All Forum Posts by: Bryant Brislin

Listen to Ray Zhang's interview with Steve Trang on Real Estate Disruptors on YT last May or June 2023 approx.  Technically, you do need some money, otherwise you have to figure out how to grind it out without much capital, which is what Ray did, listen to his story, it may help.  If you at least have a decent amount time, then you can try to find low hanging fruit on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, cold calling land owners.  But if you don't have much time to do that, then I'm not sure what to say. You got to have one or the other, otherwise it's like saying you want to open a restaurant, but don't have the time nor money to do so.

Most of the builders I know would love to not have to buy the land since there is an up front cost and carry on that. If they can JV with a land owner who is not crazy and potentially litigious then that can be ideal, especially if they will be the ones to be the guarantor on the construction loan. I don't know what a typical split is, but since they are doing most of the work and taking on the risk of the construction loan, maybe it's a 20/80 split or a 30/70 (30% to you, 70% to them). I guess your risk is losing the land if the construction loan defaults, or perhaps being dragged into any mechanic's liens from subcontractors, but hopefully you can figure out a way up front to be indemnified on that.

I think your plan makes sense. A JV with a builder may yield a greater return than a flip in a few years, although JV's can be tough.

You might want to attend any programs/mixers that the Urban Land Institute has in Houston so that you can meet land acquisition analysts who work for builders.  They know how to run proformas, etc. Or you can search for land acquisition folks in Houston through LinkedIn and ask them if they would help out. They may want a piece of the pie on the back end if you can't pay them a consulting fee.

Hey Andrew, I'm a land broker who sells land to both boutique builders and to the national merchant homebuilders.  I'm happy to share tips, etc, if you want to connect.  I'm in Orange County, we're close.

Hello, I've wholesaled about 30 to 35 deals in Texas.  It's very difficult nowadays and so I'm focusing more on my other business now (land brokering in California).  I'm happy to give some tips though, if you want to talk.  I would say the world of the more robus wholesalers are very good at KPI's, lead gen methods, etc that I think you can apply as an agent. So I'm going to use a lot of what I've learned from the world of wholesaling and apply it in my land brokering.

Most people who wholesale land whole-tail it, meaning they close it on themselves (with their own money or someone else's) and then they put it on the MLS, since finding buyers for land can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you are wholesaling in a market where it looks like a checkerboard and clearly builders are picking off lots, one-by-one, and you are able to source a lot at 1/5 or 2/3 approx of the retail value (the amount builders will pay) then maybe you can wholesale it without having to close on it first. Listen to Ray Zhang's interview with Steve Trang of Real Estate Disruptors on YT from approx May/June 2023 and he breaks down land wholesaling.

I'm a full-time land broker in California, and haven't come across this yet, but I'm very glad you put this out there, especially since many sellers don't really seem to want to meet any more ever since COVID, and especially the elderly sellers don't seem like they are dying to meet up with me, they just want the Docusign.  I think I've been doing this long enough to where I can sniff out a fake seller, plus I have a strong title background, but again, grateful to be informed about this!  While it's disgusting that "people" are doing this, I don't think I'd want to give them so much energy and time.  The problem is that these bad guys are always going to exist, it's like trying to kill ants during a really hot/dry season, there are just more and more of them, and while we need to stand up to them to a certain extent, I personally don't want to give them too much of my bandwidth, I feel the world needs our talents doing the stuff we are good at.

If you are asking a question like this, that means you are going to have a lot more questions, and you want to make sure you aren't wasting a seller's time, so you should find someone in your area who is experienced and team up with them! Good luck!

I'm a land broker in Southern California.  Subdividing a parcel, even just a simple parcel map to create 2 or 3 parcels can take some time/work/money.  I can try to answer question here and there on that matter, as needed.