ROUND TABLE—The Rules Of Land Investing—Guidelines For An Acceptable Deal

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Art of Passive Income roundtable. Podcast. With me is, like, a pretty cool group of land investors, but we are missing Mark. Mark is out today, but the show goes on without him. You see, that's what happens when you don't show up. You have other priorities. With me, though, is, you know, Zen master Mike Zaino. Mike, how's it going?

It's going good. So they got my neighbor beeping because my dog jumped out of the yard again.

But, hey, dog jumps out of the yard, neighbors are beeping.

Yeah.

What are they yelling like Tom Brady? You know, Tom Brady's in the hood or what?

Yeah. Where is that jerk letting his dog out again? No, I don't know, but everything's great. I'm doing great now. I'm not a huge. You know, I watched it for the commercial, so it was a win for me.

Yeah, it's okay to admit that. You watched it for Justin Timberlake. It's okay. It's okay.

Mike, I was under the impression was Lady Gaga slightly disappointed.

Oh, yeah. See, they set you up for that one, huh? All right, with us also is Bear Land. Aaron. Bearland. How's it going?

Hey, it's. It's going pretty good after a harrowing weekend.

What happened? What happened?

Bearland. Bryce, our first teenage driver, had a pretty significant fender bender. He rolled his vehicle, but, you know, God's on our side, and he is fine, and his friend that was with him is fine. So the vehicle's a total. But the important thing is everybody's all right.

Good to hear that.

That's tough as a parent.

Yeah, glad to hear that. With me also is Eric. Eric Peterson. Eric, how's it going?

I'm doing good, thanks.

Good, good. With us also is Scott Bossman. There's going to be two Scotts on here. The Scotts are taking over this week. Scott, how's it going?

I'm doing well, thanks. Digging out of the snow here in Wisconsin.

Yeah.

Why.

Why is it. Why is it that you guys, like, want to live where it's cold like Tate? Do you understand that?

No.

Character, Scott.

It does not build character.

Builds character. What are you guys talking about? Short sleeves.

I'm wearing short sleeves today. It's 10 degrees out.

Yeah.

I was in the pool on Sunday, so, you know.

Touche.

And clearly, if you haven't figured out, Tate is with us as well. Tate, welcome.

Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks for the. Making the introduction easy.

Yeah.

Hey, today, let's talk about. Let's talk about something that's really prevalent right now. And it's, you know, like the craziness in the markets. The cryptocurrencies are going crazy. You know, bitcoin, man, it like, ran up everybody. Like, there were instant millionaires from bitcoin. But there was also, like, everybody was loving the stock market. But then in just a matter of days, like, the stock market has, like, tanked, and I'm sure it will be back. Like, you know, when you bet on America, you're betting, like, in the stock market. I'm sure we'll be back. It's a short term blip. But that said, I mean, can you imagine, like, what it would be like if our land had, like, a price on it? Like, every single minute it's updated. Mike, how. How in the world would you function if you had to, like, look at the pricing of the land every single minute? And then what do you think about the stock market and these bitcoin things?

I don't know. I don't think I could crack the cryptocurrency code, you know, I mean, if I had to crack the code, like, on that, like, a land, was that hard? I don't know. Geez. I mean, it's just such a different model, and there's no way I could figure that cryptocurrency. And I know I've done some stock trading, you know, a little bit when I was in college, and all those kind of, like, examples you go through. I just. Not for me. I think that there are people that are very skilled at it, and, you know, they are. They're in charge of retirement plans and things of that nature. But, you know, the land is such an easier model. It's just so streamlined, so simple, so automated. Right? I mean, you talk about the five plates, right, Scott? I mean, we got these five plates of the business, and you spin them and then they connect like gears. And it's just a machine. It's just, you know, you put money in and more money comes out. It's kind of bizarre, but it's no complaints here.

