Seth: Hey, everybody. How's it going? This is Seth Williams and Neil Clements. You're listening to the REtipster Podcast. This is episode 245. Show notes for today can be found at retipster.com/245.

Neil and I are doing our quarterly market update for land investors. We kind of discovered about a year ago we thought this was a good idea because the market was changing a lot and things continue to be challenging in one way or another.

This is a great opportunity to sit down and discuss, for your benefit and ours, what we're both seeing and what we think is happening. Just observations of the things that we see firsthand and the anecdotal things we hear from many other land investors in the market.

This can be hard to zero in on because there are many different markets throughout the country. What's happening in one state may be different from what's happening in another, but there are certain macroeconomic and political things that affect all of us.

To the extent that we can, we want to address that stuff and not necessarily make predictions, but make sense of what we see happening so that hopefully you can identify with it and benefit from this as well.

So Neil, welcome. How's it going?

Neil: Hey man. Thanks for having me again. It's always a super big blessing to be here, and I'm honored every time I get to do it. I'm honored that the community wants to listen to us banter back and forth about the economy and other things going on for maybe the next hour.

What I want to talk about today—in the Facebook group, the REtipster community, I've been seeing a lot of people ask: is land investing still competitive? How many investors are left in the space?

I want to hit that. I want to hit some lessons from this awesome mastermind you just threw in the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming. There are some pretty cool things to take away from that. I want to hit: are we in a recession? And if we are, how does that impact our businesses and what we're doing? And lastly, I want to talk about the action steps we need to take based on the current economic environment we're going into.

So that's what we've got today. We're hitting a lot of different topics, but I think it'll be super valuable for y'all to tune in.

Seth: How would you describe the state of land investing right now, just in a nutshell? What are you seeing? What's new over the past few months since we last did this?

Neil: We're coming out of one of the hardest markets—and maybe still in one of the hardest markets—for real estate investors that I've ever seen. And that's not just me saying that. That's other people I'm following, other real estate investors saying how hard it is right now to do this business.

So the first thing I want to tell everybody listening is that if you're still here, congratulations, because it has not been easy. And the work that you did is what got you here.

I heard on your podcast the other day—I forget his name, I'm sure you'll remember—but it was a CPA that you interviewed, and he said that 40% of his bookkeeping clients, and he mainly dealt with land investors, had dropped out of the business in the last 12 months. That really took me off guard. That was very eye-opening to me.

Another stat I saw: I was at a mastermind in Dallas a few weeks ago, and Batch Leads commissioned a study on their target market, which was wholesalers. They did a study on 2021 wholesalers versus 2025 wholesalers and how many are still left.

They found in 2021 there were 90,000 wholesalers. They found in 2025 this year that there were 12,000 wholesalers left. This was a full commissioned study. They said it cost like $50,000 to do the study, so I believe the results. And what that means is 90% of wholesalers left the business in the last four years.

This isn't just land. This is real estate investing in general.

So I guess my question—and Seth, you can speculate on this if you want—but if 90% of wholesalers have left the business, and potentially from the CPA sample size 40% of land investors have left, how many people are still even in this?

Seth: It's one of those things that's hard to zero in on because it depends how you define “still in this,” or what is a land investor even? How many deals per month or per year does it take to be considered in the game?

Some people treat this like a money-making hobby. Others treat it like: this is it, I'm going to make millions from this. So there's a huge range of what people consider active.

But what I've been hearing in a lot of discussions is: I'm either still 100% all-in—this is my only thing—or I'm taking my foot off the gas. I'm not really doing it. They haven't quit in their mind—they’re just sitting on the sidelines.

To me, that equates to “I'm not doing it,” even if mentally they think they haven't checked out. They've just seen how much harder it's gotten, so they're not willing to take the risk.

As far as actual competition and how many people are legitimately in the game, I think it's definitely a lot less. But the ones still in it have accepted that if this is going to work, we need to push really hard. This is not something where you can send 500 postcards and get a deal. We're not in that world anymore.

