Should you Become a Realtor to do Land Business?

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with the favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Art of Passive Income roundtable podcast, we have almost none of the usual suspects, but we got a few of the usual suspects. We've got Landon AI, the aquatic investor. Harris. Landon, how are you?

Doing well. Mark, how about you?

Pulse is still normal, respiration's fine. I gotta tell you, 118 is hot. Like there's just no, no other way to like, describe it. It's just brutal.

There are other ways. It just wouldn't be appropriate to say on the podcast. But yes, that's hot.

Yeah, that's hot. Taria putting in the rep terrace. Tria, how are you? Are you guys back in San Jose? Are you still in Atlanta?

We're back in San Jose.

You're back.

We were just there last week.

Nice. And Scott Todd, the brain, the professor, your flight school Sherpa. Scott Todd, how are you?

Mark?

I'm great.

How are you?

Pulse is still normal, respiration's fine. I love it when you call me Big Papa. Tate. Litchfield Tate. How are things in Vegas?

Ah, that's good. Yeah. Sorry I'm flustered.

I got.

I was just on the phone.

Yeah, that's what happens when you just join. So we have an interesting topic today. It was a question I think we got a couple weeks ago and I'm pretty sure we've never discussed this. Although after hundreds of podcasts, maybe we have. I don't remember. But the question was, is there any benefit to being a Realtor in the land business? So I guess it's a two part question. If you're a real, if you're already a Realtor, is it a benefit? And number two, if you're not a realtor, should you become a realtor? And is there a benefit to running your land business as a realtor? I think we all have strong opinions on this. But let's see. Let's start with Landon AI, Harris Landon, what do you think?

So I don't think you need to be a realtor in this business. I think there's so much one that we learned in this business that you. It just doesn't require the need to have a real estate license. I think the only benefit that I could see for this business, I guess of being a realtor, and maybe you can jump on mls, but if I say that, I mean you can get a realtor to do that for you. So there's plenty of other people out there to do it now, like I said, I. I just don't think there's a necessary benefit to being a realtor than, you know, they're not. No, I don't really have a lot to say on it, but I don't think it's necessary.

Yeah, I think you brought up a really good point. I just love to go around the group. When is the last time you sold a property on the mls, Landon? Mls?

Never.

Never. To Ria.

Not. Not land.

No, no, Tate, I. I was just looking in. I don't know. I. It's not been recent, Scott.

It's been a while, man. And like you can get these people that will list for like $99 per property for a flat rate and it's. It now, it never comes out the way that they, in my experience, doesn't come out the way that those promoters say it will because by being in the mls, those leads go to them and then they have to redirect them back to you. And it's never seamless, it's never fast. It's, you know, you're dealing with old leads and I don't know, there's better, faster ways to do it, I think.

Yeah. I mean, if. I guess if you had a million dollar ranch, you know, you talk about big numbers, maybe there'd be a land broker that put on the MLS and it might get some traction, but for the smaller transactions that we do, I mean, it doesn't really make any sense. So that's just a black hole into your marketing right there. See, there's your marketing. Tip of the week, don't list on the mls. It's not really effective. So, Terea, to be a realtor or not to be a realtor? That is the question in the land business.

So I have my real estate license in Georgia and I would say not to be a real estate agent because I'm held to certain standards that someone who's not a real estate agent is held to. So it can be a little more restrictive if you are licensed than if you aren't. You have a few more liberty when you aren't licensed.

Yeah, absolutely. I wonder if Tate wants to play devil's advocate.

I do not because I'm not a realtor. I don't work with realtors. I could sell my land really well and I don't know.

I mean, I.

No, that's just. My short answer is no, you don't need to be a realtor and you don't need to get your license and no, rather than focus on that focus on the fundamentals.

Excellent. Yeah, exactly, Scott. Todd, you want the last word on this?

Look, look man, I'm all about like education and you know, all this stuff, but as everybody said, I'm going to say no. And as, as Terea said, I think that when you're operating in that world there's too many restrictions. I mean for, for example, you know, if you're a realtor and you're, and I don't know the exact rule, but basically if you're a realtor and you're going to mail, let's say I'm a realtor in Florida and I'm going to mail offer letters for like land in Florida, then I have to disclose on that offer letter that I'm a realtor, like this entire legal disclaimer. And I don't know if you have to disclose it in other states. I don't think that you do unless you're licensed in that state. So now all of a sudden I got to, I got to make it more complex and I think that even in my advertising I have to disclose when I go to sell that property, like you know, realtor owned or something like that. You have to have like full transparency that you're a realtor when you're dealing with that, the general public so that, that they know maybe that you have the upper hand or you have not, you have knowledge that they don't have. So in that case, I'm going to pass.

