's tomorrow and look in the corner of that McDonald's and how many fast food restaurants are next to your McDonald's. Is our burgers and pizza and sandwiches— is it saturated? No.

No.

So that's, that's what I would say.

Yeah.

And same thing for land business.

That's really good perspective. You're right. They thrive in a very competitive area. And yeah, there's no shortage of people that want to get the burger.

You're right, exactly. So if, you know, if your 5 acres doesn't taste tasty to them, my 10 acres might, or John's 20 acres, or, you know, because everybody loves Bossman, his 640 acres, right?

Love it, love it. All right, awesome. Thanks, thanks, Mark. So we do have some comments coming in, people that need some help with things. All right, so here's a great one, right? This is from, uh, Nan. Uh, she just sent out her first round of offers, but she wants to know how to approach other investors about land arbitrage. Who wants to take that one? Anyone?

It's a good one, John.

I could take that one.

Give Nan some advice, some land therapy.

So if you want to approach other investors about land arbitrage, I would just go on to the Land Geek Motivation Facebook group. Just post that you're, um, that you're interested in land arbitrage and is anybody offering anything. And so that's one way. So you can post and see if people respond, and then you can also just scroll through the comments and see if anybody mentions that they're offering land arbitrage. But that's the way that, that I would, I would approach that. We've got a pretty, pretty big community and a good community.

So can you, uh, explain it? But some— there might be some new viewers who don't even know what it is.

Yes, land arbitrage is when you purchase a piece of land with owner financing from another land investor, and then you can then sell that same property with owner financing to somebody else. The general rule of thumb is that if somebody is selling to you with arbitrage, they're selling it for half of what you could sell it for on terms, right? So if I buy a property on land arbitrage for $50 a month, for 60 months, I should be able to sell that same property for $100 a month for 60 months. And then if it takes me, let's say, a month to sell that property, well, when you net everything out, my holding costs were extremely low, right? And so, and then also when you net everything out, my returns are insanely high given the money that I have into the property, because then the money that's coming in is covering the money that that I am paying. And so it's a great way for people to— like, one of the things we, we talk about is that you could actually start investing in land on an extremely low budget. And one of the reasons you can do that is you can use land arbitrage. You know, you can control a property for $50, $100 a month, and then you can start getting your reps in, marketing that property, and then when you sell it, you've got cash flow already.

So I like—

that's crazy. I, you know, it's so funny because people always ask me, how much money do we need to start? How much money do I need to have to get started? And now it's— what is it? So she's saying $50. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's nuts. Name another business or real estate niche that you can start with $50 and make money. That's crazy. We can't even talk about it because I was listening to it, I wouldn't even believe it. I guess that sounds too good to be true. No, skeptical.

That's, that's great advice. Great advice for Nan. Uh, you know what I love in the Facebook group is the search bar. Just go to the search bar in the Facebook group and type in a county you're interested in, and you'll see people in there, uh, posting wholesale land and Landarb. Not in the Facebook group much longer though, right, Mark J. Podolsky?

That's right, I'm cooking up something new.

All right, I'm excited. We won't— I mean, I don't know if— are you, are you, you know, well, broadcasting?

Some of the coaches go through it, uh, I'm not, I'm not broadcasting it yet, so we're, we're in beta.

Yeah, well, all right, you know, I should bring up some— I think last week we were talking about this, Mark, and you graciously shared with me and all of us, I think you're— because you're like creating these new— and I don't even— some sort of in ChatGPT, but I have it now on my phone. And I go to like this morning, I was at a restaurant. We stayed overnight in Boston for Laura's birthday, so we went to a restaurant this morning. I'm like, well, geez, what should I eat? And so I take the phone out, I take a picture of the menu, and I put it into your thing, and it recommended them. And I had a great meal. It's like, oh, if you want to have your proteins— it picked out this omelet for me and told me how to order it. It I think we were talking about that at the end of the show last week or something like that. But thank you. It's a really, really helpful app.

Yeah, I mean, come to boot camp, by the way, because I'm going to be giving away the, the prompt engineering GPT that will be the end of all your prompting problems. You literally just described what you want done, and it will create a JEPA Despi prompt for you, which is a Stanford Prompt Engineering Protocol. It is insane. Come to boot camp.