They recognize we have to do tens or hundreds of thousands at a time to get a few deals. So while there may be fewer individuals, that doesn’t mean the volume of marketing has gone down.

That's kind of what I've been seeing.

Neil: No, I agree. It's almost like the saying: life is either a heck yes or a heck no. There's no heck maybe.

I think it's the same thing for real estate investors right now. The heck maybes or the people just trying it out—it seems like they left the industry or moved on. The people who said heck no left too. But the people who said heck yes are taking extreme market share right now.

Their businesses are still growing. And we're going to talk about that here in a few minutes, about what I saw at the mastermind that we went to that you put on.

Before we get into that though, I can't reiterate enough that if you're still in this game, like seriously, I applaud you because it has been really, really difficult. And the business worked because you worked.

I've seen some questions come up in the community like, is it a good time to start land investing? Will it work right now? Is it still a good investment?

My perspective is that it'll work. This business will work if you work. But what a down market—which we are in right now—does for land investing especially is it increases the risk of land investing because there is no plan B.

If you cannot flip the property, you cannot rent it, you cannot cash flow it, there is no plan B. So it increases your risk, and the hobbyists don't want to take that risk anymore.

Second, it makes it so much harder to do this business for somebody coming in and trying it out.

Like I said, land investing works when you work. And if you can continuously buy properties at 50% of market value—heck, even 30% at lower price ranges—this business will always work as long as you choose the right markets, the right properties, and you know how to sell properties.

So that's my perspective for anybody listening: this business works if you work. And if you can buy properties low, you'll survive.

Seth: A couple thoughts on that. For those who want to get in here and just try it out, the difficulty I'm having with that in my mind is that that's how almost everybody starts this business.

Nobody really knows if it's going to work unless maybe you're a house wholesaler or something. But if you've never really done real estate or land, there's an element of “I'm trying this out.” I need to prove the concept to myself first.

Basically what I'm hearing is it's just going to be a lot harder to prove the concept, or you need a higher tolerance or threshold of trying it before you expect to close a deal.

And it's a very different set of expectations than what has been preached by the gurus for so many years, and that some continue to preach. People who say this is easy—they have something to sell you. They want you to think it's easy.

But it's just a different ballgame right now.

Neil: Yes, it is. And let me define “try.” When I say someone is trying it out, of course you have to start somewhere. When I say “try,” I mean: send 100 mailers and then never send mailers again for a year. Or hire a cold caller for a month and say, “Oh, I gave it a shot.”

You've got to realize this real estate investing game—you've got to give it 12 months. You have to give it six to 12 months of consistent marketing. You've got to put some money toward it. And if you're not going to put money toward it, then you’ve got to put time toward it.

The people who are trying it out, in my opinion, who are failing, are the ones doing inconsistent marketing. That's probably a better definition.

Seth: Another thing to note—and I've heard this from several people—they’ve said this year has been their best year yet. And two episodes ago, in 243, Quinn and Trivoo said they've bought more land this year than ever before.

But whenever you hear stuff like that, you have to ask: what's going on? What are you doing differently?

In their case, they’re buying entire land businesses from other wholesalers who are getting out of a market or the business altogether. They’re buying a huge portfolio of notes or deals someone wants to unload.

That’s a unique thing most land flippers aren't doing. So when you hear somebody say they’re doing well, first: realize it is possible. Second: realize there's something unique they're doing.

Neil: 100%. And let me segue into Wyoming.

So I was in Wyoming with Seth and 12 other land investors last month in the Grand Teton Mountains. We hiked, we masterminded. And Seth, I'm so appreciative of you and Dave because the quality of that room and the people you brought together—mostly high six figures, low seven figures land investors—the quality was fantastic.

The fun was awesome too. Had an absolute blast. Built lifelong memories.

What I wanted to share is that through our mastermind sessions and hot seats, there were a few ahas that came out that are relevant for today’s market.

The first one: the biggest land investors in the nation can struggle at times, but they don’t die out.