Yeah. So Tree is nodding her head. 3 Do you want to add on to that?

He's right, he's right. You have to disclose everything and then unfortunately it can set you up for liability. But if I was trying to operate within the same state that I'm licensed, so it does not apply when I operate outside of that state. I'm not licensed in any of the states that we do business. So it is, it's full disclosure and then it takes one person to feel like you misled or anything and then you know there's liability that they can come after you. So it's just easier not to be licensed unless you really plan on dealing with residential land or like you said, million dollar ranches somewhere. Other than that, what we do not necessary at all.

Yeah, no, and I remember, I mean this is back in 2000, 2001. I remember meeting with an attorney, a real estate attorney. I specifically asked the question, you know, while I'm buying and selling these parcels of land, is it going to benefit me to get my realtor's license and for all the reasons everyone has said. He said, absolutely not. It's like you don't want to be a fiduciary. You have all these, you know, responsibilities and restrictions to do. He's like, you're just buying it for sale by owner and selling it for sale by owner. Why complicate it? And that hasn't changed at all. So this could be one of the quickest roundtable topics of all time. It could be a record. Dear listener, it's a gift. We go straight to another podcast. Maybe it's a little longer, a little meteor. But that being said, Landon's not off the hook this week for his tip of the week. A website, a resource, A resource, a book, something else actionable, where the art of passive income listeners can go improve their businesses, improve their lives. But before Landon gives that tip, we have to give out a shout out to our sponsor, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Go up that mountain of land, investing safely, quickly, efficiently with Scott Todd, Azure Sherpa, who said it thousands of times. And I know what you're thinking, the investment and it could cost you nothing, guaranteed you make back that money 180 days or less. Just show us your work. Learn more. Go to land. Geek.com forward/training thelandgeek.com forward/training all right, Landon, the aquatic investor. Harris, what is your tip of the week?

Well, so this week actually I've been past few weeks I've been doing a lot of research and the research I'm looking at basically marketing and just ways to improve marketing. And I think one of the things that most of us are learning and then we know it, is that most people pull up ads, marketing websites, everything. It's all kind of done mobile or not all, but a lot of it's done on mobile devices. So one of the things I was really trying to figure out were things that you could do to improve just your marketing for phones, basically. And so I put a link in the chat. Basically it gives this chat or this, excuse me, this link gives a few different ways to think about how you're marketing, different ways to boost your social media, things like creating videos, which we do, and certain ways to write your templates that so that they are easily seen on the phone and it doesn't distract. So just a quick little link and it's basically 10 strategies to engage your audience on their phone.

I like it. I even like the the headline. I love those listicles. 10 strategies. Got to click on it. What there's 10. I can think of five. What are the other five? Checking it out.

I think that, you know, anytime you can spend improving your marketing, it's time well spent. And Landon's absolutely right. People are not on their computers when they're shopping. They're doing it from their couch while watching TV on their cell phone or their iPad. So optimizing your marketing for mobile devices is key. Something everybody should be doing. And test your ads too. Like that.

That.

That's the 11th thing on this list is post your ad and then go look at it on a. On a cell phone.

Right.

Like, if you're not doing that, you have no idea what your potential customers are even experiencing. So. Good stuff.

Yeah. I mean, there's a. We should actually do a whole podcast on SMS marketing because you got to be very careful with that. But I think it could be a really great strategy. I think it's interesting. Like, the very top of this. I thought, I thought it was going to be about stop doing stop doom scrolling 1010 strategies to engage your audience on their phones. And I'm like, wait, how do they know I'm doom scrolling all the time? Actually, I don't doom scroll, but I. I have found a way to make my phone less addicting, and it's pretty miserable, but I highly recommend it. Tate, do you know what I'm talking about?

No, I just think it's funny that you said, yeah, this is gonna. This is gonna make you less addicted to your phone, but it's absolutely miserable. You're gonna hate every minute of it, but you should do it. It's like giving up sugar, jumping in cold bodies of water. Bone broth. Mark's new tip. Not sure I want to know about it, because I'm all about improving my quality of life.