I'm coming. And it's not too late to come to boot camp. It's this week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. See details at thelandgeek.com/bootcamp. You guys can still get in. Yeah, um, it's, it's 3 days that'll change your life. It really can. So join us. All right, well, let's move on to, uh, the next land therapy question. Oh, we got a couple coming in here. All right, so Mike Caviey, he's wondering about capital. We have, we, we have a lot of therapy conversations. We do land investing about capital, right? Running out of capital, needing to raise capital. So, but what are some maybe options for lining up capital? Mark, you want to take that one? You're the investment banker.

I, I love, I love this one. Uh, so, okay, Mike, I would say first of all, when you're getting started, you don't want to give up equity, you want to do debt. When I say equity, that means— let's just pick on John, right? John's a shark coming in on the Facebook group and he's looking for Mike. Oh, Mike, I'll tell you what, you do all the work and I'll give you the money and we'll split 50/50. No good. Our margins are too big. Too big. So you go to debt and you say, hey, Uncle Phil, I'm doing this. How much money you got in the bank? You don't want to say it like that, by the way. I would actually give you a different script. So let me give you the script, Mike. Uncle Phil, I need some advice. I am, you know, I'm doing all these deals in my land business. I want it to grow, and I'm looking to raise XYZ amount of capital. Let's say it's $25,000. 'Can you give me some advice on how I should approach potential investors? I'm thinking about giving them— I don't know, they've got money in the bank, they're earning what, 3% maybe, aggressively 2%? I could offer them 5, 10%, you know, whatever it is, 7.5%.' And Uncle Phil's like, 'Wait, I'm interested, Mike. I've got money in the bank. I have $25,000. Tell me more.' So when you ask for money, you're going to get advice. When you ask for advice, you're going to get money. So that's how I would, I would go about it. So you're going to start with your inner circle, people who know you, like you, trust you, and get as much money as you can at the lowest interest rate possible. And then from there, you can move up the chain, right? If you have a home and you have an equity, you have equity in your home, get a home equity line of credit. Again, you're going to play what we call the interest rate arbitrage game. If you're yielding 72% on your land deals and you're borrowing at 5%, is that a good deal? Yes, absolutely. And so in a way, it almost doesn't matter what your borrowing costs are at certain scale because your yields are so high in this business. You just want to have that really good funder that just keeps funding you and funding and it's gonna, and it's gonna actually compound with you. So get as much money as you can, the lowest interest rate you can, and keep going up from there. And then eventually, if you start doing real big deals, you get to go to Mark the Shark, and Mark will fund you.

Mark the Shark.

Yeah. So yeah, so that's what you want to do though. But there's, there's a There's Fund and Grow. You can, you can borrow off 0% interest rate credit cards. There's all different ways to get capital out there, and it's just a matter of looking for it and confident that if, if Uncle Phil is going to give you money, you're confident that you're going to be a good steward of his money. You're going to be able to deploy it, you're going to be able to give him a good return, he's going to be happy, he's going to keep wanting to fund you. Now, if you have let's say $100,000, uh, note portfolio, right? And you're getting that much, let's say $1,000 a month coming in passive income. You have $100,000 more note portfolio, you could borrow up to $50,000 because worst case you could say, Uncle Phil, worst case I get into trouble, I can sell my note portfolio 50 cents on the dollar to these land geek investors. They'll buy it all day long. And I'll, I'll cash you out. So there's literally no risk. So for a risk-reward ratio, Uncle Phil, this is the best thing you've got. Does that answer the question?

It answers the question splendidly. Splendidly.

Splendidly.

Mike, I saw you taking notes over there.

I saw you taking notes. I have— I love my Remarkable, and I just take notes. When people say things that I like, I notate it.

I'm glad you have that at your side at all times. That's good. Uh, all right, well, there's also another way to raise money for more deals, right? And Zeno, I think you should talk about this because, uh, there's another way to raise money for funding, or if you run out of money for funding acquisitions, what's another strategy that, uh, we haven't talked about yet for raising capital in your land business?

