We Analyzed 500+ Land Deals: Here's What the Most Profitable Ones Had in Common

Hey!

I once dined on steak with a candle's soft glow, but the bill left my savings despairingly low. Now wisdom has taught me, so simple, so grand, Eat baloney, buy land. Oh, eat baloney, buy land. Trade the fork for the deed in your hand. Skip the filling, let the sandwiches stand. Your fortune will grow when you buy your own land.

So what's up everybody, welcome to Land Geek Nightcap. Good to see you all here. We're skipping right to the introductions tonight because, uh, the topic, the topic is, uh, it's, it's a, it's, it's a work in progress here. So we're gonna, we're gonna welcome you all back to the Land Geek Nightcap. I'm Scott Bossman. Uh, joining me tonight, the godfather himself, Mark Podolsky's here. Mark, uh, the, the guy who's introduced thousands of people land investing. How are you tonight, sir?

Cheers. Uh, I'll tell you how I'm doing. Okay, I'm sore. Oh, I worked out yesterday for the first time in like a month. Now, I did work out when I was, when I was traveling. Like, the Mark workout and then the intense workout with a trainer are 2 different things, right? So, and then I have to work out again tomorrow. I'm not excited about this. Yeah, like, I, I don't, I don't know how you guys stay fit like you do.

You know, I haven't stopped thinking about that comment you made when you first started with the trainer, Mark. You said you think you're working out until you start to work out, because I do a little thing here and there, but that really got me thinking. And you're saying it again here, there's a, there's a big difference.

It's a big difference. Yeah, it was hard.

I always think of that one phrase. What is that? I'm in shape Round is the shape. My trainer, we just eat bags of Cheetos together. It's great.

And with that, in the top right, we have John Eight Is Enough Handsome Rob Burnett. Good to see you, John.

Good to see you.

Nice to have you back. You were, you were, you were off for a couple weeks. Well, we were off for a couple weeks, but you were off last week because you had a birthday in the house. I did.

Yeah, we had my son turn 4 and we did Spider-Man everything.

It was—

yes, Spider-Man. It was very good.

So awesome. Do you have like web shooters and stuff that—

We, we got him a web shooter Nerf gun, which I don't know if I would call it a web shooter. You just hold it and you press a button with your thumb and then it shoots a Nerf bullet. So, but he was excited.

So toys are so cool nowadays.

They are.

Uh, in the lower left, the Zen Master. Breathe in the mailing, breathe out the marketing. Mike Zaino, how's it going, buddy?

Ah, it's going great. I'm happy the gang's all here.

Did you, uh, survive jiu-jitsu? Are you surviving jiu-jitsu this week?

Oh, I'm surviving. You know, I always— Scott's my, my, uh, you know, the physical therapist, so I'm calling him all the time. Scott, I just did this at jiu-jitsu there, and last week This guy, he's an incredible guy, but he's also like the real-life Mr. T and I thought he was gonna kill me. He squeezed me, I heard my ribs, I really heard them pop. I was like, tap, tap, I give. Please don't push my ribs into my lungs.

Do you say tap or do you actually tap?

Oh, I did both at that moment. It was kind of like a very tap, tap. He's an awesome guy. I mean, when you I mean, he's an exceptional jiu-jitsu player, and he's also 240, 250 pounds of pure muscles. Um, so yeah, he's just, you know, I'm obsessed with figuring out how to deal with that though. I told him, I'm obsessed with you now. I need to figure this out.

Oh, I tell you what, John, you and I gotta up our game because we got Mark with the personal trainer and John, uh, Mike, you know, Mike is, uh, jiu-jitsu. I'm, I'm just like, uh, incline treadmill guy lately.

Yeah, you're an incline treadmill guy? Oh yeah, I am a decline treadmill guy.

Nothing but downhill all day long.

Yeah, it's hard on your knees, John. Uh, oh well, it's good to see everybody. There are a lot of people chiming in or in the chat saying decline setting.

I just thought of that.

Yeah, it's the, it's the new trend John just created it tonight, the decline treadmill. I love it. Uh, we should probably tell everybody who we are and why we're, why we're here. I think let's, let's go to the godfather himself, the reason we're all here. Mark, who are we? What do we do? Why are we here?

We're the Lanke guys, and we have one simple mission: to help you solve not just your money problems but also your time problems. So we want to avoid what we call solo economic dependency, which means if you're personally working Your W-2, maybe you're a freelancer, maybe you're a solopreneur, right? Maybe you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, you're a dentist. But whatever you're doing, if you're having to do it to generate income, you got some economic dependency. This is the way out. So we're teaching you how to create a one-time sale, get recurring passive income every single month without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. And once you create enough land notes without any headaches and your passive income exceeds your fixed expenses, then you have time to get, you know, squeezed by a 250-pound gorilla like Mike and do jiu-jitsu on your, on your time, go on the decline, right? And you live your best life with that passive income. That's what we do. That's what we teach. And we are on a mission to, you know, free 1,000 people, uh, to do this. How's that? Did I miss anything?

I think you nailed it. That's of the—

of—

I call it the Latini of the one you have. That's, that's one stuffed olive worthy right there.

Ah, and if you have 3 to give I feel like I just got the golden buzzer in America's Got Talent. You see that, boss man? I got a Latini.

Yeah, I'm gonna get the, the red X buzzer here, I'm sure, from Zano tonight.

