Chasing The Deal For A Buyer—Determining When It’s Worth Your While

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and on this week's roundtable, we've got Bear Land Aaron Bearland. Aaron Williams. How are you?

Hey, how's it going, everybody?

Yeah, Bear Land Aaron is in a part of the country that is now currently colder than Antarctica. Congrats on that.

Polar bear.

The polar bear. We've got a little under the weather, but he's still showing up. The technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you?

Well, I'm trying to get better, but. But I'm here and still alive.

It's good, it's good. A lot of chicken soup, hot tea.

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

Awesome. We get the Zen master, and I'm actually wearing his shirt. Breathe in the mailing, Breathe out the marking. The Zen shirt. I feel very centered. Thank you. Mike, how are you doing?

I'm doing well, Doing well. And may I recommend whiskey? Eric?

Can't forget the whiskey.

Speaking of adult beverages, we've got the terrorist hunter, Mini Mimi. How are you?

I'm doing great. Just started snowing. Literally, when you started the podcast. Those snowflakes are like this big.

I've heard rumors of these white things that occur in parts of the country. I've never really experienced it, but I understand it's quite beautiful. So that's great. Speaking of someone who has not witnessed these little white things, we got the big papa Tate. Litchfield Tate, how are you?

I'm warm. I'm warm. It's 67 degrees out today. Going to go for a bike ride after this. I'm healthy. I just am feeling good. I mean, it's a nice January day here in Las Vegas.

You know what? I feel the same way about Phoenix. I might go swimming after this.

Nice. Yeah, that sounds kind of nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Just a quick dip.

Yeah, why not? I mean, if the weather's out, sun's out, guns out, right? Go for it, man.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And last but certainly not least, the professor, the brain, the flight school Sherpa, Scott Todd from Scott todd.net landmodo.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings, postingdomination.com TheLand Geek. Scott Todd. How are you, Mark?

I'm great.

How are you? I too, am warm here in Florida, so I don't know what everybody's complaining about. It will get kind of cold. I mean, like, the high tomorrow is going to be 66, I think.

So bundle up, man. Bundle up. Don't take any chances. Don't take any chances out there.

Yeah, I mean, I will be changing just for the fashion, just because my wife is like, I'm so sick of, you know, you wear. You wear, you know, t shirts all year round like this, like the two months out of the year. You can wear long sleeves. So I try to, just for the fashion, wear long sleeves, but don't really need to. All right, so instead of hazing the east coast and the midwest and their poor weather, let's talk about a very important topic. Scott. Todd, what's the topic for the roundtable discussion this week?

Well, I'm just curious, you know, like, let's say that you're talking to somebody who wants to buy some land, and like, I don't know, you're talking to them and they want to buy, let's say, I don't know, 15 acres from you, and only you have is five. Like, do you. Do you try to match up and try to find out, like, try to find other property for them, like buy it wholesale or something? Or do you just take their number so that maybe you start mailing to 15 acre properties to try to find that match? Or like, what do you do? I mean, we had an interesting sale I want to use to kind of motivate everybody, but I'd love to know what kind of everybody's thought process on that would be. And two part question. Let's say it's not just a county that you're working in, but let's say it's another county. Like, you don't even do anything in the county. What would you do?

Barely.

Aaron, what are your thoughts?

I used to kind of throw them away, but since land moto, I've started doing the thing where I'll look, you know, when somebody contacts me. If I don't have it, I'll tell them, hey, I don't have one exactly like that right now, but some of my colleagues may have something that they'd be willing to sell me. Let me check it out, and, you know, I'll go through Landmoto and see and see if there's anything that we can maybe work with and contact the person if, you know, there's a wholesale price there or maybe if it's just right, I might contact them anyway whether they listed it for wholesale or not. Now, as far as in the county I'm working or not, I would say, like, a lot of times, if that probably happens, it might be in the county I'm working anyway because the Advertisements, but because I do advertise places that aren't necessarily where I'm working, you know, looking for people that are just buying, I would definitely look in those areas. Now, the difference is, is if I find something, I might be a little less inclined to go that route if it's somewhere like, even another state that I'm not working. But if it's somebody that I really have a lot of trust for, then I would probably do it because I know that their due diligence is going to be super solid. I know that, you know, even if it fell apart and I got stuck with it, that they're probably in a pretty good area that I could, you know, I could sell it if I had to, or even wholesale it off for at a zero net, which I never done, but would if I had to. So, yeah, definitely.

