How to Find Rural Land Deals

[Brandon Green]

I'm new here and curious to know how one might go about finding good deals for rural farm type land. I recently happened upon a good deal and managed a decent profit so I'm excited to try it again. Please advise.

[Ray Lai]

Kyle is right but he makes it sound so easy lol. It's not quite that simple.  @Brandon Green sounds like you got lucky with a deal and now want to figure out how to systematically repeat the process so here's a sample game plan if you want to use direct:

1) Attend your local REIAs and network, you need to build a buyer's list of investors that will buy your properties and network with other people in our industry.

2) Next develop your strategy, build a list of at least 200 properties to mail to. Response rates are typically 0.5-2% so the bigger the list the better. Options include driving for dollars, absentee, probate, using listsource if you're not in a competitive market, buying lists that are exclusive for your market type (we partnered with a guy that does this)
3) Start a sustained direct mail campaign. First batch with postcards, then follow-up with yellow-letters. There’s no point in starting if you can’t sustain because statistical data shows that responses typically occur after at least 3+ mailings. You want to use postcards first since they are cheaper and some may bounce so you can remove the bad ones off your list so you don’t waste money mailing to bad addresses. If you wanted to, you can even skiptrace the bad addresses to find where the owner moved to and target the right address.

For fulfillment you can do it yourself to save money if you're broke, but ultimately if you want better response rates and focusing your time on value-add, then you'll want to outsource fulfillment to a shop that has economies of scale and can offer you great rates (see attached).
Remember, a campaign usually doesn't get a response until 3+ mailings. A lot of newbies quit after 1 or 2 letters without realizing that people don't open the first letter they see. Focus and sustainment is the key. I'd recommend a different marketing piece every 4 weeks for 5-7 months from data analysis, but you should test this out for your market and see what works best response rate wise.

Also, when you become more advanced you'll want to do split testing and other methods. You should always be tracking your response rates and seeing what lists work bests. It’s always best to include a website and a local phone number on the postcards as well to maximize your responses.

Another protip: If you’re in a competitive market, deals are harder to find however if you do find a deal, someone will be much more likely to split the profits and show you the ropes if you make a friend in the industry. It’s better for them to get half the profits than no profits, and you gain invaluable experience as they take you through the process with them. Although I think you're probably not in a competitive market because it's rural.

Regards,
Ray