In the hot seats, people opened their whole businesses: what’s working, what’s not, what they need help with. And the interesting thing I saw is that exactly like you were talking about with that investor doing something unique—the biggest land investors in the nation, in response to difficult times, don’t die.

They go to different markets. They change their marketing message. They continue to lead generate. Maybe they go business-to-consumer or business-to-business. Maybe they go from county to county or state to state. Maybe they double their price range. Maybe they get into subdivides.

They don't worry about the market that's coming because they know they’ll do whatever it takes to survive.

That’s what I see from the investors growing their business versus losing right now: they pivot.

Neil (continued): Number two: if they buy a dud property and they’re going to lose money on it, they take the loss quickly and reinvest the capital.

Successful land investors know you can’t make money on every project. You’re going to have losers. And when you do have a loser, sell it quickly. Get out so you can continue to scale.

That business is about velocity of money, not maximizing every dollar from every property.

Seth: That’s great wisdom. I'm wondering though, what do we consider a loser? Is it just something that doesn't make as much as you thought? Or something where you're losing a ton?

How do you define a loser?

Neil: Everybody has different definitions. My average purchase price is probably $300,000 to $700,000. I try to double out of that. My time on market is six to 12 months.

If I've held a property for nine to 12 months, done several price reductions, and can’t get momentum—that’s probably a loser. If lowering the price means we start losing money—that’s a loser.

For cheaper lots—$20,000 to $100,000—if you’re holding more than four to six months, especially with funding involved, that’s probably a loser.

The reality is most land investors run a business about velocity of money. Turning money faster is better than holding long-term waiting for an extra 5%.

Seth: It's always weird because sometimes I get cold feet. Nothing’s wrong—it just takes longer. And I arbitrarily lower the price because I want action. I want it to sell.

But I didn’t need to. I just needed patience.

That’s why it’s important to define: what is a loser? When is it appropriate to cut and run?

Neil: I hear you. Last thing I’ll say about the Wyoming trip: successful real estate investors realize they need other people to mastermind with. Everyone needs a community to help them get to the next level.

Everyone shared transparently. Even the people with $6M, $7M, even $10M businesses had struggles. Everyone has levels. Everyone has problems.

Some of the biggest people in the room had some of the simplest problems to solve—but they couldn’t see it. They had blinders on. You need other people to take those blinders off.

And that’s what the Inner Circle did.

Seth: After the mastermind, I came back on a huge high. I don’t know about you, Neil, but I was just on a perpetual high the whole time we were there. Had a blast and really appreciated everything you and Dave did to put that together.

And I came to you afterward and said, “We’ve got to do this again. We need to do a new place. We need to do it in 2026, especially in a time like this where the community needs it.”

I don’t know if now is the appropriate time, but do you want to share about the mastermind we put together for next year that people can apply for?

Neil: Yeah, absolutely. So Neil and I are renting a huge VRBO mansion in the Smokies. We're going to spend four days hanging out with a handful of other land investors.

You can find all the details at retipsterinnercircle.com. I'll include a link to that in the show notes. Again, retipster.com/245.

It's going to be a very similar vibe, very similar idea to what we did in the Grand Tetons—where we're improving each other and trying to figure out how can we run our business better, how can we get unstuck.

And the reason we picked Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is there's a ton of stuff to do there. We're also going to be sharing meals together. Doing fun activities together. It'll be the kind of trip you actually make memories from that you'll remember years from now.

And if you’ve just started your land business yesterday, this might be for you if you can do a handful of deals before then. But it's really intended for people doing a reasonable amount of volume—people with legitimate money-making businesses. We want a group of relatively experienced people who can bring experience to the table.

Neil: Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Again, retipsterinnercircle.com. What you're going to see there is a little video, some information explaining it, but there's also a button that says “Apply Now.”

The reason you have to apply is so that we can make sure we understand, are you a good fit for this or not? So you can start by applying. And if you fit the profile, Neil or I will reach out to you and talk more about it.

Great summary, Seth. Thank you for doing that.