All right, Zen master Mike Zano, what are your thoughts?

Well, since I know a lot of people on here looking this. I'm listening to it.

A new.

I'm going to go with a conservative approach. I want to give a little perspective on one side just because I anticipate some. So, because as you grow in this business, your skill set's going to grow, right? And your recognition of what a true buyer is going to grow, right? So I equate this to years ago, 30 years ago, about. I was trying my hand at auto sales. I was horrible, right? So this guy came in and there was this Camaro. And if you sold this Camaro, you get an extra, like, $500 bonus. I'm like, this guy wants to take the Camaro for a ride. We go out, he's bebopping around, comes back, and he puts some ridiculous offering. I go to the manager. He's like, looks over, he goes, that guy's in here every week test driving that thing. I'm like, he's not gonna buy it. He just comes in and takes advantage of the new sales guy. So, point being, if I'm not really good at this business and I'm not really new and I'm still. I'm new and I'm still figuring it out, I don't think that I would advise someone in the beginning to put a whole lot of effort into someone saying, well, geez, I'm working in Colorado and somebody wants something in Florida, well, let me go get that for you. Because you go through a lot of work with no guaranteed sale, and it's diverting you from your focus, which should be in the primary beginning. Get your feet moving, get rolling, you know, and get those mailings consistent, stick to your area, put that guy on your buyers list. Right, but so in a conservative approach, I'm going to say, if you're new to this business, no, just say, oh, I get land all the time. How about I put you in my buyers list? I'll keep you posted.

But I wouldn't.

Then go venture out. And the beginning. I think you got to stay highly focused.

Yeah, I think that's a great answer. And it kind of reminds me that this podcast is sponsored by flight school. And if you want to talk to the zen master, Mike Zano and get these kinds of really intelligent type of answers, your issues and strategy, get on a call with Mike, get on a call with Scott. Just go to landgeek.com training and do that. Or go to landgeek.com freecoaching and schedule a call. Alright. Moving on to the technician, Eric Peterson. What are your thoughts?

So from time to time I will get people that are asking for land that I don't currently have. More often than not, it's going to be in an area that I've worked in before or that I'm currently working in. So when that happens, you know, I'm more likely to go out and see if I can source something. However, you know, at the same time that I'm kind of making that, deciding whether or not it's worthwhile, you know, I'm trying to assess that, that particular potential buyer, right, to, to see if they're really serious. Because I mean, so often, you know, we talk to buyers that are, you know, they're not happy with whatever option you might have and they just start throwing out things, you know, well, I want this or I want that or. So I guess, you know, if you have a good feeling about that buyer and you feel like they're gonna stand behind what they're looking for and you know, it's worth your while, then it makes sense to go out and look and see if you could find something wholesale.

Certainly done it.

My fear when you go outside of the areas you typically work in, is that if you execute that transaction and that buyer actually locks up the property and you purchased it, if they default, the issue is that that's not an area that you typically market in. So you're going to be left with that property and kind of starting from scratch, right? So, you know, when you first sold it, it made sense because it was an easy sale. But if they, if that buyer falls off and stops making payments, you know, and let's say you work in Colorado normally, and this property's in California. That's a big difference in market. And going out there and finding a new buyer on that property is not going to be super easy. It's not like you can just start using all your Colorado accounts or what have you or your. Your buyers list for Colorado, etc. Not to say it can't be done, but just be aware of that going into it if you decide to kind of go outside your. Your standard area.

