How to Research Profitable Land Counties from Your Couch (My Exact System Revealed)

John Burnett.

Scott Bossman.

Oh. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Can you hear me? I can't hear you, John. What's going on? We having tech difficulties. You can hear me, though?

Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?

Here, hold on. What's going on? How about now? No. What's happening there? I know. Okay. Sorry for the brief technical difficulties there, folks. Welcome to Land Geek Nightcap. Good, Good to have you with us. We got a small crew tonight. Mark Podolski's overseas. I think he's. Is he in Italy? Is that where he is? I don't even know where he is.

Paris.

I don't know where he is. He was in the concrete. He was in the concrete jungle last week for like four or five days in New York City. And then they. They flew out. I can't remember exactly where he is. So that's where Mark is. And then our. Our buddy, the Zen master, Mike Zano is. He's in Martha's Vineyard tonight.

Man, everyone's so hoity toity tonight, right?

Let's go overseas and let's go to Martha's Vineyard. Come on.

I mean, I've got cherries in my drink today. That feels a little.

Oh, that's exciting.

Exciting. No, I don't.

Oh, okay.

It's apple cider vinegar with cherries in it.

It's all good. It's all good, man. I mean, it sounds. Sounds really.

It sounds.

Yeah, it does. Sounds. Sounds hoity toy.

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, for those that. That don't know us, my name is Scott Bossman. I'm a land investor. And that is John Handsome Rob. It is not investor. Also a land investor. And for those of you chiming in tonight, maybe you've never seen us. We talk land investing every Tuesday night, 9pm Eastern, we stand and have a cocktail. We talk land investing. And tonight we have a very exciting topic. We're going to talk about profitable land counties. How to research profitable land counties from your couch. Couch. Our exact system revealed. But John and I were talking. I think if we revealed the exact system, we'd be here for much longer than an hour. And it would probably be a little bit boring. So we're gonna break it down. We're gonna keep it simple. And tonight, John, I thought what might be fun is if we do like the old. The old David letterman style top 10 reasons. That. Top 10 reasons counting is a good counting. How's that sound?

I think it sounds great.

All right. Yeah.

Yeah, I like it.

Well, cool. And I try to find some. I'M going to write down some cards and we'll like throw them up and we'll get into it.

Tablet behind me. It'll be great.

Nice. I like it.

I could only do it once.

And as always, community, please chime in with questions or comments or hijinks, whatever you want.

Like.

Preferably, hi, Jinx. Exactly. Because, yeah, we don't want to be too serious at 9pm at night. Well, it's 8pm early for you, John.

It's six o'. Clock. It's great. The night is young.

Night is young. Night is young.

I could have at least three more apple cider vinegars. This is great.

That's awesome. Okay, here, John, can you share while I'm setting up a few things on my end, technical wise, could you share just a win that you've had with the community in the last week with. With your land business? That's always fun to hear as well. I'm gonna let you chat while I set a couple things up over here, if that's cool.

Let's see. So when did I have. So I bought a note. That's a win.

Oh, really?

I know. So that was, I mean, yesterday, but basically I. Somebody needed some cash. They had sold a property on terms. So I bought the note and got deeded the property. And so it's just instant added monthly payments. And so.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Yay you. So what, what's, what's the monthly payment look like?

Asking me numbers? Oh, sorry.

No, no, no worries.

I think it's like two or three.

Hundred dollars over here. How much is it?

Like two or three hundred a month.

Nice.

Yeah, very good.

And is it a partial note, John? Or is it the, is it the whole note? How's that work?

The whole, the whole shebang? The whole shebang, yeah.

Very good. And you got it at a good price. Like what would you, what would you say, $0.50 on the dollar?

Better. Better than that? Yeah, yeah, 50 cents on the dollar for the remaining note. Balance is what I paid.

Okay, nice. Well, buying notes, selling notes, that's definitely a strategy that we utilize in this business. You know, selling notes, you can infuse some cash back into your business lot pretty quick and move on to the next deal. And then buying notes, it's nice because you, you get that passive income, recoup your money back over time and make some nice profit on top of it. So. Good. Good for you, John. It's a nice win.

It is a win.

It is a win. Very good. All right, well, I'm set Up on Instagram now. So who's ready for. We're gonna do top 10 list? We're not gonna go. I think we're gonna go ascending order, like, order of most importance first. So here. So. So, John, if I were to ask you, I think you're gonna get this first one, the. The number one thing that makes a county a good county, what would you say it is?

The first thing I would look for is, is anybody else there? Right. You want to make sure. Oh, did I get it? Wait, is that backwards other investors? Yes, I. I read gather junipers.

Oh, man. So was it backwards? Was it like.

No, it was. Right. I think it's backwards for you. Forwards for me.

Backwards for me, yeah.

All right.

Yeah. So tell us more. Why would we want to work in counties where there are other land investors?