Like the layup there, you must be talking about wholesale. Um, yeah, yeah, I, I think a healthy land business does— buys wholesale, sells wholesale. It just depends on the property and the timing, right? Um, retail, land arbitrage, I think you're doing it all if you're at a high level, right? And, um, I really do think that that's a great way to create some, um, you know, I talk to people all the time that are starting out and it's like, you know, they've got a few properties and maybe they run out of capital. I'm like, I look what they have, I'm like, you know, you could just wholesale what you have and you'll, you'll make a few thousand dollars, but you just made a few thousand dollars and, and you learned how to land invest and you can go buy more and recapitalize and and just celebrate with a nice quick win. So I think it has a place. I love it because it's how I paid my debt. You know, I always tell the story, I met Mark, I was $50 grand in debt, and wholesaling took me out of that debt inside of a year. It was just crazy. I mean, and that's what, like, $400 or $500 properties that I would double my money, sometimes more, sometimes less. I didn't care because nobody paid me that hourly rate. It didn't really matter. I looked at my time and what, how much was in there, and, and what I was receiving. It was like, this is crazy. So, um, I think wholesale is a great option. Basically, you buy a property and somebody will buy it from you that has an investor that wants, you know, another land investor will buy from you, that is. And they'll pay a little more because their mailing cost isn't associated with it. It's a quick, easy deal for them. You've done the due diligence and the hard work. So I think it's a great alternative to another way to create some capital.

John, what do you think? I think mathing— if we math it, the maths— I think, I think, I think selling the note is a better deal to raise capital than wholesaling. Am I wrong?

No, I think— I mean, selling the note, you will make more. So the only, the only thing, um, is that you give up obviously a sale, you know, which takes, which takes some time and effort to get.

Yeah, I think timing.

Yeah, but you do make more off of— I mean, if you think about it, so yeah, let's math it. So we buy a property at 25 cents on the dollar and then we sell it on terms for more than a dollar on the dollar.

Let me—

let's say we bought it for $2,500.

I'm gonna ruin your model.

I'm gonna plug this in. Um, all right, I'm gonna plug this into my special handy-dandy proprietary price guide.

I thought you were doing it on paper. I was like, this is impressive.

Yeah.

Okay, so I would sell that for—

all right.

Okay, I'm gonna play the Jeopardy music here in a second.

Yeah, so I would sell that for $183 a month for 72 months.

Okay, okay.

So, and with a, uh, a down payment of $349. Okay, $250 doc fee. Okay, so what that means is that, uh, I've taken— okay, I don't even know if I can keep track of this.

$500 so far in for $189 a month.

So I'm $599 in for the down payment and doc fee, $183 a month for 72 months. Yeah, which means that the promissory note, or the, the balance on that is going to be $13,176.

Yeah.

Okay, let's say I get, uh, are we going to sell it right away? Are we going to take some payments?

You get 3 payments.

3 payments. It's got to be 3 payments. It's got to be seasoned.

So I get 3 payments. So that's another $549. So right now, I'm at $1,000. Right, so I'm at $5,000. So that's $1,148 is how much money I've received on that for my $2,500 investment.

I like—

this is so complicated. Okay, and then have 69 months remaining at $183 a month. So the remaining promissory note is $12,627. And I say, hey, Mark J. Podolsky, I need some capital. Would you like to buy this note? And he says, absolutely, I do. And so we take that $12,627 that's remaining for the 69 months. We divide that by 2, and Mark J. Podolsky gives me a check for $6,313.50. When we add that to my $1,148, we get $7,461.50. Did I math it?

It's pretty good.

The only thing I would say is the why the wholesale could trump it. The only reason that it is more money, I 100% agree.

Mike, is that—

I'm gonna, I'm gonna counter it. It's not gonna trump it.

It's gonna trump it. Watch. You ready? I think this is gonna trump it because when I was doing it, I was buying in areas where I could buy properties in bulk. I would buy 10 at a time, 20 at a time, and I could sell them wholesale all in one shot. How long would it take me to sell those and then sell the note? That's why I like the wholesale. In certain circumstances, but quick cash with a lot more properties moving at one time.

Okay, the velocity of money only works if you do that in a— for a full 12 months in a year, right? Then we have to math it. But, but the way John's doing it, doing terms, he's got a bigger buyer pool. Your buyer pool is very small now because how many people are going to buy cash like that. You're leaving so much money on the table in order to give that quick nickel, where John is getting the 7.5 cents and it's still quicker.

I see it.

As quick as the nickel.

I see it.

7.5 cents, he's not getting the dime.