But it's funny you say that, Mark, because someone asked me today, it's like, well, what do you do with all your time? It's like, oh, the things that I love, you know? So that's the beautiful thing, you insert what you love into that time. For her, she wanted to, um, she— her dream is to have, uh, she does quilting. She wants to have a retreat where she can help people learn how to quilt. And I'm like, you know what, that's so niched in, it'll work. Like, that's really awesome. And there you go. I mean, so insert what you love. You could watch Star Wars movies all day long. I see Scott up there.

Yeah, that's all I do.

Yeah, I said you could.

You could. No, you could. You're right.

Yeah, you're right.

No, you're exactly right. I have— I was actually just thinking about this today as I was out doing some yard work, um, just, uh, moving rock. You guys ever moved rock? It's like the most—

As in annoying?

Is there plural, like rocks or rock?

I'm moving rocks, right? Like the landscaping rocks. I'm moving them from one place to another.

Like, it's an orange jumpsuit. Are there chains?

Yeah, yeah. No, there are buckets.

Johnny Cash singing in the background. Do you hear Johnny Cash music?

There are, there are buckets and land and, and hand tools and, uh, a lot of heavy, you know, lift— lifting and manual labor to move pile of rocks from one place to another to make your yard look nice. And I was thinking to myself, self, This is a really horrible job, but 10 years ago I wouldn't have been able to be working on my yard at 10 in the morning.

It's not horrible, right? One rock at a time. It sounds like it could be enjoyable what you're saying, but if you were forced to do it because—

yeah, yeah. Scott, there's a Dan Sullivan quote I want you to really remember, which is, if you can write a check to solve a problem, you don't have a problem, bro.

Right?

I like to stay busy. I like to stay busy. There's something to be said about finishing a project and seeing the results of the—

You know, you hit upon something, okay, that, that kind of hit a nerve. That's really true now, Scott, because when I was younger, so busy, things that required patience, I really couldn't do them right. Like, I could, but now that I have the time freedom, I enjoy the things that take time and, and the idea of watching it unfold. But when you're so busy that your mind is always like, get it done, get it done, get it done, I have to go on to the next thing. But when you have time, you can— whatever it is, you could even name the rocks, for example, as you move them.

You, you definitely could. Definitely could. But see you, Stan.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, anyway, um, We should open it up for questions because we don't really have a topic tonight. I mean, uh, I think the title of the, the, the podcast is, um, here's what the most profitable land deals have in common. I think we could talk about that, but it's going to be a pretty short, uh, pretty short, short topic because the, the most profitable land deals, uh, have pretty much the same things in common, right? We're We're buying low at a margin of safety, and then we flip for cash for amazing, you know, amazing returns, or we owner finance, um, at huge returns, right? And, uh, you know, the numbers are just in our favor in this business. So maybe we should just talk about that a little bit. Like, why is this a smart play? Why is this a smart play right now? Like, uh, you know, would you, would you get started in land investing right now, Mike Zaino? In this market?

Yes, I would. I'm still buying and selling in this market, and I think that, um, I, I don't know, I, I think this— the more that we do it, the more we dial in, you know. Yeah, all deals are, uh, tend to work out very well if we buy right. Some deals maybe more than others. So, you know, that could be part of your strategy as you go on. You start to evaluate which deals, you know, what, what did they have in common? Which we could talk about. I guess that's the topic of the, of the show. But I'm just saying that, uh, I would definitely do deals in this market because I am doing deals in this market. I would start in this market. I think that it doesn't really matter what's going on. If you buy 25 cents on the dollar on the current market value, whatever that current market is, you're buying with a huge margin of safety and you can, you can make it work.

Yeah, and the, the math is hard to beat, isn't it, John Burnett?

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I think like, um, one of the things, like, as far as what the most profitable deals have in common with one another, like, it's, it's just kind of like you said, Scott, it's a heck of a lot, right? Because we focus so much on repeatability and focusing on areas where properties are very similar to one another. When you have that, you have a high degree of repeatability. And so you're doing these deals over and over and over again, you know. So, but yeah, I don't know. I'd say my most profitable deals are either when somebody defaults and the property goes up in value. I keep the prop— the money that's been paid to me, and then I mark it up and sell it again. So those are like super profitable, right? Like above and beyond the, the standard, you know, returns that we get. And then every so often you kind of get a unicorn, you know, too, where you're like, wow, like our margins are so good already. And then every so often you'll get something that's just, you know, shoots to the moon, right?

No, yeah. And, um, there's so many different ways to profit in this business, right? We can sell for cash or wholesale or owner financing, uh, Mike, you don't even know this, but we had a killer deal today. So, uh, and this is fun just when you look at the math, right?

It's fun that you reveal it on the Nightcap in front of everybody because I really don't know.

He doesn't even know what's going on. But this isn't— this is fun. So, so we bought a property. What we did, we bought a property land arb from another land investor 4 months ago. 4 months ago. So we've paid like $200— we paid like $300 to this other land investor for this property just to control it. We wanted inventory in this area, Mark, so we bought—

we bought 10 Landmark properties. What's that, per month? That's what we total paid so far?

No, that's what we've— we, we've paid like $75 a month for 4 months. So yeah, $300. We're like $300 in, right? Okay, so we're $300 in, and I actually have the numbers right here. We're $300— we're $300 in, and we sold it for, uh, $3,500, but we sold it over 10 months. So $355 a month for 10 months, and we're paying $75 a month for this thing.

