What's an Appropriate Amount of Land to Own?

Hey, it's Mark Pudolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Roundtable podcast, we have almost all the usual suspects. Actually, not even almost. We have a very few of the usual suspects. We have the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you? Hey, Mark, Good to see you. Good to see you. We've got. I love it when you call me Big Papa Tate Litchfield. Tate, how are things in veggie?

I can't complain, man. It's beautiful weather. I have a report for the community. My tortoises are awake. They've come hibernation. So it's a good day.

I'm going to put this on my calendar. Fantastic. And last but not least, you know you love them. The brain, the professor, your flight school sherpa, Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com Learn anything about anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd, how are you?

Okay.

I'm great.

How are you?

I'm really good. I'm really good. I can't complain. But I do have a question, very important one. It's a Bernie question. How much land should you own? All of it.

Is that the end of the podcast?

And thank you so much for listening. Please follow the podcast.

Hold on a second.

Hold on a second. Hold on a second, Mark. Because not all of us are going to feel as comfortable as Scott Todd. Remember, Scott Todd's been in the land business. You've been in the land business. Eric's been in the land business. I've been in the land business for a long time, comparatively speaking, to most of our audience here. So let's, let's break this question down a little bit because I think it's a. It's a very good question. But let's say you are six months into the land business. How much land should you look to control or carry or own at that time? Six months to a year.

It's a really interesting question, Tate. Why don't you just answer your own question? What do you think?

So, I mean, look, I do agree with Scott Tabb. You want to own everything. That should be your ultimate goal. But land investing is capital intensive and at some point we all run out of money, right? And I always say you got to own land to sell land, right? So there is an amount that you should try to carry. And my biggest piece of advice would be that the one in, one out mentality when it comes to land investing simply does not work. My goal for everybody would be minimum of 10 lots, own 10 properties, have them for sale. Once you hit that magic number of 10, something happens in the world of marketing and deal of the weeks and your property just all of a sudden becomes so much more desirable. I don't know why, but 10 for me is the minimum.

It's an interesting, interesting sort of thought experiment. What about the magic number 10? I don't know, why not 9, why not 11?

I think it's just when you start to own double digit properties, this is no longer for fun, right? Like I think there's a, a shift in mindset that takes place and you go, yeah, this is for real. I'm for real, I'm legit, I'm a real land investor and I can prove that to you based on the amount of inventory that I have available for you. I don't know.

I agree with you. I think you're right. I think it is the inner game of confidence. Once you have that much land, you're in this business, it's not a hobby anymore, right?

I don't know. Just be curious. Eric, what do you think is 10 the number I was going to say.

10 to 2010 was, was my low end and I would, I would say 10 to 20, but in one county, maybe two. I don't want somebody owning 10 to 20 properties in five different states and six different counties across the country. That's not helping the situation. The reason 10 to 20 in one to two counties is you're going to get some variety. Then in the type of land you have, you might have some quarter acres, some 1 acres, some 5 acres, 10, whatever, depending on the county you're working in. And that gives you options when you're talking to potential buyers, right? So when they call you because they saw two acres, but you know, as you're talking, they realize that, you know, five acres would be better or you help them realize that, or maybe an acre is better depending on their needs, you have something in inventory that still meets their needs and that it really helps with your sales consistency. If everything we have is all the same or we have low numbers, we got to find just the right person to buy that property. So that's, that's kind of my rationale behind 10 to 20.

I like that argument as well. Scott. Todd, what do you thought? What are you thinking? Are you going to rethink the answer? All of it?

No, no, I still stand by the all of it. But if we're going to talk about the minimum. Well, I think that the like for me, Mark, what happened Was when I got to around the double digits, probably around 20 is the number that I felt I saw something when I got to 20, all of a sudden it seemed like the sales picked up. And you know, I, I think that part of it is, and we've already talked about this as part of what I think happens is one, you're not trying to do like a one for one match. Mean that you've got one property here and you're talking to somebody and they're like, well, that's not what I'm looking for. Then they move on and you're like one you feel defeated into. You're like, okay, does this stuff really work? But when you have an inventory of land, a variety of it, well then what happens is someone says, well, I'm looking for this and you may not be marketing that, but then you have it. You're like, oh, look, I have this one. I have one similar to that one. Here's what I have. Well, now all of a sudden it's like having more cards in your pocket, right? You got more cards, you got more tools, more gadgets you can whip out and you stack the deck in your favor. So once I realized that I didn't want to stop buying land. And I know that some people are really worried about, like really worried about, you know, inventory management. We hear that a lot. Like, how many properties should I have? What's the maximum number? And I'll tell you what, the reason I say all of it is because of this. I used to buy land a lot cheaper. Seriously, like, I used to buy land way less than what I'm paying today. And in one county I, my team works in, we used to pay like $3,000 a property. Now we're spending 10 for the same land. And I'm sitting there thinking, like, I wish I would have bought more at 3,000. So had I not been worried about inventory management, I would have bought it all at 3000 and flushed out all of my money. And then I'd be sitting on a literal gold mine today because that land is selling for almost $30,000 now. Imagine the margins. So, yeah, buy it all.