So you want to go, like, you know, one of the things we say a lot, it's kind of like fishing, right? When you go fishing, you want to go where you see other people having success, right. And so you want to go where the fish are. Right. And it's the same thing with this, right. If you pick a county where there's literally no other land investor presence, like, the chances of that being a knockout county are very, very low. There's probably a reason you're not seeing anybody else there. So follow the other land investors and find an area where other people are seeing success.

I love it. Follow John Burnett. If you see. If you see, you know, Mark Podolski or Tate Litchfield or Mike Zano working in a particular county, you could venture to guess it's a good county.

Right.

And you're exactly right, John. You want to go where other people are doing deals. It's just, it's. If other people are doing deals there, the way has been paved to a degree.

Right.

And you don't want to go it alone.

Yeah.

One of the. One of the. One of the most exciting things when I started this way back when was I came across some data on the county website, and I saw Mark's name. I'm like, well, Mark's doing deals here, right? Must be a good county. And that was nice. It was nice to see that. So, number one, go where the other land investors are. You know, go where the wild things are. Remember that book, John? Yes. Go where the other land investors are.

We are wild things. I think also it's. It's worth talking about because, like, the common thing, you know, I think the gut reaction people have when they hear go where the other land investors are. Is, well, what about the competition? You know, and so, you know, bears saying that, like, generally with the markets that we're dealing with, there's lots of room for competition because they're very, very big markets. Right. And so you want to go where other land investors are. And when you go to the right market. Right. There is room for competition. And you're not, you know, you're like, I. I went to a popular county and have done deals there for coming up on eight years in July. Right. The first county I ever mailed to. And so just because you see other land ambassadors there doesn't mean that you're. You're putting yourself in a position where there's too much competition.

I love it probably is probably a county I work in as well, I.

Would venture to say. So.

So. Okay, awesome. So, number one, go where the other land investors are. We're teaching the equation tonight for folks for, well, for what makes a good county. I don't think equation is the right. The formula. We're teaching you the formula tonight. Is it formula and equation the same thing might be.

I don't know.

All right, so number two. So we did jot these down ahead of time. We're coming prepared tonight, Cap. Very exciting.

Yeah.

So number two, I will reveal number two, John. And the second thing that we want to look for in a County, number two of 10, is data. Data. I need a Sharpie or something because the penmanship isn't. See if I can find a Sharpie over here. All right, data. So first, to establish John Burnett works in the county. Second, we want to find some numbers. We want to find some data. We want to find some proof that land is being bought in this county for a deep discount. We want to see some proof that land is being sold in this county. So, John, if we talk about buying first, would you mind just sharing? Like, how would you maybe find. Figure out what land is being bought for in this county? Because we have to really kind of hone in on the pricing, and we also have to take into account these counties are huge. So it's probably better to focus on kind of one small area of a county.

Right? Yeah. So I'd say as far as data is concerned, you're going to be pulling up comps, Right? So and by comps, I mean comparable properties that are either listed for sale or that have sold. And so for that, you know, a lot of times I buy in rural subdivisions, right. And when people hear subdivisions, they think of, you know, 10th of an acre lots outside of a city. A lot of times I'm dealing with larger properties. Right. You can have subdivisions of thousands of five acre lots of.

Right.

And when you've got areas like that. Right. Then you can have a lot of comparables because there's a lot of comparable properties. Right. So what I'm looking for with the data is I want to see, you know, as people are listing their properties for sale, how much are they selling them for? And that gives me some kind of a benchmark of what I could potentially be selling the property at, which then allows me to identify what my offer price should be on that property.

Yeah, you're exactly right. I think it's a little bit easier to find data as far as what people bought land for in the county. Right. It's a little bit more difficult to find out what people sold land for in the county, especially in counties where we own or finance a lot of land.

Right? Yeah.

Because if I own finance land for five, six, seven, eight years, you're not going to know what I sold it for until five, six, seven, eight years from now. Yeah, so. So you're right. We, we look at other land listings to kind of get an inkling as to what the market is like in that area.

Right.

You can sometimes find sold comps on Zillow if it's a good Zillow area, or, or even some of the land sites as well, and Redfin. So see if you can find some data on the buy side and the sell side and that'll help you kind of hone in on, on, on the county. And if you see other land investors there and you can find data to support your journey into that county, then there you go. So that's number two.

I love that. Also, I forgot the baby is napping with me in this room. So he's going to briefly join us. He's waking up.

I love it. I love it, I love it.

Yeah, it's our new segment.

Kid of the week. Yeah, we're gonna be busy. We're gonna be busy for like three months. Okay. That's the newest one. What's his name again?

This is the newest one. This is the precious one. His name is Deacon.

That's right, Deacon. Hey, buddy. Look at that kid. I think this is the first baby John we've ever had on nightcap or. Oh, wow, Geek.

So you first. Babies first. He needs a onesie. Baby's first nightcap.

Baby's first nightcap. I love it. All right, awesome. Okay, we're moving on to number three. The third reason. The third Thing we're looking for in a county when we're first starting out as land investor. And it might be hard for you to guess this one found. I don't know.

Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna guess. Let's say I'm going. Fits your budget.

Oh.