I see it, but I, I have buyers that love it because I give them such a good price. I can move 10, 20, 30, 40. I would buy 50.

No, to your point, no, if you're getting— no, to your point, if you're getting velocity like that Yes, we have to do the math.

It just depends. Not all areas will fit that way. You have to go to a— to do what I'm talking about, you have to go to an area— we're talking acquisition prices of like $400 or $500, right? Because you're not going to buy these bigger properties in bulk. When you run into people with bulk properties, you're talking like New Mexico areas, Arizona areas, you're talking low. So yeah, it's really a small numbers play, but in a bulk— in a bulk sale, so it can get me some quick cash like at one time. But you— I understand.

No, absolutely. And to your point, if you're looking at your hourly rate, nothing wrong with it, right? I'm just saying that if we're going to get strictly rational with it— yes, not reasonable. What you're doing is very reasonable. We're going to be strictly rational.

That's better.

Well, you actually bring up a good point that I was going to say is an early fear that people have, and it's actually going to strengthen your argument. It's like Because I know in the beginning I would, and I've seen people do it, I would get a property, advertise a little bit when I first started, and I get all nervous it's not going to sell, and I wholesale it because I just didn't have the experience yet to know that it's going to sell. I get a little gun-shy and I quickly offload it. And then all of a sudden, lo and behold, the next day, 3, 4 days later, people are like, hey, is it available? I got all these people want to buy it. I'm like, I already wholesaled it, it's gone. Because some— that's another fear, that it's not going to sell. And so you try to off it real quick, right? I'll give it away when realizing they all do sell. So I think you're tapping into, uh, and I'm strengthening your argument. That's a real point. I had written that down to talk about as a Lean Therapy thing.

I think, I think it's a great point, Scott. What do you think?

No, I mean, it's all good. I mean, either way, either way, we're making a really nice return on our initial—

it's a good problem to have either way.

You got a good problem.

It's like, do I make this much or do I make this much? But either way, you're making money.

Nobody went broke making a profit.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, we all come across— the longer you do it, if you're consistent with your mailings, you're gonna come across bulk deals, right? And it may make sense to— it may make sense to wholesale half of them right away. Also, half right away, make your money back right away, and then sell the rest retail terms, and then sell the note. Right.

So it just depends on the business and what the business needs at that point in time.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I agree. I'm not going to argue that.

Oh, you— I think I did— I hear 3 concurs all at once, but you all said I agree.

I mean, it's— oh, I concur.

I think we covered the Morocco guy tonight, not me. No ice.

Scott's rocking on the keyboard.

Uh, well, I think that was a really great, uh, answer to, uh, the funding. That was a very great little segment there on the funding.

What's that?

That's a mathlete.

Yeah, John is a mathlete.

That's where my, uh, lies.

All right, very good. Uh, Chris has a comment. Uh, Touching on what Mark, uh, you know, spoke about earlier, people are always interested in talking to someone who's going to hand them money. Exactly right. It's just a matter of bringing yourself to have that conversation with those people, right? Which, which can be an intimidating thing sometimes. I think we should talk about this now because this is something a lot of people struggle with. This is from Rick Colcock. Rick struggles with closing the deal. So I think there's a lot of reasons for this. I think we might need to diagnose it, um, but I think, you know, I think most people, um, they close deals more successfully on the phone. So I'd say, Rick, are you on the phone with these people, right? Because, uh, you're gonna, uh, you're gonna have nice conversations with these folks. You're gonna help them, uh, figure out, you know, is the property meant for them. And you're going to bring them down this line of, you know, uh, questions helping them decide and helping you decide if the property is right for them. And if it is, um, you know, we need to ask them, hey, so Mr. Seller or Mr. Buyer, uh, great talk. I feel like the property's a really good fit for you. Where do you want to go from here, right? Ask some questions. Ask some questions at the end of the conversation. To feel them out. And they may bring up objections. They may say, oh, I need to think about it, right? Oh, I don't know, it's a little bit too much money. Oh, I don't know, I gotta talk to my wife. There's all these things, Rick, that come up as objections that we need to— that we need to focus— that we need to kind of reframe and refocus. Um, so, so those objections need to be handled on the call. And then also I think once the objections are handled, something that I struggled with initially is just asking for the sale, right? When you're on the phone, ask for the sale. And, you know, Mark, you brought this up years ago to us. Um, you learned it from, uh, or we got it, we got it from, uh, Alex Formosi, I think, initially. But would you be opposed to reserving the property today?

