How a Land Geek Student Replaced His Teaching Income with Land Investing

Hey, it's Mark Panolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and this podcast. And these podcasts are always a listener favorite because we're going to get one of our students who recently completed our flight school program and really talk a little bit deeper about their experience, what it was able to do for their life so that you can get a, get a peek behind the curtain. So our guest today is star student Joseph Ramirez. Joseph, welcome.

Excited to be here. Thank you, Mark, for inviting me.

So, Joseph, how did you find me? Land geek? How did you get started?

Oh, man, it was, it was, it was a tough situation. So my wife has talked about land investing and she talked about, like, you know, when we drive, she would tell me, hey, look at that. Land must have some value. As a teacher for 10 years, I look at plan and I think, well, it's just dirt. Who would be interested in dirt? Right? And so when she got sick and is it okay if I share my story here?

Yeah, absolutely.

Right. So when she got sick, you know, she had to go to things like chemo and radiation. And she's, she's doing well now. She's, you know, she's been healed by Jesus. And so we, we, we, we were having a hard time connecting because as a teacher, I still had to go to work. I still had to go to school. I serve the community and it was tough because that's how I get paid. And if I don't work, I don't get paid. And so I had to look for something where I can do something online and something that I could do. You know, Passive Inc. Started listening to podcasts and I heard land investing from Mark Pradolski. And that's really how I found you see, at the first listen to the podcast, I thought, man, that makes no sense to me. Why would land, right? It's, it just makes no sense. But I listened to it like four or five times and I, and I thought something is real here. And, and, and that's when it clicked. You know, I needed to get into this and I needed to, to step into it. And so the way I started flight school is not the way I would recommend people to start flight school. Because here's the thing, I was kind of in a desperate situation. I told my wife, hey, it's a big chunk of money, but I believe it's worth it. It's like half. You know, my yearly income is like half of that as a private school teacher was a lot. And so she said, no, don't do it. Don't, don't invest right now. And I said yes. And so it was a very, very tough a few months as I was trying to navigate teaching and then land investing at the same time, like having almost like a full time job and then trying to figure out what land investing is all about. But you know, I, I dug in, I took flight school and that's, you know, there's a.

How did you convince your, your wife to take the leap considering the investment?

So, so the thing is, I didn't. Right. And that's why I would say, you know, what if I had another choice, I would wait a few more months. I didn't. What I did was I took the step. She said, no, don't do land investing right now. And I said, I'm sorry, but it was the only choice I have. Right. Because I wanted to spend more time with her. Um, I did. However, you know, after flight school and six months after that I was able to replace my income of teaching and be able to do land investing full time. And so. Wow. I didn't convince her from the get go, but after six months of doing land investing, I was able to replace my income and then I was going to visit one of my land. And so, you know, one of the things that I like to do is I, I live in florid, love to visit the land. And she said, you know what, if you can drop me off the beach While you visit 20 year lands, I'm going to be okay. And so she, she was, she was more open to me doing land investing.

Yeah. So I know that, you know, your, so your wife's going through, you know, chemo and, and she's, she's getting better or she's, or she's trying to get better, but you want to spend more time with her and you've got this full time job now, you've got a new business for. How did you, how did you create enough time for yourself so that you could get everything you wanted and then replace your income in six months? What was that like?

My, my thought was I have this six months goal. That was my thought. Right. And so for me to see almost like a light in the tunnel, I know it's going to be a lot of hard work in the beginning, but seeing how this works was what got me through. You know, I, I want that light in the tunnel of like being able to spend time with family. I know having a full time job and then doing land investing is counterintuitive. Where I'M spending less time. But I, I, I knew that, you know, the more I learned how to do this, the better I'll get at it. And so that gave me kind of the focus that I needed to do to be able to continue land investing. I hope I answered your question.

Yeah, yeah. How so how many hours a week do you think you spent?

In the beginning, in the very beginning. So with the flight school, when I was doing flight school, I would say I maybe spend 10 hours throughout flight school, 10 hours a week. And then after that I was slowly transitioning into more and more hours. And at one point, you know, right at that six month mark, it was when I was really doing, it was almost like a full time job. Right. So the, like a 40 hour a week. But here's the thing. The seventh month I can work if I want to, right? Yeah. You know, I spend maybe an hour to the seventh month, an hour or two a week. But that was the goal, right. To replace my teaching income so I can spend more time with family. Wow.

Okay. So do you have a favorite deal?

A favorite deal?

A favorite deal?

Well, I like to go outside the box. And so one thing I love flight school is that you get to work at the pace that you're, you know, you, you, you're, you're preferring. And so I know with flight school we work with land that is, you know, tiny and it's repeatable, repeatable process. But I saw this great opportunity where There was a 10 acre lot here in Florida and you know, 10 acre lot any other states, you know, it's affordable here in Florida. It's, it's a big chunk. And so it was like twice as much as my yearly income and then some. Right. And so I was like, I've got to take this deal because it's a great deal and I knew I could sell it with, with the things that I learned from flight school. So I, I took the, the jump where I actually bought the land.

How did you get the money?

