Are The Land Geeks Buying Land Outside of the United States?

Hey, it's Mark Podolski at the Land Geek. Your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's roundtable, we have almost all the usual suspects. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are things?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm great. I'm great. I've got shingles, so that's fun. Yeah, that's other than that. And I've just, you know, Scott Bossman's giving that disapproving, you know, you shouldn't say that. HIPAA look. But that's okay. It's my own privacy.

You self disclose. Self disclosed that.

I self disclosed it.

It's not like sharing. You're not sharing others health information. We were never here, would never do that.

Which, by the way, I've done. I admit it. And I feel, you know, for sure. Speaking of dude, buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman. Good to see you.

Good to see you, Mark.

We got the Zen master. Breathe in the mailing. Breathe out the marketing. Mike Zano. Mike, how are things?

Doing great.

Hopefully I sound okay to you all today. Some microphone adjustments.

Yeah, you're okay. We've got Taria putting in the rep terrace. Taria, how are you?

I'm doing well. I would ask how you're doing, but you have shingles, so.

Yeah, I'm hanging in there. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. It could be worse. And last but not least, Tate, I love it when you call me Big Papa Litchfield. You know what would be great, Tate? Is if I could just look over your shoulder and watch you work. Go to waynegeek.com lots. Look over Tate's shoulder. It's fun. Tate, hard things.

Things are good. Things are really good. Thanks for having me.

Yeah. So we've got a. We're going to do a quick hit roundtable question. So the first one is, does anyone buy land outside of the United States? Perhaps Costa Rica. I've heard about Costa Rican land. Perhaps Belize. Oceanfront land in Belize. Let's start with the technician Eric Peterson. How about you?

I have not purchased land outside of the U.S. have you thought about buying.

Land outside the U.S. has it ever even come into your, I mean, thought process?

I guess it sounds like a cool idea, right? But I think there's so much land in the US And I know how to do that and I know how.

To do it well.

So I don't know, like, I just don't have a desire to go outside of the country while you know, if you think about it, yeah, it'd be cool to, you know, buy and sell property in Costa Rica or somewhere else, but there's, there's a whole nother learning curve and you have to understand all the local laws and, you know, the country and everything else. So I haven't done it. I don't currently have plans to do it, but I'm sure it's possible.

Yeah, it's, it's possible. I mean, but I think you make a really good point. You know who I think would be argumentative about this? Just because I know how he is. He loves to just play devil's advocate. The Zen master, Mike Zeno.

Devil's advocate.

Mike, I could just see you and Laura, you know, spinning that globe, man. Let's buy land here. Because we can, we did, we did.

Have an opportunity, Mark. We met somebody with a whole bunch.

Of land in Mexico and we were.

Talking about it, but it just, it was layer upon layer of just complexity, it seemed right down to the point.

Where if you were going to use.

It, you, you know, he knew the local tribe that had jurisdiction over it.

And he knew them well.

And it was like, it just seemed so multi layered and risky. I'm sure there's a lot of money.

To be made there.

I'm sure that if you had the, the knowledge, I think you'd have to have a nice, a solid legal team and people that really knew international law.

And all this stuff.

So just, I'm sure this might be made there. But I always think of our business.

As the low lying fruit. The easy land deals, the easy purchases.

Where we can, you know, record it online and own it within an hour and on simply file. So yeah, opted against that. And like Eric said, I am not disagreeing with Eric, I agree with Eric. There's a overabundance of land right here in the usa. Low lying fruit.

The low lying fruit, dude. Buddy. Nicap OG Scott Bossman. You ever buy land outside the us you and Aaron ever go out one of those cold winter nights and be like, wouldn't it be great to have land in some tropical area? Oh, I don't know.

Arizona, Guatemala.

Not Arizona, Tropical Florida. But inexpensive beachfront property is kind of what I'm thinking.

Yeah, I understand. I mean, it's an appealing thought. Not really my cup of tea because I just want to continue doing what's working for us and, you know, maybe we'll just get to the point where we can Airbnb some different beachfront property here, there and everywhere once the Kids.

Are out of the house, and we'll.

Enjoy the geography of those places. But, I mean, are those areas great investments? Probably. Like Mike said, though, there. There are so many layers to it that I would want to be sure of before I went into something like that. I think it would be helpful if I. You know, there may be some people in our community, you know, maybe there's some bilingual people, something like that, who could negotiate those waters with more confidence, but that's not me. And at this point in time, anyway, now I'm across an opportunity. I might listen to it. I might, you know, contemplate whether or not it's a good thing. But I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I've never done it. I'm gonna stick. Stick to doing what I'm doing and. And stick with what's working.