Oh, sorry. I scared the baby. It's okay.

Oh, look at him. Oh, don't yell in the baby's ear, John.

I'm sorry.

Affordable. All right. Awesome. Yeah. So now, you know, John, my affordable is different than your affordable. I mean, you're. You're. You're swimming in. In cash over there. But. But what might affordable mean really starting out? Like, what. What's your definition of affordable? Like, what does that mean to you?

So affordable. I think what you need to do is think about how much capital that you have to spend on land, and you want to spread that out. You don't want to throw all of that money on a single deal, right? So if you've got, you know, if you've got $5,000, don't buy a $5,000 property, right?

Why not, John?

Because then you're. You are stalled out, right? So you think about it. Our business, there's kind of different wings of it, right? So there's acquiring property and then marketing property and selling property. Right? Now, if you spend all $5,000 on a single property, the whole acquisition side of your business is now shut down. Right? And so what we want to do, you know, and I think the strength of this model is that we're not trying to do a deal. We're trying to build a machine, right? So we want. We want to effectively ensure that we can keep things running and build that machine while we go. Gotcha.

So momentum is important.

It is.

Awesome. Yeah. And I think, you know, I think if you can go into this with the notion that. Yeah, like you said, $5,000, you know, go in with the notion that, okay, I want to create some momentum for myself with five or even 10 properties. You can buy five or 10 properties with $5,000. And when you get a portfolio of properties like that, it does create momentum and it provides you with opportunity. If you buy a property for 5,000, you just gotta wait around for that term sale. When we say terms, we mean owner financing. Okay. You gotta wait around for that retail cash deal. And that's, you know, in my experience, a $5,000 property doesn't even move as quick as, like, a $1,000 property. Right?

Yeah.

So buy five $1,000 properties and they move faster.

And I Think it's also worth saying, like, you know. Yeah. I mean, early on, you don't have to do, like, your knockdown killer deals right at the outset. Right. Build the machine. You can do that with little things. You don't have to do it with big things. Right. Like, so, I mean, even if you're starting out with a big budget, you can start with little properties and you can bring in big properties later. Right. That's totally fine.

Yeah, for sure. I wish Zaino was here, because if he was, I would have him share. Well, I'll share the analogy anyway. So I think he probably originally came up with this because he's the analogy guy. But, John, have you ever heard us talk about minnows, dolphins and whales?

No, I haven't. Tell me about minnows, dolphins and whales.

So we think of our land deals like minnows, dolphins, and whales. We buy a lot of minnows because they're cheap and they move fast.

Okay.

And that's a good place to start land business. And then as you said, as time goes on, then maybe we step to a little bit bigger property.

Right.

So when we say minnows, we mean properties for less than $5,000. Maybe like one $2,000 properties. Right. Dolphins are maybe like five to $10,000 properties. And then a whale could be, you know, 10,000 plus. I don't know about you, John, but those deals make me a little nervous. The whales.

Yeah, they do, right?

Yeah. Because you're parking. You're parking a lot of money in a property, and you're. And you're hoping it sells quick, right?

Yeah.

So. So anyway, that's the. That's the analogy I like after the whales. So number three. Oh, I didn't even put it on the cow. Being a slacker here. Number three, choose an affordable county for you. All right, that's number three. We're blowing through these and we're getting some comments. I think we'll come to those at the end. That'll be fun. Fun way to wrap it up. All right, number four. I like number four because. Just makes it easier. So, John, I'm draw a picture here and. And you tell me what I mean by this.

Oh, let's see. I'm going to say repeatability.

That's. That's a good word. That's your word lately. You like that word?

That's my word. My other guess would have been chocolate bar.

Yeah, chocolate bar. Or like an area that is. That is similar.

Right.

That has properties that are similar in size and nature.

Right.

They're cookie cutter. Cookie cutter areas. Yeah. Because they're. They're easy to price and they're easy to mail and they're easy to get. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry. They're easy to price, they're easy to get a list. They're easy to mail.

Right.

And we find that with our model of land investing, it's really great to choose an area. We're really talking a subdivision.

Right.

There's thousands of subdivisions in the United States that are all platted out like this. So let's find a subdivision in a good county that's affordable for us and find a list of those property owners. And mail makes it a little bit simple. Agreed. John?

I like it. I agree.

You agree? Anything more on that topic?

I mean, I think that covers it. Yeah. Like repeatability. Well, repeatability, yeah. Repeatability means scalability, you know? Yeah. So the more consistent your variables are, the more you can delegate, the more you can automate, the more you can pull yourself out of those processes and then be working five to ten hours a week. Yeah.

Awesome. I mean, they're squares, right?

They were kind of squares. There's.

There's desert squares, there's tree squares, there's mountain squares. There's all types of squares. And land investing. I'm bringing back the desert square. Man. I love the desert. No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah.

All right.

It's still it. Yeah, I like it. I'm still thinking about different flavors of chocolate. Just like. Yeah, it's great. Something for everybody.

All right, so number four is we're gonna call it platted subdivisions.

