Buying and selling raw land for profit

[Adam Hensel]

Hello, and although a day early Happy 2018 to everyone!  A new member as of this morning.  I'm interested in starting a side gig flipping raw land - I know, a lot to learn before getting started.  I've poked around the internet and have come across RETipster's, The Land Academy's, and The Land Geek's websites.  I find this model of investing interesting but it is really viable?  Would love to get thoughts and opinions.  I've searched the communities on BiggerPockets and I don't see a lot of posts on this topic - and that one's that I have found seem a bit dated, a year to 2 years old.  Is land flipping still a viable strategy for 2018?  Also, and recommendations on which States and Counties are currently good markets to focus on?  Thanks in advance.

[Seth Williams]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @Mike H. I hear you - some people are fortunate enough to pick the right market on their first attempt AND nail every other step along the way (i.e. - they work with a good, well-sorted list, a solid direct mail piece, they follow up with prospects well, make appropriate offers, pursue the right properties, and then market them in all the right places with the right information, etc).

There's a lot that needs to be done right, and it's pretty unusual for a beginner to do it all perfectly on their first attempt. Usually there are at least a few things that need to be tweaked and improved on the second, third and fourth try... but the only way to figure out what isn't working is to start going through the process.

Most people need a pretty decent runway to get things figured out before they can really go crazy doing deals (that is, if they ever decide to ramp up their business to that point - like you said, many just treat it like a side gig, which is still a totally valid way to run the business).