Okay, so that's three no's. I can just imagine Sharia putting in the reps. Harris, you know, just daydreaming with Landon after a hard workout and just, you know, be like, you know what? Wouldn't it be great to have some beautiful land in Australia? Right?

We have thought about buying land in another country, but for personal use. We've never looked at it from the standpoint of buying to sell as part of our system and even buying it for personal use. There was a lot of red tape. The locals were a little skeptical. We're coming in. We're not local. Why do you want it? Was too much. And that was just buying it for personal use. So I can't imagine the bureaucracy of trying to get it and then turn around and sell it. So, no, we've never looked into it.

Yeah, that's four nos. I mean, Tate's a world traveler, so I have a feeling he's going to buck the trend here and be like, oh, by the way, I own land in this province in China. I just haven't told anybody.

My opinion on the matter is invest in America and travel the world with profits. That's kind of how I view it. You know, invest here, stateside, there's fewer barriers to jump through. And then use your profits to go play. And that's the approach I take. I mean, I don't want to have to deal with that. And we have a good system set up in the US Right now for our team and for buying land stateside. And I'm not messing with it. I mean, I don't need to add extra layers of complexity. I'm not chasing deals. I love the beach. I love the ocean. But I'm happy working where I am and vacationing in those places. Personally, I think when I look at the businesses that I've created, the thing that I'm most proud of is the fact that they're boring, they're very predictable. And the minute I start adding, you know, language barriers and other things that might need to happen to the mix, we're not as profitable, we're not as productive, and it's harder to outsource. So I'm staying away from it, personally.

Yeah, I feel like the question is sort of like one of those scarcity mindset questions, like there's billions of acres of land available in the United States. Right. We trust our. Well, most of us trust the government. They're not going to just take the land away from us. Right. I mean, we've got a good history of this. Most other countries don't, especially when foreigners own land. Why, why would you take the economic risk, the currency risk, the government risk, the legal risks when you've got such a big market here? So it's all no's all around. But let's go to the next question, which is have you bought from a seller that lives outside the country? Eric Peterson.

I think it's been a while, but I think we did one time. And you know, it's when we scrub our list, we typically remove international addresses. Sometimes they slip through by accident or sometimes someone's moved out of the country and a relative or friend forwards the mail and they get it in Japan or wherever they might live. And in those cases, if those deals do come back to us. Yeah, I mean, we can buy from a seller who is overseas.

That's.

It's not necessarily an issue. The hardest thing is that they've got to be able to notarize the documents. And typically that means either they're going to have to do it online, if that's allowable, or they're going to have to find a US Embassy and go there to notarize the documents. Assuming they can accomplish that. It's really no different than doing a deal with, you know, someone in the country.

Okay. But for your coaching clients, do you recommend they mail internationally?

No, we don't.

Okay. Zen Master, just buy. Just can Canada.

Yeah.

Okay, so you mailed a Canada.

Yeah, probably because I didn't scrub them out. I typically would scrub out of US Owners, but they were in there and they responded and we bought. So other than that, no, I haven't bought for many other people living in the other countries, but I. Yeah. So just Canada and you Know, just haven't had a need to do that.

Okay. Dude, Buddy, Nightcap. OG Scott Bossman.

Wait.

Scott, you're on mute.

Sorry about that. I bought from two sellers in Canada. One was actually a fellow land geek who was selling wholesale and the other one I did not mail to the list. Back when I first started, I was just kind of on Craigslist shopping for land or looking at what people had for sale. And I saw that this guy had a really, what I thought was a steal and I emailed him and he happened to be from Canada and we took care of the deal quite easily. Wasn't an issue really. He was able to find a notary and he had done some other real estate transactions in the past and self closed those deals. So if I had any questions, he was a good resource for me. But no, we don't mail to international buyers. And I think the longer you're in this business, you may come across opportunities like that. And I would say definitely don't pass on those opportunities because with a little bit of research I think you could, you could definitely find a good deal.

Okay, so. So you don't mind mailing internationally?

No, I don't mail internationally, but I, if I come across an opportunity, I'm not going to.

You wouldn't pass.

Rule that out.

Okay. Taria, how about you?