That's a nice spread.

That's a nice spread.

That definitely pays for, you know, maybe a couple Cubans for Mike.

Yeah, exactly. You know, exactly. But when you calculate the yield— yeah, cheese curds and beer here in Wisconsin.

Yeah, I think that answers the question that Rick— is that Rick Colcock, by the way?

It is Rick Colcock. Yes, this is a great question. We should, we should check it. We should—

well, I think you kind of answered it. I mean, I, I bought probably at least 15 or 16 properties off of the wholesale site that you created, Mark. Thank you. And I've sold a number of properties there. I do both. Thank you. And, um, I think that's where you can buy these properties at a discount. You know, you really can. Um, that's a great place to start. But if you're talking about mailing, it's, it's got to be consistent mailing. And, you know, somebody I was talking to recently, Mark, they, um, they thought that they, they'd mail— they misinterpreted it in a sense of they send out a few mailers and then they waited to hear back or not hear back. And I'm like, no, no, no, you keep mailing. And, and then you adjust on the fly. You don't stop and then wait. You just keep going. And, um, that's really how you do it. You know, you start with some sort of fuzzy math, maybe, you know, following, uh, you know, county research and identifying, you know, what you think is a good price. And then you start going up or down based upon the response you have until you end up in a county where John Burnett You've been here for how many years in your one county?

9.

9 years. But how long did you feel like it took you to dial in and become an expert pricing— in pricing into that county? Was it out of the gate? Was it a year? 6 months?

It was like, I think we had our first property purchased within flight school. Um, yeah, we definitely did. And I think we had our first sale within flight school. So like, we had like, we were moving stuff.

Right.

For sure. And then it just, I don't know exactly what it looked like. For our first year, I think we had, I think it was 22 to 24 sales total. And then they would have all been in that one county. So, but it did take time. Like, I remember, um, you know, you kind of send out mailers and you're just kind of waiting and adjusting and seeing what—

Still years later, 9 years later, how many times you feel like you've adjusted your pricing in, in that timeline?

A lot. Yeah. I mean, um, and, and like, I found that the pricing has gone up on both ends, right? So there's kind of a market value of what you buy property for and a market value of what you sell property for, right? they change over time. And sometimes they change at slightly different rates, right? But they all kind of catch up over time has been my experience. And so it's been— so I, you know, I'll pay, I'll pay, you know, a good bit more than I did when I first, when I first bought in this area, but I also sell it for a good bit more, you know, right?

Right. So I think that's sort of Helping a little bit answer this question Rick has. And I feel like you just have to become sort of fanatical about it too. If I want to work in a county, I'm going to look for every which way to get a piece of land there— land arm, wholesale, mailing. I'm going to look at everything, and I'm just going to be obsessive over it until, you know, I, I figure out that formula that gets me there. So I don't think there's a shortcut. I think it's just a consistency, which, Mark, you were talking about right before we're getting on, right? You know, the commonality between Those people who have success being the consistency?

Yeah, we— well, no, commitment. We analyzed commitment, actually. What, you know, we were looking at our, our flight school success stories in 16 weeks, and they all have one thing in common: they digested all of our content. So they went through all the training and all the videos, and they showed up for the office hours, and they just did it. And they didn't overthink it. They just literally just followed the recipe and took it like, oh, I'm building this repeatable system, this process, this business that is gonna, you know, yield me a river of nickels over time.

Mm-hmm.

I'm just gonna do exactly what they say. And they did it, and then they were successful. And, you know, not to say like, you know, people who consumed 75% of the content weren't successful, but the most successful people just did the thing.

Committed.

Um, and they committed.

Yeah.

So I'd say commitment is the number one predictor of success.

I guess that commitment in that regard would probably be the, um, precede consistency, right? You're committed to it for a reason, right? The results you're looking for and everything. But then That will then help you be consistent.

Yeah, 100%. And what I love about our model is that we have this ecosystem that, you know, we provide you everything in one roof, and we're really just focused on, you know, the river of nickels and, and just how do we get you to your passive income exceeding your fixed expenses. So you're free. Um, where everybody else is like, oh yeah, you're gonna, you know, spend $5,000 on a mailing and we're gonna buy a property for $30,000, they want to list it with a realtor and sell for $60,000 maybe. But how much— what do you— how much time is it gonna take?

Try $10,000 in mailings, maybe $20,000.

$10,000 mailing. So, you know, the mailing costs keep going up. Yeah, you know, it's so crowded a market. Like, where does this— again, this boring little niche of just getting you free.

And I think Rick is asking too, like, how do we find those counties where we can buy low? And I don't think that's— I don't think that recipe, or I don't think that has really changed either. I think it's west is best, like we've always talked about. That's where we can buy low.

Um, I think you could still buy everywhere low, so that's what I would challenge that statement. I think everywhere you could still buy low.

There's different degrees of low, right?

I think it depends on your budget, right?

I think it depends on your budget. Yeah, that—

yeah, yeah.

And like, we also talk about like 25 to 35 cents on the dollar, right? Right. So like, some counties are 35-cent-on-the-dollar counties, right?

Yeah.

And you know, you're tracking that, you're sending out mail, you're feeling out like what, you know, where is that market rate for me buying property, right? And I do think like, if it, if it feels like it's going above 35 cents and you're getting close to 40, that's when you start buying wholesale, you know. But it's still a great bargain, 35 cents on the dollar, right?