All right. I love it. I love it. Terrorist hunter Mimi Schmidt, what are your thoughts?

They're exactly right. It's not a black or white yes or no question. There's a lot more to it. Stay focused. I get. I had a request last week for property in Erie or Firestone, Colorado, between Denver and Boulder. Yep. Too expensive. Not anywhere near I'm ever going to be. So, yeah, I'll add you to buy my buyers list. If you find something, great otherwise. But if it's in an area that you know, if it's an area on Land moto and you're familiar with the property there, then maybe you can make it work. I even did this once for a guy, bought a property for me and Costillo, owned it for a couple months and said, yeah, I'd rather be up in Park. So I found him. One tripled the amount of money I was bringing in a month on my monthly payment. And then he defaulted square got pregnant. He didn't want to do it, so now it's in the same state. Even so, I have all of the Craigslist marketing IP addresses. I have all that, but I don't know anything about Park. I don't have a photographer in Park. So most of the time it works out. But I just warn you to stay in the areas you know and know the inventory that's available for you to pull from on some of these wholesaling cases sites.

Very sagacious answer. Big Papa Tate, Litchfield. What are your thoughts?

This is a really interesting topic and I'm going to do a little shameless plug here because I was recently in this situation and some of our viewers or our listeners aren't aware, but I'm working on a new project and it's called Lots. And in one of the episodes that I recorded, I had a situation where a VIP client called me up and said, hey, here's what I'm looking for. Do you have any more of that? And I didn't. And so I went out and I found that property for him. I purchased it kind of at noon. That same day, he made a down payment for it at one o' clock that same day. So in this type of situation, I would absolutely bend over backwards to accommodate kind of a VIP client or somebody that know is serious. Again, if it's a property in a location where it can be a good location, but you know, it just might not speak to me, I'm not going to go out of my way to find it. I'd rather pass that lead on to a friend and say, hey, Scott, I don't have what this guy wants. I know you're the man for this area, you know, you owe me dinner kind of thing. I'd rather do that. And I've had plenty of people pass me leads that resulted in sales. And you know, that's, that's just kind of being a good, a good friend taking care of those that you respect. So that's what I would say. I most often do. But, you know, there's a place and I'll leave it up to Scott. There's the place where I go and I treat it as my personal inventory. Anytime I need, anything I can guaranteed, find it on Lamboto. So that's what I would do.

I like it. I like it. Scott Todd. Oh, by the way, lot stands for looking over Tate's shoulder. And we're all excited for that sort of, we'll call it geek flicks show to come out. Lots. Scott Todd, tell us.

All right, so here's the story. We had a guy that we've been talking to for a while. He's never bought from me, and it gives me that one piece right there. Gives me a little bit of heartburn. But we've been talking to him for a while and what he wanted was he wanted a 15 acre property in this area where I have other land, but I didn't have 15 acres. I mean, like, I do have 15 acres, but not all together. And he wanted all together. So we've been trying to work a deal with him and he just wanted 15 or more. He wanted larger properties. And in our conversations with him, we basically said, well, how much money are you looking to put down? And he's like, well, I will put down half of the purchase price. And we're like, wow, okay, half of the purchase price. That's a pretty reasonable deal, right? That's a pretty solid buyer right there. So what happened was we actually found one of these properties, one of these 15 acres on land Moto. So we went out and we basically secured the land, made sure that it was available, and it was actually being wholesaled on there. The wholesale price, I think is a little bit higher than what I normally like, because I normally like to be able to double my money, but the asking price is probably about $900 higher.

I think.