Right, right.

Go for the no.

Go for the no.

Would you object to putting down $500 today?

Right?

No. Yeah.

Yeah. That's how I get to go to Indian food with Lainey. Would you object to Indian food tonight? No. Fantastic.

Man, it is not.

It is. She hates Indian.

And yet we go.

I know how to close.

Yes, you do. Yes, you do. But But Rick, I'd be curious to learn more. And obviously, I mean, you're, you know, Rick, you're in coaching. So this is definitely a conversation to have with your coach. You know, come, come to boot camp this weekend. There's bound to be some good tidbits that you pick up as well on, on getting the close. Mike, Mike, do you have any suggestions that we haven't talked about here?

You're just seeking for alignment, right? Is this property going to fit their needs? And if you tell them that, If you're upfront with them and say, listen, let me— before we even— I just need to make sure this is the right property for you. Can I just ask you a few questions? And then, and then you're like, oh, okay. And then after you're done, say, well, based on everything you're telling me, this looks to be exactly the property you're looking for because of A, because of B, because of C, because of D. Would you agree? Yeah. Great. Would you like to know how easy it would be to own? Sure. Okay, let me show you. And it's just like, once you get alignment and you're sitting— what do they say, that market sitting on their side of the table, so to speak? Would you say it that way?

Yeah, it's almost like you're an assistant buyer. Like, if I were talking to John, like, John, how much do you want to put down? That would be my closing line, right? Rick says, how much do you want to put down? And John's like, well, you know, I don't know. Well, now Like, I'm gonna be the assistant buyer. Like, John, tell— let's talk. Like, what, what about the property is holding you back? Like, let's talk about it. I don't know, maybe it's not right for you. Like, what are you planning to do there? He's like, oh, I got 8 kids and, uh, you know, we're, we're gonna homeschool them out 30 miles from town and have them, you know, live on the land. I'm like, that's a great idea, but I don't think it's going to be safe out there. There's, you know, you're not gonna get services, you know. So no, let's not do that, buddy. But I might have something else. I don't have anything for you, but I'll, I'll put you on my buyers list. And when I do, that's cool, right? I'm, I'm doing what's best for John, what's— yeah, family. I'm just buying, I'm helping him, guiding him.

Yeah, talk about a way to build trust.

Yeah, it builds a lot of trust. Like, I always found I would give people nos intentionally, um, as people were talking to me about my properties, you know. I would know maybe from the zoning or, you know, something like that, something that you couldn't do on the property. And I would just tell them, I'd be like, so just so you know, you can't do this on the property, so if that's what you're looking to do, it's probably not a good fit. But what are you, you know—

and just be—

just instead of just going for the jugular, you know, you're actually being forthcoming about this property, and that helped establish trust a lot.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, yeah, I mean, I feel like, I feel like the four of us are always thinking not necessarily about that sale but that relationship. And all of their relationships. And how are we going to show up for that relationship? Well, you, you want to be helpful and guide them and help them, and then ask, hey, who else can I help in your network?

Yeah, yeah, that's such a good point. I feel like, you know, the truth is you tell them, you know, many people that buy from us buy over and over again because, you know, they can build portfolio. So this isn't about one deal with you and me. This is about me building a relationship. I need to make sure this is going to fit you. Is it okay if we make sure that's the right— oh yeah, you know, so you're not looking just to sell them something, you're looking to help them and build a relationship. That is so true. So true.

Critical.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So Rick, hopefully that was helpful. You know, Rick, I think if, uh, you come to boot camp this weekend, there might be a little boot camp magic. There always is. That's right. If, if Rick sold the property at boot camp, you, you just wait. I got something for you guys. Uh, all right, I'm coming to you again, Mark, for— with, with this one. Okay, this is from Jana Donovan. So Jana's had some great success in flight school. She's bought a number of properties. She's a lot of money invested in the properties. Okay. So she's sitting on kind of a nice little land portfolio, but I feel like she's maybe feeling a little bit of a pinch, like, okay, now I need to start bringing in cash. Okay. So what advice— she's got a comment here. She's praying for term sales so she can get cash to pave her expense runway, holding out for retail sales to keep proving the concept to herself. Mike's owner, you're very inspiring to her. A little shout out for Mike. But, but Mark, this happens a lot, right? People 4 or 5, 6 months into the business, they've bought a lot of property, they maybe haven't had a lot of sales, maybe they feel like they're bleeding cash. But in my opinion, they're not bleeding cash because they're buying these properties at a discount. And what a lot of people forget is that they're sitting on a very valuable portfolio of land and they're just parking their money there for a little while before they make the assets perform. But What are some ways to pave the expense runway for people who are feeling the, the squeeze?