And if you sell it owner financing, people, they want to have that payment, right? And so even though it's 35 cents, you're talking the cash value, right? But when you sell on owner financing, you're still going to get a much higher multiple, you know, because people are like looking at it like, hey, how can I— no bank, no credit check, no jumping through hoops. Like, yeah, great, I'll pay a few extra years or whatever. They don't even— they're not even thinking that. It's like buy here, pay here. Like, it's— they're just super excited that we're not gonna— you know how when you want to close on something with financing through a bank, I mean, they, they basically, they want everything that's ever existed about you. It's ridiculous. It really is. It's like, oh, we need one more piece of Giving you everything. What else do you need? Well, we just want to make sure you really are who you are, or whatever. I don't know. But for us, it's like, yeah, um, here, make the payment, sign documents, and, uh, enjoy the land. Yeah, yeah, simple. So we get a higher multiple. So I think if you buy 35, 40 cents on the dollar, yeah, that's the cash market value, but you're still going to get a higher multiple with the owner financing.

And you get a bigger buyer pool, right? Like, more people can afford your land. There's just a lust for land in this country.

There really is, until you start selling to a lot of people and you hear them get so excited about— you've all heard it, right? I own a piece of— you know, they have a house, yeah, but this is the first time they own a piece of maybe out west. Like, they feel like they're pioneers. That, that American pioneer spirit still exists, and we see it all the time with people who invest in our land parcels.

Yeah, and it's fun to help people become landowners who Maybe they don't have the best credit, or, you know, maybe, you know, 99% of our buyers can't get a loan for land, right? So, uh, buy from us for a low monthly payment and we'll deed you the property in a couple years. And they're tickled. They're, they're tickled when it's done, right? They're like, they're, they're happy. Like, thank you, guys.

I'm happy when you say that. It's pretty awesome.

It's like something my mom would say. Anyway, um, you're getting older, Scott.

It's okay, it's okay. You can use— it's like that commercial for the car insurance: we can't stop you from becoming your parents.

That's very true, it's very true. Oh man. All right, well, hopefully that helps, Rick. Uh, here's a, here's a question. Well, I'm gonna go to this question from Jared first because we were just talking about this Landar deal. So, uh, Jared, this is a good question. When you sell a property that you have on Landar and your buyer is making extra payments to get it paid off early, How are you managing funds to make sure your note is paid before the customer finishes? So this is kind of— this is right in line with our deal, Mike. So we're buying it from this land investor over 36 months, right? This guy's paying us for 10 months or something like that.

Mm-hmm.

So Jared, we're just gonna have to take, you know, we're making $350 a month on it. We're paying the investor $75. We'll just make a point to pay double or triple Right, um, what we owe the investor monthly over the course of the next 10 months. So we just, we just end the, end the deal in sync.

Uh, why don't you just balloon it?

Yeah, that too. Well, I mean, we balloon it. Yeah, either way.

Said he couldn't have used the word NSYNC, his favorite band, right?

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Not my favorite band.

It was between U2 or NSYNC.

Yeah, it's quite a difference there. Oh, you know who I'm into lately though, and God rest his soul, uh, rest in peace. John, you're a guitar player. Glenn Hansard. He passed away last week in a motorcycle accident, and, um, I've been listening to his music here just nonstop the last couple weeks.

Yeah, and, oh, secret book clubs with you and Mark, now secret guitar clubs with you and John. Like, what's going on?

Yeah, we're not gonna do our own secret thing.

Can we have a secret club, Mark? Something maybe like a movie club? We're gonna have movie club.

We'll do movie club, but we're not gonna tell these guys.

No, you guys are not in the know.

No, you guys have your own little happy Apple TV club. You're always talking about shows that you watch together.

Yeah, but, but speaking of music, not to go too far off on a tangent, Please do. Um, so, you know, it's 110 here. My buddy flies in from Chicago and I'm like, what are we gonna do? It's 110. He's like, you know, the Dead, there's a movie of them playing a concert. You watch this Dead show in the movie theater. I'm like, okay. So we start watching this Grateful Dead show and I'm looking around, I'm like Who likes this? Who wants to listen to a 28-minute song? A song has a beginning.

Oh, you went to the theater with them?

Yeah, I'm watching this. I'm talking to my buddy like, this is the most selfish thing I've ever seen. These guys are just jamming out together. They have absolutely no respect at all for their audience. None. Play a normal song. Yeah, start another song.

It reminds me of the studio TV show with, uh, Ron, um, the guy from Happy Days. Ron, what's his name?

Ron Howard.

Ron Howard.

And he has a double ending in the studio show, and they're like, what is going on? He's so passionate about it. Like, it's so selfish.

Yeah, that's funny you bring that up, Mark, because my, my one son Ben is a Deadhead. Like, he loves the Dead and he loves Goose, they'll have a 20-minute song, and then my, my other son Sam is just making fun of him the whole time about like, dude, can you just listen to a normal song that has a, you know, a 3, 4-minute—

I'm guessing the people in the theater, Mark, might have been experiencing it a little differently than you for other, other reasons.

Yeah, yeah, I think they were.

I get it. I feel like this is insane.

Clearly you can't be sober and listen to these guys just jam out and play for themselves.

Who's this guy with the alkaline water that doesn't like the show? It's like you want to get the mob of like, all looking at you.