Neil: And I would encourage anybody to apply. Not everybody who applies will get in. If you run a business other than real estate and you've had success—six or seven figures of income through another business that could translate to the land investing business—we might consider that as well.

But in general, we're looking to keep the quality of the room incredibly high. That's what creates the good mastermind process. The high level of the room. We're asking high-level questions, we're having high-level people, and we're having a ton of fun while doing it.

So anyway, I'm super excited for it. Can't wait to see y'all there.

Seth: So let's talk about the economy, Neil. There's been a lot of talk about recessions and slowdowns. I've been seeing it all over the place. There are different indicators depending on what you're looking at.

How are you reading what's going on in the broader economy right now? What data points are you paying attention to that help you come to conclusions about where we are?

Neil: So the real question is: are we in a recession? And what do we do about it?

Let's go over a few key economic indicators that we can look at to interpret things, so everyone can interpret for themselves. And then: what do we do about it? And: if we are looking at a recession, what has happened in previous recessions that we can learn from?

So are we going into a recession? The first thing I'll tell you is I'm not an economist. And there's a joke about economists: economists and weathermen are the only people who, if they're less than 50% accurate, can still have a job and be highly respected. Economists exist to make weathermen look good.

So I'm not an economist. And even if I was, I’d encourage you to do your own due diligence. Listen to the why behind the stats, not just what I say.

Because I'm going to say: I believe we are in a recession currently, or we're going into one very quickly.

Neil (continued): The tough part about calling a recession is recessions are a lagging measure. I remember COVID in 2020—during that time we actually went through a recession. We came out of it super quick because of all the money printing, quantitative easing. But we experienced a recession.

And it wasn't until mid-2021—a full year later—that they came back and defined: “This was the start, this was the end.” It was months after the fact.

Why do I say that? Because nobody actually knows when we're in a recession until a year or two later.

So you know you're in a recession by watching leading indicators, not waiting for someone to announce it.

Neil: So let’s get into a few things we’re watching.

An article came out last week saying 22 out of 50 states are currently in recession. That means almost half of our nation. And if New York or California—both of which are treading water—go into recession, our whole economy is in recession.

The second thing is the Fed reduced rates again yesterday. Historically, the Fed only reduces rates when they see recession coming or hardship coming. If they're cutting rates, pay attention.

Third: auto delinquencies. People not paying their car notes are approaching 2009 levels. What happened in 2008–2009? A massive recession.

If people stop paying for their cars, they can't go to work. After they stop paying for their cars, they stop paying for their houses. Things go wrong fast.

Fourth: the inverted yield curve. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but it's a bond timing thing. Short-term yields vs. long-term yields are inverted. It has never been wrong. It predicts recession six to 24 months later. It inverted 18 months ago.

So my opinion: our economy is a ticking time bomb. We're mostly already there. But you won’t hear about it from the media until next year.

Overall summary: the economy feels like a car running out of gas. Still driving, but sputtering. The Fed is pouring gas on it by lowering rates.

That’s my economic update.

Seth: So what does this mean for land investors? If you're buying land with nothing on it, it's a luxury purchase. Usually the first thing to go in a recession.

Do we just need lower offers? Longer days on market? Or change something fundamentally?

I know these are huge questions. But we do have some data—and a lot of anecdotal data.

Like last night, I saw a news article about Amazon and Apple laying off huge numbers of workers. Well-paid workers. And they’re going into a job market where nobody needs them.

If people lose jobs and can’t pay car payments… how is land going to sell well? What do you make of this?

Neil: That's what we've got to be careful of. Economists will tell you something and then not interpret it for you.

Certain parts of the country have already been in a real estate recession for two to three years. I want to differentiate a real estate downturn from an economic downturn—they're different.

If you look at houses, we have better data. Land is hard to track. But houses and land tend to move similarly, with land lagging.

The number of homes sold in 2024 and 2025 was lower than 2008 and 2009. You have to go back to the early 1990s to find years that low.

