Coffee Talk

That.

No, no worries. It's all good.

All right. Hey, it's Mark Pedolski, the land geek with the landgeek.com. i am joined for coffee talk this morning by the Zen master, Mike Zano. I'm sorry, I'm running late. For those of you that don't know who Mike and I are, I'm a professional land investor. I've been buying and selling raw land full time since 2001. I'm now at over 5200 deals closed. And I would argue that we've created the best passive income model. So what I mean by that, of the ultimate subscription model. It's a one time sale. We get passive income, but we don't have to deal with renters, rehabs or renovations. And we also have massive margins in these land, in these land sales. So, for example, the average is about 300% to 1,000% returns on investment. Mike Zaino, do we have the best passive income model?

We have the best passive model income model. That is, yeah, absolutely. I haven't found anything better. I mean, thing is, I tell people, anybody who's been doing this business for a long period of time, they love talking about it. And that's gonna tell you something. We love talking about it because it's fun, it's ethical, it's phenomenal. Returns, happy people on both sides of the equation. I don't know. There's nothing better I can find. Yeah.

You know, it's so funny when people ask me like, well, Mark, if you're, if you're doing so well, right. Why would you tell anybody about this? Aren't you going to create your own competition? And when we look at the numbers on the size of the market, technically speaking, there is no competition. Right. We will all run out of money before we run a deal flow. 3,007 counties, billions of acres of land available. And if you go to a real estate investment meeting, right, There'll be, there's a hundred people there. 99 of them are gonna be house flippers or wholesalers, right. You and me would be only land guys, right?

So. And those guys are coming our way now. We're seeing more and more people who were flipping houses, finding a lot of actual joy in the land business because of the less headaches we have a lot of. The last boot camp, we had a few of them there. When more and more people are coming this direction from that, from that side. Right.

And unlike house flipping, you can do this from anywhere in the world. Sean and Rachel are in Valencia, Spain right now. Heading to southern France, closing deals, living off their passive income.

Right.

It's. It's really, you know, incredible. So. So, Mike, tell us about. What are your deals this week?

Let's see. I. This week I closed on 16 parcels and then quickly turned around and sold them whole wholesale. So that was a great deal. It was a. The profit margin was rather high because I make. Like we always say, we make our money on the buy side. So, you know, after you go through this a while, you begin not to be so shy about making your offers. You make sure that, you know, there's money in it to be made. Even at a wholesale deal, there's a lot of money to be made because we're buying these things so inexpensively. Like, we know our market so well that when we deal with people that we have all the relevant information to successfully talk to them and let them know, you know, why we can only offer so much. And these people, they don't even want the land. They've inherited it from somebody or they've taken it on after many years. They're tired of the taxes. I mean, we get an email the other day from someone. He's like, listen, honestly, pennies on the dollar. I just don't want to deal with the taxes anymore. Please, whatever you want. He's got. We bought one parcel from, and now he's got like four or five more. And exact words, he's like, I'll give it to you for pennies on the dollar. I don't even want to deal with it right now. I can't deal with the taxes anymore. I just want to be relieved of that burden. So. So, I mean, that's what. I mean. It's really, truly happy people that we buy from. Even, you know, we're buying. We're buying a discount, but we're providing a valuable service to them. And of course, on the flip side.

I don't think we talk about it enough, actually, because, like, I can only imagine if you're buying somebody's house, right, because they are distressed like that, you know, at some point, like, yeah, you're gonna make money, but, like, here's somebody that's got a move. Make a move, you know, something emotional. There's no emotional attachment to a raw piece of land other than they hate it.

Yeah. All they do is get this tax bill every. Every year. And they're like, enough, we don't want this anymore. So, yeah, it's happy customers, for real. And that's what it loves. So, yeah, we. Yeah, we closed on a Good deal. And we sold it right away. I mean, because we have. And that's the thing I like, you know, people think, oh, when you get into this business, is it, you know, okay, we come to you, we learn from you, we have flight school with a number of ways that we can teach you how to do our business. Is it all about you, us buying your land from you? No, we do provide opportunities for that. But the people buying my land are people who are seasoned investors. These are people that know the value of the land and realize the deal they're getting. So this isn't about that. Obviously. We do have opportunities at times to help people with a piece of land to get them up and running, but it's not about that. The people that we wholesale to on our end are probably people that are seasoned investors. They know the value that they're getting. So I think that's important to say because sometimes people, I think, get misled, you know, thinking that, you know, hey, I buy your course and now you're going to try to, like, sell me all this. We have opportunities, right? But that's not what we do, Right? Right.