I mean, it is weird, though, because, like, you know, it's so funny. And I mean, I found myself, like, looking at this the other day because I was looking at, you know, the cryptocurrencies, and I'm thinking like, oh, man, I'm missing the boat over here. And then, you know, you see this just massive increase in the stock market, you know, over a period of time, you know, record highs. And then I'm thinking like, man, I'm missing the boat over there. Mike, did you feel like you were missing the boat at all.

No, no, because I think, you know, my boat is a different ship. You know, I got land, you know, and it's my land deals. You know, buy more land, selling more land than ever. You know, everything is just growing at such a great pace because of, you know, the understanding we've developed. So, no, I don't feel like. I feel like people are missing this boat, be honest with you. And, you know, this is kind of. It's not a very big boat to get on.

Right.

It's a small niche. Right. It's just like, you know, people can, like, they'll look at this, the stock market boat, and then here comes a little Lambo, and no one sees it, right? Nobody's jumping on it, but here we go, like, waving everybody, you know, it's like out to see we go. We're making money. So I don't feel like I missed any boat. I'm not, you know, I don't. No way.

No.

No Shiny object syndrome for Mike. But bear land. Aaron, what about you? Are you. Were you looking at the stock market? Bitcoin? Did you do anything with those two? Are you still doing anything with those two?

Actually, yes.

Wow.

When I first started, I was mostly in the market, so I pulled, oh, probably like, 90% out to go into land. And so I was looking. What I have left in there now is actually kind of a hedge, kind of fun. Not a fund, but just a group of investments that are a hedge against the market. So if it starts doing really poorly, I should do better, but that's the only thing I left in. So I definitely did miss the boat on all those gains. But, you know, I'm looking at, you know, one of the charts right now said I had a taxable gain of 3.32%. That is pretty sad when compared to. To what we do here in our business, you know, And I'm actually even considering pulling the rest of it out to buy some more land because, you know, maybe the market will go down, maybe it won't for a while, but, you know, I can. I can put that money into land and sell that and make 300 to a thousand percent. Like, where is the. Like, where's the decision there? You know, it just takes. Takes some time to wrap your head around it and really realize, you know, once you've got it going, you know, go all in, because it's just. There's nothing else out there that's gonna do this on a regular basis. Sure, you might make a ton of money One time off an investment because the market swings really hard one way or another. But, you know, you're not gonna do that day after day after day, like we're able to do so. So, yeah, I was in it. I'm in it just a little bit, but I'm still pulling out because there's something much better on the horizon.

That's great. And it's crazy, too. It's funny that you talk about, like, how it's much better and that people just don't know about it. It is absolutely amazing. Kind of, you know, the fact that people will look at something and, you know, kind of kind of discount it because they don't know much about it. And I guess I'm doing the same thing with, like, the cryptocurrency. I don't really know much about it. I'm like, let's pretend it's pretend stuff.

But.

Eric, you have any insight on any of those two things? The stock market or Bitcoin or the currencies?

Yeah, so I just, you know, as we're talking about this, I just started thinking about, you know, the stock market and even cryptocurrencies even more so. Just the volatility that, you know, as a player in those arenas that you experience and comparing that to land. And the only volatility we really have is defaults. And sure, if the economy gets bad, we can have more defaults, but ultimately we have assets behind those defaults, so we're not really losing in the end. I mean, sure, we could have less cash flow and things of that nature, but we still have the assets. So that's kind of how I look at it.

It's funny because to me, the biggest challenge that I have when it comes to stocks is really the fact that I don't control it. Essentially, I'm giving my money to the stock market, and yeah, I own stock in a company, that stock is going to go up if the company management does well, and it's going to go down if they don't do well. And maybe it's just me working for a large company, a large publicly traded company, and you look at the management sometimes you're like, holy cow, they're making these decisions and they're messing with my money. When it comes to lamb, like you just said, like, you own it. You're managing that asset. It's all up to, really, you and how you. How you manage it. And I agree, it's kind of cool when you think about it, like, that sense that you're the one that's driving it. You are the management of it, and you're not in it for anybody else. And at the end of the day, you just own an asset. Scott. Scott Bossman, what do you think, man?