And yet… no markets have “crashed.”

Land hasn’t crashed either. Some slowed 10–15%, especially rural areas. But nothing catastrophic.

If we’ve been in a real estate downturn for two or three years, we could be approaching the bottom. Housing rates have gone down from 7% to the high fives. And the really neat thing: the Fed reducing the prime rate directly impacts land mortgage rates.

Seth: Help me understand—why does it affect land but not houses? Because, I mean, you were a banker, right? So at the bank, they’re going to set the mortgages for land. They're going to do portfolio loans, meaning they keep the loans in-house and lend based on the prime rate, not the mortgage rate, because they're not selling it off to the secondary market.

So they don't have to compare against treasury yields or the secondary market. They're holding it in-house. So they do it based upon the prime rate, which is what the Fed touches every time. Well, the Fed touches the Fed rate, but the prime rate is plus a margin. The prime rate is what moves when the Fed moves rates. So it directly impacts our business.

So if you look at between June and now, which is late October, our borrowers got a half-point reduction in interest rate, and that's huge.

Neil: So anyway, last thing I want to tell you about the recession and what we're talking about here: the really interesting thing I've been harping on for every call we've had—five of them now—is where are the buyers’ markets, where are the sellers’ markets?

We experienced the great migration to the Southern states—Texas, Florida, Georgia—from 2020 through 2022. Ever since then, economists coined a new term: “the great stay,” where the people who were previously moving to the southern states are now staying where they’re at.

The funny thing is: we’ve completely reversed. The hot markets during the great migration are now cold, and the previously cold markets are now hot.

The Northeast—New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire—are incredibly hot now. California has rebounded in a big way.

Neil (continued): The irony is: the reason Texas and Florida haven’t crashed harder is because their economies are still expanding. People are still moving there. Jobs are still strong.

They're oversupplied. They built too much housing during COVID. Austin has three times as many sellers as buyers. Dallas has twice as many. That’s bad for housing prices. But because the economies are strong, we’ve only lost maybe 5–10% on housing prices.

So, to emphasize: an economic recession doesn't mean a real estate crash. But we, as land investors, need to be careful with the risk we take on. If we buy properties, we have no backup plan. We have to sell them.

Seth: Is a lot of this dependent on which markets you're in? What you're saying is true for Texas and Florida. But what about a random rural county in Indiana where there's nothing going on? That’s a different story, right?

Neil: That's what you’ve got to watch.

In theory, the highest risk is where you have rural land with no agricultural value. In the Midwest, farmland produces cashflow, so you probably don’t need to worry. But if you’re buying desert squares or extremely rural areas that are in economic recession, yeah—you’re going to be hurting. That’s a hard business to run. Your buyer pool won’t be able to afford what you're selling.

If it's a luxury purchase, they just won’t make it.

So I think we’ll see more people go toward smaller lots. Some strategies from the Wyoming mastermind were RV lots—one-acre lots under $20,000; five-acre lots under $20,000, depending on the area.

These smaller properties where you can put a mobile home or RV will stay desirable. Commercial-style opportunities in the path of growth will stay desirable. Infill lots near urban centers will stay desirable.

But the big rural or desert squares? You've got to be careful.

Seth: So if you're a new land investor getting into this now, and you only know the theory from a course—what should be your first move? How do you identify the market? What kind of property do you say yes and no to? What would you say “Don't do this, please. Go this direction instead”?

Any thoughts?

Neil: New land investors need to be incredibly conscious—just like experienced investors—of whether they can sell the property. Even at the mastermind, we spent more time talking about how to sell properties than how to buy them.

You need to be in markets where you can get good advice, whether from real estate agents or by doing double closings to minimize risk. You’re going to have to have somebody help you know you have a good deal.

Even with our funding submissions at REtipster, we have to deny a majority of applications because the properties are weird or won’t sell at the price investors think. We need them cheaper.

But all of this comes back to acquisitions—buying low enough that you can sell.

There’s a saying: “There’s a pig for every barn.” Meaning: any land will sell for some price. You just have to buy it cheap enough.

