New(ish) Member from SF Bay Area (Peninsula)

[Ami Saunders]

Hi, my name is Ami Saunders and I've been an inactive member for a while now. I live near the San Francisco airport on the "Peninsula" which is basically Silicon Valley, the place with all that crazy venture capital money and tons of software related jobs here. We have Stanford here and Palo Alto, and Sand Hill Road where all the VC's are these days.

So I'm just getting more active now. Reading posts, learning. I am still in the "education" phase of things. Eager to network and learn and grow, deal-by-deal.

I have always wanted to retire and live off of real estate, particularly land, since the age of 4. Wierd but true. When my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I never had an answer - except I just said I wanted to retire! LOL. So I guess now I'm fully embracing that as a fairly mature adult who is nowhere near retirement currently. So I'm just gonna go for it! It is who I am meant to be, because I now believe dreams are destiny. So I have to face the inevitable conclusion that that dream is real of retirement and worth my life's singleminded effort. Sometimes I wake up and think, "How the heck is this gonna get done?" But I'm convinced I will "Retire or Bust!"

Spending time on my grandparents farm in southeastern Colorado during some formative years impressed upon me the potential of land and living in harmony with the environment. My grandfather was a different type of farmer, before organic was "cool." He never plowed wildlife under, took pride in straight and true rows, and never let his fields lay fallow to blow away in the first windstorm. He detested the neighbors who did just that to take government handouts and watch their fields topsoil just blow over and smother his carefully tended crops. I learned alot from that time. Like making due with what you have and making it work well. Being self-reliant. Being a good neighbor. Enjoying the view in a quiet moment. And other amazing values.

My dream is to specialize in land. Vacant land, all types of land. Ranch land, farm land, land with preservation easements or environmental easements, land for wildlife, water, air, mineral rights of land, land for development and subdivision, and general land use of all kinds. I want to be the expert who knows how to figure out the highest and best use of any parcel of land, even the dirtiest, nastiest or most abandoned parcels.

I have a masters degree in landscape architecture specializing in ecosystematic design and planning. Think of it as living in harmony with the earth and developing homes, neighborhoods and cities with the earth as plentiful, not wasteful. Think of it is a magical transformation of land into a smart, efficient, modern oasis no matter what the challenges. For example, I designed a city that was walkable and livable as well as nearly completely energy and resource dependent on a former military base in Montery Bay, CA as my thesis. This place had been bombed and blasted for decades and decades. It is now being modernized and the way things are going is the rest of the planet can be modernized, too. Also these developments can be extremely profitable if you keep the short-term developer wolves with their 20c. outmoded ways at bay and give the people a voice and really let the place blossom.

Right now my day job is at a solar company. It is heavily funded by big banks hedge fund moneys and destined to succeed. I appreciate the stability this platform gives me at this time.

I am wondering in particular about land deals and getting involved. I am willing to bird-dog or assist in any way to find and cultivate land deals, with or without improvements to that land.

I have been interested in Jack Bosch's system, and other systems that are out their with land for a while now. I think I've gotten close to putting together the entire thing without having to buy his expensive course, but am not sure so am excited to network with others here to help piece this together.