I'm like, I don't get it. So, um, this goes back to Lance.

Let's go back to land. We lost our viewership, dropped 20% here in the last minute.

It's fine.

Yeah, yeah.

Just to get real meta, like we're doing the same thing the Grateful Dead does to their audience. We're just jamming ourselves. We have no respect for the audience whatsoever. Yeah, you came to listen about land and now we're talking about the Grateful Dead. I'm gonna go to a Hormozi video. And learn something. Screw these guys. And I get it, I get it.

Well, just on that little note, the single most awesome podcast I've heard in a long time is, uh, Diary of a CEO when he interviewed, uh, Alex Hormozi. That was just like— the fact that he— that stuff, the bombs he drops, just, you know, and how relative it is to the land business when he talks about sticking with something like That is the most incredible podcast, uh, interview. And it's so relative to our business too, the way he talks about being an entrepreneur and staying consistent and all the things he goes through is so— I mean, I was— it's just incredible. You, since you just brought up Hormozi.

Yeah, I mean, those— his, his podcasts are, are so good. The way he breaks down business in that simple way and like His books are fantastic as well. Like, he's, he's kind of a business divine. He's a young guy. Yeah, it's, uh, it's pretty incredible. But anyways, let's not talk about the dead.

Let's talk about the market getting saturated with people like us.

You guys talk about this, I'll be right back.

Is it Will? No, it says Will. We'll throw it over to you, John. Will the land market get saturated with people like us to the point that it makes it more difficult to acquire Land. 9 years in one area. Are you making life more difficult for land investors, John?

No, I mean, so like, I still talk to people, talk strategy about selling and buying land in that one county, right? And so they're very, very big counties, right? There's, you know, in Mike Ward County, there's tens of thousands of parcels, you know, tens of thousands of parcels. There's a lot more room for competition.

Mark, he says tens of thousands of parcels in this area. I can't help but think of— can you imagine realtors in traditional real estate? I got tens of thousands of houses I'm taking a look at. Like, you would— would you ever hear that?

Yeah, you know, it's so funny because our market is so big and you can be anywhere in the world working in these different counties. So to like Mike's point, if you are In traditional real estate, you've got to work your local market. You can't— I mean, I guess technically you could, but it'd be really difficult to manage, uh, that's true, you're not even— flip outside of your, your home market.

And still, that person, if they really were committed and like you said earlier and develop consistency, I believe they could get some traction, right? So the opportunity still exists for them. It's just amplified exponentially with land. Right. So even that realtor could, could do it if they really dug their heels in over time, build a book of business. But how much easier when you have, you know, how many more ups at bat do you get, right? We're talking baseball to get that base hit, right? Maybe with the traditional real estate agent, maybe you get a couple up at bats, right? We're going to get hundreds and hundreds. We send out thousands. We're getting up at bat, up at bat, up at bat, up at bat, and eventually we hit and we get on base. That's good enough. Do it again. Like, if— imagine you're the, you're the, you're the coach of the Land Geek baseball team. It's like, all right, that's it.

I don't care.

Just get on base. Just get on base. That's it. On base. That's all you're trying to do over and over again.

Yeah, I mean, think about when you're flying on a plane, you see all that vacant land, right? Like, that's our market versus, you know, infill lots or in your, in your city, like, you know, in a more efficient market, like, you're not going to get a deal.

And look at the buyers too, Mark, because then you think about who's going to buy those infill lots, right? Not the people that are typically buying from us, right? Because they're not going to get them at a price that would work for them. You have all these people— I think about when I'm, when I'm flying over a city, I see all the traffic congested. I'm like, there's a— that's one small highway and one small town and one small state of all the It's all these people that just would love to get out into freedom, right? And those are our buyers. $100 a month, $50 a month, $250 a month. Like, those aren't the people going to buy infill lots. What are they going to do? They're going to, they're going to go build out? They don't have the credit. They don't have the capability, uh, you know, uh, all of that. But for us, you know, we have so many more buyers now. It's just crazy. The, the opportunity is so massive.

Yeah, I mean, I've been doing this, what, now 20, 25 years full-time?

Yeah, I saw that. Do you get a little text today? 25 years, Mark. We should have a—

25 years.

That's all of number 2.

Oh, he's gonna get the hat.

25 years, Mark. Tell us about 25 years.

Yeah, I mean, 25 years doing the same thing again and again and again consistently. Yeah, of course I've made pivots. Of course I've done things, of course I've made mistakes, but the market— the business is a fine wine business. The longer I'm in it, the business just goes big like this. Even during the Great Recession, 2008, 2009, 2010, I was still profitable.

Yeah.

Now, of course, Mark had a problem, which I write about in Dirt Rich, but the business itself has always been profitable. It has always grown.

Yeah.

And it was just, you know, a matter of learning how to maintain cash flow when you have all these notes. And note management was, was really my Achilles heel because I had Parkinson's Law of Money. The more money I made, the more I spent. And then Mark's got a problem.

But you know, you always told me, Mark, good new problem, good problem. It's not a bad problem to have all these notes to try to figure out how to deal with them, right? Yes, it was a problem. But it's not a bad problem. You have all these people that are paying you money and you got to figure out how to— you know, that's not a horrible problem.

No, no, I mean, looking back, like, there— it was a very profitable problem. But in the moment, because I built this big personal overhead, it was, it was a problem to lose.