Seth: When you said earlier, “Make sure you know you can sell that property,” how do you know? What should give you the confidence that you can sell it at this price? Or is it even possible to be that certain?

Neil: To be certain—no, not possible. But you can get a high probability by having good advisors: real estate agents, coaches, funders, hard money lenders. You have to have somebody help you.

If you're not comfortable taking the risk yourself, then split the risk with somebody else and split the profit.

Seth: Something I think happens with land flippers who know they’re going to need funding is they get lazy on due diligence. They think, “The funder will catch anything wrong.” And they just submit junk.

And if they don't like it—that’s my due diligence.

That’s misguided.

You don’t look good submitting junk. You look incompetent. If you want funders fighting over you, be competent. Do the work. Answer the questions you know they’ll have.

Don’t get lazy.

Neil: Yep. If you’re submitting to more than two or three funders, it’s because you don’t have a good enough deal. A great deal solves everything.

The problem we’re seeing—and this is all funders—is that probably 90% of submissions are just throwing stuff at the wall seeing what sticks.

Not the right way to run a business.

Seth: So Neil, help me understand: what mindset separates people who thrive in markets like this from the ones who pull back?

Neil: I've got some good observations for you.

There’s a book by Jay Scott called Recession-Proof Real Estate Investing. I’d consider it almost a Bible for what we’re about to go through.

In the book, he says successful real estate investors are flexible. They pivot quickly.

For example, in my business, something I learned at the Wyoming mastermind: Denise was talking about manufactured housing. I realized in the Texas areas I'm in, my 1-, 3-, and 5-acre lots are taking nine to twelve months to sell. And the buyers are doing land-home packages with manufactured housing anyway.

So why not get my retailer's license and do the same land-home package myself and make an extra $20,000–$30,000 or more?

Successful real estate investors find a way. They pivot strategies, pivot markets, find demand, fill demand.

Neil: And you talked about that earlier. The person you met who was going business-to-consumer and buying other land investing businesses—they’re pivoting their business based on strategies that fit the current market.

How do you know what the current market is doing? You listen to calls like this. You study Seth’s podcast. You look at all the people he’s talked to. You buy his course. You study the business. You get to know other successful land investors and figure out what’s working and what’s not working.

So that’s the first thing I’ll tell you.

Second: in a buyer’s market, you have to be good at selling. In a seller’s market, you have to be good at finding.

There are a lot of people who might be able to find good deals. Maybe their marketing is hitting better than ever. But the market has shifted, and maybe it's 10–20% lower. They’ve got to sell properties. In some rural areas, maybe even more discount is needed.

You have to become good at selling your properties. That’s what we spent a ton of time talking about with the biggest land investors in the nation—how to get properties moved. They have inventory. They need to get it sold.

Neil (continued): Last thing I’ll tell you is the mindset. So many investors will be tempted to sit this one out. “It’s a recession, things are scary, last recession hurt my job.” Whatever excuse.

But things are hard right now. We already talked about that. I've applauded everyone listening—if you're still in this, congrats. Don’t sit this out. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime to build life-changing wealth.

Because what happens after a recession? When you’re here, it goes here.

And the last piece of advice: stop trying to time the market. Don’t listen to this and think you’ll time it perfectly and buy at the absolute bottom.

Nobody knows when the bottom is. That’s like guessing when Jesus is coming back. Nobody knows.

So live your life as if you're ready for it to go up or down. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Seth: That's great advice, man. I love that.

It's interesting how a lot of the success I’ve had in life—I don’t know if this is good or healthy—but if I get to the bottom of why I did well at something, it was motivated by fear.

Like, I don’t ever want to be in a position where I have to go back and get a job. That to me is worst-case nuclear scenario. What has to be true so I never have to worry about that?

I don’t want to go broke. I don’t want to be homeless. Not that that would ever happen. I have a tendency to have ridiculous fears. But having that mindset kicks you into gear. It keeps you from getting lazy.