We tried to negotiate and it didn't happen, but we're like, okay, let's just go ahead and look at this deal. So we ended up buying this 15 acre property for $9,900 and we sold it for 17,900, which happens to be the exact same asking price as the person we bought it from. That's what they were, that they were looking to sell it for as well. And so essentially by doing that, we were able to turn around and match one of our buyers. And again, we had been talking to this guy for like over a year and we could never kind of connect with him. And so basically we ended up buying that property wholesale and getting the $8,900 wholesale price, if you will. And then we turned around and sold it. And so we're gonna get, I think like $100 a month for the next 120 months, 10 years. $120 a month for 120. Works out to be 149% yield on our investment. Not bad, right? But you know, I think it brings up the point that. And there's been a lot of good conversations. One, and I hear this from people sometimes, like, well, you know, should I chase the deal? And it's so easy to kind of really want to make a deal that you start to chase and you start to chase it all over the country. And you know, as been pointed out, then you end up with a property that you really don't want to own after they default. And you have to assume that every deal that you enter into is going to default. There's no guaranteed deal that it won't default unless it's a cash deal. And then it's probably not going to default. But any terms that you have is probably likely to default or you should treat it like it is. So if you're crisscrossing the country looking for available land, well, I think you're making a fatal flaw because you're going to end up with a bunch of stuff that you may not be able to sell. And as Mimi said, you know, it could be somewhere that it could even be in the same state, but it's not where you do business. And then it's like, man, it's trying to start up the whole machine all over again.

Right? So just to recap the algorithm then is chase a deal for a potential buyer only if it's an area that you are comfortable working or you're currently working. In that, worst case, you would still want to own that property.

Yeah.

Did I not see?

No, you got it.

Okay.

Because you're.

You.

You gotta believe, man, like every, every term still you sell, you have to assume it's gonna default at some point in time. So then what. What is your strategy? What is your plan being? And if, if your plan B is like, oh, I never thought they default, well, you have a bad plan from the get go.

Hey, Scott, question on that deal, Are you guys offering 90 day money back guarantee on that still?

We are. That's the thing that gives me a little bit of heartburn here.

Right.

So like before you enter a deal like that, you need to be. You need to be confident like one that you're going to be able to resell that property even if you took it back. And I think it was Aaron that said, like, even if I do a wash on it, will I still be okay? Well, I'll still be okay, but it's an area that I know that be able to sell into in the future. Yeah, I mean, you gotta be able to write that check come time to do it.

I was gonna say, like, I would do this deal all day long, but I would probably keep his down payment kind of in reserve in case, you know, on that 89th day, he came to me and said, hey, it's not working out. I need to break up with you. I want my money back. I would keep that money just on the sidelines. But on that 90th day, boom. I'm going to town.

Right.

It's getting redeployed.

Yeah. I don't think you want. I don't think you want to. What's the, what's the line in Top Gun? Don't. Don't write checks your body can't cash.

Right.

Like, don't put yourself in a spot that you're like, oh boy, that's the end of it. Don't. Don't do that. Don't do that.

No.

Did you get a dog?

We did get a doxy.

Of course you got a doxy.

Come on, man.

I'm not surprised.

Newbies around here.

No, I'm just saying that. Boost you up a little bit. Even better. So, I mean, at this point, I would have done that deal. No doubt.

Right, right. By the way, speaking of boosting up, it's a little off topic, but I do think it does apply as far as going outside of your comfort zone in accomplishing something that's really hard. Scott Todd has completed his 50th peloton ride. And if you haven't ridden one of these pelotons, it's hard. It's really hard. And to stay with it that consistently is, I think, one of the attributes I think that really you could pinpoint. Like, okay, here's why this guy is successful in land investing is because he embraces the suck consistently, and he does the hard things, and he goes outside of his comfort zone consistently to the point where, you know, there'll be mastery on the line. I mean, then once he gets to his 200, 200th ride, he might be able to actually talk to Tate about going on a ride together. I mean, maybe.

I don't know, man. Tate's like 10 already. 10x the 200 or more, 20x 100x. I don't know what he's got, but he's got something. I don't know if I. Yeah, I.