I'm, I'm, I'm making monthly payments on the land.

Oh, okay, great.

I'm making monthly payments on the land and there's a interest, but I am making twice as much on a monthly, the term. You know what I learned from the flight school, I'm making twice as much.

So you did a land arbitrage deal?

I did, yes. And that's one of the things that really helped me, it's still helping me now from flight school. Is that land ar. Yeah.

That's amazing. So for those of you that have just now are hearing land arbitrage for the first time. It's when you buy a piece of property, but instead of paying the full, you know, retail value of the price, let's say it's $40,000. You look at the market and you say, okay, if I could buy this for 500 down 500amonth, but I know that the market is a thousand dollars down, a thousand dollars a month. I only need to come up with five hundred dollars and I can control a forty thousand dollar parcel of land. So no problem. And then you flip it and you make the spread. So in this scenario, Joseph would be making $500 a month to control that land and continue doing that. And so if he knows he can sell it once, even if the person defaults, his only risk is making that 500amonth payment that next month while he goes and finds a new buyer. But he's paid down his cost basis with that first buyer and continues doing that. And it's, it's an amazing, it's an amazing strategy if you are capital constrained to control land and, and do that. So Joseph, that's, that's amazing. What a great deal.

Yeah, yeah, it's been amazing. And I'd like to share one more if that's okay.

Yeah, of course.

So one of the things I learned from flight school is being able to mail out letters, right? And I did a similar mistake that I heard one of, you know, one of your experience with land is you bought the land and then it was like you didn't think you were going to sell it. And so I bought a half acre and it was, yeah, I, I thought it was a good part of land. I thought it was High Dragon apparently adding to my enough of the due diligence. And so it was like a wetland, you know, it's a lower land bloodstair every year. And so I was like, oh no, how am I gonna price this? And so I price it similar to what I would price a high end dry ground. But it wasn't selling. So I price it lower. I wanted to get rid of that price it like when I'm only making like 10%, right? So, but it still wasn't selling. I was like, oh no, right. So what I did is I price it like right around that mid range, mid range. And I actually forgot about it because there were other land I'm focused on and I didn't care about that land. And so it was, it was a few months later that someone said I really want this land. And he why did they want it? He made a payment online. They said that they're familiar with the area. That's the lot that they're looking for. So I don't know what they're doing with the land, but they said, I want it and I'm ready to make a payment now. You know, it wasn't really much of a conversation. And. And then he, he made a payment online. And that's just so cool because I didn't have to set up the payment for him to make a payment. Right? You go, I go online and I realize, oh, someone made a payment, and sure enough, it was for that land.

That's amazing. That's a. That's another great deal. And people always laugh when I say there's a pig for every barn, but there really is. And I think what's interesting is that if you price it too low, you're signaling to the market there's something wrong with the property. You're just not the right buyer for that property. But there's always someone else out there that's. That's going to want that land the same way. I don't eat McDonald's, but a billion people eat it. I'm just not the market for McDonald's. So, Joseph, what does your team look like right now? Because we're always talking about we don't want to build another job for ourselves. And you had worked really hard to not have to work so hard. How. How did you start delegating and outsourcing and systematizing and automating your business?

So the how part is actually, you know, in flight school in itself, you know, we teach you like, you know, if it causes the biggest pain, hire a virtual assistant for that. So one of the first thing I did was hire a due diligence person because I didn't want to have to go through all that. So what I did is I created a video and, and used that video to train someone. Now, in flight school, you. You teach that if you have three people on it, then you really only have two. If you have two, then you have one, and if you just have one, you have none. Right? So I started with hiring people for that job and then, you know, found one person that's really good at it, a minor. Someone who, who works on it somewhat. So two people. And that, that third person was just there available, if anything. So. So that's what, that's what, that's what I did. I'm. I'm Filipino. I always tell people I'm made in the Philippines, even got the shirt for it.

There it is.

And in the Philippines, I'm connected with this church, Baptist church that are, you know, they're looking for opportunities to work online. And I said, well, I'm looking for opportunity to find people to work online. Right. So we got connected and it's been really a blessing to be able to work with them. And so I hired my due diligence and then I hired marketing. I hired sales. I still do a little bit of the sales because I love sales. One of the things that I do now is intake and intake has become so automated that I don't really work much to intake the land. It's a simple, you know, you all make an offer if you get accepted. And so it's been automated for the most part. So if I were to like, let's just say, you know, get sick for a whole week, I know people are working and if they have questions, they just let me know. And, and so it's just been a blessing.

Fantastic. So are you using any artificial intelligence or chatgpts to streamline your processes? Is your team. Where's AI in all this for you?

I wish there were more. Right. I wish I knew much about it, but I'm a simple guy. You know, I'm coming from a teaching third grade background. I don't have any AI skill, chat GPT skills, so not much of that. But hey, I feel like you, you may have some ideas. Mark, what are your thoughts?