And in the times of my life when things have been the easiest, that’s when I’ve gotten the most bored and almost borderline depressed. The human mind needs struggle. We need tension. We need friction.

I think that’s what we were created for—to do good work and overcome obstacles.

Seth (continued): So if you're coming up against obstacles and things that are hard, realize that's actually a good thing. It’s better than having everything handed to you.

And like you're saying, Neil, if you can actually succeed in this environment, you're going to do really well when things turn around. And they will turn around. It always happens.

Neil: Absolutely. I love that, Seth.

Two quotes real quick.

One: what you fear rules your life. Psychologically, what we fear determines our actions. If we fear going back to a W2 job, we work really hard to avoid it. But to do that, you first have to overcome the fear of failure.

And that's what I think a lot of people listening need to take away. Your biggest fear rules your life. You’ve got to analyze what your biggest fear is and create new fears.

Second: enough is not a number. Enough is doing your absolute best in every scenario.

I personally think that’s doing my best to the glory of Christ. I heard that from someone incredibly wealthy—probably nine-figure net worth—who was asked, “Why do you keep working?” And he said, “Enough is not a number. Enough is doing my best every day.”

Huge wisdom.

Seth: Yeah, that's awesome, dude. Totally agree with that.

So as we wrap this up, as life keeps going on and the economy keeps changing for better or worse, if someone wanted to position themselves for the next 12 months, what would be the top two or three things you’d tell them to do? What are the bottom-line takeaways?

Neil: I’ll run through them quickly.

First: if you want lines of credit—which the top land investors have—you need to apply now. Once the recession is blasted on TV, private lenders will dry up. Lines of credit won’t be renewed. If you need capital, you need to get it now.

Second: get rid of your losers now. Anything you don’t want to own for the next one to three years—sell it. Discount it. Get it off your books. Get your capital back to take advantage of the opportunity coming.

Third: boost your liquidity and cash reserves. You must have cash. Don’t be equity rich and cash poor.

Fourth (bonus): avoid unnecessary risk. As a land investor, there is no plan B. If you own a property and can’t sell it, you're stuck with it. If you're not comfortable with that risk, partner with someone who is—but funders need the deal of a lifetime. Average deals will not get funded in this market.

Shore up your ship. Plan for the worst, hope for the best, and go out there and kill it on the opportunity coming over the next 12 to 24 months.

Seth: It's interesting what you mentioned there about how once recession is being blown out from all the media outlets, it'll be harder to get a loan.

A lot of people talk about how buying and selling is an emotional decision. People buy based on emotions. And in my experience in the banking world, bankers lend based on emotion as well.

Seth (continued): I can't tell you how many times I sat around a table with lenders making decisions based on fear. “I heard this guy did this,” or “That company went out of business,” or “Haven’t you heard? We're in a recession.”

They pride themselves on data. But emotion plays a factor. Which can work for you or against you.

It was an aha moment hearing you talk about that.

Neil: And if you function off a line of credit, try to get your renewals quickly. Those tend to renew on a one- or two-year term.

If anyone doesn’t know what a line of credit is: it’s essentially a big boy credit card. It's a business credit card, but instead of a piece of plastic, you email your banker and say, “I need $100,000 wired to the title company to close tomorrow,” or “I need renovation funds,” or “I need marketing funds.”

It's a big board credit card.

These can be $100k, $200k, $500k. I met a guy with a $10 million one.

Neil (continued): The more people I meet in this game—residential or land investing—the more I realize there are levels to this thing. Relationships to make. Networks to tap into.

The biggest land investors in the nation are not sitting this out. They are more active than ever in today's market. And that’s what I’ll leave you with.

Seth: Neil, appreciate your insights as always. You’ve got a lot of great experience and you pay attention to things a lot of us should pay attention to, but don’t because we're too busy or don't know where to look.

It’s great to have your wisdom condensed into this episode. Again, show notes at retipster.com/245.

Neil, thanks again. And everybody, we'll talk to you in the next episode.