Yeah, yeah. First of all, dude, buddy, I love what you just said. It's— you're basically transferring cash, which is trash, right? Why is it trash? Because the government keeps printing more of it. So there's this little thing called inflation that is eating the value of that cash. But there's something that has a fixed amount of, they're not making any more of, and it's land. So you're transferring this, like, this, this, this, this, what is it, value of money, right? That's actually weakening to something that's stronger. So, Gianna, congratulations. You're wealthy now. So you've just transferred wealth into the right asset class because it's going to go up in value. And so if you can now emotionally— because now here's— I get to the therapy part— just sort of sit with a strategy that's going to be good for Gianna and her business, you have lots of options. You can wholesale, you can land on, you can, you could sell it for retail on easy terms, get 3 payments, sell the note. I don't know your specific situation, but you have lots of options there for sure. And so you've already made your money on the buy, and so now it's just a matter of time. And Scott Tiede and I used to always joke about this— whenever we needed money in our business. It was the weirdest thing. We would just get a weird out-of-the-blue cash sale where someone would just pay off their note. So, John, you just haven't been in it long enough to get into that sort of magical spot. But yeah, you're, you're in a great situation. There's so many people out there that don't even realize that all that cash in the bank keeps going down every day because inflation's eating away at it. And so you've transferred it, and now because you bet on yourself, you went into flight school, you bought assets 25, 30, 35 cents a dollar, you're sitting on what Scott would call an appreciating portfolio. And now you have different strategies to unlock ways to, you know, get the cash out and do that. So as far as expenses are concerned, keep your expenses low. You're a startup, nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, great advice.

I feel like I'm talking a lot, John. You take, take the, take the talking stick from me.

Um, yeah, I think that's I think that's great. And I think the other thing, um, to— when it comes to being in that spot where you're kind of holding out for retail sales, um, don't think of selling a property wholesale as, as something in the, in the loss column, I guess. You know, selling a property wholesale isn't necessarily a bad thing. And I've talked to people sometimes who are waiting for a sale And I tell them, like, sell something wholesale just for the psychological win. Like, let's put something in column and get yourself in a good spot. And, um, and that can be, that can be really helpful. And I think the other thing is something that can be tempting to people when they are in the spot where they're like, I have these properties, I'm going to stop mailing, right? And I'm just going to market these properties, and then I'll get back into the mailing machine. And if that's ever a temptation, then same thing, like wholesale a property, keep mailing, keep building, keep building the momentum. Remember, the biggest asset that you have is your business, right? You're building the machine. And so if you stop the machine running, that's actually a lot more harmful, right, than not moving the property.

So no, that's, that's all awesome advice. And, you know, I think another thing is I'd be curious to see a show of hands here, right? Like, I think we all started with a little bit of money in this business, and once we saw it working, once we did some deals, once we wanted to buy some more land, like, uh, I drew money from other areas in my life that maybe Worse, you know, money's just kind of sitting there, right? So I took a little home equity, and I took a little from a 401k, and I used family and friends. I mean, I think show of hands on this call, who's done all those things, right? Like, uh, to— and I think that's, that's a matter of like, um, when, when you've been doing this for a little while, you think about growth. Right? How am I going to grow this business? And you need capital to grow the business. And the question is where to find the capital, right? And sometimes it's our own capital, maybe illiquid that we make liquid, or sometimes it's, uh, sometimes other people's money, right? So those are conversations and, uh, that you need to have as you're, as you're growing your own business, I think. Awesome. Well, we're coming up on an hour, but guess who's here? Jeff Storlie's here.

Wow.

And he says he has a question to stump the geeks. So I haven't seen the question, but Jeff, are you there? What's the question, buddy? Be curious to know.