I totally agree. I mean, with land, I can sleep well at night. I know what I'm waking up to the next morning. I know what my portfolio looks like. I know it's not going anywhere. I mean, look what happened yesterday with the stock market over, what, 1500 point drop in one day? I mean, I look at. I got a lot of money sitting in a retirement account. I looked at that last week and I thought, wow, that looks amazing. And then I looked at it this week. You know, it's just one of those things where land is such a. It's such a stable investment and the returns are phenomenal and glad I found it for sure.

Awesome. Tate, are you messing with cryptocurrencies at all? You know, because you've been trying to get me to do it. I don't know, man.

I don't know.

I'll admit it. I'll admit it.

I did.

I had shiny object syndrome of the worst type. I bought into it. I did quite a little bit of trading in it, and to be honest, I made some money. It was really awesome. And then I kind of started coming to my senses a little bit. And maybe about the last month or so, when I first. When I saw my first real dip, and I thought, I don't know, I don't know, I had friends who were saying, go all in, go all in. And in the back of my head, I'm thinking, what am I buying? I don't know. I don't even know what I'm buying right now, but it's very valuable. I can buy a little bit and sell it for a little bit more periodically. And so as of, I don't know, mid January, I actually got out of it entirely. And I'm trying to close that chapter of my life. I'm not going back to it. I'm done. Especially after what I'm seeing right now. I mean, I was on the phone last night with a really good friend of mine, and he was making, you know, he was one of those overnight, I don't know, thousand there. He made a ton of money on this. He wasn't a millionaire from it, but he made tons and tons of money on it. And I called him yesterday, he said, I'm down 50% on my portfolio. I was like, I don't even. I'm sorry. Maybe it'll turn around. I don't know. I mean, I look at what's going on with our note portfolio, and it's like nothing's changed. Despite the stock market, despite the cryptocurrencies, it's just kind of remained the same. And for better or worse, it's just consistent. I mean, every month you sell a little piece of property, you get a little bonus, right? It's a little raise every single month. And so, Scott, I know you're over there, happy as can be, but I'm out. I'm out of it. I listened. I'm done.

Okay. All right. So listen, Tate, today is what, February? Beginning of February, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Now, I want everybody to know what Tate did to me. I want you guys to know. I'm gonna go back to the transcripts because I just pulled them up, right? January 16th. January 16th, Tate sends me a box. It says, and I'm quoting here, time to buy our bitcoin. It's at 11,300 me. LOL. The response from Tate says, you can't afford. Not to Tate, what's $7,300?

I would.

If listening to Tate's financial advice, I would have lost, like, $4,000 per, like, coin.

I don't even know what to say. That's what happens when you invest in invisible things.

Now, for those of you that can't see, Tate's face is really, really red right now. He can't believe. He can't believe his words have come back to haunt him. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed.

But I will say, you know, I've closed that chapter of my life right now.

Sounds like it's the right time to buy.

There's blood in the streets. There is that argument, right?

Well, you could be like, you know, like Warren Buffett says, like, buy when everybody's fleeing, right? Like, buy when everybody's afraid to. But, I mean, you bring up a very valid point. You know, real assets. Eric said it. Real asset. You know, at the end of the day. At the end of the day, you know, I think that that's really what you have to look at. You know, I think you have to determine whether an asset is right for your portfolio based on, number one, do you understand it?

Right.

Like, I truly. And I'm just being honest, you know, like. And Tate was kind of making me feel bad around. Around the January 15th time frame, actually, at the last boot camp, when he said to me, I can't. He said to Mark, and I. He said, I can't believe you Guys are, like, so involved with technology that you don't, like, you're, you're, you're missing out on the cryptocurrency. And I was really starting to feel bad. I'm like, man, is this one of those investments that, you know, like, is like, you know, that I'm really missing out on because I haven't studied it. And I went back and I studied it, and it, to me, it Bitcoin and all those cryptocurrencies, they're, they're. I think that they have a place in the future. To what level? I don't know yet, but I think it just goes back to even setting up some rules of investing that you have. Like, if you don't understand an investment, maybe you should stay out of it. Mike, do you have any, like, rules? And I'm going to circle this back around the land, but do you have any rules of land investing that, like, you follow every single time? I think I like, I do. Do you have any that if it doesn't have this, you're out?