Yeah, we're not predatory. It's like, oh, no. Yeah, you know. You know, it's funny is like, I remember when. When Jeff started and I coached Jeff and then Jeff, you.

Yes.

And we're buying in the same county, right? And I'm trapped by expertise because I think I know what, you know, people will sell for, right? So I'm offering, you know, 23 cents a dollar. I'm offering twelve hundred dollars for these five acre parcels, right? And then Jeff's buying them for eight hundred. And I'm like, what is going on here? Like, it seems like unreasonable to me to even offer that low, but he didn't know better, right? Like, well, Mark, why not? Right? And so sometimes, like, being unreasonable in this business is. It's crazy.

But friend of. I just went through the flight school with it. We just went through the flight school with Scott, and now I was buying this.

Steve Troche.

Yeah. I was buying parcels at maybe $200 for these half acres, 150. Now he's buying them like, he set the bar. $25, $50. I'm like, how are you doing this? Well, I just tell them that's what I want. I'm like, so, here we go. Someone new just, you know, reinventing how and reaffirming for me that you can even make more money in this business. I'm making good money buying what I'm buying. But Here he comes now. And he's just making crazy offers and he's getting accepted offers. So, yeah, you know what? I'm always humble enough to learn and adjust. Yeah.

Yeah. All right, we're getting some comments. And let's see here. Here's Seth. Good morning, Seth. And then. Oh, look at that.

Sandy.

She's got pink eye. Sandy, I hope you're feeling better. Welcome to Coffee Talk, Sandy. I think Sandy's coming to the Scottsdale boot camp. David Banalas. Good morning, fellas. I've been talking to so many home flippers. They're absolutely tired of the headaches that come along with the process. 6 months to flip a home and only make 40k. Yeah, I remember at boot camp where we were, we're dissecting the flip or flop numbers and it was like they made a 16% return. It was like, really? All that work for 16, it's kind of crazy. Derek Marshall, good morning. Oh, Danielle. Good morning, Danielle.

Danielle.

And then here it is. Gary Horton. Me too. David Ellis. Yeah, David. Gary's probably got some crazy stories. I mean, yeah, I mean, I remember I flipped the house once. This is my Johnny Dangerously quote once. Like, it was miserable. I'm going, I'm driving back and forth, I'm watering plants, I'm meeting subs. I mean, it took is a long process. And then at the end of the day, my roi, like when I factored in my time, I like, broke even on that deal. It's crazy. So, all right, so Mike Zano, the Zen master, let's breathe in, breathe out the mailing, breathe out the marketing. What do you think? People have a bigger struggle with the mailings. So doing county research, getting the list, scrubbing the list, pricing the list, getting the offers out, doing the due diligence and closing versus the marketing, creating the ads, dealing with customers in closing. What do you think?

I think a lot of people get caught up in the mailing. And the reason is, and I like to tell people when I talk to them, there's no perfect mailing. So, like this whole paralysis by over analysis, like they just, like, they crunch these numbers, they look at them, and you can really get caught up in this mental bind that you're not, you know, this isn't correct, but there's no perfect mailing. And if you continually mail, like continual mailing every week is gonna, it's gonna remove all those little bugs. You're gonna have some returned addresses. You're gonna maybe have offer a little high. Big deal. You just renegotiate when it. But I think a lot of people get caught up on that. And that's one of the things I've seen with people who start with the toolkit. Like we always say, there's no knowledge gap. The whole toolkit has got everything you need contained within it. However, if you're the kind of person that might slightly doubt yourself, which is a lot of people, and you get to the point where it's like, okay, now it's time to do this and put this mailing out, they really get hung up on there. And that's one of the advantages that I found is when they go into flight school, you know, Scott takes them through with that whole process. And I actually think sometimes it's very valuable if they've gone through the toolkit and they have some idea of what we're doing. And then all of a sudden, two or three weeks later, they go into the flight school. It's like, aha. I get it. All the cobwebs go away and they understand. So the mailing, I think initially, Mark, people have a ton of problems with. Because they overanalyze it and they think they need that perfect mailing, but it doesn't matter. Just, you know, send out, you know, and readjust when they come. Like we always say, make contact with someone. If they contact you, they want to sell. And if you need to renegotiate to make your terms better, then renegotiate. You're not, you know, you don't have this. I gotta have landitis. You're not locked into the number that you sent to them. You know, so I think a lot. I honestly think that's a big hang up for a lot of people. Is that mailing? It's thinking that, you know, they crunch it, try to make it perfect.

Yeah, it's crazy. Like, Mimi Schmidt tells the story. She sent out offers with no offer. Like there's just no offer. She still bought property.