Okay. I like it.

That's number four. All right. We're blowing through the top 10 reasons or the top 10 things that make a good county. See if I can add that up there.

Okay.

All right, already coming up to number five. Let's see. Oh, I love this one. I actually. I actually love this one. I don't know. Let's see if I can give you a hint, John. Okay, I'm gonna give you a hint.

You.

You tell me what you think this might be. My hint is fast.

Okay. I'm gonna say, do people want to buy this? I mean, like, so it has to sell fast, right? Like, you want to property more.

I'm thinking more like, quick deals.

Okay.

What makes it quick? What makes it quicker?

Oh, okay. I was starting to go down the fast. Like, are we, like, intermittent fasting? Is it like, what's. What's.

I should have specified.

I'm thinking exclusively in terms of food. Right. Now, so, okay, so I would say that you want a county with good systems, right? Okay, so can you get good data? You good data? Can you file on Simplify? Can you actually get a record of deeds?

E Tools.

Oh, I like it.

E Tools.

I thought I said, Tony, you need a cat.

The writing is horrible.

Continue. Sorry. Yeah, so, yeah, so can you, can you submit your deeds digitally for recording? If you need to get a copy of a deed, do you have to spend three hours on the phone with the recorder and sending out mail requests with like handwritten checks to get that? Or is it something that you can actually just get digitally online? The easier it is for you to get a hold of the information you need for, for due diligence and to acquire the property. The easier it is again to scale that and turn that into a business.

Yeah, for sure. The easier it is to find data, the faster you can buy.

Right.

And, and the easier it is to, to notarize and record deeds, the faster you can sell. And so, so there's another tool in addition to county tools, Right. There are other tools out there that help us e record. And those, I mean, that's pretty phenomenal when you think about it. We can buy and sell literally the same property in the same day, sometimes by double E recording. Those services are amazing. There are even services now where you can e notarize. I know people have utilized this. Maybe they're overseas and finding a notary is difficult for whatever reason. Well, if you work in a lot of states now, John, New Mexico, Colorado, I don't know about. Those are the ones I've notarized in the most. I'm sure there are others. Arizona, I think as well, you can use a service like onlinenotary.net and get deeds notarized and do do it all remotely. So we love, we love tech, tech, tech savvy counties, right?

Yep. Where it's at.

All right, so number five, E Tools find the counties.

Trying to think of what I'm going to say when we get to 10.

I know we got five left. Ah, this would be easy. All right, number six.

Okay.

Now the last few here, I don't know if they're necessarily in order, but number six, another reason we like certain counties is because. You're not going to be able to read this. Oh, you're gonna try and have the land.

Low taxes and fees. I read it.

Why, why does it matter, John? Why does that help us in our business as we're, as we're becoming land.

Investors, so it lowers our holding Costs for one, right. You buy a property and you have to pay, you know, you know, $100 a month for an HOA fee or something like that, right. Then you're kind of like, it's kind of like your owner financing that, but forever.

Right.

And so you want something where your holding cost is low and your holding costs would be, you know, are there any taxes? Is it in an hoa? Are there HOA fees, those types of things. The lower your, your holding costs, you know, then like, the easier it is for you to. To hold that and then ultimately sell it. Right. Because high holding costs, you're passing that on to your seller, it makes it harder to sell. So I'd say that would be one big reason. And then. And I had another good reason, but I got distracted by my baby. Yeah, I think that, I think that, that it makes it easier to buy and hold and it makes it ultimately easier for you to sell. Oh, the other reason is that if somebody is not paying, so, you know, again, like all by properties, regardless of whether or not somebody has back taxes owed on the property. But if the back taxes are 20, 30, $40 a year, somebody hasn't paid taxes for four years, they do not want that property.

Right.

So it's like, it's a good indicator of, of kind of their emotional stance as far as the property is concerned. But again, like, I'll bribe irregardless of taxation status, but it is a good indicator of, you know, but his emotional standing for a property. So.

All right.

Okay. I'm going to relocate the baby really quick, so you go ahead.

I got you. Yeah. So low holding fees are important. Know what you're getting into, right. There are some areas out there that have property owners associations who, you know, where John said fees could be a hundred bucks a month to be a member of that association. We don't want to work in those areas. Typically, sometimes when you work within city limits, there are some municipality fees like availability fees for sewer and water. Those can add up quick. Those are also things you need to look into when you're doing due diligence on a property. If I'm going to buy a property, I'm not only checking into back taxes, but I'm checking into back POA fees and back municipality fees as well. All right, he's back.

I'm back. I heard all of that. You did a great job. That was a good stall. It was very informative.

Thank you. I appreciate it. I was feeling the pressure. All right, so let's see. I think we Got, I mean, we got three left. Maybe we'll come up with another one. So. Let's see here. What, what hint can I give you here, John? Broom. Broom. Bang, bang.

Oh, I like it. I thought you were just gonna draw a picture of a tent. So, recreation, can you.

Yeah.