Yeah, I really like that answer, actually. And you're right, it's funny because I've told this story so many times. When I first got started, I started with 10 lots. I bought 10 half acre parcels and average price of $300 each. And that's how I literally got started in the land business. So it wasn't with two, it wasn't with 15 or 20. It was 10 as my magic number. Now, once I had that proof of concept, I want to say I bought 60 to 80 at the next opportunity I could and then went from there. But if I hadn't sold those 10 lots, I would have had the confidence to keep buying like that. But when I think back to when I started, there's only a few other people doing it, and now we have a community of people doing it. So you can't say, well, I guess it's not going to work. That argument is sort of done now. Would you agree, Tate? Yeah.

I mean, there is safety in numbers, right? There's safety in numbers. And if you attend flight school, you're going to learn some really valuable tips and tricks in there. But one of those tips and tricks is, you know, when you see other investors, you should get a sense of encouragement and comfort in that area, because the likelihood of you making a mistake or getting stuck with something that you've deemed difficult to sell is very, very low. So, yeah, I mean, times have changed, and like Scott said, certain properties are costing them more money. But as long as you're working in an area where the retail side of things has increased as well, Scott's happy to continue to pay that price because he can justify it based on what he's now selling them for. He's still not selling those properties for, I don't know, hundred dollars a month anymore, Scott. Right. They're probably triple that.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, the thing is, a lot of times what you'll find is you'll find most people, when they're accustomed to selling something at one price, they're afraid to raise their price. Or if they do raise the price and it doesn't fly off the shelf like it did, they're like, oh, well, see, the higher price is wrong. Well, the reason it flew off the shelf is because it was such a value that you were giving it away. So push it up again. Like, push it up and see what happens, and you'll be surprised.

So I guess, Mark, you know, the flip side to how much land you should have is patience, right? Patience is the name of the game, right? You got to have patience to some degree to be in this business. And Scott would be able to sell that same property in a matter of hours, I'm sure, at the previous price point, but at his new price point, that is 3, 4, 5, exit. I'm guessing it's not flying off the shelf in 24 hours. So patience, you got to have patience with this stuff, too. And if you Bought it. Right. What's the rush?

Yeah, I mean, again, let's just revisit this. Have you guys ever been stuck with a piece of property you could not sell? No.

No.

Scott, ever been stuck?

Okay, well, it depends on when you. It depends on. It depends, right. So what I mean by that. Well, there has been a property that I sat on for a very long time, about 400 and something days that I seriously thought that would never sell. And it did sell. But again, let's use Tate's word, patience. Well, guess what? If you have patience, everything will sell.

Yeah, it all sells. Absolutely. And getting back to the point, well, how do I know it's going to work? It's kind of like saying, well, if I open up a hamburger stand next to McDonald's, how do I know people are going to want hamburgers? No, you've got a massive market of people that love hamburgers. And if I say hamburger one more time, Tate's going to leave the podcast.

Because it's lunch 30, that's for sure.

It's fast as lunchtime. So I think we, I think we definitively answered the question. Eric, what do you think?

Yeah, I think we did. I think I can imagine our listeners are thinking about an additional follow up question, though, and I think that's.

That's about.

Okay, so If I need 10 to 20 properties, how much money is that going to cost me? How much do I need to invest in, in this business?

Right? So let's just do some quick math, right? I mean, there are wholesale lots you can get or even just lots directly from the owners at $500 now in some counties. $300 in some counties. So three to 5,000. Scott. Scott's disagreeing.

Yeah, I mean, $300. I don't know about that one. I don't know where you're getting $300 for a property wholesale. If so, tell me.

Not wholesale. Direct to the owner. Direct from the owner.

I don't know. I think that the minimum that you're probably going to be able to pick something up for maybe $600 now at the minimum. Okay. So, you know, I always say you should plan on buying five to seven properties to start, right? Like if you have five to seven, that's a good starting point. You don't have to have 10 to start. You grow into that. The starting point should be you should take your initial capital divide by five or seven and then that will tell you basically where your budget is and then use a service like Land Moto and figure out where the Other land investors are at that price point.

Yeah. By the way, I'm going to give a quick tip of the week right now, and it's really just for the listeners. Don't tell your friends this. Landmodo.com is where you should be marketing your properties. If you are not on landmodo.com right now, you are not in the land business. I can't put it to you strongly enough. You need to be putting your properties on landmoto.com now. If you are a toolkit owner, and especially if you're in flight school, get the premium package. Do not cheap out on marketing. It is not an expense. It is an investment. So, again, I have no financial interest in landmodo.com but I can tell you, Tate, are we getting tons of leads?

12. 12 is the number of leads that we've had in the last 72 hours, Eric.

Yes, we're definitely getting leads from Landmodo. We did not get 12 in the last 72 hours, but within the last 24 hours, we had probably.

