Which approach?

Hi all,

I’ve been following Seth off and on for quite a while, and I’m aware of some of the other “gurus” in the land investing space: Bosch, Land Geek, etc. (No, I’m not using the term derogatorily) I never pulled the trigger because I’ve been a bit confused. It seems like the common approach is to buy lots at $.20 - $.30 on the dollar, and sell them with owner financing, acting as the bank and building a large portfolio of properties, each of which cash flow $200+ per month. However, it seems that all the gurus teach people to go after the same types of lots in similar locations, which begs some questions. Who the heck is buying them? Is anyone here accomplishing the goal of creating a $10k per month cash flow from selling these lots on terms? Aren’t these counties being overrun by investors like us?

Others in the land biz are focusing on flipping larger acreages for cash, rather than self-financing. Is this a more valid strategy, even though it requires more capital?

What has me more confused is that I listened to a fairly recent podcast with Seth and Jaron, and they were talking about branching out into multifamily properties. Are they moving out of land investing and onto seemingly greener pastures?

I’m just trying to see what’s on the horizon and “skate where the puck is going and not where it is now” as the Great One put it.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

@luckypup Hello!
I think that there can be many ways to be successful in Land Business and yeah…depending on the mentor you hear, those could be different but still, they are all successful, and if you think about it, it’s a pretty damn good thing, isn’t it? )).
Now, I’m not sure about your level of experience (mine is the closest thing to 0 you can imagine) but does it really make sense to be picky about the type of deal (seller financing or cash), especially if, like myself, you don’t have a remarkable number of deals under your belt?
Personally, I just try to pick what I consider to be the right market and then I shoot my campaign one County at a time:). Then if/when I’ll get a property, the current plan is to give to potential buyers the option for both (cash or seller financing) without overthinking and being “scared” by what others could do in my same Market but just trying my best to make my listings the lowest ones and/or the more visible among all the others: for me to sell is most important thing, what kind of Sale is more a Buyer’s choice. To be honest, the only thing I’m currently considering is the possibility to (preferably) chase deals over the 5K $ (purchase price) from now on, in order to justify the use of a Title Company for Title search/Insurance and closing and still have some decent profit…
I’m not sure this helped but I just felt to share and I’m looking forward to hearing from you about the direction you will take. Good luck!
Arturo.

@arturo Thanks, Arturo. I appreciate the input!

Welcome to the forum @luckypup!

Some of your questions were covered a bit in this thread: https://retipster.com/forum/topic/1128/what-am-i-missing

Whether you decide to go after larger deals for cash, or smaller deals with seller financing (or some combination of the two), they’re all valid stratgies with plenty of examples of people who are doing well at it.

If you’ve followed me closely, you probably know I rarely make “recommendations” about where people should work or what types of lots to go after, because there’s so much variability (and I also don’t want to clutter up a few specific counties just because I found a few deals there). I try to give really good instruction about the basics and let people use their imagination and intuition to find their way.

As for what you should do, I think it’s just a question of finding your “niche within the niche” (which land type or market you should specialize in), and the only way to do this is by trying things out and bumping into the rails a bit until you find your groove. Some people get lucky find it quickly. Other people have to cast out their line a few more times before they get great traction.

What has me more confused is that I listened to a fairly recent podcast with Seth and Jaron, and they were talking about branching out into multifamily properties. Are they moving out of land investing and onto seemingly greener pastures?

I’m not sure which conversation you’re referring to, but we’ve talked with a lot of other non-land investors on the podcast. I know @Jarenb has been a lot more immersed in that world over the past couple of years, but I can’t speak for him. I haven’t personally done anything with multi-family properties.

A lot of land investors (including me) are active in other strategies outside of land as well. Learning and trying a new investing strategy doesn’t mean you have to abandon one for the sake of the other. For many land investors, it’s a stepping stone strategy, but not the final destination. Flipping land is a great way to generate cash at a faster pace so you can buy the apartment building, build the storage facility, invest in that syndication deal, etc - because it’s a lot harder to do these things if you’re limited to just your W2 income… but land deals can change all of that.

If you haven’t thought about what might come next after you’ve mastered the land business, you probably should! There are a lot of possibilities once you’ve got some cash to work with.

@retipsterseth Thanks, Seth. I guess I’m a little worried about being behind the curve. I just wanted to get some feedback about the land “state of the union.” I can’t remember the exact podcast I was referring to, but toward the end you and Jaron were discussing multifamily as a next step, which makes sense. That, coupled with the fact that RE Tipster has grown beyond land since I was last engaged, made me wonder if land investing was getting a bit oversaturated. Guess not, and good to hear.

I was also seeking some clarity about land investing business models. More and more “coaching” programs are popping up, some touting the small lot, sell on terms model, and others touting selling larger acreages for cash. Pardon the pun, but I’m just trying to get the “lay of the land” before plunking down a few thousand for a course or coaching program. Thanks again for the info - I appreciate you taking the time to provide some feedback!

@luckypup totally understand. REtipster has actually always been about more than just land. Since the site started in 2012, there has been a lot of ongoing content about rentals, commercial and other, more “general” types of real estate investing.

That said, land is definitely the niche that we know and talk the most about, so it makes sense that a lot of people associate REtipster as a land brand… but hopefully, people are able to find more beyond that once they get more familiar with the content.

Your question about being behind the curve is a very common one. It’s so common, we even dedicated a whole podcast episode to it: https://retipster.com/086-is-it-too-late/

@retipsterseth Thanks again, Seth. I’ll listen to it today. I’ve been trying to decide whether to invest in your land mastery class or pursue house wholesaling (investing in that education, instead). I know wholesaling is a very red ocean, and it seems land is less red, if not blue.