Recreational appeal. Can you property. Yeah. Can you legally have fun on your property? So things like thinking about, you know, can you camp on the property? Like what can you do on the property? But camping is a big one, right? You legally camp on a property doesn't mean if you can't legally camp on a property, doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't buy it. But it might be a little bit harder to sell, right? If you can camp on a property, then that means that like a lot of times I'll, I'll sell to people. They want a spot that they can build on someday, like, you know, like a off grid cabin that they can build at some point in the future. But in the immediate term, it's their own private campsite. Right. And so there's immediate value to them in that recreational appeal. And so. Yeah, I love it. I love it.

I think you're exactly right. I think, I think our most marketable properties are the ones that you can camp on, live on, build now, build later.

Right.

Scenic, near mountains, near lakes, that type of thing. A step down from that are properties maybe you can't camp on. Maybe you can build on them, but you can't camp on them. And then, you know, people are trying to sell land to, oh, I own the land, I should be able to camp on it. Yes, Mr. Buyer, you should be able to. But it's not my rule, it's the county's rule.

Right.

And there are some areas that are a little bit more strict on that. Actually, the, the most marketable property, John. Actually, I skipped it. The most marketable one is the no zoning property. Oh, no restrictions, right.

Do whatever you want.

Do whatever you want. And there aren't as many areas out there as there may be used to be. So no zoning. Then you got the camping and living and recreation. Then you got the living only, right? The only thing you can do on this is build a home. And then every once I do find land that you can't do much with. Yeah, those are harder to sell or they, they take longer to sell, right? Yeah, but land is like, yeah, it's.

Got, you know, it's, it's a finite asset still. Like you can sell it, but yeah, your buyer pool goes down because in terms of practical Value, you know, there ain't much. Right.

But maybe it's in the path of growth or something like that.

Right. All right.

Recreational appeal, number seven.

We just need three more.

Okay, three more. I got two. And then, I don't know, we may need to fudge the last and then.

We'Ll just make one up.

All right, here's, here's, here's number eight. Mark says this all the time. He said it since I've known him. He always talks about land being within.

John, when I say that, within the path of growth.

Close.

Close. Within reach of a major city.

Major metropolitan area. Close to cities.

Oh, I like it.

Now when we say close, I mean, you know, an hour to three hours.

Yeah, right.

But I think when you do target areas that are within that far from a. From a major metropolitan area. Yeah, it's just, you know, it just increases your. Increases the likelihood that you're going to find a buyer in that metropolitan area who wants to go there for the weekend and bug out.

I like it. Target areas within reach of a target.

Oh, I like it.

I was trying to be clever. I'm trying to come up with a Scott like aphorism.

Oh, really? Well, Mike, I didn't think I had one of those. Had any of those, but thank you. That's so nice. Yeah. Or, you know, you know, nearest Walmart. You know, that's a big. It's a big deal. I mean, John, you get people that ask your team, right, where's the nearest Walmart to this property? People ask that. So it's good to know those things when you're selling these properties. Where's the nearest Walmart? Where's the nearest hospital? Right. Where's the nearest airport? Those are all things on the marketing side that you should be really aware with due diligence side. Marketing side should be aware of.

Aware of.

So, all right, so number eight people in the comments, is this helpful or is, you know, is this hopefully not a waste of your time? Wait, number eight, what did I say?

Close.

Close to Metropolis. Johnny, a Superman fan at all?

Yeah, I like Superman.

New movies coming out, you know, in a couple weeks.

I know. I'm kind of intrigued. Got that. It's the guy who directed Thor, right?

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Oh, Guardians. Okay, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It looks a little bit more comic booky. Yeah, I feel like.

Had a little bit of a rough time, like trying.

Yeah, they went real dark. Went real dark. And I don't know, that whole Zack neither Zack Snyder thing, but I loved man of steel. So I don't know this. Yeah, we'll see. I think, like, if you take the. The DCEU and you just have man of steel in there, I'd be happy. Yeah. The other stuff is. Is mediocre. Man of steel.

Take it or leave it.

Yeah, take it or leave it. All right. Number nine. The number nine reason that you want to invest in the county.

Number nine.

I think we talked on.

All right.

I don't like my. I don't like my number 9 and 10. John, do you have any other ideas?

Let's see. I'm gonna say, I guess this would be more of an area than a county, But I guess one question I would have is, can you build?

Can you build?

Yeah. Yeah. So you want an area like a. Yeah. Oh, and I've got a 10. I've got a 10. I just thought, all right, awesome. So. So can you build? Right. You want to. Ideally, for my buyers, they got a spot that they can recreate on that they can build on at some point in the future. Off grid. Totally fine. Right. But you know, in some areas, if you've got, you know, there are little tiny lots that aren't necessarily buildable. They're just exclusively recreational. Right. And so ideally, I want something that's both buildable and recreational. Although I will. You know, I'm okay with buying one or the other. I just think it's a little bit stronger when you've got both.

I like it.

Do I get a new 10?

I think you got it. Yeah. I feel a little bit defeated here. Coming in, you know, top 10 reasons.