No, we definitely don't mail internationally. We ended up, I think, same situation as Eric, where someone must have flown, forwarded our mail to someone internationally and they reached out and we started looking into it, but they ended up not wanting to sell in the end. But we were going to do it. I mean, it was pretty straightforward outside of, you know, the notary. We thought, sure, why not? But no, we haven't as of today.

Okay, but you don't look for it. You're not mailing.

No, we don't mail overseas.

Okay. So far it's been a bunch of no's for the most part on this whole international thing. But maybe Tate again is, you know, because he speaks so many different languages.

We don't target properties where the owners live outside of the United States. But I bought from plenty of people who targeted me or sent me a message or called us and said, hey, I'm interested in selling my property. I've done that a number of times. I do it again, you're just going to want to consult with somebody who knows the ins and outs of what might be required in those countries. A notary is obviously the key to all of this. And depending on where the seller lives will determine how easy it is to compete the transaction. If they're going to have to fly somewhere to get a notary stamp, that's going to most likely kill the deal. But, you know, I've done it. And yeah, it was a profitable move, but just take a little extra work. Again, the reason we don't target people who live overseas is it adds an extra layer of complexity. We are keeping it simple over here. We don't need to do that. There's plenty of. Plenty of other properties where the residents live in the United States and they're happy to sell. So I'll do it. But it's not something we search or seek out.

You know what money loves?

Speed.

Speed. Speed. On Valentine's Day, money sends speed a card because it loves it so much. Final question, final question. Does anyone sell land to international buyers? Technician Eric Peterson.

We have not. We've definitely talked to some, some potential buyers from overseas, but we've never closed a deal with an international buyer.

All right. Zen Master. One time. One time.

One time. And actually that one time, mark was a wholesale deal and he ended up not liking it. And I wanted the refund to take it back. But now that I'm thinking of it, that was a disaster because it was in another country and for him to get it notarized, it was just. It was just not. It was crazy. So actually that would change my answer to the prior question that I did buy it technically outside the Canada or United States. But just that one take back was so, so much of a headache. I would never go through that again.

Okay. Jude, buddy, Scott, Bossman.

One deal in the last six years we sold to somebody outside the US In Mexico. Very straightforward.

But that was it.

That was it. Terea.

Yep. We have two people in the UK and I think the biggest thing was getting an American based checking account for actum because they would not withdraw against an international account. So that was the only kind of nuance. But other than that, it was very straightforward.

Okay, fantastic. Yeah. Which accent do you like better? Tria. British, Australian or South African?

South African.

South African. Okay.

With Australian at a close second.

With Australian a close second. Yeah. It's fun. It's funny because, you know, when Americans travel overseas, like, no one's ever, like, we just want to hear you guys keep talking. Like whenever I talk to somebody who's British or Australian or South African, like, just keep talking. It doesn't even matter what you say. I just like the sound of it. And they sound smarter, like, right?

Yeah. Even bad news, like they can give you horrible news, and you're like, oh, okay. Sounds better. Goes over better.

Am I the only one who's like this, Tate?

No, I mean, the accents definitely are nice. I was thinking. I got an idea. If you ever have to deliver somebody bad news, we should find somebody who we can rent their time, you know, somebody from South Africa, and be like, hey, I need to call Mike Zaino, let him know he's fired. But do it in a way.

Bad example.

You know, he's okay with it. I know he's gonna be upset with me, but just let him know, hey, you're fired.

Okay?

And let him do it with love. You know, I think that. I think we are. We're onto something. Team Tate sending some liberal messages on the round table.

I don't understand.

I'm a little anxious now.

Okay, I'll tell you, I was watching the third season of Masters of None, and I won't spoil it for you, but there's a scene where someone does have to give a character really bad news, and she does it in a Jamaican accent, and it is so comforting. I'm like, I'll tell you what, that's the way to go. Yeah, that was for sure the way to go. So that could be a little side business. How to deliver bad news.

I like it. I mean. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm a buyer. Have you sold land to international buyers?

Yeah, we've sold land to a number of different people in different countries, I guess, you know, Mexico, the UK sold some properties to the Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and places like that. Straightforward. It's pretty much the same thing. So, you know, they'll tell you how they want to take ownership. Traditionally, it's. What I've seen is it's normally under a corporation or an llc, and you write up the deed, transfer the property, obviously get paid beforehand, and all sales are final.