You know, if only we could learn from all these mistakes, Mark. If only there was a way for us to shortcut our results and to get there quicker and not have to Deal with that ourselves.

Is there a way?

Is there a way?

No, you just have to go. You have to slog through it. It's hard. There's, there's no shortcut. Well, oh, you know what, maybe there is.

Maybe there is, yes. And that's really what the mentorship comes down to, I believe, really, is the fact that, you know, our odds of success are exponentially increasing the more that we work with somebody, grow who's already been there and done that, right? You exemplify what Hormozi is talking about in that podcast. You know, 25 years staying the course. Most people, the problem they have with their success is they spend a year or two on something. Oh, this isn't working. Go to the next thing, next thing, shiny object, shiny. But 25 years in the same niche, that's, that's the power. And there's a lot to learn from that.

Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's true. In a long enough timeline, everyone gets paid. Everyone gets paid. You just gotta stay that longer. Even look at even Burnett, 9 years, right? 6 kids, that's expensive.

You can't—

this guy's kids, it's $200. Yeah, yeah, that's one note.

Chick-fil-A, like, are you done ordering yet? No, got 3 more orders.

You know, you've never seen somebody panic than the same way you do when you go to McDonald's. You say, I'd like 8 Egg McMuffins.

McMuffins, please.

The other day I was actually talking to, um, to a friend of ours who's another land investor, and I said, you called me at the perfect time because I'm in southern Idaho at the slowest McDonald's in the entire world.

They're currently making 8 Egg McMuffins.

Yeah, it took them 16 and a half minutes from the point of ordering to me getting my Egg McMuffins.

How many times are you asked by your kids, are they ready yet, in those 16 minutes?

Yeah, I'm surprised you don't have a little assembly line at home, John, like your own little Egg McMuffin assembly line. I mean—

Oh yeah, we should.

That's a good idea.

Didn't you just see— remember, remember way back in the Nightcap we had the refill guy? Weren't you just hanging out with refill guy Matt Forbes?

Oh yeah, I was hanging out with—

because you would— I know. Yes, shout out to Matt Forbes, the original. Remember, he'd come on, Mark, he'd do the refills.

I mean, come on. Come on, come on. He's just a great dude.

Yeah, he is great.

In so many ways, in the room instantly, right? Just by showing up and like, like, wow, that's just the guy that can just own the room instantly.

Yeah.

Did he bring you a baseball bat?

He brought Scott a baseball bat.

Oh, you had Scott a baseball bat. That was kind of the 6-foot-8 guy walking around the baseball, like, what's going on here?

We got a problem. Scott had a hard time getting that home, I think, on the, on the airplane. Yeah, uh, well, uh, and that's okay. Uh, Tristan, Tristan, good to see you. Tristan just had a call with, uh, I just had a call with Tristan last week.

And, um, hey Tristan, nice to have you here.

Hey Tristan, good to see you.

I guess it's an official shout out to Scott Bosman is what we're hearing from Scott.

I mean Not really a shout out, but I'll take it. I'll take it.

Feels like a little love.

Yeah, Tristan, he should have told you you're gonna say @ScottBossman, like you really— then that makes him, you know, because we have little competitions here who gets shout outs.

Yeah, I don't fish for my shout outs though like you do.

Oh, I fish, and I fish.

Yes. Yeah, you fish hard.

I tell people, come to the night.

My shout outs are authentic.

My buddy Bossman will be so upset if you say my name. Please do it.

Yeah, they're not— people are not, you know, nudged in the ribs to give me shoutouts. They're authentic shoutouts. Yeah, anyway, oh, I threw up a banner here because we should remind everybody watching that—

It's coming so quick.

Like, if you want to join us for 3 days of high-value learning and content and community, uh, and, you know, sharing a, sharing a happy hour.

Hive mind, please.

Hive mind.

Uh, there'll be no hive mind there. There'll be no— be not afraid.

In Austin, Texas, October 1st through the 3rd. And Mark, what I love about this new live event is, uh, in our, in our previous live boot camps, we used to do 3 or 4 a year, you always had to be like in Land Geek to come. But now we're opening it up, right? So like, if you just found out about us yesterday, you can come to the Dirt Rich Summit. You don't have to be a member of any of our programs or anything like that. So if you're— especially if you're local to Austin, like Austin, Dallas, Houston area, it's gonna be very convenient for you guys to get over to Austin for a few days. Um, join us. Go to thelandgeek.com, and I'm sure there's a banner on there for the Dirt Rich Summit. Uh, learn, learn about the week, or, you know, sign up for the weekend and come join us.

Mingle with them.

Rick Colcock will be there.

Rick will be there.

Don Thrasher will be there.

Who else will be there? Who else will be there? Throw it in the comments.

Mingle with land investors. If you commingle with land investors, then, you know, you might get the bug.

Yeah. Oh, by the way, Scott, I got my own shout out from Tristan. He's asking me specifically the question.

Yeah.

Oh, I love that.

I love it. Let's, let's, let's ask. It's time to ask.

It's a great, great tactic, Tristan. Most people don't do that, and they probably should. They go adding Mark to the front of it, like, boom. That's a great tactic.

I love that.

All right, Mark, if you were starting from zero again today with a full-time job and limited capital, what would you focus on for the first 90 days to get your first profitable land deal, and what would you avoid?

