Episode 56: Top Mistakes To Avoid In Land Flipping

Michelle: I see a lot of new land flippers not making enough offers. And at the end of the day, you know, you may be selecting the right properties, the right counties, the right areas but if you’re not making enough offers, you know, you’re not gonna be getting deals on the contract.

Hi, I’m Michelle Bosch, a real-estate investor, mom, wife, and host of “The InFLOW Podcast.” And I’m passionate about helping women invest in land and apartments. Join me each and every week for real-estate investing strategies and interviews with thought leaders that will leave you inspired and ready to step into flow for inflows of cash, inflows of ease, and inflows of grace in your life. Now, here on YouTube are the video versions of my podcast, and in order for you to get my latest information, please go ahead and subscribe. And now let’s go.

Welcome to “The InFLOW Podcast,” I’m your host Michelle Bosch. Today, we are going to be discussing, or I’m going to be discussing the top mistakes that I see land flippers do that you wanna avoid when you start investing in the land space. So, I think the top mistake that I see…number one mistake, I think, comes from just plain operator error, you know. We are so invested usually in figuring out, you know, the how, the what, and sometimes, you know, we finally find out one thing that is gonna finally help you turn the corner and start creating the six and seven-figure breakthroughs that you would like to see for you and your family. And somehow operator error kicks in and you are either overcommitted basically, which means that you have not committed at all to being focused on one thing, or just generally speaking, you know, you’re not willing to invest and make this a priority, you know, whatever that one thing that you have decided that you’re gonna focus on, make that a priority in your life. And in this case, it would be land flipping, you know. So that’s I think the number one thing that I see is people, you know, just starting and starting in fits and starts and really not committing to following through and seeing something, you know, work out through the end. And at the smallest sign of an obstacle, of a hurdle, of a challenge, you know, people tend to give up. So I like calling that, you know, operator error.

And the second mistake that I see a lot of the, you know, newbies, you know, do in the land-flipping space is, and I think it’s one of the big ones, which is not really banking on yourself. And what I mean by that is, you know, at this point in my life now, you know, Jack and I, whenever we wanna start a business, because we have started a business before and we know the startup phase and we know all the trial and errors and the sacrifices and the hardships that come with not hiring someone to help us that we can model best practices from and help us shrink and collapse time, now we know that. But in the beginning, you know, we didn’t know that, and so, that’s why I’m sharing it with you that you might not be basically banking on yourself and hiring someone to help you really collapse time, to really help you, you know, make the most out of your time. Which, at the end of the day, is, I think, the supreme currency that you should be looking to, you know, have freedom in. So that’s the number two mistake I see.

The number three mistake that I see that a lot of the new land flippers do, and this is more going towards the actual, you know, how, you know, we go about land flipping, and that is that they start marketing to the wrong areas. What I mean by marketing is that they start basically sending out direct mail, you know, to areas or to counties in the country that are either too high-priced or that do not have any growth or that there’s no real activity going on, and as a result, there’s no really good way to sell those properties quickly and easily. And so, generally speaking, that’s one of the big top mistakes I see on the what, on the actual mechanics of how, you know, to find and acquire a piece of property. I would say that’s the most important one. And where I see a lot of wasted money and a lot of wasted effort, basically in time because, you know, by the time you find out that one county is not the good one, you know, maybe a week or 2 have passed or 3, and you’ve lost your motivation, you’ve lost your gas. And so, yeah, so, not having a real good solid understanding on what constitutes a good area for you to start basically looking for motivated sellers is I think one of the top ones.

So, another of the mistakes that I see a lot of the land flippers do is that, when they get ready, say, they do finally get a property under a contract and when you do get ready to market that property, a lot of the things that I see happening is that there’s no real plan, there’s no real, you know, pre-marketing plan in place such that, by the time you get it under a contract, that you are already in parallel marketing this property, so that, as quickly as possible, you can find a buyer. There’s no real strategy, there’s no real, you know, plan in place to say, “Okay, I’m going to be marketing in all these different channels and this is what I’m gonna be doing on week 1, on week 2, on week 3.” And for any reason, you know, there’s no real movement on the property, there’s no strategy and no plan or blueprint or map as to what you’re gonna do in order to be able to sell that property quickly. So, you know, when selling that, I think it’s incredibly critical.

Also listings that are not really sexy and attractive is another of the mistakes that I see. One other one is not really talking to buyers. And I think one of the top reasons why people do not talk to buyers, which are in the land-investing space, the people that you should actually be talking to, contrary to the housing space where you’re mainly basically…your top priority should be talking to sellers because there’s incredible amounts of competition and there’s other investors trying to negotiate and basically get to that seller. You know, we have the opposite situation, we have not just motivated sellers but non-wanters that have never been contacted in their lives, you know, or during the time period that they’ve owned their property, and now they’re so incredibly relieved to see that there’s a letter that’s come in the mail offering to buy their property. And you are basically got sent to them. But what I see is that basically, you know, a lot of our initial, you know, newcomers to the land-flipping space are spending…because they’re coming from the housing world, they’re wasting their time with their sellers when there’s tons of sellers. And really the people that you should be focusing on, you know, when investing in the land space is talking to buyers. And I think one of the reasons could be that you’re scared, that you don’t have the negotiation skills, or, you know, plainly your negotiation skills suck, which is, you know, one of the reasons why it would be amazing to have someone that can walk you through this and that just keeps you accountable and committed and keeps your eye on the ball but that has the expertise and knows how to talk to buyers and how to make deals happen when assigning, when doing double escrow, and so on and so forth. So yeah, so I think it could be, you know, one of the reasons for not talking to buyers that I see a lot of the newbies not doing, it could be being scared because they don’t have the negotiation skills. Or if they do have some, you know, those negotiation skills pretty much suck. And there’s real no follow-up system also with your buyers, you know, to make sure that you close the loop and you actually close [inaudible 00:08:37] the transaction. Maybe what I’m trying to say is you’re not a closer, you know, when it comes to selling the piece of property and marking it.

