Land.MBA

We’re really excited about today's podcast. We have an incredible guest. His name is Joe Mendoza or as some people call him, coach Joe. Joe has been in real estate for over 30 years. He was one of the highest producing realtors in Southern California. Then he moved to fix and flips, wholesaling and multifamily. Today Joe is a coach to many of the number one realtors across the country. And get this he is now turning his attention to land. There are so many nuggets in this podcast. So strap in for our interview with Joe Mendoza!

Are you an engineer, finance person or other highly educated professional by trade? Do you love to learn dissect processes and then create new clever and unique ways to solve problems and grow businesses? What if I told you that that is the fastest path to the bottom? Our guest today on The Land.MBA Podcast is Joe McCall. Joe is a leading real estate investor with one of the top podcasts and coaching programs in the real estate investing niche. Joe is a recovering engineer who realized that and I quote: “cubicles made me want to vomit”. He decided to leave the security of his job and go out on his own. But after struggling with shiny object syndrome, and trying to develop his own approaches to real estate investing, Joe finally decided to buy a course and follow it to the letter. That was the beginning of his truly remarkable career. Oh, by the way, he's quite an innovator now, but that is because he has the expertise to find the subtle opportunities that aren't obvious to everyone else. Listen on, as Joe shares his story of going from near bankruptcy to the top of the mountain Joe’s investing journey started when his friend recommended the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He started reading everything he could about investing. He grew his portfolio but when the crash occurred in 2009 he had about 15 home. He nearly lost everything and was incredibly close to bankruptcy. “I don't know how I survived,” he says. “It was God's grace”. It was at that point that he realized he had to learn the art of wholesaling. Wholesaling is just buying a property under contract at a real cheap discount and then selling that contract or your rights to buy that property to somebody else. He didn't think wholesaling was cool and believed it was just for rookies. He wanted to do the big deals. Then he realized his back was against the wall. He needed cash, fast. Joe became something of a professional student. He would buy course after course on real estate investing. He eventually did his first wholesaling deal and made something like $12k. The deals kept coming and that was enough to convince him to leave his engineering job and to begin his full-time real estate career. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Are you a realtor or a house flipper or wholesaler? Do you already have a strong foundation in real estate? You may think, “Hey, I already know so much! I don't need more education or guidance or motivation”. If you think that, meet Derik Keith. Derik is a Land.MBA student who in a very short time has amassed a six figure land business and just acquired a single property that he expects to net over $55,000 on. He recently told Dave, “I'd kiss you if you weren't so ugly!” Today on The Land.MBA Podcast, Dave and I will go deep with Derik on his journey from auto mechanic to real estate investor to broker to brokerage owner to land investor. Now he says a bricks and sticks investment has to be pretty spectacular to shift his attention away from land. Find out how Derek leveraged hardcore education like Land.MBA to quickly build a six figure land business at scale. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Here on The Land.MBA Podcast, we love to talk about land investing. But we know that many investors eventually grow and want to either expand into other types of real estate or become passive investors in other asset classes. One of those asset classes is multifamily. Today , Dave and I are speaking with Adam Adams. Adams first real estate deal wasn't land, inspired by Robert Kiyosaki he moved into multifamily apartments and hasn't looked back. Today he has over 1400 units under management in seven states. This is a no holds barred conversation, where Adam shares his views on real estate, the economy, the impact of the pandemic on his business, and why he believes that taking the cheap and easy path to just about anything can be so expensive.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast ______________________________________ There are two ways to sell properties in the land business. You can sell for cash or you can sell on terms. Cash is pretty straightforward. You buy low, sell high and pocket the difference. Terms deals, also known as owner financing, are a great way to build an income stream that can provide financial security and long term wealth. But are terms deals always good? In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, Dave and I are going to go deep on the good, the bad and the ugly of seller financing. I set a goal when I started in the land business. I wanted to have enough cash flow to cover my costs, including my VA and software subscriptions. My next step was I wanted to not have to pull out of pocket to do mailing campaigns, I wanted my cash flow to be able to pay for that. So I got it to a point where I was still working a job. And I got my cash flow to a point where it was paying the overhead but not yet paying me. So I still had to keep my job. But I kept selling. Sometimes it was a cash deal, sometimes it was a terms deal. I think it’s a great idea to have both because it gives me security and stability. Now, I've been able to quit my job and I have enough cash flow that if I don't sell one property for cash this month. I'm not living high on the hog but I'm paying my bills. And so that gives me the freedom to go out and work on other deals. So many people just coming into the business want to know what is the right mix of cash and terms deals. It's not a straightforward answer, because it depends where they're coming from. If they're at a point where they don't have very much money, then they need to build some capital. For me, I like the 50/50 target but you can't control the market. Maybe it ends up at 70/30, or 60/40. This business requires very little money to get started so I would focus on cash deals at the start. When you're marketing a property and you're selling it on terms, figuring out your pricing is very different than doing it for cash. Cash is pretty straightforward. But in terms deals I would go do a complete market analysis. I use Price Boss to do that. It gives me a very, very solid understanding the median market value for that property based upon comps. And median means that of all the comps that I have, it's not the average, it means that half of the comps are below at half the comp comps or above it. I typically try to price my properties at 90% of median. That way it looks like one of the best deals on the market, because my goal is to sell quickly and reinvest, as opposed to get top dollar for every property.