All right, well, I think this is a really good roundtable podcast. Not a lot of depth to it because none of us really market or mail to. Yeah, we just like our massive market, and we just keep it simple. There's nothing wrong with being ambitiously lazy. Right? Like, keep it simple for sure. But we're at that point in the podcast where we get to go to Taria, putting in the reps, Harris, and ask her for her tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the Art of Passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. However, before we get to Ria's tip of the week, I'd Be remiss if I didn't properly introduce our sponsor this week, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Go up that mountain of land investing with Scott Todd. He's done it thousands of times, quickly, safely, and efficiently. And the best part is it ain't gonna cost you nothing. That tuition. You're gonna make it back 180 days or less, guaranteed. Just show us that you're working the recipe. Schedule a call with dude Buddy Nightcap, OG Scott Bossman or the zen master, Mike zano. Go to thelandgeek.com training schedule that call. I promise you, you will be thankful for it. All right, Terea, what is your tip of the week?

So my tip of the week is actually something that I have sticky notes in my bathroom, right? And so this is a sticky note that I have, and it says, take risk. Ask big questions. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. If you don't make mistakes, you're not reaching far enough. And it's something that I also try and convey to a lot of my coaching clients because they're kind of just getting started. And their big thing is, I don't want to mess up. I don't want to make a mistake. I don't know. I'm afraid to market. What if I do it wrong? You know, I'm afraid make mistakes. I'd rather be make mistakes doing something than sit safe doing nothing. So that's my tip.

I love that tip. The biggest mistake is not taking action and not learning. Right. I want to write this down. So take risks. Ask big questions. Okay, what's an example of a big question that you've asked yourself lately?

A big question I've asked my. Myself.

Huh?

That is a good question. I don't know. I don't know.

Eric, what's a big question you've asked yourself lately? I feel like that's a really good roundtable podcast is what are the big questions we should ask ourselves? How do we get more time with our friends and family? Or what are the things that we should be eliminating from our lives? What should be on our not to do list? Right. Are some big questions. How do I want people to eulogize me? What are those types of things? Because I got shingles. I got to think about this stuff.

Not gonna die.

Feel like it. Triathlon, You know? But that is a big question. Is okay. If I do die, how have I structured my business so that it can continue going on seamlessly?

That's a big question.

I mean, these Are. I mean, you know, and that's the great thing about this business, is it does give you that time to explore the bigger questions, you know, personally, professionally, spiritually. Right. To do those things. So I can see Tate's thinking, like, what's a big question I'm thinking about? And I hope it's not, should I come to the next week's podcast?

No, I'll be here next week. I don't know. There's some deep questions. I mean, a lot of the thoughts and the. When I'm riding my bike, a lot of times I'm thinking about, is this a task that I should be doing? I mean, more so does it make me money? And if not, do I enjoy it enough to continue to do it? Or if something were to happen to me, what's going to happen? What does that look like for the business, for the family? I think we're set up correctly, but I know there's definitely some holes in it. Right. A lot of those big questions. So I don't know, Mark. It's a. I guess, like you said, there's different angles to that question. Are you looking at. From a business perspective, from a personal perspective, from a spiritual perspective? There's a lot to digest there.

Yeah. I mean, the big question for me this summer is, should I go to Boston and eat raw kibbe with my xeno? It's a big existential question. Eric, you would eat it. Raw kibbe?

I don't know if I would eat it, but you should absolutely go. I don't know if I could get over that.

The raw meat, the garlic will make it better. Don't worry.

I don't know.

I don't know, Mike.

I tell you, I tried it and it was interesting. If you like meat pudding, it's kind of what it's like.

Listen, there's probably a lot of Lebanese people listening right now that don't like their rock kitty being called meat pudding.

Norwegians have lutefisk. That's like fish pudding. I'm Norwegian.

You know what you didn't have, Scott? I think it's called arak. Mark. I might be wrong, but there's a drink that's meant to go with it. It's sort of like black liquor, aniset, and you mix it. So you put it in front of you. It's like equal parts. There's ice water and this anisette liquor, and you got to kind of like blend it together. And that's meant to go with the raw kibbe. So I don't Think you got the full exposure, Scott. I forgot about that. That, with the garlic, adds another layer to it. Probably sterilizes everything.

Probably what it does.

I mean, since we, you know, since it's been an international theme, If I had asked you guys for your favorite international food, what's your favorite international genre of food? And Eric Peterson, barbecue is not international. That is United States.

I don't know. I smoked a Mexican inspired pork butt over the weekend.

Of course you did.

That make it Mexican?