Another big mistake, and this is a little bit, you know, going back in the process is that I see a lot of new land flippers not making enough offers. And at the end of the day, you know, you may be selecting the right properties, the right counties, the right areas, but if you’re not making enough offers, you know, you’re not gonna be getting deals on the contract. And we’re not in the business of sending out letters and marketing to people and offering to buy their property, we’re actually in the business of making offers. Because offers get contracts and contracts get you, you know, properties that you can market, and then, you can actually sell, you know, for a profit [inaudible 00:09:28] between $5,000-$10,000-$15,000 splits, if you sell them for cash, or even higher than that if you’re willing to offer seller financing to sell land properties.

So yeah, I think those are the top mistakes that I see, not making enough offers. People basically judging for the seller and in advance making a decision for the seller. And sometimes even if the sellers, you know, tell you that they want a higher dollar amount than the one that you’re sending them, you should still send it to them. And a lot of people don’t send those out. Every person that gives you a call and that has raised their hand and said that they’re interested in selling their [inaudible 00:10:08] an offer no matter what. You know, and that offer should be within the ballpark of what, you know, we usually teach, which is anywhere between 5 to 25 cents on the dollar. Depending on the area of course and depending on the property.

So, I think what I wanna say, and to wrap this up, is that, you know, in the beginning, when we start, you know, like anything, when we’re starting, sometimes we suck. Then, we’re gonna get better, and as we get better, we’re gonna suck less. But in order to compress that…suck period, you know, there’s ways to invest in who’s in your life that can help you collapse and minimize that time frame and kind of like walk you around the landmines whenever you’re starting something new, you know, a new business, a new project, a new venture, etc.

So yeah, I don’t believe, you know, that a lot of the mistakes that happen in the land-flipping space, if you’re not having deals yet and you’re not successful are coming because of the outside world. A lot of them really are, you know, coming from the inside out, and like I said earlier, it’s not real issues with a system per se but really operator errors. You’re not doing and not having the mindset, not having the commitment, and not having the skill set and expertise, you know, to really get to the finish line quickly.

And so, in lieu of this, I wanna make an invitation because we actually have a 5-day Land Profit Lab that is coming up, that we’re gonna be teaching right now on march 23rd. It is a free course, it is happening inside of our Facebook group called “The Land Profit Lab.” And that Land Profit Lab, that 5-day mini course, for us, really has turned into really the premier incubator, you know, to help you create huge cash profit and cash flow with one of the simplest and most complete methods on the planet for flipping land. You know, Jack and myself are actually the co-creators of the Land Profit Generator Program, we have flipped over 4,000 properties since 2002. We have been doing this, you know, over the last 18 years through any market cycle, it is recession-proof, it has barely any competition. And if you would like to learn more and basically avoid some of the mistakes that I was just, you know, describing to you guys during the course of this episode, we would love to have you. You can register for that class, that class comes with actually homework materials and content that you are going to wanna get and follow along during that, you know, 5-day mini lab.

And you can register for that at lpglab.com, lpglab.com, and we are having…like I said earlier, we are starting that class on March 23rd, we are going to be actually discussing there, number one, how to strategically, you know, select the areas to invest to make sure that you understand what constitutes a good area and what not. Number two, we’re gonna be talking about the top three properties that you should focus on and that you should target that usually sell very very quickly and easily. Number three, we’re gonna be talking to you the three ways, or we’re gonna tell you what are the three ways to tap into millions of dollars and millions of deals, basically where to go find these lists of motivated sellers and actually non-wanters that wanna, you know, give that piece of land to you for 5 to 25 cents on the dollar. And number four, we’re gonna be teaching you how to massively scale this method app. We’re gonna have live trainings inside of the Land Profit Lab group, you’re gonna be able to interact, to ask questions, to really engage, you know. There’s gonna be community managers inside of that Facebook group that are probably gonna send you direct messages to make sure that you receive all the help and support during those 5 days so that you can really make sure that you make the most out of the time there, out of the classes, out of all the resources that we’re gonna have available.

And we are excited to have you there, we usually have those live trainings at 9 00 a.m, Pacific Standard Time. But like I said, in order for you to have access to the homework that is gonna be sent to you in advance for you to follow along, you wanna go and register to landprofitgenerator.com…I’m sorry to lpglab.com, lpglab.com. l, you know, for land. P for profit. And G for generator. lpglab.com. Super excited to have you guys there. Like I said, it starts March 23rd, they’re usually, what, about an hour sessions, you know, for those 5 days and we can interact and really have fun and make sure that all of your questions, you know, have been answered and that we can really pull back the curtains and teach you everything that we have learned over the last 18 years so that you don’t have to make the mistakes that we made when we started.

Thank you so much everyone, and I hope this episode was helpful. I hope to see you at the live trainings. Remember, lpglab.com, go register to get your homework and be ready for March 23rd. Thank you so much and until the next one. Bye-bye.

I hope this episode left you feeling inspired and ready to get inflows of cash, inflows of light, and inflows of faith in your life. I welcome your reviews on iTunes. Please leave me a review and help me create an amazing community of women in flow. Thank you, as always, for sharing your voice by going to michellebosch.com and joining the conversation about this show. And while you’re there, grab a copy of my 10 commandments to living a life in flow. You can also follow me on Facebook, @michellebosch, and on Instagram @michelleboschofficial. Thank you very much and until the next one.