Everyone is desperately searching for someway to boost their income these days. The Covid Crisis has people wondering just how much longer they will be able to count on their paycheque. That’s why we invited Jay Jacobson and Cory Thomas onto the show today. Each of them are big believers in the power of real estate based passive income. Cory runs Income Property Advisers with his brother. For over 17 years, they have been helping real estate investors exchange into management-free income properties. Jay, meanwhile, manages a large portfolio of real estate holdings and is a big believer in the power of owning rental units. Jay specializes in management-free, income producing properties that qualify for 1031 exchange investments. Their focus is helping investors find the properties that are going to perform the best, both from a cash-flow standpoint as well as an appreciation standpoint. At any given time, they have 30 to 35 properties available. They don’t recommend properties unless there's going to be growth in that market. That means job growth, wage growth, population growth, and rent growth. Jay first entered the real estate investing market in the 1970’s when he purchased a duplex. He got his broker's license. As his portfolio grew so did his interest in 1031 exchanges. They proved to be a powerful tax-avoidance strategy. Land investing could be a very attractive opportunity for those that are already flipping houses or operating in the whole-sale market. It also offers yet another income stream for those that own multi-family units. Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-jacobson-52858411/ https://ipa1031group.com/ _________________________________ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

America is a unique place to invest in land. We have over 2.4 billion acres and of that only 6% is developed. So not only do we have almost 1.8 billion acres to invest in, we have a legal environment that makes it possible for us to invest anywhere from anywhere. This is not the case in Europe. Not only is there a lot less vacant land available, values are generally known which makes profiting from flips difficult. That is why the American market is extremely attractive to European investors. In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, Dave and I are speaking with Markus Habermehl. Markus has the number one business podcast in all of Germany and got excited about investing in American land about two years ago. He will share why land investing is such a tremendous opportunity for European investors. What are the unique challenges of investing for Europeans and most importantly, how to overcome them. One of the big reasons why investing in land in Europe is so difficult is because of their strict data protection laws. In the United States it’s incredibly easy to find out everything you want to find out about a property, including who bought it and the tax history. There is a lot of regulation around land and pricing is completely different. It can be difficult for a European trying to understand the land investing system in the US. Markus says you can’t be afraid to learn new things or to make mistakes. The good thing is that the US market is big enough for everyone to participate. But that said, you do need a good mentor. “You need somebody who really loves to teach otherwise it doesn't work.” he says. That’s because there is a whole host of issues Europeans face. There is, of course, the language barrier. But even simple things like getting a US phone number or being able to create a US company is challenging. That’s why it’s so important to have someone in the US who is willing to help you. Contact Markus: host@panzerknacker-podcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

They say that if you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business. So what are the metrics that we should be tracking in the land business? Sure, we can track revenue and profit, but what else? Numbers of properties bought and sold per month? A mix of cash versus terms or performance numbers by county? What about marketing? Do you track which campaigns are successful and which ones aren't so you can optimize the things that work and the things that don't? In today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast we’re joined by Dave Denniston of Generation Family Properties. Dave is a financial expert and generously shares his wisdom on how to track the numbers in your business, so you too can generate upwards of $35,000 a month in revenue. Dave is a strong believer in income diversification. That’s why after working in the finance business for years he started in land investing. Having a day job allows him to do a wide variety of deals - not just the absolute highest ROI deals. That’s because he doesn’t beed the income being generated by his land sales. Term deals are Dave’s preferred method. He likes to have his eggs spread out among many baskets. Currently he holds the paper on 207 notes. 207 of them. About 10% of those customers are late. That mean he’s generating about $37,000 a month of revenue. Sounds like a lot, right? But it’s not as much as you might think. That’s because he pays a lot in the operation of the business. Marketing costs about $4000 a month. He pays his sales people around $1000 per month. And then on top of that there are all the new land purchases he’s making each month. That leaves him with about $10k per month - which is still a great income. But he likes to emphasize the bottom line so people understand why they are getting into. You have to have a great system in place. That is one of Dave’s core beliefs in managing his business. He hires domestic managers for thinks like marketing and sales. Each of those managers then hire foreign VA’s to handle much of the grunt work. Managing that team is a big job. He makes sure he speaks with each of them for an hour each week. Those meetings are all about identifying the things that are working and - more importantly - the things that are not. “What do you hate right now?” he asks, “If I hate something I get it off of my plate.” Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