Mark, look, the bone broth popsicle is a thing.

Not for me, it's not. It's not for me.

You guys get ready. I'm bringing them to San Antonio.

That's all right. They won't make it into work.

It's so hot. Absolutely.

I'm going around yeti. I'll have them ready.

Yeah, the whole lanky community, like, we're all going to fast and just have bone broth for the whole in San Antonio. Right. If you're not watching the video, Sharia is actually pointing to her cup drinking bone broth. All right, so, Tate, this tip is not for you. And for those of you that actually want joy in life, this is not the best tip either. But if you have a real problem with Your, your cell phone. This is a great tip. And I think it's. I, I mean, I'm sure you can do this on Android, but on the iPhone, if you click three times on the right. The button, it will go to a color setting. So you go 1, 2, 3. And then it asks you for accessibility, shortcuts, your color filter, and so you can make it black and white. And when you make your phone black and white, it's really boring to look at. I will say. It's just. You don't even want to look at it. It's just. Unless you absolutely need to get the information on the phone. It makes it so more like just. It's just not engaging at all. It's literally black and white. And I've been playing with it. So the times when I'm not using my phone and you know, you're, you're in the elevator, you're doing something, and then I would take my phone out for that little liminal moment, and then I see it's black and white. I'm like, I don't even want to look at this. Like, it's, it's fine. I'll, you know, I'll do something like, oh, I don't know, think maybe talk to a stranger. I don't know, something crazy like that. Oh, so. But try it out. And then I will say that when you do go back to color, it's pretty engaging. Like, it's like, oh, what a joy to go back to color. So for the people out there that, I guess, I mean, would there anyone who listening to this actually remember a black and white tv?

I had one. I had one.

You had a black and white tv?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So I guess it's possible. I mean, I don't know. I'm sure I had one. Right? We're the same age.

Yeah, I had to.

Yeah. But then remember how great it was when I went to color?

Oh, it was beautiful. Never stopped, right?

Yeah. For the, for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, go watch the wizard of Oz. Because it starts in black and white and then uses color. So. Tremendous. All right, well, I want to thank the listeners. Just remind you that the only way that I'm going to be able to rope these fellow land geekers to continue coming on the podcast, if you do three little favors, follow rate, Review the podcast, send us a screenshot of that review. Support thelangic.com I'm going to send you a signed copy of Dirt Rich and that way you can you Know, brag to your friends and family. You got a signed copy or not, whatever you want to do. But it's. It's. It's. It's a. It's a good giveaway. I think maybe. Maybe we'll switch it up here soon, but. Are we good, Tate? We're good, Tria.

All good?

All good.

All good. All right, let's do this. One, two, three. Let's let freedom.

Freedom.

All right, thanks, everybody. So I went swimming the other day, and I thought, oh, this will be, by the way. It's like 1:12. I thought, oh, you know, the pool is going to be so refreshing. It was not. It was like bath water.

Yep.

Yeah, that's hot.

No, thanks. We used to train in that. And you're sweating. It's hot.

It's sweat.

We had three guys pass out. I mean, it was dangerous.

It's dangerous. Like.

Yeah.

How difficult it is. I mean, how much. How many bags of ice would you need to cool down a pool?

How many gallons?

I don't think you could.

Right. Sorry. I don't know if you could.

I. Is chatgpt have the answer to this. If you. If it pulls. This has this many gallons, you're gonna need this much ice to. To have it reduced by this much.

It's probably just better to not go swimming, right?

Like.

We don't swim, like, until the afternoon because midday it's just too hot, like, to be in the water in the direct light. The sunlight is just not even fun.

Yeah. No, it's not. I used to joke people, like, oh, the summer's. You know, I'm like, oh, yeah. But, you know, It's. It's always 80 degrees in the pool. It's not 90 degrees. It's brutal summer. It's like 100 degrees in the pool.

Yeah. I got some buddies that coach out there.

It's not good.

Yeah, yeah.

They're telling me it's hot at 6 in the morning. It's bad.

No, it's. It's. It's definitely high 80s, low 90s at 6 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. All right, well, I'll. I'll be seeing y' all on Friday boot camp. For the people listening to this, you've already had. You've already had boot camp, but it's going to be amazing. Hopefully you thought it was already amazing, so we'll talk about that. All right, thanks, everybody.

Bye.

See you.

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 at thelandgeek.com forward/training let freedom ring.