Probably got a lot of responses though, right?

The much you talk, I mean, you buy. It's crazy. And Jennifer, I can't pronounce her name. She's like Samoan, but she was in, in flight school. And she tells a story of, you know, the guy accepts the offer, 2500, and then she calls him back and says, oh, after doing due diligence, you know, I can only offer you 1200. He says, okay. And then she calls back, she's like, actually, I only have 800. He's like, okay, it was crazy.

Yeah.

Here's a story. Derek Marshall just got off Phone the buyer. He at the bank? He's at the bank about transfer payment to my account. $500 into $4,800. This on a 50 by 100 foot lot. I thought I'd have trouble selling. Posted on Facebook last Friday, David Benalis. Derek Marshall's killing it. Facebook postings. I love it.

Yeah, I think people sometimes, honestly, until they do their first deal, they, they, I mean, they, they know me. Hey, there's an abundance of proof of what we do, but the numbers, they know. Like, how do you really get these returns? Yes, we really do. This is a fact. We do it over and over again until you get into it and realize how we do it. Maybe it seems kind of fanciful or not real, but this is a very real model and it's all on the buy side.

Yeah, yeah. Sandy's agreeing. True debt. Zen master learning process. Prime area for analysis by analysis. Yeah, yeah. Oh, look at Seth delegating. Just got off Skype with our marketing research. VA feels great to finally be exporting some of our business so we can focus more on the business instead of in the business that Seth is being an entrepreneur. He's. Seth is like 12 years old, by the way. Just kidding. Like 22.

And his brother's even younger.

Yeah, yeah. Seth, how much money have you made so far in this business?

Oh, they're crushing it.

It's crazy. David had a few questions over the last week from people asking for the genuine insight on what the hardest parts of this business are. What would you say they are? I think we talked about it. David Benallis. I think the actual mailings and pricing are the hardest. What do you think it's scrubbing the list.

Yeah. I also think that and I encourage people, you know, to sooner than later to look at this business, how you're going to work on it than in it. You know, develop that model. As you know, Scott likes talking the boot camp with the swim lanes. Develop the model of how you want. It's like building a play, right? This is how the plays in a look, even if you are every character in that play in the beginning, you are. Right. You're the person from the left side of the equation all the way to the right. You fulfill every role, but at the beginning, you should still identify what these roles are, what processes are in place on document as you go. Because I think people have a hard time removing themselves from the business. They feel like nobody can do it better than they can. Because clearly we are the entrepreneurs. Right. We're the first ones in There doing this. But you have to realize you have to put the time in to train these people and once they do, your goal is like you always say, Mark, we're not here to do land all day. Land is a method to fulfill our lives with more time to do things we want. So how can the only place you can do that systems, which is Mark. What you're an expert. I tell them, expert at systems and the coaching to help you develop your systems and the deal flow. So I mean that's hard for people really, you know, until they get someone to show them how to pull themselves out.

I mean we talked about this on the round table. Was it roundtable? I forgot who we were talking about. I think I was talking about Scott. I'm like we're not in the land investing business.

Right?

Our real. We're in the freedom business. Yes. We're just using land investing. Right. But that's really. We're in the business of freedom. So you know, example is I work two hours a week in Frontier Properties.

Right?

Right. 192 deals last year working two hours a week. So take that Ferris. But that's what it is. I mean for me it's about creating that freedom. So Mondays and Fridays I can take off, I can be with my family, I can travel the world. We can do this from anywhere in the world. Whatever you want to do, right. So here's Gavin Mills. I have post first mailing, pre first deal anxiety as well. Your encouragement as well. Time the deals will come, right? He's like, right. Are you sure they'll come right? Yeah, of course they're going to come.

The mailing and the marketing, you know why they're so similar is that they're both a process that if you develop a repetition. Like I tell people we're developing new habits here. Habits like brushing your teeth. Like you're getting those mailings out every day, you're getting your ads out every day. And once you it gets to a critical point where all of a sudden you have continual deal flow coming in and you have continuous sales on the other side. It's a process that you just have to believe in and it has to be repetitive. It has to be something. Now we're not going to do it. We have people doing it for us. But in the beginning, of course you learn how to do it by doing it and then you farm it out. But you have to be committed and have a routine that's daily, you know, of having people do it in the you in the beginning. But then having your VA's trained to do this and then it reaches a critical mass point. And the deals, you're just surrounded by deals on both left and right. Right on the buy side and the sell side. It's just like you're swimming in them. And. And that's true. It really is. They're just every way to be had. Once you immerse yourself in the mailing and the marketing.