Um, I just want to say thank you for your service.

Yeah, for sure.

Thank you, Jeff.

For sure. Uh, we have some— a bunch of other comments tonight. Our viewers are down a little bit tonight because our Facebook connection is not working, so that's why the energy is just a little less tonight because we have like half the viewers, unfortunately. But we appreciate all of the comments in the chat. Uh, Don Thrasher, fins to the left, fins to the right.

Is that a sport reference?

I think it was Mark J. Podolsky.

Ah, yes, yes. I'm very slow on the sport references, that's why I asked.

Oh, here we go. How big of a computer screen does Scott have that he doesn't need to have his old man glasses on? That's funny, Jeff. Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, he was making fun of me the other day, Mark, because I have my readers on my— I usually have my readers on my t-shirt at all times because I can't go anywhere without them. That's how it is. So Mark and Mike, uh, probably have normal size screens. John is in his prime and doesn't need glasses yet. I mean, he's got it, he's got it right.

He's— yeah, he really does.

Yeah, I mean, contacts, so there you go.

Oh man, why did I think Jeff Storely's comment was gonna be serious? This question's gonna be serious. I don't know, I was wrong. Love you, Jeff.

You know, if we're going to talk about screens for a second, I did get the Apple Display and it is phenomenal.

I have the Apple Display as well.

It is great, isn't it? It just works. I used to have the LGs and they'd flicker and I couldn't run two at the time. This is so good. Yeah, it's so good.

Do you have one or two, Mark?

I have two.

Oh yeah, nice.

Yeah, I have one now and, uh, maybe next year for next year's equipment I'll get a second. The Apple Studio.

The Apple Studio Display is fantastic.

Although I do have to say the camera is horrible.

The camera's not great. I don't use that camera. I use the Mac camera.

But so this is part of the left.

Use what camera, Mark? On the—

on my MacBook Air.

Oh, because your MacBook connects to the—

yeah, so I have 3 screens. I have one here, one here, and then what I'm looking at you Gotcha. On the laptop.

So what size is the screen you have? This Apple Studio, what size is it?

Uh, 27 inches. 27 inches.

I think it's just one size.

Yeah, I have a 43-inch.

You have a 43-incher?

I do.

Wow.

Wow.

Screen directly in front of my face.

Way back from it though. You can't be on top of that.

Yeah, it's great.

I am so jealous. Everybody's screen— I, I'm really feeling left out. I'm gonna have to do something about that.

Time for an upgrade, bud.

I'm doing a whole studio upgrade. That's it.

I mean, for as much time as we spend in front of our computers, it is a good investment.

We deserve to be comfortable.

For sure it is. That is actually a good point. Like, there were points in my land investing business where I got a new computer and I was like, oh my goodness, I've just saved myself so much time. Because if you've got an old slow computer, you know, like you bump that up and it really does make a big difference.

Oh yeah, 100%. Awesome.

Well, everybody, this was fun. Um, Rick says if he has a good year, he can buy the Apple Studio stand. Then save up for the monitor. That's awesome, because, because the stand is what, like $300 or something? Maybe not that much, but, um, Mark, do you have the stand too?

That—

yeah, of course, of course, of course he does. Of course.

What do you mean, it doesn't just go on your desk? I'm so confused.

No, so you don't have to understand, but I—

it's—

you can get one that swivels up and down.

Mine's on my desk and it tilts, but it doesn't go up and down. I don't have the stand for the Apple Studio, but I have a standing desk, so that kind of makes up for it. I'm gonna get a treadmill and start walking like Mark used to walk. Remember when he used to do this on every call for like an hour?

Adverse health effects, Mark? Was there something that hurt your knees?

What was it? Yeah, I mean, as I aged you know, it's a lot of miles, you know, my knees started— I get real tired. Yeah, I mean, were you doing—

how many miles a day were you doing when you were into that? Was quite a bit.

I mean, I was walking all day, I was on my feet all day, and then all of a sudden I'm like, wait a second, I'm really tired. And then I think it was probably you that was like, Mark, why don't you sit down? Oh, this feels so comfortable.

You know, I gotta give a shout— can I give a shout out real quick to my buddy? So he, he watches this sometimes. My buddy Pete. My buddy Pete, he walked 10 miles a day last year for the entire year.

Wow.