When I tell people that I make hundreds to thousands percent ROI on my land deals, their jaws hit the ground. In any other business 100% ROI seems like a moonshot. How are we able to get those kinds of returns over and over again? One word: arbitrage. As land investors, we know how to leverage asymmetries that give us an advantage when negotiating with sellers and buyers. While we often do this intuitively, there's actually science behind it. And today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to go deep on four different inefficiencies that you can take advantage of, to pay less and charge more for your properties. I am the kind of guy who has a reputation for negotiating at Walmart. I do like a deal. But when it comes to investing you need much more detail to be successful. There are many analytical models to arrive at your pricing. The first thing I typically look at is activity. There has to be some good activity around raw land. Because if there's not, nothing we're not going to do anything to change that. You need buyers! No matter how cheap you buy it, it doesn't matter if there's no demand. When you do find an area with buyers you need to find out who those buyers are. If all of those buyers are locals, that's not a good scenario for us as land investors because they're going to understand the value of the land better than we will. And our business is predicated upon having an information advantage over both buyers and sellers with regards to price. An arbitrage is where we can get something cheaper than the true value of it. And that usually happens for a short duration because the market eventually figures it out and closes the gap. But as long as that arbitrage is maintained, we can make a spread. So what drives an arbitrage? I’ve boiled it down to four inefficiencies. Behavioral inefficiencies The first one may be the most prevalent out there. But behavioral inefficiencies are not necessarily the easiest to convert into advantage, but they're always there. Because even though the world changes and circumstances change, human nature doesn't change very much. People always have biases that result in bad decision making. Analytical inefficiencies This inefficiency arises when all the participants have access to the same information, but one person has a much better ability to analyze that data Informational inefficiencies Wouldn't it be better if we just had better information? There are many counties where you're not getting that great data from the assessor. So, you have to find other ways to get the data. So maybe we're getting it from Data Tree or from Lands of America or Zillow. It helps to have a good tool so you can get all this information and easily process it. Situational inefficiencies If somebody is distressed that is a situational inefficiency. For them price is less important to them than speed. Anytime somebody needs to sell because they're under the gun to do it for reasons that have nothing to do with the underlying value of the property. They might be distressed because they've got a huge tax bill. And if they don't pay it, they're gonna go to jail. Or they have hit hard times and they just need the money. Any situation like that is a situational inefficiency. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Nearly everyone who gets into the land business, because they want to create a better life for their families. And while earning a good income or achieving financial independence really contributes to that goal. You haven't really created a better life for your family if you're working all the time. Take it from me, a serial workaholic, it would be better if you could design your work life in such a way that you can make your family your top priority. On today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, Dave and I are interviewing Joseph Aboussie. Joe and his dad come from the commercial real estate world and made the strategic decision to pivot into land. He tells us how he developed systems and processes that enabled him to not only scale his business, but also keep his family as his top priority. Oh, and if you hang with us to the end You'll hear the ultimate tool on how to maintain the perfect chrome dome hairstyle! From football coach to entrepreneur Joe traded ASU and football for the ministry shortly after college. Then he started coaching high school football. He loved it. But after two years he was ready to move on. Spending 90 hour weeks was just not in the cards anymore. Sitting in a room just doing X's and O's for hours on end started to lose its charm after a while. He started flipping houses in the Austin-area. That turned into a stin working for a commercial real estate company. He worked in acquisitions for big chain properties like CVS and Arby’s. Building that portfolio gave him the confidence to create his own company. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Do you long for economic freedom? Do you want to have control over your time? We all want that in life. But most of us work for the man all of our lives. And if we're lucky, we put enough money away to retire by 65. But some of us don't even make it to 65. And for those of us who do, we either don't have the health, the energy or the finances to really enjoy life. When I talk to young people, I tell them unless your heart is set on a specific career like medicine or law, they should consider entrepreneurship. Young people really have nothing to lose financially. And they have the energy and to work the long, hard hours. And if it doesn't work out, they can always get a job. Today, I'm talking with an amazing entrepreneur who did just that. He went for it. He knew the life he wanted to create and he did it. He is Mike VanSteenkiste. Mike's my nephew. And Mike is a man whom I deeply admire because he's living the American entrepreneurial dream. Mike's roots are in land investing. But he's also been extremely successful in home security, internet marketing, land development and Airbnb, just to name a few. He lives in paradise on the Snake River in eastern Idaho with his awesome five children, his amazing wife. And even though Mike could retire at the age of 40, he continues to work on projects he’s passionate about. He calls his own shots and he creates plenty of flexibility to spend time with family and friends and to volunteer and travel. He's a defensive football coach at Rugby High