It's okay.

Top. Top 10 things that make county good county. And here I am falling short.

But do I get a draw picture here? I'll draw you a picture, Scott.

All right, you draw me a picture.

This is a very confusing picture. Great. Okay. There's no way you're gonna get this.

Like, oh, I can't. I can't see it. It's glorious. Okay. I think. I think I got it. Road access.

You got it?

Yeah.

Can you get there?

Road access. Can you get there? I love it. Yeah. This is an important one, right? I think road access is definitely important, especially when you're first starting out. Can you get to the property? And if there's not a great road, is there at least, like, a paper road or is there legal access?

Right. Yep.

So the adventurer can get to the property.

Right. So the best is plotted in a developed road. The second best is platted rope that's not developed, which is great. And then the worst is landlocked, right?

Yeah.

And so ideally new landlocked. Yeah.

There's a lot of areas out there that are platted with no legal access. Kind of weird.

Yeah.

And weird. Yep. So, I mean, John, I think we did a good job.

I can't believe we came up with 10. Somebody needs to write these down.

I'm hoping we didn't leave anything like major very important. I'm feeling like we, feeling like we might have left something out, but I don't know. Let's go to the, let's go to the, to the comments. Thanks everybody for coming. Martin is here. Daniel, Kelly, Anna, we got a good crowd tonight. Jeremy, Robert and Kate. Chris, Don. Chris Black. All right, cool. So let's see here. What selection criteria do you look at for the state that the county is in? For the state that the county is in? So I think Daniel's asking, is there any, is there any. Do we just worry about the county? Do you worry about the state?

I think like, I mean there are some pieces of information that are helpful at the state level. Like the first thing is like, are there other land investors there? Right. Some counties or some states you're not going to see a lot of other land investors there. And it's because, you know, for instance, on, you know, some of the northeastern states, it's an attorney close date. Right. You have to have an attorney for the closing. Right. And so it increases your closing costs really substantially. So you know that that makes it a more challenging area to build a business out of. Right. But a lot of that's really just weeded out by going where other land investors are. Right. Because they have a track record. The other thing is this can be nice, but there are disclosure and non disclosure states when it comes to sales data. Right. In some states like Texas, you know, you can say how much did you sell the property for? And then you just fill it out. None of your business. Right. And nobody, nobody knows except for, I mean the state knows, but it's not publicly accessible. Right. And so for you to get a hold of that data of what things actually sold for is a little bit trickier. And you're kind of using active comps more than you are actually, you know, sold comps. And so that's, that's one thing that is helpful. It's not make it or break it, but, but it's nice to be in a disclosure state so you can see what things sold for.

Those are two great points, John. I can't add to that. That was A great look at that.

I bet Mike would be taking notes right now.

He would be taking notes, yes, yes. On his. Whatever it's called. All right, this is. This is a good question, Kelly. Kelly's seeing a lot of land investors in areas like Mojave county and Deming, New Mexico, for super cheap. But after researching the areas, the areas are really lacking in resources. For example, water. A well would be required. And with the water table being so low, this can cost someone building there upwards of $50,000. I'm just wondering if these types of places are selling. So I would say they are still selling, and I would say that people find workarounds. Right. A lot of these counties, Kelly, you can use container systems, and I think a lot of people use water containment systems rather than wells. But, yeah, wells. Wells can be expensive. Right. Especially when the water is deep. So. Yeah. I don't know. Anything that you would add to that, John?

No, I think that's good. I think the other thing is that, you know, like, if you're doing a holding tank, you know, a lot of places you can do water hauling for. Not crazy expensive. They're actually delivery services in some areas that we invest in. Right. Where you can actually make that happen. So sometimes it requires creativity. But you see people building out there, right. And that's generally something that I like to look for, is I like to find areas where, you know, I don't need to see a lot of homes, but I want to see, like a home here and a home there and over there and over there. Right. Because that when I look in an area, if I like, just zoom out and turn off the flat lines and it's just like there is zero things. Right? Yeah. It's the moon, Right. I want to see some houses on the moon. If there's some houses on the moon. I think I'm breaking the analogy. But. But if. If I see some kind of development activity happening out there, that's an indicator to me that it can happen. People are doing it so.

Exactly right. I always think too, like, if it has road access and there's a spattering of activity in the area, if I can see that there's life there. Right. There's not much I won't buy at a deep discount because I know somebody's doing it out there.

Right. Yeah.

So hopefully that helps. Kelly Martin has a great, great comment here.

Repeatability. Repeatability. That's a very ironic state. Yeah, I like it.

You get it. Oh, man. Robert and Kate. Kate Hoas. Do you know Scott Todd's favorite equation, John.

No, tell me. Tell me his favorite equation.

Oh, really? Okay, I'm gonna show you. In the chat here.

We just love Scott Me plus hoa equals pain.

It's. Here's Scott Todd's favorite equation.

POA equals no.

Yes. Yes.

I thought. I thought of an equation the other day that made me think of it. I'm thinking of more Scott Bossman aphorisms.