Wow.

10 miles. Can you imagine walking 10 miles a day? 3,600 50 miles or no, whatever it was. 365 times 10. Yeah, 3,650 miles he walked.

How many miles across the country? Who knows that?

John must know about that. Isn't about that, John? 3,000? 3,500?

Uh, 3,500 what again?

The crossing miles across the country.

Oh, I don't know.

Did we talk about what Jessica Tran did? No, no. So Jessica did the 12-hour walk, which I highly recommend, by the way, for everybody.

I have the book on my list to read.

Yes, yes, she did it. Oh, Mike, you'd love it. So the rule is you get up early, you pack a lunch, you just can't be on your phone, you can't be on your AirPods, you can't talk to anybody, you just walk for 12 hours. Now you can stop for sure you can stop. And you don't have to peat it and just go for 10 miles straight, but you can, you can walk and you can stop and get some food or drink or whatever. We just don't talk to anybody. You're just in your thoughts for 12 hours and you see what comes up. It's, it's a, it's sort of like a spiritual type of exercise. Like, people, you know, do this on the, uh, I forget the name of it. It's in Spain, that big long—

oh, the one that did the Martin Sheen did the movie about a son who would—

yeah, the son, the son. Yeah, Santi. Yeah, the Santi whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's famous. Yes. So it would be like in one day, like 8 AM to 8 PM, just go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We should all do it on the same day and compare.

That would be amazing.

If you— we could— if we would—

honestly, if we would do it on the same day, I'm down. I would— I would clear out my schedule. Okay.

And then you don't have to walk fast, you just have to walk.

No, no, it's just— just walk.

You just walk.

And you can take breaks. You just can't— the whole thing is you don't want any outside stimulation. Absolutely. No talking. No, you're just in your own head.

It's a major—

wait, can Mike bring his notebook though?

Yeah, you can take notes for sure.

Yeah, but people having like major epiphanies, like life discoveries.

Yes. Yeah, they find themselves on the walk.

Okay, well, we gotta wait for the good weather.

Come out here, it's beautiful. It's like—

I know you don't have to, Mark, but we can all start at the same spot and just walk, walk 6 hours out, 6 hours back. Yeah, it'd be fun.

I'd be fun to see John give me like the high school nod.

Uh, all right, let's, let's all do the 12-hour walk this year. I'm in.

All right, I'm in.

Okay, I'm gonna need some Vaseline though because that's a lot of walking. I mean, what, Mike? Mike, for chafing.

I know, I know, I know. It's— listen, this is Just curious. I have— I have—

is that inappropriate?

I'm probably gonna have, um, I have— what do you call that? I'm getting old. I have the— what's the foot thing?

Plantar fasciitis.

That could be horrible for 12 hours.

I got—

is it better, Dr. Scholl's or something? It's better right now, but I wouldn't want that to come back, so I better get some sort of, uh, really good walking shoes.

I know a good taping procedure for that. We'll say—

yeah, looks like my walks in Wisconsin.

Yeah, before, before we go and do the orthopedic surgery and get the the knee gel, you know, shot in my knee. Don't laugh, John, for that. It's coming for you too.

That's great. I'm just gonna do the whole thing on my hands.

It'll be great.

All right, everybody.

Well, wait, Scott, get like a call to action for anybody who's like, wants to learn more.

Yeah, that's a good idea, isn't it? Let's do it. Let's do a call to action. So So for those who just ran into us tonight randomly, or for those who've been watching a while and you're contemplating land investing, go to thelandgeek.com/training and you can schedule a call with myself, Mike, or John, and we'd be happy to have a chat with you about land investing.

Practice what we preach. This is just like when selling land. We're not going to assume it's a good fit for you. It's all about finding out if we're in alignment, what your goals are. Sometimes it's a great fit, sometimes it's not. But let's— we can uncover that together based on what you're trying to accomplish. So it's really just meant to help you.

Awesome.

Well, next week, maybe we'll have— maybe we'll have a boot camp review. That might be fun. At least part of the show, right? Talk about all of the fun things we learned at boot camp this weekend, this Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Look forward to seeing everybody there, uh, and, uh, thanks for everybody for, for attending tonight and bringing your energy and your comments and your questions. It was fun. All right, good night everybody. We'll talk to you next week.

Take care.

Good night.