Yeah, I mean, we review a ton of deals. You know, we've sent out a ton of mailings. We have a lot of deals coming in, and there are certain kill points. Right? I mean, we want the best of the best. So, yeah, we, you know, it's something, you know, here's the thing that kind of reminds me to pull this kind of back full circle is our business is boring. But that's a good thing. I always tell people this is a repeatable, redundant process, AKA it's boring. But since it's boring, we can develop systems as you're talking about, or criteria. We can develop VAs and software and delegation. We can use tools such as LGPass, and we can, we can automate it. So boring serves us well. So, yeah, I do have criteria, you know, looking at land, you know, if I have. And it goes back to what you always call too Scott, the gotta have landitis, right? So if you send out a couple of mailings here and there and you get a few back, then you're gonna be really vested in those accepted offers, and it's gonna lead you to maybe make a decision that you wouldn't if you had a selection of 10 or 20 properties to choose from. So having that volume is important. But, I mean, I do think that it's important to start the business on a micro level. And as you always kind of give the instructions, 20 a day, 100 a week, it brings a little bit in just to process the flow but that flow has to slightly increase, and you have to learn how to handle it. So part of that is having a criteria to look at. Large selection, like it was told to me in the beginning, like you should every day, like what I should be doing, I should have a stack. Now it's a digital stack, but I should have a digital stack of properties where these are accepted offers and counter offers. What do you like? Well, this is good. This is good. This is good. Get rid of that, get rid of that. I'll revisit that maybe another day when my deal flows slows down. So I think, yeah, there's definitely. And I think it traces back to having choice, and choice comes back to having massive action on what the most, arguably the most important part of our business is, the county research and the mailing. So those two components create everything else and allow you to have a very selective process. When you buy land because you have choice, it's like going to a buffet. It's like, well, maybe this, maybe that, as opposed to going to a pizza buffet. And all you can choose is pizza, maybe some pepperoni. I don't know. We get to get the full buffet, right? And we check, we choose what we love, and then that's what we get. I don't know if that's a good analogy.

All right, we just went from cryptocurrencies all the way back to food. A man that knows his food because he's out there, like, I don't know, killing it himself. Bear Land Baron, rules for investing in land. What do you got?

Rules we buy. I don't. There's not a lot that I don't buy. Now I don't buy everything. I guess there are rules because, like, if I bought everything that I had an accepted offer on, I would have, like, run out of money a long, long time ago to buy land. So, you know, I only buy things if I can buy them at my offer or less. You know, I don't really entertain that meeting in the middle with the counteroffer. You know, I mean, I like the counteroffer because it opens up conversation, but I'm not going to usually now, when I had the. Gotta have landitis, yeah, that was a thing. But then I, you know, realized that, you know, when you start raising your. Your amount you're willing to pay, you start limiting yourself on the back end. You know, it makes it like if. If for some reason that area just didn't sell really well, it makes a little harder to wholesale something or to get rid of it. Maybe on another platform that. Where you can just kind of get rid of for cash quickly, that sort of thing. So I have some pricing rules. I used to have rules about some areas in certain counties. I just wouldn't buy in there anymore after I had some bad luck. But then, you know, I found if you can break the code of that area, then that can open that up, too. And now, you know, we've got some rules for that area that actually make it a pretty good area where if you stick to these rules really tightly, you can do pretty well. But if you even step outside of them, all of a sudden you're in a bad spot. So we definitely have some rules. Most of them are kind of around pricing, not so much the actual piece of land, because, like Mark says, everything does sell, but if you can get into it, Right, you're in a better position, even if you have to hold it a little longer, you know.

Yeah, rules for buying. That's. I think that's a good thing. Eric, you have some rules that you follow.