Think you would know with confidence. You wouldn't have a heart attack trying to go up a hill with him.

Well, listen, man, my rides are like 30 minutes max. Tate's like two hours. I think. I think I'd be out. Like, I'm hoping that all. Everything that Tate has is downhill.

Yeah, you'd be fine. Like ankle weights. You'd be fine while he was riding. That would help. Well, I thought that was a really, a great topic and hopefully for the listeners, really kind of answers that question. And there's no ambiguity based on that algorithm that we discussed. So again, it needs to be an area that you're currently working that you're comfortable in. Worst case, you'd still want to own that property and then go ahead and work with that buyer. I remember when I first started and someone would email me, hey, do you, you know, be an area where I wasn't working? Hey, can you find me, you know, 20 acres in this county in Alabama? And I've kind of like think to myself, what am I, your personal land shopper? Like, no, here's what I have. Like, you know, this is my inventory, this is what I have. And. But I think it's good to revisit this for sure and hopefully helps. So, that being said, let's segue into our tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go to improve their businesses, improve their lives. The terrorist hunter. She's now, the past few weeks what do you got?

So I figured we all use tools on everyday basis and we don't think anything of it. And it's been a couple years since we talked about just some generic tools and we get it all in boot camp, right? We review what kind of cool tools to use. But otherwise I just thought I'd use some of the ones that I use on a regular basis. Sign now. It's great for signing documents. I actually talked to somebody recently that said they were still emailing back and forth. Sign now cost me $7 a month. And it's so cool. If you've ever sent a document to yourself, it has arrows that point to where you're supposed to sign and they blink and it's so easy. Completely dummy proof. Highly recommend it. Genius scan. Every time I sell a property and I sign the deed over, I take a picture of it, converts it to a PDF and I upload it simply. That's super. Everyone has a. There's a lot of scanning apps, but that's the one that I use completely free on my iPhone. I don't have anybody. I don't scan any anything on a printer scanner. I just use my smartphone. It's great then. I've got a lot of questions about deeds lately and how the grantor and grantee clauses should be. Instead of waiting and trying to figure it out yourselves, go get a rocket lawyer account. You can create the deed yourself or you can make an appointment with a lawyer. So those are three big apps subscriptions that I use on a regular almost weekly basis.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. And you know, for note taking, jot not pro is an oldie but a goodie. So, you know, I think we should bring that up. Right, Eric?

We could probably let that one go.

Well, you know, 2019, I am trying to be kind, learn kinder and gentler. Kindler. It's a new word. Why just Eric? Not in general. Yeah, maybe in general, but I think it helps to practice with Eric. It might, you know, go outside that. I don't know. Anyways, I thought this was a great roundtable. I want to thank the listeners. I want to remind them that again, the only way that I'm going to continue to motivate Bear Land Aaron to take time out of his day, or the Zen master from saving lives, or the terrorist hunter from again, saving lives and doing all these things is if you do us three little favors. You got to subscribe, you got a rate, you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to supportlandgeek.com we are going to send you for free the $97 podcast Passive Income Launch kit. Again, if you're curious about getting to the next level in 2019, building up your current income, your passive income, getting to the next level, you gotta look at flight school. Go to thelandgeek.com training schedule, a call with Mike or Scott. And again, for those of you that are just starting out in this niche, check out Dirt Rich. It's on Amazon. It's $2.99 on Kindle. Gives you a great overview of the business, and I really appreciate Amazon reviews as well. So that's enough plugging, huh? It's pretty good. All right, are you ready to do this? Oh, by the way, boot camp. Oh, yeah, by the way, Scottsdale Bootcamp. Go to the landgate.com boot camp that is filling up fast. You want to secure your spot ASAP for April. All right, ready? One, two, three, let freedom.

That might be one.

That was, like, really good.

Super powerful at boot camp, actually.