School, where his son will be a senior and they're gunning to repeat as Idaho State champions. Mike’s reading list: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki Anything by Robert G. Allen Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Klason Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Are you a house wholesaler or flipper? If so, the last 10 years have been fantastic for you. But now, as COVID-19 and the global economic showdown has probably brought your business to a screeching halt. With 30 million people applying for unemployment benefits since February, many pundits believe that investing in single family homes is like catching a falling knife. What if there was a strategy that could deliver significant near-term returns? In This episode of The Land.MBA Podcast we discuss the opportunity that traditional real estate investors have been looking for. Those of you who are experienced real estate investors understand cycles. This cycle is just at the start. And it looks like it’s going to be an extreme one. We haven't seen the full financial effects yet because people are just losing their jobs. They're just starting to run out of savings. Because we are just at the start of this cycle, flipping houses is going to be dead for a while. Real buying opportunities aren’t going to start until 2021. But that isn’t the case for all asset classes. Today, we're talking about our favorite asset which is raw land. What’s great about land is that it is congruent to your business if you're already a flipper or a wholesaler. I made this transition during the 2008 downturn. I didn't have to go and learn something completely new. In land investing you can use a lot of your existing knowledge. And with that knowledge you will be able to quickly scale-up your land business. Land investing is a lot less volatile than other asset classes because you don't have the cheap debt. That is what drives up prices very, very quickly. And then when we have a we have a bust, it really busts. You don't have that with land because it's either cash or seller financing. But many of the skills and techniques that you use wholesaling and flipping, can be applied into the land business. You're going to be familiar with contracts, with option agreements, closing techniques and how to work with a title company. You're also going to be familiar with a lot of the marketing concepts like direct mail. Land investing offers the opportunity for a low point of entry and the ability to start quickly. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Do you suffer from the entrepreneurs paradox? On the one hand you want to thrive. You want to grow your customer base, increase your revenues and maximize your profits. On the other hand, you want to save money, spend less, minimize your risk and play it safe. The entrepreneurs paradox is when your desire for expansion comes into contact with that seemingly impenetrable wall of your need for safety. You can't have it both ways. In today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to speak with Marco Robert. Marco is a world renowned business consultant and speaker. He's been called a cross between James Bond, Tony Robbins and your favorite college professor. When he's not jet setting to Singapore or Zurich, you can find him savouring his favorite single malt whiskey. He advises corporate boards, CEOs and top entrepreneurs. Today he's inspiring us on how to get out of our own way and achieve the success we've always dreamed about. Marco divides the world into two groups of people. About 95% of human beings are normal, average and ordinary. There's nothing wrong with that, right? You were raised by normal people, your neighbors are normal. Your wife is probably normal. Your cousins are normal. Everybody around you is pretty much normal. But normal people will not have extraordinary results in life. If you're a normal person, you will not have extraordinary results; you're going to have normal results. If you're taking the same actions as everybody else you're not going to have different results. The word entrepreneur is French. It means a person who undertakes. What does that mean? They undertake to create solutions for the world. They undertake to find solutions to big problems of the world. So there are different human beings. So that other 3 or 4% of human beings is what he calls outliers. They're not part of the group. If you want a different result you have to follow a different path. Marci built a model for helping businesses thrive. It's called the boss model. That stands for business, optimizing strategic systems. In other words, it's a series of systems to strategically optimize any business. Since 2010 Marco has been traveling around the world and teaching the same methodology to entrepreneurs. Step one of the methodology is you have to be the right kind of person. You have to ask yourself what you really want. Do you want safety or do you want to risk something in order to grow? If you're not on the right path, if you don't feel that you are achieving something, instead of trying to shoot for the moon aim for a more modest goal. The first thing that you need to do is you need to prove your own competence. I would much rather you commit to drinking six glasses of water every day. And then actually do this for 30 days in a row. Because when you prove to yourself that you can make a decision, and you can follow through that you can commit to something and you can follow through. your level of confidence is going to explode because you're going to realize that you are a competent human being. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