I think Aaron kind of touched on my main point, and that is that, you know, if I can't buy it at the price that I'm comfortable with, I'm moving on. You know, I think that's. It's a little hard to do up front when you're just starting. But once you understand the business and, you know, kind of full cycle and everything else, you know, that's a pretty easy rule to live by because, you know, there's just another deal right around the corner. And then. Yeah, I mean, over time, if you work in accounting a lot, you might start to develop some kind of filters and rules based on, you know, just what, you know, from your experience of what sells, what doesn't sell, what, you know, hangs around for a long time and, you know, you don't really want that in your inventory kind of stuff. And I mean, really, that's. That's all there is to it.

Awesome. Scott. Scott Bossman, any rules?

Yeah, some rules in my business, I mean, it's really a numbers game, right? So I try to follow rules of, you know, if I. If I'm getting 800 to a thousand offers out a month, I'm going to have a lot of deals to do due diligence on. So that's a personal rule, is getting the offers out. And, you know, our automated systems make that possible. LG Pass. I mean, you're able to get those offers out the door at the click of a button, which is pretty phenomenal. And then, you know, it Just comes down to doing due diligence and making sure that I'm buying pennies on the dollar and I'm getting 300 to 1,000% return or that, you know, 72% annual yield on those terms deals. So, you know, making sure that the numbers are there, making sure there aren't back taxes and liens on the property and that it's going to be a good investment for me. Cash deals, I'm a little more lenient on. I mean, if I can double my money, I'll do that all day long.

So who wouldn't?

Who would, right.

Tate, what rules do you have? Rules for buying, selling, whatever.

I mean, they're pretty simple, right? Nothing. Nothing really different than what other people stated here. I'm looking at how long it's going to take me to recover my initial investment, what the comps are, and how quickly I can get it done and assigned to somebody else. Because ultimately, I'm not a land collector, right? I'm a land seller. I don't want to collect anything. I kind of learned that basically, you know, watching Mike Zano. Mike Zaino holds. He doesn't collect any land, right? It's in and out his door pretty much immediately. And that's pretty powerful. When you learn that, it's quick to. It's better to get this stuff on contract ASAP or flipped or whatever you need to do to get that money coming back in. So that's my. That's our business model. And we're making sure that ultimately we provide a good return to our investors.

Right.

Our families. And if we can do that, then it makes sense.

All right. All right.

Good rules to live by. And, you know, don't let Tate. That's one of my rules. Don't let Tate talk me into Bitcoin. Man, I dodged that one. You did. All right. We are at that time. You know what time it is, right? It's the tip of the week time. Mike Zano's looking confused. Mike, what's your tip of the week? Just kidding. Just kidding. Because the community spoke and they said that they wanted to hear tips. Alternating between Mike and. I think it was bear land. Aaron, is that right?

No, I think it was actually Eric. No name Peterson.

All right, all right.

I'm not giving him a nickname, but, Eric, I tried to cover for you as long as I can, but the community has spoken.

They might want to hear from, you know, someone we don't hear from.

Well, we're gonna throw that out there. We're gonna throw that out there. For the side. But we will deliver our promise. So, Eric, what is your phenomenal tip of the week?

All right, so we are going with an app today that I use to manage my mail. So, like most of us, you know, my domains are set up with Google. I use, you know, Gmail to host those email accounts. And I am not a big fan of checking my email in the browser. So I've always been looking for, like, the perfect email app. I don't like the Mail app on the. On the Apple platform, so I don't use that a lot. And I came across shift S H I F T, it's called. The website is tryshift.com and I've looked at this before, and I may have even recommended it before, but they've made some updates in the past couple months that made it work for me. And basically it's just an email client, you know, lets me connect my email accounts to it. But along with that, I can still utilize some Gmail extensions and apps that I would only have access to in the browser otherwise. So, for example, I talk a lot about Mixmax and that I use that.

For.

My templates and sequences and different things like that. So Shift allows you to use the Mix Max plugin, which, to me, that was what I needed in order to be able to move outside of the browser. So that's my tip of the week. I really like it. Yeah.

