All Forum Posts by: Joshua A.

Check out PropWire. You can search areas, narrowed down to the zip code, for property information, then you can apply filters that are very useful for finding cash buyers, especially for land wholesalers.

Under the “Lead Type” filter, check the filter for Cash Buyers; then under the “Property Type” filter, check filter for Vacant Land.

The results you get will be all the people who paid cash for their land in that area. If you look under the “Owner Type” filter and check only Businesses, that list of cash land buyers will be further filtered down to only include corporations, LLCs and businesses.

Now, you click on any of the results and see the detailed property info. Under that info there’s a section for info on the property owner… And under that section there a spot that will show you ever single property that they own in America… Do I have to tell you how valuable this tool is for land wholesalers?

If you look under that owner info tab and the drop down menu shows you the addresses for 600 properties they own, and you can see right next to the address whether it’s a house a building or vacant land… If 590 of the 600 properties they own are land parcels, they’re a serious cash land buyer… If all those lots happen to be in the same area, then you know exactly what they’ll buy and even how much they pay for lots in that area 👌

I’m new to Bigger Pockets and so I’m just getting a feel for how things work on this platform. I looked threw almost every classified ad listed on here and didn’t see a whole lot of land investors on here. Are there just not a lot of them on this platform?

I went from flipping contracts on houses from 2007 to 2011; to dealing almost exclusively in land from 2014 up until now. I fell into the land business by complete accident that year, and subsequently learned that business inside and out. After that I began to see a massive opportunity to make money on a sector of the real estate market that most investors and/or real estate  professionals either overlook or simply just don’t understand.

I’ve been involved in the land business ever since.

I work with a team of people who, together as a team, run a well-oiled buying and selling machine that first acquires, and then unloads, wholesale land deals all over the country. 

I personally work on the “unloading” side  and am responsible for selling the lots that we acquire (usually for rock-bottom prices that allow us to resell them for great prices and still make money).

With that said, I’m a networking fanatic at my core. I love building teams and bringing people together to make **** happen. Especially in Real Estate. This industry is a hustler’s industry; and we ALL have that in common or we wouldn’t be in this industry.

So, I’m looking to network and team build, first and foremost. What I bring to the table is 1) access to a large amount of wholesale land deals, nationwide; and 2) working knowledge of creative financing and deal structuring and of creative exit strategies for land deals.

I’m looking to network with hustlers, people who like closing deals and making **** happen.

I would love to connect with builders, developers, land bankers, other land wholesalers and land flippers, realtors who specialize in land, newbie’s trying to get into land, cash land buyers (obviously), private lenders, hard money lenders, investors who like to sell their properties using owner-financing or lease options, anybody who got filthy rich doing what they do (so I can learn to do it too), anyone who has a firm understanding of market trends, and anybody who has built a large following on social media.

Check out Propwire. You can search areas, narrowed down to the zip code, for property information. But you can apply filters that are very useful for land wholesalers.

Under the “Lead Type” filter, check the filter for Cash Buyers; then under the “Property Type” filter, check filter for Vacant Land.

The results you get will be all the people who paid cash for their land in that area. If look under the “Owner Type” filter and check only Businesses, that list of cash land buyers will be further filtered down to only include corporations, LLCs and businesses.

Now you click on any of those results and see the detailed property info. Under that info there’s a section for info on the property owner… And under that section there a spot that will show you ever single property that they own in America… Do I have to tell you how valuable this tool is for land wholesalers?

If you look under that owner info tab and the drop down menu shows you the addresses for 600 properties they own, and you can see right next to the address whether it’s a house a building or vacant land… If 590 of the 600 properties they own are land parcels, they’re a serious cash land buyer… If all those lots happen to be in the same area, then you know exactly what they’ll buy and even how much they pay for lots in that area 👌

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

@Cheryl Bolognese   you could spend an in ordinate amount of time on this and have no buyers..

builders ( and I is one) only buy in areas were new construction is Hot...

so you would want to identify inner city or bigger cities were regentrification is going on.

Like Portland Oregon any infil lot has value here.  Look at Atlanta buckhead and those areas tons of infill.

rural areas like cheap florida land and believe me there are millions of lots there.. just look at Lehigh acres on google maps you will see 250,000 vacant lots.

So in your area except for very specific hot little pockets most houses sell for less than replacement value and the land therefor is worthless.  Save larger parcels that new home builders would be targeting for subdivisions.

Now recreational land... IE forest land and places like that can do well. at least out west.

But you’re right 99% of buyers want cash flow.

You mentioned Lehigh Acres in this post, and I see that the post is from 7 years ago. But my oh my how things change, because I flip lots and now Lehigh Acres is one of the hottest markets in Florida when it comes to flipping land. Anything that we pick up out there, as soon as we put it out there for sale our phones start ringing off the hook. We have 250+ lots for sale all over the country, and only like 7 of them are in Lehigh Acres. But I swear half the calls I get are for just  those lots.