So.

Wow. I don't even know what an aphorism is, but I'm.

I think this is the right word.

But it was set it and forget it equals set it and regret it. Ooh, isn't that good? I may have had chatgpt help me a little bit with that one, but it's a good one.

I like that. I like it. I like it. Cool. I'm. I'm just. I'm flattered. Like that I have aphorisms. Whatever word that is. Whatever that means.

I like it.

Aneurysms and platypus and. I don't know.

I mean, an aphorism is better than an aneurysm.

Yeah.

Greater than. If we're still in the equation.

Yes. We probably need less than. But yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you, guys. Oh, saying good stuff from. Good stuff from Ricky Tharp and Chris Black. Thank you, guys. That's nice to hear. Oh, yeah, this is. This is. I think this fits along the lines of the. The recreational appeal.

Right.

Close to tourism sites, for sure. We love that.

All right.

And, Kelly, we aren't going to give you all our secrets. What areas of the US you're having the most success with, personally, but personally, I would say John. John Burnett likes the west, and he likes the Southwest, and he may even like, maybe like the. The Southeast sometimes.

Yeah. So.

But I'll just tell you, Kelly, go. Go to some land selling websites and see where people are selling land. I don't know what Anna's comment means. Pia.

Oh, so it's. It's poa.

Poa equals pia. I like that even better, actually. Well, it really does depend because I've bought and sold some great properties that have a POA. However, the POA fees are like 100 bucks annually. Yeah. I think I've bought a few that are like 300 bucks annually. But when the fees are like 300 bucks annually and the taxes are like 50 bucks annually.

Right.

It's like whoever I sell it to on financing, they need to pay like 30 bucks a month in fees. Something like that. That's probably like my limit. I don't like going Much more expensive than that on poas. And. Yeah.

So.

And then just again, for everybody on the call, if you do buy in a poa, make sure you check the back POA fees because those things can.

Be exorbitant and they belong to you. If you buy the property, you inherit.

It and they belong to you. Did you ever make it to the end of your list? We did. We did it. Oh, wait, no.

And remailed the list. We were so proud of ourselves.

And did you ever remail that list? Yes, we remail for sure. Yeah, we'll remail an area, you know, that we like multiple times a year.

I think it's one of those things, like, I definitely overthought remailing right when it came, like, when I got to the bottom of my list, I was like, what do I do? What are they going to think if they get another letter from me? And I, like, it was just fine. Like, zero things happened. It was just like, I just kept on doing deals, you know, so remailing is absolutely a strategy that you should utilize. You know, I think generally we try to keep it within 90 days is kind of how we're not within 90 days. On the other side of 90 days is kind of when we, when we email. Once you hit that 90 day point. But yeah, I mean, you pick a good area with repeatability, repeatability and repeatability, then you can just churn through that thing. You get to the bottom of the list. If you got a big enough list, you can go back to the top and keep churning and do a lot of business there. Yeah.

Love it, love it, love it, love it. And, and the other thing is when you sell properties in these areas, you gather leads in those areas. Right. And you, you collect those leads and you put them in a little black book, a little Rolodex for future. Yeah, for, for future dealings. And you know, we have some like, popular subdivisions that we like to work and, and we'll put them on in a deal the week email or. John, I know you do. We have repeat buyers. Like, I have repeat buyers who I know they like, land in a certain area. So most people are getting a call and an email and a text before certain properties on the market because they know they like land there.

Yep. Yeah, I like the idea of you having a little black book of land buyers.

Yeah.

Send them flowers every month. It's great.

Yeah. Ricky Tharp came in a tad late. What was the first item in the list? The first item of the list, Ricky, as you know, is just go where other land investors are.

I'm glad you remember. I have forgotten.

Yeah, that's the most important one. So.

Yeah.

And then Kelly says has spent hours looking, I think he's, he's talking about looking for land in more affordable areas or in more affordable areas. Seeing the vast majority of low cost properties in the southwest in the rural Arkansas. I was just curious that it was your experience selling in those areas has been successful. You know, I would say one other thing Kelly, about your comment earlier about was the tandem, I think about the. Yeah, it was about the water. A lot of our buyers, they just want a bug out property. They just want a place and go to on the weekend with their RV or their toys or their guns or their whatever. Right. And they just want a place to go to on the weekend and they don't need a water well for that. They just need to bring their 24 pack of Walmart water that they got not far away.

Yeah.

And, and it makes them really, you know, we get pictures from people. Hey, one ops property this weekend had an awesome time. Right. It's out in the middle of nowhere and they had an awesome time. So that's another thing I would just say to you is, you know, I, I think again, as long as you can see some, some, some detail, some data that, that deals are being done in the area. There's a little bit of life in the area. There's road access there. People will use that property or they'll pass it down or that type of thing. So.

Yeah.

All right, where. Oh, we got a bunch more comments. What, what would you consider, John Burnett low taxes?

I mean like I, I bought properties where the taxes were below $5 a year. That's like super low. Right?

Yeah.