Yeah, I mean, there's a reason we have the program called more deals than you can handle.

Very true.

Buyers. And you can handle because once you get down, you are. It is, it is overwhelming. Then we teach you a system to do it. Because that's why I have a system.

You're going to be, you know, it's a good problem to have. I'll argue a lot of deals, but you don't want to be doing it all day long. And you can. No, no.

I mean, LG pass. Really. I mean, we're saving so much time automating this business. 90% of its automated software. Seth has made 20k in how many months? That's not bad. More to come this week. I love it. Let's see, here's a stuff. Gavin Mills do what I do, put a reminder. Your calendar. Every hour of every day, I will get deals, I just add another one. I will say on land today, auto suggestion is king in this universe. You know, I know it sounds woo woo, but there is something to this.

Yes.

Scott Adams talks about it, you know, having these affirmations and programming your brain and there's actually a scientific term for this. So let's say for example, that you are looking to buy a car, right? All of a sudden your brain is filtered and everywhere you look you see that car that you're interested in, right? So like every day I see a ton of Teslas, right? I want a Tesla. But before that I didn't, you know, I wouldn't see Teslas, right? You just, it would just be filtered out. It's kind of like hearing your name, right? You can be a crowd of people, all this noise and all of a sudden you hear your name, you hear it. So, you know, what Seth is saying is, you know, program your mind, find deals, sell deals, right?

And that's the mailing, the marketing. This is whirlwind out there, we call it, right? Where there's all these things happening around what you could be doing these things. Some of. As time goes on, your business grows, you, you know, things will. You might need some of these. But in the beginning, all this Stuff is happening. You just need to mail. All this stuff is happening. You need to market. And that's really, you know, if you think about it, that's what's going to move the needle. And then, you know, having those affirmations is going to probably hone you in and commit you to those things. And then the deals come.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Derek Marshall made a mistake and he's only going to make 80 to 100% return, which in the real world is crazy. In our world, we're shaming him. Like, Derek, how can you do this? Where was the due diligence checklist? Right, but that's still, like, amazing, right? Coaching to get LG Pass or can you sign up for LG Pass without coaching? So, you know, it's only for the coaching clients because, you know, we got to protect our community. Right, Right. Make this too easy. It's not going to be great. So learn more here and. And do that. All right. Thank you, guys. I appreciate the pump up. No problem. No problem. Gavin Mills. So, Mike, did you freeze on me? Are you there?

No, I'm here.

Oh, okay.

Like, I'm just doing Zen. I guess I got too quiet. Sorry.

That's okay. Hi. My comments aren't showing up anymore.

Just saw something about fees. Somebody had popped up.

Never heard of mowing fee. Are you. Are you seeing them?

I see one mowing fees and it comes right back down. It's on my checklist now. Oh, mowing fees, you must be referring to new due diligence.

Right? Right. Oh, Seth wants a tip of the week. What should we do for tip of the week? You got one. You know, really fast.

Yeah, for me, the tips are always kind of motivated, moved around, like, mindset, you know, I'm not. I'm not the most techie guy, you know. I know I had a techie tip one time. And that surprised you, but I'm not like this. And you don't have to be. That's the beautiful thing about this business is you don't have to know. Like, I have all these things in place when people call me. It gets, you know, routed to here, and it goes to my purchasing agent. I don't know how it happens, but the guy that I hired made it happen. So we teach, you know, that's the. That's the power of hiring people that are smarter than we are. And we don't have to understand how they do it. We have to understand what we want done. This is the result we're looking for. So, I mean, I guess my Tips are long, more like that type of mentality. So I would say, like, don't overthink things. Like, if you don't know the answer, you don't have to know every little bit about how it's going to happen. Just go on to, you know, one of these sites that we utilize or the VA site that mark is that up and running right now? By the way, the. How are we doing?

Va's.thelandgeek.com Right.

And let their expertise guide you. You know, you just tell them what you want accomplished, you know, and sometimes you have to direct them, but not these VAs are going to be trained. So clearly allow their expertise to take away all your worries. And, you know, so, you know, don't. Don't think that, you know, you have to be bought into all these deep, deep processes about how things work. Just find people that understand what you need and, you know, they'll get it done for you, you know. So I think that's important.