No, no, for sure. We're going to have a training on that in the near future. You know what we're finding though, it's just a good intern. It, it's not, it just saves time. I wouldn't ship any of their work. And we're finding on the marketing side, when people are using it for marketing, their ads are not getting or not converting into sales like, like they should be. Before chat GPT, they kind of, they all kind of start to sound the same as well. So. All right, Joseph, knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently in your journey?

The biggest thing is relationship and you know, my, my relationship with Christ, my relationship with my family, my relationship with his friends. I felt like I could have prayed more. Absolutely. That's one thing. Definitely could have prayed more. I could have waited a little bit longer until my wife was open to it, maybe even a whole day. Right. I'm the type of guy, if I see a great deal, I jump on it right away. I could have at least waited the day. Right. So I would definitely just take My time. At the very least, take 24 hours before jumping into this. I mean, God has blessed the companies, bless my family. If I were to go back, I would definitely do a little bit of those, pray more, and wait for my wife.

I love it. I love it. So how has the land business change your life, man?

Let me tell you. December, this past December, my sister is in the Navy. She's in Italy. She's stationed there. And, you know, it's. It's kind of hard for family to go over there, you know, So I figured my mom wanted to visit her and. And my mom didn't want to go alone. It's a different country, you know, with. With war, Ukraine and Russia. It's pretty tough. So this. This past December, I took the leap of taking my mom to Italy to visit my sister and take my wife. And we were able to spend time with my sister. She's in the Navy. She's loving Italy. And we were introduced to some real Italian food. I mean, tomatoes in America are kind of okay, but in Italy, man, it is amazing. You know, the pizza there is just so, so different. Very nutritious, I would say. And so it was an experience. But I was able to do all that because I didn't have to teach in the classroom. Right. I. I substitute now. I subs school. And it's been an amazing experience, but, you know, I can take off that time. And here's the cool thing. When I was in Italy, you know, as my wife gave me permission to work two hours a day, and I was able to buy and sell land from Italy, you know, it's. It's just. It's just an amazing, amazing experience to have that time freedom, to have that financial freedom. You know, there's stress and other things that comes along with that. You know, what if someone defaults? Right. You know, I had to make a phone call because someone is late in their payment because of something, right? Sure. So there are those kind of stress, but for the most part, it's really a blessing. I can choose to work when I want and how much I want.

I love it. And. And, you know, it's such a blessing that your. Your wife has recovered and that you were able to spend the time with her that you did. And. And I remember we were on a. On a call and. And someone asked, you know, what's your. Your favorite place in the world? And your answer was, anywhere my wife is. I love that answer. It's fantastic. So, Joseph, we're at that point now, and your. Your advice and Your mentorship has been invaluable. But now I'm gonna ask you to put you on the spot one more time and ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the RF passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

Well, I would say this. If, if, if, if you find that it encourage you that you're learning from it, continue to do it. Whether it's a prayer, whether it's reading a book. Let's see here. I do have a book here. Give me just a moment here. So this one was the one that, that really helped me become of more of a salesperson. I didn't think I was a salesperson. But you know, anytime in life we're trying to negotiate you. We're trying to sell, you know, our, our point of view. We want our point of view to get across. And so this book never split the difference. Negotiating as if your life depended on it by Chris Voss with Tal Ross helped me in being able to not just negotiate in business, you know, we need that, but also negotiate like with my wife. Like, you know, let's, let's go to a restaurant and let's. This is the reason why, why one thing that I would say that this taught me is to be able to speak in a calm manner depending on the situation. And no matter, no matter what the situation is, we have to stay cal. Our voice needs to be a dj, FM at night voice. And that was just a really cool thing because calmness is. What do you call it when it spreads from one another?

Contagious.

Contagious. Thank you. Calmness is contagious. So when you're calm, the other part is calm. They feel safe. And when you feel safe, it's a place where you'd want to stay.

I love it. It's such a great book. I think it's been recommended a bunch of times. Well, my tip of the week is learn more about Joseph in the land he has for sale. Go to land now or later.com we'll have a link to it. Land now or later.com and you know, I do want to just mention that if you want to become like Joseph and learn more about flight school, go to the landgeek.com for training. Hopefully this has inspired you in your journey as well the Land Geek.com Training and Get on a call with our team and learn more and, and see if it's going to be your ticket to total freedom so you can work when you want where you want and with whom you want, like Joseph Ramirez. So, Joseph, are we good?

I, I, I'm thankful. Thank you, Mark, for bringing me here. This has been a blessing and I hope to continue working with you and working with others who are interested in land investing.

Thank you, Joseph. It's, it's been a pleasure. I want to thank the listeners and remind them the only way we're going to be able to continue to get great guests like Joseph if you do three favors. Follow Rate Review the podcast. Send a screenshot of that review to support attheland geek.com I'm going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. And pretty soon Dirt Rich too is going to be coming out. The plot thickens. How to scale your land business without missing a beat. All right, Joseph, we going to do this together. 1.

Thank you.

2. 3. Let freedom freedom ring ring.

All right, let's do it again, Mark. One more time.

One more time.

Let's, let's freedom freedom ring ring. All right.

Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents? Schedule a free consultation@thelandgeek.com forward slash training. Let freedom ring.