The REtipster Podcast | Land Investing & Real Estate Strategies · Seth Williams

He Bought an Entire Town in West Texas. Here's How Jon Jasniak Did It.

·59 min·4 clips

John says a major subdivide can require a $400,000 water-line upgrade for 70 lots.

The episode opens with Travis King being introduced as someone worth paying attention to. He comes across as a more-than-decade-long operator who has done more than 2,500 one-on-one coaching calls with investors at every level while still actively doing deals and sharing practical strategies for finding opportunities, funding deals, and avoiding costly mistakes. The conversation starts with a simple idea. Seth wants to know why land has worked so well for him, and he keeps narrowing the question until the answer has to get specific about how the business actually runs. The West Texas town comes up as part of the hook, but the focus stays on the mechanics behind the move rather than the novelty itself. Seller financing gets real attention. The discussion treats it as something that plays out over time, with upside, friction, and risk, not as a tidy shortcut. Seth also asks what happens when deals go sideways. That keeps the exchange grounded, because the conversation has to account for mistakes, delays, and the parts of the business that do not fit a clean sales pitch. The numbers matter just as much. He says many land investors do not know their numbers and have EBITDA far lower than they think once they account for VAs, direct mail, data, and other costs. His own target is high. He says a 30 to 40 percent EBITDA margin is the goal, and he contrasts that with businesses that look strong on gross sales but keep very little after expenses. Scale is not treated as a slogan. He explains that a bigger land operation needs a real team, including full-time employees, an attorney on retainer, a CFO, a bookkeeper, and a CPA. He also pushes for in-person labor. In his view, the work changes once the business gets large enough that remote help alone is not enough. The conversation keeps circling back to the same point. If land is going to be a serious business, the operator has to know the numbers, manage the risk, and build a structure that can actually carry the size of the deal.

As heard by us

A land-investing interview that cares more about margin and mechanics than hype.

This episode works best once it gets past the setup and into the operating logic of land investing. It presents Travis King as a long-time operator with more than 2,500 coaching calls behind him, then moves into seller financing, scaling, and the habit of mistaking gross revenue…

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Why you'd press play

If you want the real mechanics behind buying a town in West Texas, start here.

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