I remember the first deal I did in the land business. It was awful. I bought this crappy quarter acre lot in southeast Utah in the middle of nowhere, and I paid too much for it. It took me five months to sell it and I only made 83% return on investment. Can you imagine? I made 83% return on investment in five months, and it's the worst deal I've ever done. Try doing that in the stock market or any other market for that matter. My best deal to date I made over 3,000% return on investment. In this episode of the land MBA podcast, David and I will discuss why land is our favorite investment strategy. Land investing has provided a lot of people a lot of freedom. Whether you're someone that's just looking for a side hustle because you've hit that glass ceiling in your career, or you just don't want to work for the man forever. For anybody who's gone to business school or gotten an MBA, you always hear that the purpose of a business is to increase shareholder wealth. That is the primary objective of a business. Well, as a business owner, I can say that is absolutely true. And yet so many of us we leave business school and we go off into the corporate world and we forget that what we are doing is we are working hard to increase shareholder wealth, but we're not really the shareholders At this stage in my life, I have four absolutely non-negotiable requirements in my career.The first one is, I have to love what I'm doing. I have to look forward to getting up in the morning. If I don't, I'll go find something else to do. The second thing is there can be no cap on how much money I can make. If I'm willing to work twice as hard. I want to make twice as much money. Third is geographic independence. We live in the internet age. If I've got a laptop or a smartphone and an internet connection I should be able to do this business from anywhere in the world. Doesn't matter whether I'm at home, I'm in an RV in a national park so long as there's internet. The last non-negotiable requirement is ensuring I can never be fired or downsized. In the land business you buy land that you've never seen in a county that you've never been to, from a person that you've never met. And then you turn around and sell it to somebody else that you've never met, all from the comfort of your own home. It's just insane. It's wonderful. And on top of that much of that workflow can be automated and outsourced. I know a guy in the land business, who used to be a teacher. He's now doing this full time. It took him three years to get up to the point where he had the choice to leave the teaching profession. But he would just crush it in the summer. He would work really hard in the summer and that would carry him through the rest of the year. I also think the land business is a great side gig for a realtor. Same story for wholesalers and house flippers. It's a congruent stream of income and a lot of the same principles apply. So, it's pretty easy to adopt them to the land business. Real estate investors are already familiar with sending mail out and targeting sellers so it's a natural fit. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-a4mm3-e7aa21 I remember the first deal I did in the land business. It was awful. I bought this crappy quarter acre lot in southeast Utah in the middle of nowhere, and I paid too much for it. It took me five months to sell it and I only made 83% return on investment. Can you imagine? I made 83% return on investment in five months, and it's the worst deal I've ever done. Try doing that in the stock market or any other market for that matter. My best deal to date I made over 3,000% return on investment. In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, David and I will discuss why land is our favorite investment strategy. Land investing has provided a lot of people a lot of freedom. Whether you're someone that's just looking for a side hustle because you've hit that glass ceiling in your career, or you just don't want to work for the man forever. For anybody who's gone to business school or gotten an MBA, you always hear that the purpose of a business is to increase shareholder wealth. That is the primary objective of a business. Well, as a business owner, I can say that is absolutely true. And yet so many of us we leave business school and we go off into the corporate world and we forget that what we are doing is we are working hard to increase shareholder wealth, but we're not really the shareholders At this stage in my life, I have four absolutely non-negotiable requirements in my career.The first one is, I have to love what I'm doing. I have to look forward to getting up in the morning. If I don't, I'll go find something else to do. The second thing is there can be no cap on how much money I can make. If I'm willing to work twice as hard. I want to make twice as much money. Third is geographic independence. We live in the internet age. If I've got a laptop or a smartphone and an internet connection I should be able to do this business from anywhere in the world. Doesn't matter whether I'm at home, I'm in an RV in a national park so long as there's internet. The last non-negotiable requirement is ensuring I can never be fired or downsized. In the land business you buy land that you've never seen in a county that you've never been to, from a person that you've never met. And then you turn around and sell it to somebody else that you've never met, all from the comfort of your own home. It's just insane. It's wonderful. And on top of that much of that workflow can be automated and outsourced. I know a guy in the land business, who used to be a teacher. He's now doing this full time. It took him three years to get up to the point where he had the choice to leave the teaching profession. But he would just crush it in the summer. He would work really hard in the summer and that would carry him through the rest of the year. I also think the land business is a great side gig for a realtor. Same story for wholesalers and house flippers. It's a congruent stream of income and a lot of the same principles apply. So, it's pretty easy to adopt them to the land business. Real estate investors are already familiar with sending mail out and targeting sellers so it's a natural fit. Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