And then, you know, you get the tax bill, it's like 350. You're like. Yeah, I mean that's, those are crazy low. But generally, you know, for me, low taxes would be Ideally, I mean sub 200, certainly sub 100 is better. Right. And those are, those are great. And that means that when I'm prorating those taxes, you know, kind of like you were saying, Scott, you know, when you're starting to, you know, you've got your, your monthly sale cost for the property and then all of a sudden you're tacking on, you know, $50 of taxes plus $30 of HOA fees. Well, that's $80 and added monthly cost, right?

Yeah.

And so really I want that monthly cost to not be exorbitantly high for my buyers.

Yeah, for sure. I, I, excuse me. I agree with all that. That was a, that was a violent hiccup that came out of nowhere.

Violent hiccup. I like it. That can be your album name.

Violent hiccups. The violent hiccups. Like, yeah, Don Thrasher. Where can you find information on what you can legally do on a property? So, yeah, I mean, there's a few ways in my opinion. You can go to the county zoning website, you can call county zoning. You can do a simple Google search. You can spend some time looking at land ads in that area. Right. So you know, maybe you see an ad by a certain land investor and they, they publish the zoning in there. You know, sometimes there's zoning codes, sometimes there are zoning abbreviations. And then you Google that and you learn more and then you look at other land investors ads, you learn more and then you just need to cross, you know, you do the trust and verify what you're seeing on the land investing sites with the county data, of course, but those are some ways I can think of where you can find information on that stuff. All right, Kelly, when pulling lists from assessors offices of property owner delinquent taxes, is there an easy way to narrow down the list of properties that do not have a dwelling on them? There should be, but it depends on the county. If you're getting a list from the county, just make sure you ask for the vacant land list. And sometimes there are use codes on a list that you get from the county and you have to know what those use codes are. And sometimes you could tell by the, like a lot of, a lot of the lists you get from the county, they have, they have the tax amounts on there. So if the tax amounts are nominal, like zero to a hundred dollars a year, there's probably not a home on that land. But if the tax, the annual tax amounts are like in the, you know, closer to a thousand bucks or higher, there's probably something on that land that has been assessed for higher tax value purposes.

Yeah, assess value too. Yeah, I mean, it would kind of be the same thing. Like if you got a sea of properties that are assessed at 5,000 and then one that's assessed at a hundred thousand, that's the same acreage.

Right.

You know, good chance that one of these things is not like the others.

Yeah, exactly. Ricky Tharp. I love that. 24 pack of Walmart water, aka Natty Light. Oh, Natty Light. Come on now. We. John, have you ever had Natty Light? Natural Light?

I have. I have never had. Oh wait, it, what is it?

It's just a. It's a. It's a. Oh.

Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. Nope, I haven't had it. I thought it was like a specific brand of Walmart water.

No, no, it's a natural.

Remember, I'm the guy drinking apple cider vinegar.

Yeah, exactly.

A lot.

A lot of college kids, including my son, drink Natty Light in PT school. For me, it was old style. Old style was the. Which, by the way, I live in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and I don't know if you knew this, John, but lacrosse Wisconsin is known for the world's largest six pack.

Oh, wow.

It's an old style. What's that? It's mine. To the backyard. Natty Light is considered the number one world's worst beer. You could look it up. I totally agree with that.

Totally agree.

Here's to you, Dan.

Cheers.

Well, John, that hour blew by. Ricky Dark spindle across. Love it. We miss Mark. Of course we miss. We miss Mike. I mean, if they weren't so hoity toity, they'd be honest.

I know they would be. I did. I did have cherries in my drink. I ate the cherries. It was awkward. I never know what to do when you get down to the cherries.

Yeah. I think on the hierarchy of hoity toity ness, I am way at the bottom and you guys are above me. So. Anyway, good to see you, John. Nice. Oh, should we. Let's see what we're talking about next week. Okay, let's do that. Let's. Let's put a little teaser, a little teaser out there for the folks. All right. It's already. What is it next next week? It's already June 24th next week. And we don't have. Oh, yes, we do. Oh, I love this. The topic is. Or the title is I've never seen 90% of my land properties. How to invest from anywhere.

I like it. I like it. I've never seen 100% of my land properties.

I was going to ask how many. How many of your properties have you actually seen, John?

Yeah, this many. I mean, I've seen them like photographers, like photography. Right. So I mean, I have seen.

I've seen two of mine in 10 years. This would be a good topic. And I've seen some. Actually, this was fun. I. I've seen some from an airplane. Oh. Flying over. Because I knew the geographical features of the area are hard to miss. And I'm like, I own land right there. So I saw. I saw the aerial view, which we look at every day.

Right? That's why? It's part of your due diligence. Book a flight and just grab your.

Phone, lean out the window.

All right.

Anyway, that'll be a fun topic next week. Hopefully. Hopefully. Mike will be back. And, John, I appreciate you. I gotta go pick up all these papers on my floor now. All right.

Enjoy it.

All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Have a good night. Thanks for joining. Bye. Bye. Cheers.