Anyway, I just thought it was awesome to see how much things have changed since you made this comment 👍

In order for your seller to get the price they want, you have to get them to think outside the box. Land is not like the residential or commercial markets; creative financing is the rule rather than the exception in land deals. Banks won’t loan money to purchase land (usually); so any buyers will either have to be flush with cash up front (which severely limits your buyers pool) OR the seller has to make it easy for an interested party to purchase the land.

Seller-financing works great with land, as do land contracts. They also allow the seller to get a higher purchase price.

If they want $25k for the land if it's cash up front, they could easily get something like $12k down + $400 a month for 5 years at a 10% APR for an owner-financed sale. That's easier for a buyer to get into the deal, but for the seller it translates into them getting $38,400 for that same land instead of only $25k.

The seller could also do a land contract, with essentially the same type of terms as with the owner-financed deal, the difference really being that instead of the seller having just a mortgage lien on the property till it’s paid off, they actually retain full ownership of the land until the contract is paid in full.

I would have the seller tell you what they wanna get for it, then tell them you’ll add your fee to it and find a way to make it happen… and then come back a day or two later and tell them that you found a way for them to get their price, for you to get your fee, and for it to still be appealing to potential buyers… Then walk them through the deal, how it’ll work, explain to them how your way is more beneficial for them overall, explain how your way opens up the floodgates of potential buyers now, and most importantly explain to them that doing things deals this way is very common when buying and selling land, and how its really the only way for them to get what they want outta that land 👌

If you act like an expert on the subject (or at least more knowledgeable than they are) I promise they’ll most likely just follow your lead because they trust you to get it done.

And if they are truly motivated to sell, then they’ll welcome with open arms any creative thinking that will help them get what they want.

Good luck!

Hey Heath,

Land is the most exciting sector of the real estate market, hands down! I’ve been working exclusively in land since 2014. 

Recreational land can be a great niche, too. You mentioned hunting land, but there's another niche in recreational land that has high demand as well: Recreational POA (property owners association) access lots. In places like Florida, they have these POA's, like River Ranch Acres and Holopaw Suburban Estates for example; River Ranch is 75,000 acres, and how it works is if your name is on a deed to any parcel inside of RR and if you also pay a yearly POA membership fee of $145, then you have free range access to all 75k acres. There's a hunting area, camping area, endless trails and mud pits, dirt bike and quad tracks, you name it. It's also a place where you can party all night and be as loud and crazy as you want to, because the sheriffs don't have the legal authority to enter the POA without permission and they don't have jurisdiction to police inside the boundaries of the POA. Like an HOA, it's a quasi-government entity, it's self governing. Those access lots sell like crazy too. And they're easy for someone who's in the know to acquire too, because most of the parcels inside the POAs in Florida were originally sold to people up north as part of one of Floridas famous land scams back in the 60s and 70s. They were lied to and told that Disney was gonna buy the land or the land was being developed, when in all reality it was an hour away from civilization. And a lot of those people who got duped back then STILL own those parcels; they gave up thinking the land was ever gonna become anything a long time ago, but still pay their $8 a year in taxes on it… So when you call them and offer to mail them a check for $300-$400 and take it off their hands, at first they wonder what you're up to because they believe the land's worthless. But when they actually cash your check and realize that you're for real they get ecstatic!

After that you just put some for sale ads up, offering access lots for $1300 to $3000 cash or for seller financing at $500 down and $100 a month for 48 months, and make significant returns on your investment.

I can give you some pretty creative strategies for cashing out on recreational land 👌 Hunting land can be all profit if you do it right. Hell you could even GET PAID to acquire hunting land if you really do it right 💯

Hi Jessica,

I’ve been working almost exclusively with land since 2014; I currently work as part of a team that operates a nationwide land wholesaling business. I sell the lots after our acquisitions people buy them, but I could help you out with every aspect of the business.

Personally, I love the land business. It gets ignored by most real estate professionals and investors, I think partly because it can be difficult to determine a lots value sometimes. But to me, land is the most exciting niche in the real estate world. It has the largest inventory of available properties, out of all the sectors of the real estate market. It has the most creative deals; in fact you almost HAVE TO get creative in order to make land deals happen, because the traditional forms of financing a purchase don’t usually apply in land. Banks don’t typically loan money to acquire land, so there’s a lot of seller financing deals, and a lot of things like joint venture partnerships, land contracts, lease options, etc. It’s really a completely different world than the other sector’s of the real estate world.

So, I’m willing to help you with whatever you need. Just let me know.

Are you looking strictly in the Philly area? Or are you open to building in any hot market?

We have about 250 lots that we’re selling now; but we’ll actively go and find you whatever you’re looking for.

Check out what we have now:  www.mrvacantland.com , and if you don’t find what you’re looking for hit me back and give me your criteria; I’ll hit the phones and acquire it for you 👍