How many times do you speak to somebody who's angry, untrusting, uncooperative or otherwise resistant to making a deal? It seems like most sales conversations start with the other side at least hesitating. If only there was a way to get these people to see us as allies, helping them to achieve their dreams. In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to discuss tactical empathy, which when used correctly, is impossible to resist. Today’s topic contributes towards sales conversations but also how to turn all of those conversations into actual sales! Over the last year or so, we have been talking a lot about Chris Voss, and his book Never Split the Difference. This is a must read! It applies to any type of negotiation, whether you're in the land business or any other business. There's just so many good principles in this book that real estate investors can use both on the buy side and the sell side. One of the principles that really resonates with me is called tactical empathy. Now, I've always thought about empathy as you know, walking in someone else's shoes for a mile. But what does Chris mean in his book by the term tactical empathy? I think I had a completely incorrect understanding of the word empathy. I thought it just meant seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. I've come to realize that I can barely see the world through my own eyes. So the chances of me actually seeing it through somebody else's eyes are about next to zilch. I think men in general are particularly bad at this. We're just not as naturally intuitive as women. Women are better at it. Empathy is not being able to necessarily feel what somebody else feels, that's a really hard thing to do. Nor is it about agreeing with somebody else's position. It's simply to be able to understand where the other person is coming from and why they have the position that they have. So and then once you understand where they're coming from, you really want to go to the next step, which is to validate where they're coming from. And even the validation doesn't mean you agree with it. Their position may be completely delusional. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're saying I understand where you're coming from and how you got there. Nothing more. It’s not a judgment or agreement or disagreement or anything else, I just understand where you're coming from and how you got there. And if you can understand that, it's a lot easier to show empathy. Whatever they are dealing with be it spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, kids, whatever - there is a deep seated need to be understood. And one of the most frustrating things is when you're talking to somebody else, and they're so intent on telling you their position, they're not investing the time or the effort to understand where you're coming from. That doesn't mean they have to agree with them. But at least give them the respect to understand where they are coming from and why they have the position that they have. And that's all that empathy means. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Did you accomplish your goals last year? How about last quarter? How about yesterday? It's such a lousy feeling when you get to the end of the day and you realize you just haven't accomplished that much. Can you remember a time when you were in total flow and had an incredibly productive day? Man that feels good. In today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to deconstruct 5 techniques that you can use to improve your productivity by an order of magnitude. There’s lot’s of different kinds of productivity. There's individual productivity, team productivity and there's organizational productivity. A lot of us in land investing are solopreneurs. So we just have to figure out how to get ourselves productive. Here are the 5 ways to up your productivity: Goal setting If we don't know what it is we're trying to accomplish, chances are we're not going to accomplish it. Triage Understand what's urgent versus what's important. Smartphones Are they tools of the trade, or are they destructive? Schedule Schedule your work each day so you know what has to be done. Manage people We're not just talking about employees, but we're talking about customers, we're talking about partners, we're talking about family members. We're talking about whoever could be impeding upon your time and your ability to stay focused on the task at hand. Goal setting for land investors is absolutely critical. Things like this quarter, I'm going to get my website out. I'm going to increase my deal flow to 5 properties a month to 10 properties a month. Whatever it is, have that goal and deconstruct it. Figure out what it's going to take to achieve that goal and break that into daily and weekly goals and daily tasks. If you execute these five rules, I guarantee you, your productivity will improve by an order of magnitude! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

It's widely believed by psychologists that you can't change a mind that's already convinced of something. If you doubt me, post something political on Facebook. This doesn't mean that you can't influence people's decisions. In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to talk about resonance. What is it? And how do you use it to bring people to your way of thinking? Master this skill, and you will increase your deal flow. In this context, we're talking about, of course, our potential buyers, and how do we resonate with them. Basically, we want them to sell themselves on our product. Ronald Reagan once said If you have to explain yourself you've already lost. Nobody wants to be explained to. Once we've established a belief in something, it's almost impossible to get people off that belief system. Typically, when we market a property you say things like, “it's got this many acres, and it's got road access, and it's got a slope and it's got some trees and it's got some grassy area,” etc. But there is a problem with that. There's a gap between the attributes of the property and what somebody might actually want to do with it. We're leaving it for them to cross that chasm. Our challenge is to make him believe that it's only our property that can meet their needs. And so we need to be able to resonate with them. It's not about logic, it's about the emotion. What do they care about? What do they want to do with it? How is this land going to improve their lives? I cannot change your mind if you believe something. I am not going to go onto Facebook and make an impassioned political plea. I'm not going to convince you, it just ain't gonna happen. But if I can find out something that's already inside of you, and I can tap into that. Now, we're going to start to say, Oh, you know what, this person kind of gets me I kind of get that person, I'm opening up, I'm willing to listen. And before you know, you can start swaying them to your way of thinking. So that's what resonance is. It's finding what's already inside of a person and building upon it. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Have you ever thought of bringing a partner into your business? Wouldn't it be nice to have someone to lean on so all the pressure isn't just on you? Of course, you'd have to share the profits. So, like everything, there are pros and cons. In this episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to talk about the reasons for partnering, the prerequisites for making a successful partnership and the potential risks. You hear a lot of horror stories out there about partnerships, don't you? I’ve done more than just hear those horror stories, I've actually witnessed them. You start out with all the best intentions and everything is rainbows and unicorns. But then things start to go horribly wrong. If you look at the rate of failure of small business in the United States, was it the partnership? Or was it the failure of both partners to execute? So I think the truth kind of falls somewhere in between. There's certain prerequisites that make a good partnership. Before you do something, you have to know why you're doing it. “Wouldn’t it be fun to work with my friend in the land business,” is not a very good reason. What you really need is someone that can fill gaps in your knowledge and expertise. Someone who can make the business much more well rounded. You need to understand what gaps your partner would fill before they join your team. There's a lot of value in finding somebody who's not like you. The problem is that can create a very frustrating experience. And so you have to figure out how you can work together without annoying one another. This is a relationship. It's not that much different than a spousal relationship. Self awareness is everything. If you want to have a successful partnership, it takes humility. It takes a thick. If you can call each other out without things descending into a screaming match - you may have found the right partner. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

What is luck? Do you have to be lucky to succeed in the land business? Well, it certainly doesn't hurt. But luck occures more reliably when you set yourself up to be lucky. In today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast, we're speaking with Trevor Hartsock who purchased hundreds of properties in one single deal. How did he do it? The bottom line is you just always have to keep the mail going. You always got to keep the phone ringing. It's like anything in life, you just you just keep raising your game. A lot of people that get into the business their first couple of mailers don’t go so well. So they give up. “You got to just keep putting one foot in front of the other,” Trevor says. The key is to just keep applying the principles. Eventually, you will get a base hit and then a double. And then you will get your first home run. And everything will become clear after that. One week in the land business can change everything! As Trevor grew his business he quickly began to realize that there was too much for one person to do. This is a critical moment for any business owner. The moment when you realzie you need help. But letting go is not a skill most entrepreneurs have. The first step for Trevor was hiring a VA. Just having someone to handle calls and email took an enormous weight off his shoulders. Land.MBA is all about scaling your business. It’s about giving you the tools to grow quickly and efficiently . A big part of that is creating a team around yourself. Being trapped in the mindset of doing everything yourself is one of the biggest reasons most businesses get trapped on the plateau. Don’t let it happen to you! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

What is a brand? What is the value of branding? Does branding matter in the land business? On today's episode of The Land.MBA Podcast we're going to discuss branding in the context of the land business. Whether you should worry about it, and if so, how to use it to your advantage. The definition of a brand, according to The American Marketing Association, is a name, term or symbol that identifies your good or service. That's the official definition. I have to say, I am not a fan of the official definition for a lot of reasons, but one reason is that because it basically implies that the company alone creates the brand. But in fact, the company only has so much impact on what that brand means. Actually, it's the consumer that defines more about what the brand means. If you want to have a brand that emphasizes great customer service, well, you better deliver great customer service. Because it doesn't matter what you say, it only matters what the consumer experiences. And if they experience something different than what you're putting out in your branding, you're just wasting your money. But why does it matter in the land business? I mean, we're just looking for a piece of land to sell. It's a valid question. Let me give you a couple examples. Does it really matter whether I go to Exxon or Sunoco? I mean, gas is gas, right? So why would I maybe choose Sunoco over Exxon? Because they built a brand and it means something to me. And so I associate it's part of my family of brands that Identify with. I mean, I can tell you why I don't use Exxon. I've literally bought Exxon gas one time since the Exxon Valdez incident. I didn't like the way they handled it. But honestly, from a product perspective, it doesn't matter. Look at handbags. You can go buy a Louis Vuitton for a thousand dollars, or you can go to Target and get one for $30. Materially, it's practically the exact same thing. So why am I spending $970 more for Louis Vuitton is because of the brand. Most of the land business is conducted through the internet with somebody that you’ve never met. That transaction requires trust and a relationship. Now, you must build that trust and relationship in your sales process, but it's a whole lot easier if you've already built credibility with your brand. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