I don't know. No, that makes that taking Mexican food and making it Tennessee because you're smoking it. So. No, the fusion. The fusion. Do you have a favorite genre? Is it Mexican food?

For me, yeah. That's probably one of the family's favorites.

At the moment, I would say.

How about you, Mike?

Probably Lebanese.

Lebanese. Okay. Scott Bossman.

I. I mean, pure Italian food, I love.

Oh, come on.

I mean, it's.

Mike. Are you. That's.

That's American. I like Greek.

I'll give you Greek. I mean, Mike, is Boston really getting, like, authentic Italian food in Onalaska, Wisconsin?

No, but I got it in Boston.

Okay. Okay. You know what? I apologize then. I'm sorry.

No, we went to the north end. Went to the north end.

That's authentic. That's legitimate. Okay. Teriya.

I have a Thai, Indian, and Thai food. Those are my two favorites.

Okay, so you like to sweat when you eat?

Oh, no, I don't need it that hot. But a little kick. But not super duper hot.

Okay.

Like, I had in more than spicy.

Yeah, I had Indian last week, and I said medium spice myself. My kids, we were sweating at medium, and I'm like, what would hot be?

Yeah, it's extremely hot. I live in the Middle east, and our cook was from. I can't remember what part of India, but we couldn't eat her. Like, our nose was running. It was dragon hot, so it can get a lot hotter. Too much.

Wow.

Okay. And Tate, how about you?

I like Thai food a lot. I like Mexican food. I can't go wrong there. And sushi. Sushi is Japanese, obviously, so that would be it for me, but I don't know. I like it all, man. If it looks good, I'll eat it. If it smells good, bring it on. I mean, I'm not that picky. I just don't like kale. I won't do that. I don't do that. No, I. I don't do kale at all. No, I'll eat anything except kale. It's just not. It's not for me.

Will they let you into Lululemon now if they're listening to this?

Probably not. No, No, I don't do kale. Like, I mean, it's. There's a list, a very short list of things that I don't eat, and kale is on the top of it. It's just gross. Gross. It's like rabbit food to me. It is not something that, you know, I need to eat. It's just not for me. I like spinach. Yeah, absolutely. Even my tortoises won't eat. Kid. No. So it's a Lichfield thing. Like, we don't eat that stuff.

Got it, Got it. But you like Thai, so that makes you cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like Thai. I lot. Mark and I, we put the hurt on some Thai food occasionally.

And I tell you know what, speaking of, like, for boot camp in August, we are going to the best Thai restaurant arguably in the United States. It's Anthony Bourdain's favorite place.

Lotus. Lotus of Siam.

Lotus of Siam.

Nope. But, Mark, I was listening. I was listening to the radio and bacchanal. The bacchanal buffet is opening back up, I think, this month now. And during the pandemic, they dumped an insane amount of money into it, and they're going to have themed plates, and it's supposed to be even better than it was pre pandemic. So we're going to need to do that one night again.

All right, I'm in. I mean, it's nice to see that Vegas is coming back. I think the whole world. Is the whole world coming back. I don't. I don't watch the news anymore. I couldn't tell you what's going on in the world. I don't know.

I mean, I just see more airplanes in the sky coming into Vegas every day. So that's a good thing.

The US Is coming back.

I think us is coming back. All right, well, my three favorite genres are going to be Thai, Japanese, and Indian, for sure, so. But Greek is really good, too. I mean, it's hard to. It's. You know, And Lebanese is really good. They're all really good.

Yeah.

I don't know. You know. You know, it's so funny. Is like, no one's like. Like, if this is, like, an international podcast, you would hear it and be like, boy, I love those hamburgers and hot dogs in the United States. We went out the other day to the Wiener Schnitzel. We got fries. It was great. I haven't had heartburn, like, that in years. It was glorious. So. All right. Well, I thought this is a fun podcast. I want to thank the listeners for putting up with our shenanigans and remind them that if you are getting some value of it, do us three favors. Follow us, rate, review the podcast, Send us a screenshot@supporthelandgeek.com we're going to send for free the $97 wholetailing course, how to Double youe Money, 30 days or less. All right. Are we good?

Good.

All right, let's. Let's do this. One, two, three, let's.

Freedom Ring.

Not bad. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income Podcast. Start your journey at www.thelandgeek.com and www.scotttod.net. read and review the podcast and email support at the Land Geek.

Com.

Your screenshot for a free Passive Income launch kit.