It really was. By the way, Mike, I have to ask you because you're not a huge sport fan. I'm not a huge sports fan now, at least when it comes to football. Are you going to do something for Super Bowl?

I heard that was coming up this weekend. We'll probably have some pizza with my parents.

Pizza with the parents, Eric.

Yeah, My. My oldest son is a huge, huge football fan, so we will be watching the super bowl, maybe having some friends over of his.

Who's he rooting for?

I don't think he's. He's decided yet, actually. He's a big Dolphins fan, so. Yeah.

All right. How about Mimi? What about you?

We're having 14 people over. I'm excited. I don't care about the football. It's just a reason to have a party.

Yeah. There you go. Maryland. Aaron, how about you?

Watching the commercials.

Watching the commercials. Nice. Which is also, you know, it's good for marketing. It's like a little marketing practice. Tate, how about you?

You know, I'm kind of with Mike on this one. I know it's a big deal for some people. For us, I'll probably watch a little bit of it. It's not hockey, so it doesn't get my full attention.

Nice. Yeah. If it's not a fringe sport like cycling or hockey, Tate's like.

Just a half show. Tate. Right? That's all we want to see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can't remember who's performing. Who was it that I saw performing?

I didn't see.

Oh, that. That'll drag. That'll bring me in. You know.

It'S. Oh, man.

Little halftime show.

Maroon 5.

Oh, yeah.

Travis Scott.

Mark, how was it?

No, he's performing. It says.

Oh, he's performing?

Yeah.

Oh, I thought you were gonna go see him in the concert.

I am.

Yeah.

Next month.

Yeah.

But he's performing the halftime show, so.

Yeah, I'm a huge Travis Scott fan.

I'm excited. Apparently, in the last show, he made his, like, Lamborghini fly over the audience. Crazy.

Yeah, that's.

That's right.

Yeah. Crazy Scott, talk about you.

I don't know.

I don't know. I. I wouldn't mind watching it, see if Tom Brady can. Old Tom Brady can win or, you know, not. But I did think it was funny because on. I saw on. On Reddit, of all places, I saw the other day that they had a picture of Tom Brady on the local channel there, and under, you know, like, where it has his name, it says Tom Brady, and. And then underneath that it says known cheater.

Wow.

By the way, speaking of Reddit, I was listening to Greg McCune on Tim Ferriss podcast, and he did to Tim exactly what he did to you. Oh, really? Yeah, exactly. I'm in good company. You're in really good company. So, you know, are you having, you know, like, are you doing the essential tasks and not letting Reddit get in the way?

Actually, I am. I found my way. I think that the. Look, I'll tell you what, man, it really goes back to this. When your goals are big enough, then they will power you through anything. And so then when you start to write down the number of what that. What that work that you're kind of putting away is worth to you, and you quantify it, all of a sudden everything else looks ridiculous. Like, why am I doing this? I should only be focusing on that. And then I think that's really a huge key for success, is you got to know what these projects that you're putting on the back burner are worth to you. And if you can't quantify it, well, then you need to spend a little bit of time really thinking about the work that you're doing and putting a dollar amount to it or your best guess on it.

Yeah, exactly. That reminds me, I should do more with geek pay.

Yeah, I don't know what Reddit is.

I've never been on it. Is that bad?

No, no, it's a good thing. It's a good thing.

No, don't.

I'm looking it up.

It looks like Facebook almost. What is this?

Don't start.

Don't go down.

Do yourself a favor. Do yourself a favor. Close that window right now. Listen to you.

Don't.

Don't do it. Don't ever go back there again, man.

Gone. Suck my soul away.

That is a nasty habit. Like, think of that as cigarette smoking, man. All right, I'm done.

Yeah, listen to your big brother.

Yeah. It's a cigarette smoking of attention. Hey, here's an app to hijack your attention every five seconds.

Oh, my God.

Yeah. All right, thanks, guys.

Talk to you later, Tatya.