Nice.

I like it.

I'm gonna try Shift.

I like it a lot.

I will tell you that I have used this. I stopped using it for a while, and I can't remember why I stopped using it, because I really did like it. Because, Eric, like you said, I don't like looking at the email in the browser. And I got rid of all the notifications. And I think what happened was it caught me at a time where it wanted me to pay for it. I just didn't want to pay for it. So I might delete it. But I'm looking and I can't remember if I still have it. No, I don't have on my computer right now.

Yeah, so I think I did pay for it. That's. That's a good point. I think I did pay, like, an annual fee for it. And the. The other thing I forgot to mention, too, is I have Slack integrated into Shift so I can toggle between my email accounts and then down to Slack and communicate with my VAs and stuff. So it's kind of like a all in one communication tool for me.

Thirty bucks a year.

Yeah, that's Nothing.

Right.

That's good.

All right.

I think this was a good roundtable. I wouldn't want to remind you or invite you. Like, if you're thinking about starting land investing and you want to learn more, go to. To me, the best place to go to learn about land investing is flight school. You know, you can go to thelandgeek.com forward/training and learn more about that. You can get on a call with Scott Bossman or Mike Zaino, talk to them, see if light school and land investing is the right thing for you. You know, I think it's an incredible story. It's changed a lot of lives. You just have to take that next step, and flight school is a great.

Way to do it.

And you get to spend time with me, too, which is. I think it's kind of cool. But maybe, Maybe. Maybe you want some. But something else more involved. Training, whatever. It's all good. Just take the action, take the next step, because you will thank yourself for at least learning more and look forward to having you guys here again next week. Thanks for joining us. We will talk to you again soon. Take care. Bye.

Bye.

All right, guys.

All right.

Another one is done.

That's good, man. There's a lot. There's a lot less shenanigans when Mark's not on the call.

Yeah, yeah. You know, why is it?

He's got too much free time. That's why. Too much free time.

God's cup of water.

See, that's what it is. Like, you know, we. We. I think it's all because we get to pick on Mark, right?

He's lodging in life.

See, I think what happens is Mike. Mike fires the. The shell, like, the bomb at Mark. I fire one back at Zano, and we all start, like, launching at each other, and I'm not sure who comes out. Like, you know, and then Bear Land gets all excited, and he takes his big claw and, like, knocks us all.

Down, takes it to another level.

And then. And then. Then it ends, right? Like, it ends when Bear Land, like, gets too rough.

He gets.

He gets too rough. Well, first it gets awkward. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he apologizes, and then he feels bad. But, you know, I think it's Bear Land that always ends this podcast. Like, he's the one that we have.

It's. It's assured mutual destruction, isn't it?

You know what it's like, though? It's like all the kids are at the playground playing nicely, and then Bear Land Aaron comes along, and then he gets mad because he doesn't get mad. What happens is he gets too excited. He gets too excited. He's like, I can't take it anymore.

Rah.

And he launches it, all of us. And then we're like, our moms are calling us home.

Now he's the guy who doesn't get a sleepover twice. He doesn't come to the slumber body twice.

He's too excited. He's too excited.

Too hyper.

Yeah, there's a Warren Zevon song called Excitable Boy. You have to listen to that one. Who? Warren Zevon.

Oh, okay.

Brown Eyed. Or that's Van Morrison. Werewolves of London. You know that song?

Listen, if it's not Johnny Cash, Mike, Van is out. He doesn't understand. He understands the Highwayman. That's about it every day, right? Right, Mike?

Every night I turn it on, I do a little workout. Mark has embraced the beauty of that album, the Highwayman. It's, you know, fulfilling in many levels.

I love me some Cash.

Yeah, that's how you get a new car. Just follow John and Cash's advice.

One part at a time.

One.

One part at a time. Man, that's a great song. All right, guys, have a good one. Thanks for joining today.

Yep.

See ya.

Hey, did you guys hear? Did you hear the. The.