Okay, so let's go through the— I'm gonna give you the 90-day, uh, fast action plan of what I would do. You know, you know what we should do? We should actually— this would be really fun to do. Like, why don't— like Let's do this. Like, let's, let's do like a live thing together where like we only have like, let's say, $5,000 between the 4 of us, and we actually do the business on YouTube and then just show people like, okay, here's, here's, here's what we did, here's how we, you know, we each start with $5,000. Collectively, we're $12,500 each.

So, so we're— yeah, so we're constrained between the 4 of us.

We can only do it for an hour because like we all have full-time jobs, we have limited capital, we got 90 days.

We should do this. I love that.

So here, here's what I would do though, Tristan. Um, I got an hour, I'm gonna spend that hour. I'm gonna start with my county research at wholesale.thelandgeek.com, and then I'm gonna see where can I buy, say, 5 properties with my budget. So if my budget's $5,000, $1,000 a Right. Um, something like that. You know, I can't divide by 7 in my head. So, um, I'm gonna start there, and then ideally I'm gonna do what Scott and Mike would do, and I'm gonna control some property while I learn. I'm gonna do land arm. So this way I'm gonna get some confidence up, because once I control the land with land arm, I'm eliminating a huge piece of that business. Same thing with wholesale. Which is the deal flow piece, right? So, you know, Mike and Scott have already done— they've already bought the property, they've already done the county research, they've done the comps, they've probably bought and sold it already because that's why they're land arbing it. They've already made their money. So now they're going to go to me and they're like, hey, $75 a month, here's the market. I'm going to get the plat maps, I'm going to get the area maps, I'm going to get GIS maps, I'm going to get some marketing pieces, I'm going to get photos, and boom, I can move fast. And now I'm going to put that up on a retail site. Let's say, you know, Facebook buy-sell groups or the marketplace. If I'm gonna start building my buyers list as well, at the same time I'm gonna email my buyers list, do a deal of the week. I might go to, uh, alandmoto.com, uh, as well. And I'm going to start really marketing that property, and I'm going to track, right, um, for every, you know, for every ad, if I'm getting 50 leads I should be getting a sale and converting. I'm not getting 50 leads, I got a marketing problem, right? And I'm gonna go back on the iCamp like, John, well, how come I'm not getting leads? And then John's like, oh, let's see, what's your title like? Do you have a clear call to action? Is there urgency? Is there scarcity, right? What, what's compelling about this property? Are you, are you highlighting it well? Maybe it's in your copy, maybe it's your pricing, right? There's all these little, little things we're gonna, we're gonna do in our, say, our first 3 days. But we're going to get that property sold. Then we're going to make our spread and then we'll get some confidence. Maybe we'll buy wholesale now with that money. And again, we're eliminating the whole big piece of the business, but now maybe I'm starting my mailing with that money as well. And so I'm mailing, I'm buying wholesale in 90 days. I bet you we could get your passive income to, you know, you'll have maybe a deal. Right, um, and start. So ideally I'm getting my capital out, I'm getting my passive income up, and I just do it again. But we should do that, that'd be fun. Uh, Tristan, did I answer the question? I know I went through that really quickly.

Oh yeah, you're just gonna watch it in the replay.

Mike, you just got a shout out.

I don't know if that's good or bad, Brad. Brad, I hope that's positive.

Wait, John, is there anything you would have done differently in the first 90 days? John Brett?

I don't think so. I think, I mean, I think I also would, would focus on if I had my $1,250 to spend on land investing for 90 days, LandArb is absolutely where I go. And you can control a piece of property, multiple Multiple properties, you can control it very quickly. You can get it up and start marketing and building right away, right? Like, once you've got a property that you control, then you can start building out those marketing systems and start selling and having those conversations. And you can do that, you can control the property for $75 a month, right? And so I think that's— I think it's a good plan.

Yeah, I mean, what's interesting about the niche is like you don't need a lot of capital to get started in the niche, but you do need capital. You certainly need capital to learn how to make this a machine. Like, that part you definitely need to invest in yourself, and that's, that's a whole other thing besides, you know, to control a piece of property with $75. So, um, and then, you know, the levers of other people's time, other people's money Software and automation, AI. You know, we we can do this with you and help you with this. There's a little thing, Tristan, called Flight School. They'll they'll get you ramped up faster.

Awesome, Mark. Oh, this is I think you know what, Mike? I think this deserves probably the last olive. I think the hat trick, right?

Because.

I think that we can echo Rick's, uh, sentiments here, right? Like, we wouldn't be here without this guy. Appreciate this. The 3rd olive.

I am very grateful above all else. That's the word I use for meeting Mark—

grateful.

Thank you, guys. I, I'm, I'm grateful as well.

I'm smarter.

It's very humbling.

You could have drifted off in the sunset. Yeah, with all your land deals and just been happy. Yeah, but you found a few schmucks like us and look, you know what though, you should have a show called Schmucks Like Us.

Yeah, but like the community I think is, is, you know, my proudest accomplishment more than any deal, uh, you know, for sure. Like, I get so much more, uh, just satisfaction when, you know, Rick Colcott closes a deal or any one of our clients closes a deal, right? I was just on with, uh, Mark Render, and he's, you know, he just closed 2 deals.

Nice.

It's just, it's just, and the numbers are just so great. And hearing the stories— Valerie Young, in less than a year, she's got over a million-dollar portfolio now. Like, it's just life-changing things. It's like they're just great people, like, and they have an abundance mentality. They want to help everybody too. And, uh, and that's why that Dirt Rich Summit is so great, because like you see it's real.