Start your land business today with direct support from Howard and Dave: https://land.mba/products/accelerator/ You can't make more money unless you either increase your deal flow, invest in more expensive properties, or a combination of the two. For most land investors, the size and composition of their deal flow is limited by available capital. What would you do if money was no object? In this episode of the Land.MBA Podcast we will discuss five creative financing techniques to acquire properties without using any of your own money. Wouldn't it be cool if we could make more money without having to invest our money? We only have so much money that we can invest. We don't want to invest all of our money into one asset class. That's just a bit dangerous from a typical investing philosophy. So why not use other people's money? For every good property that comes your way, how many do we pass up because you’ve run out of capital or you don't have enough money. Partnering with someone on a deal is a great way to increase your overall flow. But people often complain that they don’t want to partner with anyone because they will have to split the profit. But half the profit is better than nothing! Think about your deal flow like a flywheel. It takes quite a bit of energy to get it to spin. But once it’s going it takes very little energy to keep it spinning. The goal is to keep as many deals going as possible each month We are going to explore in this podcast 5 creative ways to finance your deals so you can acquire properties with no money down. And, and that really will allow you to grow your business much faster without the restraints of your personal capital abilities. Not all situations are suitable to all of these techniques. And that is where, you know, having a good coach is so important. If you are interested in that deeper layer of advice and coaching sign-up for our free 30 minute discovery session. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast

We are extremely excited to have a real star in the land investing community on the show. He is way too humble to admit to that. But the numbers speak for themselves. We are here with Mike Ferreira. Mike has been in the land business full time since 2015 and was doing it part time before that. He's got a tremendous amount of experience and knows how to succeed in this industry. Mike does around 10 to 20 deals per month. Most of those are term deals though he does flip properties as well. Mike is based in Florida and that is where all his business takes place. One subdivision in Florida can have as many properties as some counties in other states. It’s a perfect place to be a land investor. Mike likes to cater to the impulse buyer. He will get new clients reaching out to him randomly at 2 AM after visiting his website. He funnels those new clients to his website or Facebook pages with online advertising. His preferred places to advertise are on Facebook and a few other land investing groups. Most of the Mike’s deals cost a couple of thousand dollars. Sometimes he will pay more in the range of $9 thousand but those are in neighborhoods with actual houses, power and even water. He is not interested in hand-holding his clients. A tour of the property is time-consuming and does little to add to your knowledge of the place. Mike is in a wholesale business and so customer service is not at the top of his priority list. He makes sure his clients know that and is upfront about the higher interest rates he charges. People are generally trusting and Mike reciprocates that in his business. He’s not interested in trying to get one over on someone. The business is so trusting that sometimes people will just sign-over the deed to their property without having received a cheque yet. It’s kind of crazy. But Mike isn’t interested in ripping people off. He always sends the cheque because protecting his reputation is incredibly important to the long-term success of his business. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast Contact Mike Ferreira: https://mikesellsland.com/

I'm a data geek. I like to understand things so that I can feel more confident in my decisions. Too much analysis can be the death of dreams. Because in the pursuit of perfect knowledge, we delay taking action. In this episode of the Land.MBA Podcast, we're going to talk about the role of analysis in the land investing business. And knowing when you cross the line into analysis paralysis. At heart, I'm a military guy, I fall back on some military principles. As George Patton said, “A good solution applied with vigor soon is better than a perfect solution applied 10 minutes later.” It's got to be action. So if you're looking for 100% confidence, you're missing the market. Bill Gates says when he hits 80% certainty he takes action. We can see this principal in the development of product. It used to be that when you develop a product, you would go out and you would do market research and you figure out what the market wanted and you build your product plan from there. But it doesn't work that way anymore. Now, you create something called the “minimal viable product”. You get it out there and you let the market give you feedback. The market tells you what they want. You don't have to guess anymore. So it's all about moving fast and getting something out there so the market talks to you. So how much analysis is the right amount? It depends on the situation. But again, if you're waiting for 100% confidence in a decision, you're waiting too long These decisions aren’t always easy. Take, for example, pricing mailers. It can be a little bit nerve racking trying to figure out the right price. You can essentially kill your model because of spending so much time doing it. Conversely, being too flippant can also spell disaster. So if you're using a tool like Price Boss, you can bring a lot of data into the model and turn out an analysis based on a lot more data than you could copy and pasting it onto a spreadsheet. But how much do you really need? The two words you need remember are: “diminishing returns”. At some point, you're just putting more information in there, but you're not getting a real return on the level of effort and time that you're investing in that additional information. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylandmba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/land.mba/ Website: https://www.land.mba/podcast