Probably three. Yeah. So I'm giving you all an insider tip right now. Again, I have no financial incentive on this. Put your properties on landmeldo.com again. Don't cheap out. Get the package so that you get visibility. Don't have the lousy location in the mall where no one sees your stuff. Right. You want to invest in having the best traffic. Get the premium account. So, yeah, we have.

We have one more. Make that four. Came about 20 minutes ago.

Yeah.

So there you go.

Those things have phone numbers, too.

Right.

Like, you got to point that out because Land Moto sent a facelift, and now you get their full name, you get their phone number and their email address. I mean, the value of that lead is, is you can measure it, but that is a very, very valuable lead.

Yeah.

You know, I appreciate the shout out, Mark, but one of the least used features of Landmoto actually is land connection. And when you're on the silver or the platinum plan, the paid plan, then you have access to land connection. And you know what's great about land connection? It's right there on Land Moto is when people look through Land Moto and they don't see what they want, they actually go on there and they post in detail what they're looking for. And so land sellers could be looking at that. And then we say, hey, you know, all we ask is that they. You link to something on Land Moto so that they can go back and see it. But talk about listening to the market. The market Will tell you exactly what they want. And if you're scanning through that thing, people are picking up leads, People are posting their properties or making sales off of that as well. And you need some street credibility. Great. When you make a sale, have the buyer leave you a review on land moto. Not only does that make it to the front page of land moto, but talk about street credibility. People are like, well, how's anybody ever going to know? Like, and trust me? Well, the trust is a big component. Well, say, hey, look. Look at my rating on land moto. And I'll tell you what, there's some great people going through flight school that are leveraging that to build street cred. It's a smart idea if you ask me.

I love it. I love it. Well, speaking of flight school, today's podcast is sponsored by flight school. Go up that mountain of land investing with Scott Todd Azure sherpa. He's done it thousands of times. He's going to take you up that mountain quickly, safely, efficiently. Start building your passive income. Because at the end of the day, we want to solve our money and our time problems. I don't know a better way of doing both. With very little capital, very little risk. And speaking of risk, flight school ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed. You're going to make back that money 180 days or less. Learn more. Go tolandgeek.com training thelandgate.com trading and schedule a call for free with Mike or Scott. And do that. Okay, so I had the best tip of the week. Does anyone else have another tip? Honestly, I might say my tip is like the tip of the month. All right, I have another tip. So I'm halfway through this book. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying it. It's by Bill Perkins, who's. I think he's a billionaire trader. Pretty sure he's a billionaire trader. And his book is titled die with zero. Die with zero. It's a really interesting life philosophy of maximizing your life and maximizing your dollars so that ultimately you will die with zero. Now, I know what you guys are all thinking, oh, what about the kids? You know, he has a whole chapter on the kids, right? So you can still have your legacy. The kids are not going to be hurting if you die with zero. He devotes a whole chapter to it. But it's an interesting philosophy for sure, and one that I think, especially if you're my age, you're middle aged, or I guess I'm you know, 50 in the back nine. It's something you start thinking about. I don't know, Scott. Todd, isn't 50 the new 40? I don't know, man.

I don't know.

You're older than I am, so how am I supposed to know?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you know, if you're eating a donut a day, I figure, you know, something. I don't know.

I mean, you know, I'll tell you what, at the bakery, they know me. Like, they see me coming. They're like, here's this donut.

There you go.

I'll tell you what, they ran out the other day before I got there. Seriously, they ran out the other day and I walked in, I'm like, what happened? And they said, don't worry, we have you one. And I'm like, ah, you guys are taking care of your good, good customers here.

You've made it. You've made it.

Yeah, yeah.

There's just one donut company, though. There's one in Tennessee when, when we were all up there. Oh, man, it's my favorite. They also have a location in California. I'm, I'm trying to figure out if I should bring one to my hometown.

You definitely should.

That's. I should. That's a no brainer, man.

Yeah, yeah.

Your health depends on it. Your health depends on it.

People love donuts.

They do, man.

They do. Well, I want to thank the listeners. Remind them the only way we're going to continue to get these incredible topics out to you. Three little favors. Follow Rate Review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review. Supportlandgeek.com I'm going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. All right, are we ready to do this? 1, 2, 3.

Let freedom, freedom ring.

Not bad, not bad. Scott, you're like the norm now of like your grocery store, the bakery.

Yeah, yeah.

They see you come in. Yeah, they do, yeah. Like, they all shout, Scott.

Not yet. We haven't gotten to that point yet. But that's, you know, life goals, man. I mean, you know.

Yeah, but they're slinging the glazed, the chocolate glazed donut with sprinkles.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's.

It's quite the sight, man. It's quite the site. You know, I think you should do.

Like a, like a YouTube live of that.

I don't know. I don't know about that. I don't. Blow up his spot.

He doesn't want to blow up his spot.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. I don't want people knowing where I go.

Yeah, it's good. Yeah. I didn't really think that one through, did I? No, you did. No, you did. I take that one back. It's like that SNL skit, Bad Idea Jeans. Yeah. Oh, well, all right. Well, thanks, everybody. Worried about your blood sugar, brother? Thanks.

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