It is crazy, like, because— and it's something that I hear from people who are in other real estate investing niches where people just play it so close. Niches.

Yes, niches.

I'm cultured. You are.

When, when you go to Starbucks, do you order a croissant?

Oh yeah, croissant.

But anyways, you know, you go to these other, these other events and people play it close to the vest because they're afraid that, that the more they give you, the less that they will have. And that's definitely not something that I've experienced, you know, with all the live events. And then my experience with the community is people are extremely generous. So this—

I found what I was looking for. Um, Derek, who's in week 7 of flight school— now this is not always a common result, but it was kind of cool. He said he bought, uh, 5 parcels in a bulk deal And 3 of them, we found out as soon as he bought them for $450 apiece that they were in a federal right-of-way, and they're going to buy them for no less than $3,000 apiece from him.

Wow.

I'm like, that's not common, but that's pretty cool. $9,000, right? And he— $9,000 total, and he's going to be into those properties for like $1,400. So that's like a 7—

wow. Like, yeah, no less than $3,000.

Yeah, yeah, he might be able to get more from them.

If the market were saturated, he wouldn't have seen that deal. He's a total newbie, right? He must have gotten that deal, right? He's in week 7 of doing this. He's a little bit ankle-biter in the land business, getting these deals. I love it.

Yeah, it's crazy. So cool. Cheers. Cheers to you, Derek.

That's amazing. Cheers to Derek. Let's, let's help Tristan with one more question before we sign off. So Uh, Mark, when wholesaling as a beginner, or when— maybe, maybe his question is buying land as a beginner— would you rather target tax delinquent— tax, excuse me, tax delinquent owners or just motivated absentee owners, and why?

Yeah, so when I'm— first of all, when I'm buying from on a mailer, your lowest hanging fruit is always going to be the person who's, you know, tax delinquent, or, you know, they're out of state. Like, they're advertising they don't want that property. But once you sort of determine, like, you're in a good market, mail to everybody.

Hmm.

Mail to everybody. You're gonna get a 3 to 5% response rate. You'll know from the data, if it's under 3%, you came in too low, you got to raise your price. If you're over 5%, you kind of probably have to retrade. And so It's just a numbers game, Tristan, at that point.

Um, yeah.

And so as a beginner, certainly if you go to wholesale.thelandgeek.com, they're all trusted land geeks, and there you can see on the site what your markup and margin will be on that, on that sale. So you don't need to, you know, get fancy with it, right?

Right.

Um, you know, I always think like if you're like using the football analogy in this business, you just need 2 fat guys and a guy running behind them. Like, keep it simple. Hand it off, hand it off to the running back, and then follow the 2 big guys.

You just offended all of the offensive linemen, uh, in, in the world, really.

I don't mean to, but like, don't do a flea flicker. Don't do that. Like, just do it. Just keep it simple.

This is all foreign to me.

I'm loving it.

I have no idea what he's talking about, but I love it. A flea flicker?

What the heck is that? Scott's son is, uh, in college football. We should all be getting him NIL money, by the way. Like, I need to buy a Bosman jersey.

You need to buy a Bosman t-shirt. Yeah, or yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Uh, anyway, yeah, um, awesome. Well, this is fun, guys. Uh, we look forward to next week. Uh, if any of you have ideas for topics, uh, let us know.

Questions, topics.

Email any of us: scott@thelandgeek.com, mike@thelandgeek.com, john@thelandgeek.com, mark@thelandgeek.com.

Yeah, I'm not one of those Johns with two N's. Not one of those weirdos.

Yeah, those are.

And I don't have two E's at the last end of my name either. No, no, Mike would. By the way, can I say real quick? My oldest son is thirty. Ooh, I'm gonna guess now.

Shoot!

I know he's born in ninety-four. Scott, can you do the math for me?

There's no way you have a thirty-two-year-old son.

Thirty-two-year-old, thirty-two years old tomorrow. I love you, Josh. Happy birthday.

Oh, happy birthday, Josh. Wow!

I know all my. This is probably you can relate, guys. I know my kids' birth dates, but I don't know how old they are. It's like the math.

Always doing the math.

Yeah, yeah, but I know the day they were born, the month, the day, yeah, the year, but just the math. 32.

Yeah, congrats to Josh. And, uh, fellas, we'll see you next week.

I apologize to all the Deadheads.

I'm all about—

and the offensive linemen.

You need to offend one more group of people before you leave, Mark, Because that's only 2 and everything comes in 3s.

Yeah, it's everything. Uh, I apologize to the, the house flippers that I think are absolutely crazy for house flipping.

Somewhere, somewhere out there is a house flipper offensive lineman who is also a Deadhead.

Yeah.

Wow. You know, you're right. And we want to hear from you. We want to hear from you.

Yeah.

And I sincerely apologize if I offended you. Uh, let's give him a name.

Let's call him Mark. No, that Mark's Mark. We'll call him— no, can't call him John. We'll call him Bob. Bob is the offensive— what do you call him now? I don't know sports.

The offensive— yeah, he's the house flipper. He's the offensive tackle house flipper deadhead.

Bob. Bob, reach out to us. We want to talk to you.

All right, love it. Thanks, guys. We'll talk to you later.

Thanks, guys.

Now the best part.