Yeah. I mean, my tip of the week is really to focus on your daily effort and let go of the expectations of, you know, results. I think when we're so results oriented, it can be really depressing because they typically won't happen at the. At this artificial sort of, you know, timeline that we create. Right. So, you know, Sandy buys a property today, she closes on it, you know, and then it takes her, you know, she's putting out ads every day, and all of a sudden it, you know, it takes her a week before she gets her first solid lead. Well, if her, if her focus is on selling the property and not, you know, getting out 124 ads a day using posting domination.com thelandgeek then it can be demotivating where if she can feel good about, okay, I'm putting in the effort. I'm putting in the effort. And then, you know, inevitably, it's going to come, right? Everything in life, right, that's. That's worth having, you know, you had to go through some work to get there. It's just not that easy. And if it were that easy, you wouldn't appreciate it anyways, right? There's your tip of the week, Seth. All right, thanks, guys. I won't be on the mastermind call today, but I appreciate these coffee talks in the morning. All right, Seth. So, Seth, if you have any questions for the group today, just hit me up in basecamp. Let me know. Sandy wanted to know, does anybody still use click to mail to automate mailings? We use in lgpass, We Use lab to do that. Or we have an automation with Dropbox where it'll print for you locally. But I think people still use Click to Mail. There's nothing wrong with it. What about you, Mike?

Yeah, we use it sometimes all we do is we upload the excel sheet into LGPass. I mean, it's so it's, you know, you can definitely still use it with LG Pass. You know, LG Pass is what you need to manage your deal flow, you know, and the idea is to get the info in there. You can use lob, which goes right through the LGPA and other people that are new to. I think it's good to develop a habit in the beginning. If you go to right to Dropbox, you print them and you just want to have a consistent flow.

Just.

I used to have a drawer over here and my daughter wanted an iPhone, a quarter letter, you know, stuffing them. She got her iPhone, so that went away. But anyway, you get a draw with a thousand offers in there, letters in there, and then just do 20 a day. The Scott Todd method, you know. So you can facilitate that through the LG Pass as well? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Scott Thomas is using it. Great. I use Click to Mail. Works good. Just upload your offer letter in the Excel list. They do mail merge and mail it all out.

Perfect, right?

Perfect process. I love it. So. Well, I thought this was a great coffee talk. Anything else?

No, unless there's some more questions.

Any more questions? Yeah, otherwise I would say learn more. The Land Geek.com Training. Right. You know, if you have questions, schedule a call with Mike or David.

Yeah. Next. Flight school's filling up. It's coming up soon and it's filling up. So, you know, we see this every month, right. It starts to fill up and it gets to a few weeks before and it overflows and the people have to wait for the next class. It is a very popular course and for a good reason. It works.

It works. Yeah. And it's all about execution, right?

Yes.

I mean, if you're, you know, if you got a full time job, right. And then you like, you don't like the idea of coming home and then, you know, working on this business. Right. Flight school is perfect for you because you'll be in a class. It's group coaching with Scott Todd, who closed 197 deals last year. So you got the best guy, you know, guiding you and then you've got that accountability built in and executing in real time. Like here's time already made. Right?

Right.

David do not hesitate for flight school. Yeah, you're welcome. Derek Marshall, Mason's got a question. Is it impossible to sell land with no rat races? Absolutely. I mean, Mason, I made millions of dollars on one deal that had no legal access. You can just play the road, no worries. Yeah, it's, it's, it's fine.

All land sells the right price.

1 sellers probably close to nearby road. I'm worried about being able to sell quickly. It's my first time purchase agreement. If you're buying any asset 23 cents a dollar, right. I don't care what it is. It's. You will make money on that deal.

Right. Follow our offer model and then you're, you know, that ensures you success because you're buying so far below market value that you will not get stuck with the property if you follow them the model that we set forth to do it. I mean, it's mathematical.

Yeah, there you go. Well, I want to thank everybody for, for being on Coffee talk this morning. Either Mike or Dave and I will be on next week and Mason's like, good to hear. I'll go for it. That's the plan. Did offsea super low. Yeah. Mason, if you're really nervous, wholesale it out to me or Mike. We'll buy it. Yeah. Market up 100%. You'd be good to go. And you know, I hope, I hope everybody's getting value out of this again, you know. Learn more about flight school. Go to the landing.com/forward/training scroll down. Set up your call with them. If you want to learn more about, you know, actual coaching and how to get lg pass, do the same thing. Schedule call with them. They'll walk you through it. You can also apply for coaching. Thelandgeek.com accelerate so, Mike Zaino, are we good?

We're great.

We're great.

We're not good. We're great.

We're great. Yeah. And then for those of you at the Toolkit boot camp, get your boot camp tickets now or reserve because we're. We're already have that room just about filled. So it's gonna be great. Sandy's excited for flight school June 1st.

Nice.

All right, well, thanks, Mike. Thanks everybody for being on here and we'll see you next week. All right. Let freedom ring. Mike Zano.

Let freedom ring.

All right.